BrewPi@ESP8266, no need of RPI and Arduino.

[DuncB]

@LBussy and @day_trippr
Thanks the site suggested that the SSR was wired between the relay module and the fridge or heater.
The relay module looks similar to inside the STC 1000 I currently use and I haven't seen suggestions of needing a 40A SSR on that.
I have just read what PWM is and don't think that I'm implementing that so I probably okay without them.

 

[day_trippr]

Oh no no no - slaving an SSR to a controlling relay is outright insanity. Relays = point bounce, which would likely confuse the hell out of a synchronous SSR implementation.

File under "Don't Do That". And ignore by default anything else you read at that site

Either go with a relay or go with a zero cross SSR. Don't do both...

Cheers!

 

[DuncB]

@day_trippr
Right that's cleared up then, I'll order the relay and the temperature probes and work out how to wire it all up.
More than halved the project cost, thanks.
Will BrewPi remix give me a lot more options instead of brewpiless which is fairly static.

 

[day_trippr]

I haven't switched over to it yet - though it's looking more and more imminent - but Lee's "Remix" appears to provide the full gamut of control and sensing as the classic BrewPi. I've never used BrewPiLess nor Fermentrack - I'm a classic kind of guy

Cheers!

 

[LBussy]

Will BrewPi remix give me a lot more options instead of brewpiless which is fairly static.

You have to pay your money and take your chances. Each of these projects is done (and underwritten) by a person who is doing it in their spare time. That can change at any time.

That said, the ability to be very flexible is somewhat limited to a microcontroller. I am amazed at what he's crammed in there. ultimately it's going to be limited at 2 cores, a radio that shares between BT and WiFi, and 16mb program space and storage.

If your need is something small, self-contained, singular; this is your better choice. If you want something that's going to provide (arguable) more customizability, then something based on a computer is likely a better bet.

 

[DuncB]

With the BrewPi Remix can I also run the Raspberry pints thing as well or do I need another one for that?
I bought the raspberry Pi when it first came out in the UK and used it for Kodi and fileserver, but since then it's gathered dust.
It's too old tech for either of the brew applications I believe.

 

[day_trippr]

I have been running four instances of classic BrewPi along side classic Raspberry Pints since 2014.
I have a testbed RPi3B+ system currently running two instances of Lee's BrewPi Remix along side RandR+'s Raspberry Pints successfully...

Cheers!

 

[DuncB]

This must seem like a daft question, but can I access brewpiless from outside of my home network ? so that I can check progress on the road so to speak and adjust schedules?
Can I get the ispindel data forwarded onto brewspy after it's been to brewpiless? ie to /api/brew-spy after having gone to /gravity

 

[LBussy]

This must seem like a daft question, but can I access brewpiless from outside of my home network ? so that I can check progress on the road so to speak and adjust schedules?

Technically this is possible. I sincerely recommend, as a guy who gets paid to secure some pretty important stuff, that you don't do that. It's not just "I don't care if hackers know what temperature my beer is" - it's an easily exploited foothold into your home network and bad things will happen.

The better idea is to use more secure remote access into a local computer (a Pi is great) and then hop to your device.

 

[DuncB]

@LBussy
I understand, will speak to my son about this as it's more his line of work, sounds like tunnelling or vpn type thing is needed.
But the bottom line is yes it's possible but do it by direct dial using a secure number rather than standing on the roof of your house and using a loudhailer.

 

[LBussy]

The challenge you will have is that there's no "tunneling" or VPN available via the controller so that work will ned to be done to your network and/or devices within it other than the controller.

 

[DuncB]

Thanks @LBussy realise it needs to go via intermediary device as you mentioned previous and will look at that with my son's help.

 

[Lalo_uy]

@LBussy
I understand, will speak to my son about this as it's more his line of work, sounds like tunnelling or vpn type thing is needed.
But the bottom line is yes it's possible but do it by direct dial using a secure number rather than standing on the roof of your house and using a loudhailer.

Yes, I run openVPN on the pi at home. Works great.
Also experimenting with ZeroTier, a litle slower to startup the connections, but great after that. And you do not need any DNS setup.

 

[troyp42]

Hi guys, just wondering if this is the only/Best option to run a brew pi temp controller if you dont want to also have to buy and install software on an RPi? I currently use fermentrack installed on an RPi with 2 brewpi wireless controllers and it works well, but there are some guys at brewclub that have asked if there is another way to access the temp controllers without having to buy a RPi and set it all up.

 

[LBussy]

If you do not want a computer involved, this is the only way in the BrewPi family to do it.

Personally I rather enjoy having the ability to use the RPi for remote access, but that's why they make Fords and Chevys.

 

[Lalo_uy]

The Pi adds a lot of funcions, but if they insist in going without one, then use BrewPiLess controlers.

 

[troyp42]

It's been a while since I posted, I know a few people had mentioned that PlatformIO was a bit of a pain to set up. I thought I'd try to help out and write up a tutorial on how to get it running in case people were still struggling. In case this helps anyone: How to setup BrewPiLess using PlatformIO

I found the documentation, specifically about how to get PlatformIO to select the right com/serial port was lacking. I think this might be what holds a lot of people back who don't have much experience with the command line.

Hope it's helpful!

Awesome tutorial mate thanks for doing this. Im going to tackle it tonight.
You mention step 5 is different for a MAC but you dont mention how to do it on a MAC?

EDIT:- Googled how to do this.. Typed ls /dev/* into terminal and found the port.

 

[DuncB]

The tutorial mentions flashing a ready done brewpiless, is this okay or do I need to go on that code route using platform IO and get into the command line?

Do I need to do anything different when I install via flash for it to use a 1.3 inch oled 128 x 64 display. I see on vitotais page that it says " SSD1306 based 128x64 I2C OLED LCD can be used in place of the 20x4 LCD " is that just automatically done if I wire it in correctly by the program ?

 

[troyp42]

So can connect a 5v .5amp phone power supply to the 5V pin on the esp8266 to power it without any issues?

 

[DuncB]

From the vitotai site

• Power supply to ESP8266. (I use a USB adapter) 1.5+A is recommended.

 

[troyp42]

From the vitotai site

• Power supply to ESP8266. (I use a USB adapter) 1.5+A is recommended.

Cheers mate.

 

[troyp42]

Does anyone know why my screen keeps doing this every now and again and how to fix it?

 

[DuncB]

Purely taking a guess but could be a power supply issue? Just about to build my brewpiless temp controller taken so long to get the parts.

 

[troyp42]

Purely taking a guess but could be a power supply issue? Just about to build my brewpiless temp controller taken so long to get the parts.

Interesting that you say it could be power supply related. I brought a cheap 5v power supply on ebay from China awhile back and didnt use it on my fermentrack brew controllers. I ended up using it in this build though. ill get another power supply and see how it goes.

But having said that it works fine for a week or more then will display this. If I turn it off and back on its fine again for another week or so.

 

[DuncB]

@troyp42

If you think your PSU is good please wait for a real sages advice. Given your info seems less hardware and perhaps software.
All I've learnt over the years is you can't fix failed hardware when you think it's a software issue.

Could be many causes for this hold your horses at the moment.

 

[LBussy]

Screen scrambling is part of the joy of using those displays. I rarely get them, but my case routes the display lines far away from any others.

The other BrewPi-based firmware projects use a periodic screen reset because sometimes this just happens.

 

[DuncB]

@troyp42
I new there was a herb about who'd have an answer.

Thanks @LBussy

 

[LBussy]

Okay, that took a second to figure out what you meant by "herb."

 

[DuncB]

That's spice of you!

 

[LBussy]