BrewPi Remix – What’s Old is New Again

[Quigongentoo]

@Quigongentoo I’m sort of in transit these days with no access to a test rig. I’m going to hazard a guess though that you have a RPi 2 or some other version without Bluetooth. Have you tried editing the config.cuff file to remove the Tilt?

I have a RP3b+ connected. Ive tried both ways, with and without the Tilt added at the initial install.

 

[LBussy]

If you comment that out again and restart things, the stderr.txt may show us something interesting.

 

[Quigongentoo]

If you comment that out again and restart things, the stderr.txt may show us something interesting.

Can you tell me where to find the config.cuff file please? I found a reference to the Blue Tilt in the /home/brewpi/settings config.cfg. Oddly when I removed the Blue from the tilt setting the device shows as a graph device now, before it showed nothing even when turned on from install.

 

[LBussy]

That was a phone typo - config.cfg is correct.

The web UI will display any data which may exist in the json files, so there may have been a couple points in there. So is it working without the Tilt entry?

 

[Quigongentoo]

That was a phone typo - config.cfg is correct.

The web UI will display any data which may exist in the json files, so there may have been a couple points in there. So is it working without the Tilt entry?

Yes at this point it is running

 

[LBussy]

Yes at this point it is running

Okay well obviously it's supposed to work with the Tilt. What it looks like is that the Tilt is not being read consistently and the script is timing out. It is supposed to do that more gracefully than it is, but that's a different issue.

Can you get your Pi closer to the Tilt? Or have you considered Tiltbridge by @Thorrak? It is falling off a log easy to built (there's no building except for whatever case you want) and it will allow you greater freedom in where you put your Pi in relation to your Tilt.

 

[Quigongentoo]

Okay well obviously it's supposed to work with the Tilt. What it looks like is that the Tilt is not being read consistently and the script is timing out. It is supposed to do that more gracefully than it is, but that's a different issue.

Can you get your Pi closer to the Tilt? Or have you considered Tiltbridge by @Thorrak? It is falling off a log easy to built (there's no building except for whatever case you want) and it will allow you greater freedom in where you put your Pi in relation to your Tilt.

 

[Quigongentoo]

I have not because the three tilts that I own have always worked in the past with MyBrewBot (which quit working). They work with the app on the phone and with the TiltPi. Also, I thought that this might be the problem too, as I did buy a new freezer for this project. I checked with the phone app next to the Pi and got plenty of hits from the Tilt. Then just to prove myself wrong I put it where it is in the pictures. Is there a way that I can test the bluetooth? A command line or something?

 

[LBussy]

Well, we obviously have an issue now. The Pi famously has less than optimal antennas because of the single-board configuration.

You can use the Pi to view BLE signal strength, but you may be amazed at how much chatter exists in your home. Here's an example:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions...-on-raspberry-pi-of-bt-device-without-pairing

 

[Quigongentoo]

Well, we obviously have an issue now. The Pi famously has less than optimal antennas because of the single-board configuration.

You can use the Pi to view BLE signal strength, but you may be amazed at how much chatter exists in your home. Here's an example:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions...-on-raspberry-pi-of-bt-device-without-pairing

So, I don’t really want to look for signals, rather just see if it is actually working or not. Maybe there is an actual hardware problem with the Pi. I suppose I could load a GUI and see if I can find Bluetooth devices. It still is strange that I removed the Blue comment from the config and only then did it show up in the graph. How would it even know that I was looking for a Blue Tilt if I removed it?

 

[LBussy]

I think what is happening is a "feature" (cough: bug) in the script is causing either a crash or a memory leak when it cannot find a configured Tilt. You have "some" data points in your json (stored data) so when you comment out the Tilt, the script can run, and it will display those points it has.

 

[Quigongentoo]

I wanted to add this. When I do an update or install I see

”sudo: unable to resolve host brewpiremix: Name or service not known”

Alot….. Is this normal?

 

[LBussy]

Sounds as if you may have changed your hostname without rebooting? Or, for whatever reason, the host name change didn;t complete sucessfully. You can change it in raspi-config and see if it goes away (again after a reboot).

 

[Quigongentoo]

Sounds as if you may have changed your hostname without rebooting? Or, for whatever reason, the host name change didn;t complete sucessfully. You can change it in raspi-config and see if it goes away (again after a reboot).

So I did a complete reinstall. I chose the full OS this time so I could VNC in and see if I could see anything on the Bluetooth connections I do detect devices to pair to. Even my Sony TV shows up from the living room. I emerged BrewPiRemix and selected the blue tilt again but it didnt show up in the graph again.

Sounds as if you may have changed your hostname without rebooting? Or, for whatever reason, the host name change didn;t complete sucessfully. You can change it in raspi-config and see if it goes away (again after a reboot).

 

[Quigongentoo]

I take that back….. Bluetooth devices showed up until I emerged BrewPiRemix. Now I see nothin…hmmmm

 

[LBussy]

I don't know what you mean by "emerged BrewPiRemix."

Try TiltPi on a different SD card to see if it will consistently read your Tilt:

https://tilthydrometer.com/products/tilt-pi-v2-buster-dec20-raspberry-pi-sd-card-image-download

 

[Quigongentoo]

I don't know what you mean by "emerged BrewPiRemix."

Try TiltPi on a different SD card to see if it will consistently read your Tilt:

https://tilthydrometer.com/products/tilt-pi-v2-buster-dec20-raspberry-pi-sd-card-image-download

Sorry that’s an old Gentoo term…. It means to install the package. Emerging would compile the package from scratch. Anyway, I was one step ahead of you again. When I reinstalled and used the full os this time, I used a different sd card.

Does this show you anything? Can I pull any logs and post them that might help?

 

[LBussy]

That looks like the script is running, you have a Tilt configured, and you can't talk to it because something is binding that interface before the script runs. Are you running something else that might be binding to the BLE?

 

[Quigongentoo]

That looks like the script is running, you have a Tilt configured, and you can't talk to it because something is binding that interface before the script runs. Are you running something else that might be binding to the BLE?

No its just a standard install. IE I followed your directions on the web page.

 

[LBussy]

Honestly .... something is screwy with that Bluetooth I think. Try that TiltPi and see if it confirms or refutes that theory.

 

[Quigongentoo]

Honestly .... something is screwy with that Bluetooth I think. Try that TiltPi and see if it confirms or refutes that theory.

Same info on my phone app.

 

[LBussy]

That’s weird. I think (remember I have no access right now) that you can stop the BrewPi script and then at the command line execute Tilt.py (you will have to venv to the local environment) and read the Tilt there.

 

[Quigongentoo]

That’s weird. I think (remember I have no access right now) that you can stop the BrewPi script and then at the command line execute Tilt.py (you will have to venv to the local environment) and read the Tilt there.

 

[LBussy]

Use these commands:

sudo su - brewpi
activate
python ./Tilt.py

 

[LBussy]

... Kali Linux? This is not a Pi running Raspbian?

 

[Quigongentoo]

... Kali Linux? This is not a Pi running Raspbian?

That’s just a web page I was using for reference. It’s Raspbian

 

[Quigongentoo]

Use these commands:

sudo su - brewpi
activate
python ./Tilt.py

 

[Quigongentoo]

View attachment 758278

I tried the suggested command, I have no idea what the sudo password is for brewpi. I tried what I use to log on, I tried ”nothing” as in blank, I tried raspberry….

 

[LBussy]

There is no password for brewpi, you can only su to it. Explaining this for others:

• "sudo su - brewpi" changes your current user to the brewpi user, which is what owns and runs the BrewPi script. the "-" in between su and brewpi alters the environment to the brewpi's environment as well.
• "activate" is an alias for (from memory) "/home/brewpi/venv/bin/activate" which sets up the Python virtual environment under which BrewPi is intended to run.
• "python" inside the venv is an alias to python3 which is what BrewPi uses.
• "Tilt.py" is a helper library with a test script which will connect to Tilts and show what is received.

So now we see that your environment was not set up correctly for some reason. You can exit to get back to the pi user, and do either one of these:

• /home/brewpi/utils/doPerms.sh <--(this is the recommended solution)
  or
• sudo setup cap_net_raw+eip $(eval redline -f `which python3`) <--(this is included in the above script)

Then, as brewpi set up the venv again and run Tilt.py and see what happens.

 

[Quigongentoo]

There is no password for brewpi, you can only su to it. Explaining this for others:

• "sudo su - brewpi" changes your current user to the brewpi user, which is what owns and runs the BrewPi script. the "-" in between su and brewpi alters the environment to the brewpi's environment as well.
• "activate" is an alias for (from memory) "/home/brewpi/venv/bin/activate" which sets up the Python virtual environment under which BrewPi is intended to run.
• "python" inside the venv is an alias to python3 which is what BrewPi uses.
• "Tilt.py" is a helper library with a test script which will connect to Tilts and show what is received.

So now we see that your environment was not set up correctly for some reason. You can exit to get back to the pi user, and do either one of these:

• /home/brewpi/utils/doPerms.sh <--(this is the recommended solution)
  or
• sudo setup cap_net_raw+eip $(eval redline -f `which python3`) <--(this is included in the above script)

Then, as brewpi set up the venv again and run Tilt.py and see what happens.

Did this twice, just to make sure I didnt botch something along the way.

Keep getting this…..

I have tried its suggestion. Thats when it asked for a password.