CraftBeerPi - Raspberry Pi Software

[clearwaterbrewer]

do you have another probe that is not using the XLR that you can hook straight up using the factory red/red/white wires??
do you have another MAX amp board you can try?

 

[Solaire]

I am giving that thing even odds of being toast or working. But the weird thing is that I get the - 428.8 F even if I disconnect the board. So I'm thinking it is more likely software side at the moment. Are there any additional software steps besides installing craftbeerpi and the addon, and setting the settings?

 

[Solaire]

do you have another probe that is not using the XLR that you can hook straight up using the factory red/red/white wires??
do you have another MAX amp board you can try?

I do not have another max board, but I can disconnect my probe at the base and try to wire it from there temporarily...
However it still gives me that value if the board is completely disconnected, so while there may be an issue there I am fairly confident something has to be wrong software side as well.

 

[TallDan]

I do not have another max board, but I can disconnect my probe at the base and try to wire it from there temporarily...
However it still gives me that value if the board is completely disconnected, so while there may be an issue there I am fairly confident something has to be wrong software side as well.

I don't follow your logic. I'd say that if it acts the same with no board at all as it does with the board connected, it sounds like the board isn't doing anything.

 

[Solaire]

I don't follow your logic. I'd say that if it acts the same with no board at all as it does with the board connected, it sounds like the board isn't doing anything.

I would imagine that the value would change based on a board being connected or not, but if it sounds like there is nothing I am obviously missing software side then I will get a new board and see what happens, just was trying to rule that out before I bought another board.

 

[clearwaterbrewer]

Have you tried another analog input GPIO channel?

 

[Lalo_uy]

RasperyPi do not have analog GPIO. That's why the board is needed. You can try a 100 ohms R instead of the probe. Will give you some temp near 0 C

 

[brewman !]

I've got a 5 Kw induction coil under my mash tun. (You read that right.) I'm worried about scorching the mash or warping the bottom of the mash vessel. I can only turn the induction coil on or off. There is no way to turn down the power on the induction coil... at this point anyway...

I'm using CraftBrewPi to control the mash. I want to do a very low frequency PWM output to the induction coil. Something like a 20 second cycle. Can I use the GPIOPWM for that ? And set the frequency to 1/20 = 0.05 Hz ?

Has anyone used the GPIOPWM at a low fequency like this before ?

FYI, 5KW on a 12" circle = 5,000 watts / 12^2 pi/4 = 44 watts per in^2. Same as an ultra low watt density element.

 

[brewman !]

I've got CraftBrewPi 3 set up on a RPi3 running Raspbian. I'm using 18DS20 sensors to control the process. Right now the sensors are bare, ie not in a SS sheath and not encapsulated in epoxy.

They seem to work, but the response and update time seems to be slow. The temperatures read correctly but they only update about once every 6 seconds.

Any idea why the update is so slow ? Is there a way to speed it up ?

Thanks

 

[user 262129]

Hey everyone, so I've tried so many things and still can't get the Pi to automate the heating elements. Today I did a fresh install on my Rpi and reinstalled CBPi3. I tried hysteresis, and it over shot the target temp by 4 degrees, before I turned it off. After that, I tried downloading PIDAutoTune and PIDBoil, but when I rebooted my Pi I got the errors below. I submitted a ticket on github, but no reply yet. Any advice?

 

[brewman !]

BeerGreek: do you have a voltmeter ? Have you tested that the RPi pin is doing what you expect it to do ? That would isolate the problem to either the RPi or your wiring.

What does your Hardware Settings page look like ?

What distro are you running ?

Have you pressed the Auto button on your brewpot ? (It looks like a car.)

 

[user 262129]

BeerGreek: do you have a voltmeter ? Have you tested that the RPi pin is doing what you expect it to do ? That would isolate the problem to either the RPi or your wiring.

What does your Hardware Settings page look like ?

What distro are you running ?

Have you pressed the Auto button on your brewpot ? (It looks like a car.)

View attachment 608060

View attachment 608061

I've actually tested the rpi pins and they're good to go. I'm not sure what you mean by distro. I always start by clicking the car and seeing what happens, but I always end up having to turn the heat off myself so it doesn't get too high.
Here's my hardware setup

 

[day_trippr]

"distro" = package version

 

[user 262129]

"distro" = package version

As in Craftbeerpi3?

 

[kaljade]

As in Craftbeerpi3?

No as in Wheezy, Jessie, or Stretch. What version of NOOBS/Raspbian did you install before you install CBPi?

 

[user 262129]

No as in Wheezy, Jessie, or Stretch. What version of NOOBS/Raspbian did you install before you install CBPi?

Oh. It's Jessie. Bear with me guys. I'm definitely a Rpi noob

 

[kaljade]

Oh. It's Jessie. Bear with me guys. I'm definitely a Rpi noob

All good mate, where all here to help or get help, it switches for me regularly which side I'm on

 

[brewman !]

BeerGreek: just to humor me, could you change your actors to something different than the name of the kettle ? Maybe HLT Element, for example ?

And set the hysteresis values to something other than 0. Neither of these should make a difference, but it makes things clearer.

What do you mean your GPIO pins are good to go ? Do the pins go on and off correctly when you put the heat actor into manual mode and turn it on and off manually ?

Forgive me for not going back to look, but is your boil kettle overshooting (not controlling) or your mash vessel ? Or HLT ?

Do things work correctly when you use GPIOSimple instead of GPIOPWM ?

 

[brewman !]

Could you log into a terminal on your rpi (ssh ?) and run uname -a and tell us what it returns ?

Also, have you run apt-get update and reboot (shutdown -r now)

Have you tested your temp sensors ? Are you sure you've got the right temp sensor tied to the heat actor ?

If your GPIO pins work correctly, does the element itself turn on and off correctly ?

 

[brewman !]

I have an issue... when I boot my RPi all the relays turn on during the boot process. Is there a way to prevent this ?

 

[Lalo_uy]

I've got CraftBrewPi 3 set up on a RPi3 running Raspbian. I'm using 18DS20 sensors to control the process. Right now the sensors are bare, ie not in a SS sheath and not encapsulated in epoxy.

They seem to work, but the response and update time seems to be slow. The temperatures read correctly but they only update about once every 6 seconds.

Any idea why the update is so slow ? Is there a way to speed it up ?

Thanks

If you use the standar one wire plugin the temps are read every 5 sec, that is more than good for fermentation.
The kernel takes ~1 sec to read each sensor in the bus. If you have many sensors as I do is best to change te time to 15s. In 50L pots the temp dont change that fast. Less on a 60L fermenter.

 

[Gravitysucks]

I have an issue... when I boot my RPi all the relays turn on during the boot process. Is there a way to prevent this ?

This seems to be a common problem related to how the Pi treats the GPIO pins on boot up and the variety of relay boards people are using, their active state, and how they are powering them.

If you go to the CraftBeerPi user group on Facebook and type in "relays turn on at boot up" there is a lot of information and some work arounds that may help you.

 

[user 262129]

I have an issue... when I boot my RPi all the relays turn on during the boot process. Is there a way to prevent this ?

Do you mean the light on the SSR's turns on, or there's constant power to the outlets?

 

[user 262129]

BeerGreek: just to humor me, could you change your actors to something different than the name of the kettle ? Maybe HLT Element, for example ?

And set the hysteresis values to something other than 0. Neither of these should make a difference, but it makes things clearer.

What do you mean your GPIO pins are good to go ? Do the pins go on and off correctly when you put the heat actor into manual mode and turn it on and off manually ?

Forgive me for not going back to look, but is your boil kettle overshooting (not controlling) or your mash vessel ? Or HLT ?

Do things work correctly when you use GPIOSimple instead of GPIOPWM ?

So I changed the names to make it a little clearer. I also changed the hysteresis to 1 for the on and off, but that didn't work either. As for the GPIO pins, when I turn everything on manually, it works fine. I can regulate the temp manually. When the HLT gets up to ~155, I change the heater power to 37% and it stays around 157, which keeps my mash tun around 155. I'm using a Herms system so the heat from my HLT is what keeps the mash at the temp it needs to be at. The way it's set up, the HLT temp is what's being controlled, because that's where my heating element is. I don't have a heating element in my mash tun to avoid scorching the grains.

 

[user 262129]

Could you log into a terminal on your rpi (ssh ?) and run uname -a and tell us what it returns ?

Also, have you run apt-get update and reboot (shutdown -r now)

Have you tested your temp sensors ? Are you sure you've got the right temp sensor tied to the heat actor ?

If your GPIO pins work correctly, does the element itself turn on and off correctly ?

so I ran uname -a and it kicked back the following:
"Linux raspberrypi 4.9.35-v7+ #1014 SMP Fri Jun 30 14:47:43 BST 2017 armv7l GNU/Linux"
I have run apt-get update and rebooted. I've also tested the temp sensors. I used some ice and placed "just the tip" of the thermowell in the ice to make sure the right probe was reading the temp and it all matches. Each one of the temp probes read right around 32 degrees F.

 

[brewman !]

so I ran uname -a and it kicked back the following:
"Linux raspberrypi 4.9.35-v7+ #1014 SMP Fri Jun 30 14:47:43 BST 2017 armv7l GNU/Linux"
I have run apt-get update and rebooted. I've also tested the temp sensors. I used some ice and placed "just the tip" of the thermowell in the ice to make sure the right probe was reading the temp and it all matches. Each one of the temp probes read right around 32 degrees F.

OK. I'm getting the same "Failed to load plugin" message as you are. It started when I changed the control type on one of my actors. Let me experiment with things a bit.

 

[brewman !]

Do you mean the light on the SSR's turns on, or there's constant power to the outlets?

Both, during the boot. As soon as the RPi boots, everything is good.

 

[brewman !]

This seems to be a common problem related to how the Pi treats the GPIO pins on boot up and the variety of relay boards people are using, their active state, and how they are powering them.

If you go to the CraftBeerPi user group on Facebook and type in "relays turn on at boot up" there is a lot of information and some work arounds that may help you.

I think I will implement an eStop button and just be sure to have it enabled when I boot up. I'll put the button on the ground line from the relays and SSR. Open ground = no work.

 

[user 262129]

I think I will implement an eStop button and just be sure to have it enabled when I boot up. I'll put the button on the ground line from the relays and SSR. Open ground = no work.

I would put the estop on the power line instead of the ground. I'd rather know that no power is going to the system instead of no ground. IMO

 

[brewman !]

I would put the estop on the power line instead of the ground. I'd rather know that no power is going to the system instead of no ground. IMO

SSRs don't need 5V to run, so putting the eStop on the 5V feed won't stop it from coming on.

Interrupting the ground path works just as well. Lots of devices are controlled by the ground path. Most logic families work this way, essentially open collector outputs.

 

[brewman !]

FYI, the temp sensors update once every 5 seconds. They are a "Passive" sensor.

Passive Sensor`
Get’s invoked by CraftBeerPi core every 5 seconds`

Source: http://web.craftbeerpi.com/developer/

 

[user 262129]

SSRs don't need 5V to run, so putting the eStop on the 5V feed won't stop it from coming on.

Interrupting the ground path works just as well. Lots of devices are controlled by the ground path. Most logic families work this way, essentially open collector outputs.

True, but they do need at least 3 volts. What I meant, was in the case where power needs to be cut immediately, I would rather cut the voltage coming into the control box, from the main line in, then the ground. That way if you need to touch one of the components, even though there's a ground you know for a fact there's no power to shock you. Just my though process.

 

[brewman !]

True, but they do need at least 3 volts. What I meant, was in the case where power needs to be cut immediately, I would rather cut the voltage coming into the control box, from the main line in, then the ground. That way if you need to touch one of the components, even though there's a ground you know for a fact there's no power to shock you. Just my though process.

Makes no difference if you cut Vss (5V) or Gnd to the relays. Either way the coil circuit for the relay is dead and the circuit will be broken on the contact side. As far as cutting power to the entire box, it needs to be de energized (unplugged) before you do any work on it.

 

[matbtz]

Hello,

Beer Greek, have you try to do the auto-tune pid ?
That work good on my set up.

 

[Lalo_uy]

I also changed the hysteresis to 1 for the on and off, but that didn't work either. As for the GPIO pins, when I turn everything on manually, it works fine. I can regulate the temp manually.

On and off offset need to be diferent.
Leave on in 0 and off in 1.

 

[matbtz]

Hello,

I watched this video about flowmeter and
I would like to use a flowmeter for fill up the mash tune through the coil Herms of the hlt and for sparging.


Did you think the plugin #flowmeter# on Craftbeerpi will work for start and stop the solenoid valve like on the video?
I checked on the Facebook group but didn't found any good information or picture.
The post I found say that the plugin is not so accurate.

And which can of solenoid valve and flow meter to buy, I see some plastic or copper.

https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/bNDMvcQ5

Thanks for your help

 

[user 262129]

Hello,

Beer Greek, have you try to do the auto-tune pid ?
That work good on my set up.

I tried the PIDAutotune and PIDBoil, but both give me an error saying they failed to load due to a 'description' argument. I've submitted issue tickets in github, but haven't received any responses yet. Do you know of any reason why my CBPi won't load them, others' will?

 

[user 262129]

On and off offset need to be diferent.
Leave on in 0 and off in 1.

I'll change it and give it another go. Thanks

 

[Lalo_uy]

Hello,

I watched this video about flowmeter and
I would like to use a flowmeter for fill up the mash tune through the coil Herms of the hlt and for sparging.


Did you think the plugin #flowmeter# on Craftbeerpi will work for start and stop the solenoid valve like on the video?
I checked on the Facebook group but didn't found any good information or picture.
The post I found say that the plugin is not so accurate.

And which can of solenoid valve and flow meter to buy, I see some plastic or copper.

https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/bNDMvcQ5

Thanks for your help

That valve is not solenoid but motorized. It is complex to drive. The plug in can be used to fill the mash. Use a mash step with 0 time after reaching the value and use the flowmeter as temp for the step.

 

[rkhanso]

One of my charts/sensors is looking odd. I'm wondering if this is a sign of a bad sensor, wiring or something else?
I'm not wiggling any of the wires - they are stationary. This used to be rock-solid steady in the past. Now sudden short swings of 4 degrees high, a couple degrees low. It's the only sensor currently connected to the Pi -- well, through a Teragady 4.2 board.