BrewPi@ESP8266, no need of RPI and Arduino.

[Mylo]

Is that the jumper found on many of these?

I'm not sure what he means here, either, as the i2C is a piggyback board. Maybe if you used a bunch of Dupont wires between the piggyback, you could break out the one pin for the LCD's Vcc and supply it separately from the 3.3 that you send to the backpack header. The jumper on the backpack turns off the backlight.

In any case, I've made some good progress modifying one of Thorraks' boards. But I have a few more details to implement. I don't mind adding the SparkFun logic shifter.


Mylo

 

[Lalo_uy]

Yes, you shuld cut the 2nd pin from the adapter to the display, and wire 5v to the display directly.

Other option is cut the pcb trace in that pin and solder the wire on it.

 

[BeardlessWhelp]

You can use D5, D7, and D8. Use D8 for heating, I would suggest.
Or, you can try ESP32. It has more PINs available.

Ok, so I'm in the process of getting my window AC-glycol chiller/heating pad setup working. I have brewpiless built on two NodeMCU ESP8266's now. The original plan was to use one to run the glycol chiller (on beer constant mode, I think?) and one to run the pump and heating pad to control beer temp. I just saw in another thread in January 2019 you said you can run three actuators from one board — glycol chiller (AC unit), pump to cool beer, and heating pad/band to heat beer.

I've been reading all I can find through the git documentation and forum and I can't find any recently updated info on the setup for glycol. There's a lot of old information that I worry is leading me down the wrong path.

IS controlling the glycol temp AND the beer temp possible with one board? Or do I need to use one for glycol and one for beer?

If two, do I need to build both boards with EnableGlycolSupport uncommented? I know to reduce PID values to 0 and to match the fridge and beer filters — do I do this just on the glycol control board, just on the beer control board, or both?

There's also unclear info on which sensors to use for what. One sensor in the beer (assigned as beer temp), one sensor taped to the fermenter (as room temp? fridge temp?), one sensor in the glycol (as fridge temp? room temp?).

I know most people just default to using an Inkbird or something to control glycol temp, but I prefer having everything working together. If I can get this setup working properly, I'd be happy to suggest edits to the git wiki for anyone else like me trying to use this setup for glycol.

 

[Mylo]

Finally got the PlatformIO stuff setup. Starting to play around with the config options. I am not able to turn on DEBUG mode, though. When I do, I get a compilation error on line 46 of the OneWireTempSensor.cpp file: " 'class OneWire' has no member named 'pinNr' ".

Maybe the OneWire library has changed? Anybody know how to fix that one?


Mylo

 

[LBussy]

I get a compilation error on line 46 of the OneWireTempSensor.cpp file: " 'class OneWire' has no member named 'pinNr' ".

This looks more like a typo or a missed config. I fight PIO on a daily basis. If you want to zip up your project directory and drop it in a PM, I'd be happy to look with you.

 

[Mylo]

Finally got the PlatformIO stuff setup. Starting to play around with the config options. I am not able to turn on DEBUG mode, though. When I do, I get a compilation error on line 46 of the OneWireTempSensor.cpp file: " 'class OneWire' has no member named 'pinNr' ".

Maybe the OneWire library has changed? Anybody know how to fix that one?


Mylo

I fixed those compliation errors, (and a broken link in the wiki). I guess I'll start submitting PRs. I still can't seem to get the debug, simulate, or emulate flags to do anything appreciable. Everything build now (with the exception of the ESP32).


Mylo

 

[Mylo]

I took some details from Thorrak and others and whipped up a through soldering variant for the people in my home-brew club with a bunch of screw terminals. Also left the RJ45 for installation versatility. Built in the recommended pull-up and pull-down resistors. Finally, broke out the terminals for the buttons. All the SMD versions are sexier and smaller, but the majority of the people in my home-brew club can't deal with them.

I'm putting together an all inclusive kit that includes the LCD, buttons, Wemos D1 Mini Pro (with antenna), and all the other standoffs, screw terminals, 3 waterproof probes and the rest components necessary for about $45. Pretty much everything but the project box and outlets, since those will be very specific to your particular install.

I have 7 of the first 10 allocated already. If anyone wants a kit, shoot me a PM. Format will be PayPal pre-order, wait for the slow boat, and then I'll ship them out. Initial estimates show mid-December.


Mylo

 

[LBussy]

The caps should be as close to the power/gnd as possible (like, under the controller would be ideal). What are the other resistors for, the buttons? You should be using 2K2 for the pull-up if that's what the 4K7 is.

ETA: If you "split" the power on the relay, you can power the relay with 5V and get a better pull on it. They are 5V rated relays. While tehey all seem to work with 3V3, you can definitely hear the difference in the weak "click" when using 3V3.

 

[Mylo]

Vito's wiki links to a doc that recommends pulling down GPIO15 and pulling up GPIO0 and the reset pin with 10k. The 4.7k is the pull-up for the OneWire data line. I've always seen that value used with the one-wire data line...? Thanks for the feedback. As far as the caps are concerned, are you saying that they should physically be closer to where the power comes into the board? I can see if I can rework that part.

EDIT: I just looked at the spec sheet for the relays. Yes, you are correct. They do have 5vdc coils. I have two more channels on the logic level shifter... Maybe I should pass the heat and cool actuator pins through it as well as the LCD i2C pins?


Mylo

 

[Mylo]

Ok. Just found a schematic for the relay boards. In order to benefit from the opto-isolation, you have to remove the jumper, and connect the JDVcc to 5v. So if I made that relay header 5 pins, and added a 5vdc, I can break it out at the relay board into a 4 pin and a 1 pin header...

 

[LBussy]

The 4.7k is the pull-up for the OneWire data line. I've always seen that value used with the one-wire data line...?

It's not a magic value. 4k7 is the "correct" value when pulled up with 5V. Since you are using a lower voltage data line, it would be recommended to use a stronger pull-up to get the same benefit. Some folks use 10K with decent results, although I have been seeing an awful lot of people lately (in this and other projects) getting drop-outs which are solved by stronger pull-ups and 5V sensor power (not pull up.)

As far as the caps are concerned, are you saying that they should physically be closer to where the power comes into the board?

Correct, for both 5V and the 3V3 that comes off the controller.

you have to remove the jumper, and connect the JDVcc to 5v. So if I made that relay header 5 pins, and added a 5vdc, I can break it out at the relay board into a 4 pin and a 1 pin header

Right. On my boards, I have a 4-pin and a 2-pin header for the same - to avoid confusion.

 

[Mylo]

Disregard my question about running the relay inputs through the logic shifter. I see that the pins are just sunk to ground to activate the emitter in the opto-isolator. In some of the videos available online, I see people are tying the Vcc pin (next to IN2 on the 4 pin header on the relay board) to the 5v reference on an Arduino. I think the ESP8266 are only rated for 3v3. I assume that should be plenty to operate the emitter in the opto-isolator. Maybe I should put 10k pull-ups to 3v3 on the heat and cool pins, too?

Mylo

 

[LBussy]

I assume that should be plenty to operate the emitter in the opto-isolator.

Yep, works fine. Been using that for quite a few years on multiple projects.

Maybe I should put 10k pull-ups to 3v3 on the heat and cool pins, too?

No need, they have internal pull-ups and this is not a data line so much as a relay actuator.

I see people are tying the Vcc pin (next to IN2 on the 4 pin header on the relay board) to the 5v reference on an Arduino.

Same idea. Some folks using the parallel LCD screens and Arduinos experience some screen garbage. They have done all sorts of things inckuding a completely separate power supply for the relay. It's not an issue here.

 

[pocketmon]

I *think* the original BrewPi had a means to turn the heater on when teh door was opened. The functionality there was using a 60w bulb to heat the chamber, and the same bulb for lighting it. I've never seen it work myself, and I've never looked for the code in the original controller sketch.

It does have a report in teh logs. Can't say what BPL does with it. My shoddy memory is telling me I think @pocketmon may have removed door functionality.

Not natively. It may be used for something else in BPL - as I hsared privately, the boards that Thorrak and I did are specific to BrewPi Remix and Fermentrack implementations, but I understand they work with BPL.

Going to give a big shrug there and refer you back to the BPL experts.

According to the code, when the door is opened, detected by the pin, the light, if assigned, will be turned on and an event will be logged. The log event is ignored by BPL, though. I just don't care about the door.

 

[pocketmon]

Ther is a walk around to this, power the display with 5v and the I2C adapter with 3V3.
Just do not connect display Vcc to the adapter Vcc. Works like a charm.

ESP8266 is said to be 5V tolerant. I've connected my LCD to 5V power and direct to I2C pins for years, since the beginning of this project. It has been working fine so far. I might be lucky, but you might be as lucky as me.

 

[pocketmon]

Ok, so I'm in the process of getting my window AC-glycol chiller/heating pad setup working. I have brewpiless built on two NodeMCU ESP8266's now. The original plan was to use one to run the glycol chiller (on beer constant mode, I think?) and one to run the pump and heating pad to control beer temp. I just saw in another thread in January 2019 you said you can run three actuators from one board — glycol chiller (AC unit), pump to cool beer, and heating pad/band to heat beer.

I've been reading all I can find through the git documentation and forum and I can't find any recently updated info on the setup for glycol. There's a lot of old information that I worry is leading me down the wrong path.

IS controlling the glycol temp AND the beer temp possible with one board? Or do I need to use one for glycol and one for beer?

If two, do I need to build both boards with EnableGlycolSupport uncommented? I know to reduce PID values to 0 and to match the fridge and beer filters — do I do this just on the glycol control board, just on the beer control board, or both?

There's also unclear info on which sensors to use for what. One sensor in the beer (assigned as beer temp), one sensor taped to the fermenter (as room temp? fridge temp?), one sensor in the glycol (as fridge temp? room temp?).

I know most people just default to using an Inkbird or something to control glycol temp, but I prefer having everything working together. If I can get this setup working properly, I'd be happy to suggest edits to the git wiki for anyone else like me trying to use this setup for glycol.

Glycol chilling is a secret function I've used for myself.
To use it, you need to assign a PIN, or actuator, to "PTC Cooler", which will used to control the relay for the glycol cooling. Then, you will find the glycol setting on "Control" page. Room sensor is used for glycol temperature.

To control glycol cooling and fermentation temperature, you will need TWO relays and TWO sensors.

Assign one sensor to beer sensor. Don't assign room sensor.
Assign the other sensor to room sensor, and place it in the glycol solution.

Assign one Pin for pump, as beer cooling or heating.
Assing the other pin for "PTC cooling", the power control of the AC.

That's what I had done for about two years, before my modified fridege died.

 

[LBussy]

ESP8266 is said to be 5V tolerant. I've connected my LCD to 5V power and direct to I2C pins for years, since the beginning of this project. It has been working fine so far. I might be lucky, but you might be as lucky as me.

I have personally smoked a couple of controllers by forgetting and applying 5V pull-ups to data lines on an ESP8266 in a breadboard. I've certainly read as many Internet reports as anyone else about how they are 5V tolerant. If these are 5V tolerant, it's news to Espressif who states "Operating Voltage 2.5 V ~ 3.6 V."

 

[pocketmon]

I seldom visited this forum since the mobile version died. Sorry if i missed some of your questions.

Some updated regarding BPL project.
1. Spunding control "seems" to work. Yet, I haven't built the hardware myself.
2. TILT with ESP32 seems to work. I don't have a TILT to verify, yet.
3. Humidity recording by DHT21/DHT22 is almost done, and humidity controlling is a step away. (but it's kind of boring to implement.) I am currently planning using the temperature reading as fridge temperature sensor.

 

[pocketmon]

I have personally smoked a couple of controllers by forgetting and applying 5V pull-ups to data lines on an ESP8266 in a breadboard. I've certainly read as many Internet reports as anyone else about how they are 5V tolerant. If these are 5V tolerant, it's news to Espressif who states "Operating Voltage 2.5 V ~ 3.6 V."

I forget where I read it, but here is my google result:
https://ba0sh1.com/2016/08/03/is-esp8266-io-really-5v-tolerant/

 

[LBussy]

I never argue with people who want to smoke their own parts. I can only say what I've personally broken.

 

[Mylo]

Smoke 'em if you got 'em! LOL

Mylo

 

[Ronny Rusten]

It's not a magic value. 4k7 is the "correct" value when pulled up with 5V. Since you are using a lower voltage data line, it would be recommended to use a stronger pull-up to get the same benefit. Some folks use 10K with decent results, although I have been seeing an awful lot of people lately (in this and other projects) getting drop-outs which are solved by stronger pull-ups and 5V sensor power (not pull up.)

Interesting. I'm experiencing some drop outs of the room temperature on my latest build. I have 3v3 on the sensors. Are you saying that this might get better with 10k pull-up? How do you calculate this anyway?

 

[LBussy]

If you look at the datasheet you will see that the IDD is 1mA at 5V. Ohms law tells us that requires 5K Ohms (4K7 is "close enough.") If you drop that to 3V3, the theoretical need is 3K3 ohms. Longer leads and questionable ower mean we likely need a little more for both.

The 4K7 is a very commonly used value for 5V systems. If you factor a 4K7 by 66% (3.3 is 66% of 5,) you end up with ~3200. Common resistor values are 33, 27, 22 so any of those would work. If you have multiple sensors on a single one-wire, then leaning towards the higher side is likely safer.

To try to address your drop-outs, I would go to a stronger (lower number) resistor like the 2K2, power the sensor with 5V, and leave the pull-up voltage at 3V3. Sometimes that's confusing, so for anyone not completely following:

Data Lead: Pull-Up with a 2K2 resistor to 3V3 power
Power Lead: Power with 5V

 

[Mylo]

It's not a magic value. 4k7 is the "correct" value when pulled up with 5V. Since you are using a lower voltage data line, it would be recommended to use a stronger pull-up to get the same benefit. Some folks use 10K with decent results, although I have been seeing an awful lot of people lately (in this and other projects) getting drop-outs which are solved by stronger pull-ups and 5V sensor power (not pull up.)

Re-reading this again. I have a jumper-configurable voltage to the Dallas chips. I was planning on running them at 5v anyway. The data line is still at 3v3. I could run that through one the remaining sets of pins on the logic level shifter... better or no benefit? If it is beneficial, then I suppose I can keep the 4.7k on there - but if not I should go up to 10k?

Mylo

 

[LBussy]

I was planning on running them at 5v anyway. The data line is still at 3v3. I could run that through one the remaining sets of pins on the logic level shifter... better or no benefit?

I would not change the data line, but the jumper looks to be on the supply voltage so that's good. The power requirement for the sensor is 3v - 5.5v so powering it with 5v makes sense given the inevitable voltage drop. There's no benefit to, and potential damage from using 5v on the data line pullup.

If you want to be thorough, you could sacrifice a probe to see the actual supply voltage at the end of a sensor lead.

if not I should go up to 10k?

A 10k is really "down" in terms of pull-up strength. A lower number is a stronger pull-up because it allows more power to the line. So a 4k7 is good on a 5v line (such as when using an Arduino.) I'd use a 2k2 (or 2k7 or 3k3 if that's what you have) with 3v3 on the data line. That's just some dude's opinion on the Internet though. The only way to tell for sure is to test and measure.

 

[Lalo_uy]

I have had many problems with longer lines with many DS18B20.
The best solutions was to go down with the pullup.
Datasheet states the Vout low at 7mA, so you can go as low as 820 ohms on 3,3v

 

[Ronny Rusten]

I have had many problems with longer lines with many DS18B20.
The best solutions was to go down with the pullup.
Datasheet states the Vout low at 7mA, so you can go as low as 820 ohms on 3,3v

Sorry, probably a stupid question, but... What is considered long for a sensor line? 2 meters? 5 meters?

 

[LBussy]

Most folks use a meter or two. If you have issues you can either lower the ohms or shorten the leads.

 

[Lalo_uy]

Sorry, probably a stupid question, but... What is considered long for a sensor line? 2 meters? 5 meters?

I have 4 fermenters in the basement, so there is a 15m line to the first sensor connector , and 2 m between the next and so on. Eache sensor has a 1m o 1.5m line to the line connector.
The brewing sensor are next to the controller.

 

[day_trippr]

~22 meters to the furthest sensor and using a bit of treed topology is a lot of capacitance on the shared data line.
I'd go with a low resistance value pull-up resistor to help with rising edges...

Cheers!