BrewPi Remix – What’s Old is New Again

[scubahiker]

It's quicker (for me of course) to suggest you try it again without the tilt. The log messages suggest that this may be where the issue is.

What model of Pi?

I've been using a Pi2 vB. I'll uninstall and do w/o tilt with fingers crossed.

 

[scubahiker]

That was it, Tilt was the issue. Its up and running now, script has started!

If you need any beta testers for the black Tilt, let me know!

 

[LBussy]

Of course, HBT crashed, and I lost my reply.

Tilt support has been GA for a long time, so this is curious. I suspect this was a change in Python that broke this because Python. I can't say that I would never hire someone who worked for the PSF, but let's say that it would not be a positive resume entry.

I've not had time to drink beer, much less make beer, and I certainly have not been working on my projects. Let me have a look, and maybe I can reach out to you via PM to try a couple things?

 

[scubahiker]

That sounds good. I have a Bluetooth dongle on my PI to connect to the Tilt. Its worked before.

I must have really jacked my build up when I was troubleshooting. I'm seeing weird activity with the relay. When it switches to cooling, it turns the relay off! Then it won't come back on. If heating is first, it turns on correctly, but when heating is done, it stays on.. Checked my wiring to the diagram and it matches. That's what I'm currently investigating...

*Just purchased a new relay just in case, this one is from 2016*

 

[day_trippr]

Be sure to set the Cool and Heat gpios to "inverted"...

 

[LBussy]

I have a Bluetooth dongle on my PI to connect to the Tilt. Its worked before.

Dongles have always been a special sort of hell ... let me think about that a bit. You may have used an older version previously that was not as "Smart" as the current version, but now has fallen afoul of some other vagary I forgot to check for.

 

[scubahiker]

Be sure to set the Cool and Heat gpios to "inverted"...

They are set both to inverted. I have it running right now and its running when it should be off. I've tried the other 2 devices it found with similar results.

 

[LBussy]

They are set both to inverted. I have it running right now and its running when it should be off. I've tried the other 2 devices it found with similar results.

It's time for the multimeter. Check the voltage (disconnect the relays) and see if that is correct. If it is, your wiring is suspect.

 

[scubahiker]

It's time for the multimeter. Check the voltage (disconnect the relays) and see if that is correct. If it is, your wiring is suspect.

Ok, will do. Just to confirm, I'll disconnect the wires to the relay and check the Dupont wires from the Arduino to the relay for 5V. Anything else?

 

[LBussy]

Check the actuator pin for heat and cool (5 and 6) to Arduino ground. I always have to make myself trace it through, but I think "activated" is low (grounded), so there is no potential (0 VDC) when you think the relay should be on. @day_trippr am I describing that right?

 

[day_trippr]

Close enough - a couple hundred millivolts above "0" is pretty typical for logic low levels...

Cheers!

 

[scubahiker]

Thank you both @LBussy & @day_trippr!! I replaced both the wires from 5 & 6 to the relay and that resolved the problem. The wires didn't look damaged, but I was going to try anything. It has now perfectly maintained my set temp and fermentation is better for it.

I'll play around with my Tilt after this brew...

 

[shockshore3]

Hey I've just wired my brewpi remix, set up my raspberry pi, and haven't had any issues up until trying to install the hex file for the arduino. Below is the code I'm getting back and not sure how to fix it? Probably very obvious but I'm not too keen on software. I'm also not sure I have the most up to date hex file so not sure if that matters...

024-08-04 18:48:05 [E] Starting BrewPi.
/home/brewpi/brewpi.py:751: DeprecationWarning: distutils Version classes are deprecated. Use packaging.version instead.
if LooseVersion(hwVersion.toString()) < LooseVersion(compatibleHwVersion):

Also, in device configuration it seems it is recognizing my two temp probes but when I set the configurations and hit apply, the devices do not appear as 'installed', but this may be due to the error message above and the hex file not installing correctly? Any advice would be greatly appreciated because after a couple hours of searching I still have no idea where to go from here... TIA

 

[day_trippr]

If you installed RaspberryPi Bookworm OS version you're probably running into package versions ahead of Lee's efforts. The failure to "remember" the device settings is due to not actually writing the configuration data to the Arduino eeprom, which is likely related to the version issues flagged.

You might try installing the previous Bullseye OS version and see what happens. I believe folks have gotten BPR running on Bullseye recently...

Cheers!

 

[LBussy]

That’s the flashing error more than likely. What a slacker I am!

That said, if the config is not saving, erase EEPROM and try again.

 

[shockshore3]

If you installed RaspberryPi Bookworm OS version you're probably running into package versions ahead of Lee's efforts. The failure to "remember" the device settings is due to not actually writing the configuration data to the Arduino eeprom, which is likely related to the version issues flagged.

You might try installing the previous Bullseye OS version and see what happens. I believe folks have gotten BPR running on Bullseye recently...

Cheers!

Bullseye worked perfectly. Thanks so much. It’s great to see after all these years there’s so many people, including Lee, still supporting this project. Very excited to elevate my fermentation game this weekend!

 

[LBussy]

Support, sure.

I’m happy to give back to the community for everything I’ve received.

 

[day_trippr]

That sounds ominous

 

[LBussy]

Nah, just owning that I am behind in all things, including current distros.

 

[Barry_Duffman]

I have a hardware question concerning LCD and rotary encoder. I'm reading through the build threads old and new but I'm confused on what I should buy. I have an arduino uno Rev3 and a raspberry pi 2 model B v1.1 already. If LCD or rotary encoder type functionality are better handled another way I'm open to that too. Thanks for any guidance you all can provide.

 

[day_trippr]

The display and encoder just provide a handy way to view settings and change them if desired without having to find a device to do it. I've always found those abilities to be important so all my controllers have displays and encoders.

Here's an example of the rotary encoder switch. I bought this 3 unit set as I built three controllers for my three fridges. Right now it seems to be cheaper than buying a single encoder switch on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KHTLWU6

Here's an example of the 20x4 LCD display using the same parallel interface that the original Rev C Elco shield used.

https://www.amazon.com/Jameco-ValuePro-SIC2004A_BLWIT-Character-Backlight/dp/B0CJ9HJ2JC

This is a different version of the 20x4 LCD display, incorporating an "I2C Back Pack" so it communicates with the UNO using just four wires (SCL, SDA, 5V and GND). I can't remember if Lee's BrewPi Remix supports the serial connection though so don't buy that one until Lee checks in here.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06X6LDNTT

Cheers! ("Paging Dr @LBussy!" )

 

[LBussy]

Yes, the latest board supports either parallel or serial. The I2C (serial) LCD is an easier setup IMHO. Here it is on OshPark:

https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/TOY7kiZg

If you do the serial, skip the IC marked U1, and on the ONE_WIRE_SEL jumper choose A4 for the one-wire pin.

 

[Barry_Duffman]

Thanks for the quick replies. I'm going with the I2C and rotary encoder you recommended.

On the OshPark link you sent there is an arduino uno shield BOM, is that the preferred method? I'm completley new to electronic maker stuff but want to do it correctly and learn the right way through this fermentation chamber build.

Thanks everyone for the knowledge.

 

[LBussy]

I am 90% sure the only difference is the headers you use and having the IC. If you build it but skip the IC (and use A4) it will work properly. I might ask @day_trippr to check me on that because I do not currently have a PC where I can load up that schematic.

 

[day_trippr]

I'm pretty sure everything was designed according to Hoyle.

I just tried installing EAGLE 9.6.2 and it immediately abends on launch. My guess is EAGLE doesn't like my rtx4090 24G OC and triple monitors - I see lots of graphic driver compatibility issues on the EAGLE forum.

I'm not really interested in potentially borking my new machine just to run EAGLE, but I still have my old machine in cold standby (ironically, it also sported triple monitors, but actually ran EAGLE ok). I'll try to remember to fire it up and take another look at the 1.3 shield when I get a chance...

Cheers!

 

[LBussy]

I’ll see if I can get it running on my Mac. I have little room for extras here and my company casts a dim eye on me installing rando software.

I think I’m 98% sure the board will work both ways though.

 

[Barry_Duffman]

Not sure if it matters but I'm using AC-DC relays to control the chest freezer compressor and reptile heat lamp (like elko did years ago). My current design is to have the brewpi, arduino uno, LCD, and rotary encoder in a project box connected to the compressor compartment with cat5 where the RS 15-5 and SSRs are installed. Idea being the brain box is the only exterior thing on the freezer and it disconnects via RJ45 connectors. I move every 3 years for work so packability/survivability is key to brewing not repairing.

 

[day_trippr]

iirc, Elco utilized transistors (2n3904s?) on his design to boost the UNO GPIO Cool/Heat signals to run SSRs. I don't think any of the BrewPi shields we've come up with do that. Otoh, I'm not sure one cannot drive an SSR directly from an Atmel 328P, as many use logic-level inputs which presumes logic-level current.

Might depend on the SSR I suppose - I've never used SSRs on any of my BrewPi installations, they're all using the same dual channel relay board (most from Sainsmart - who sourced them from some random far east producer who I now source directly).

Anyway...I did have an PDF of Lee's v1.3 BrewPi shield and it looks proper. As Lee mentioned above, when using an I2C LCD you need to change the One Wire GPIO from A0 to A4.

Cheers!

 

[LBussy]

Thanks, Dave. Not sure if this is the link I shared, but this is the "one board to rule them all":

https://github.com/brewpi-remix/brewpi-pcb-rmx/tree/master/Uno Shield/Combo Shield

 

[LBussy]

Idea being the brain box is the only exterior thing on the freezer and it disconnects via RJ45 connectors.

The design above supports an RJ-45 connection.