Crane's Never ending Brewery Upgrades

[cyberbackpacker]

If you have a spare, I'd be interested!

 

[crane]

If you have a spare, I'd be interested!

I might be willing to part with one. Let's see how everything turns out first

 

[crane]

Here are the specs for the circuit board. All the options are based off of what components are soldered to the board. Its not reconfigurable without soldering.

1. Wiznet W5500 SPI Ethernet based off of Arduino Ethernet Shield 2
2. All analog inputs can be configured for 0-5V, 4-20mA, or thermistor temperature sensors (C55, C56 and FB4 create a filter to remove digital noise for the thermistor circuits)
2. Each analog input has an adjacent ground terminal. This allows you to bring the cable shielding all the way up to the screw terminal.
3. Removed unnecessary connections from the screw terminals. Sans Power, extra grounds, Aref, Iref and unusable pins 10, 20, 21 and 50+. All usable IO from a BruControl perspective are coming out to a screw terminal except pin 43.
4. All digital in/out support:
a. Direct connection from the mega to screw terminal
b. PTC fuse to protect IO from overvoltage
c. Pullup or Pulldown resistors for switches
d. Open drain N-FET outputs with higher current than mega IO
i. will be used for 16 channel relay boards that require 25mA per input
j. Grand Central 3.3V outputs can be converted to 5V
5. Outputs 41 - 43 are used for my element time sharing circuit. Output 43 is used to change what element output (41 or 42) has priority over the other.
6. 150x72mm to fit in this DIN Mount Carrier.

 

[crane]

PCBs are here. Starting to assemble the ethernet section on one. Doing the hand assembly at work since we have microscopes at all of our solder stations.

 

[BrunDog]

NICE. Fine pitch work! Those resistors 0603?

 

[BrunDog]

Also how are you handling the DIO pins in terms of both input and output capability? Solder pads?

 

[crane]

There is a mix of 0603 and 0402 for the resistors and capaitors. It's all configured through stuff options for what components get soldered down. No jumpers or dip switches for configurability. I will be using 3 of these in my control panels and all 3 will be configured differently.

 

[origin]

Would you mind sharing the spec of the pressure sensors you're using? I'm looking to use them for measuring water/wort levels.

thanks.

 

[crane]

Would you mind sharing the spec of the pressure sensors you're using? I'm looking to use them for measuring water/wort levels.

thanks.

0-100mBar
0-5V output
power 24V

 

[crane]

Built up the V1.1 boards yesterday. Along with the PCBs I bought the solder paste stencil. I placed all the parts with tweezers under the microscope and used a hot air gun with the air flow set to minimum to reflow the solder paste.

Start by taping the PCB to the lab bench.

Here is a picture of the solder paste stencil.

Line up the stencil over the PCB and tape it down as well.

Bought the solder paste off of Amazon

cover the stencil with solder paste. Used a credit card to smooth the solder paste into the stencil.

Picture of the board after solder paste was applied. Ready to place components and reflow the solder paste.

Here is the solder station I used at work for this.

Here is a fully assembled board installed in the control panel.

 

[mkosonen]

Out of curiosity, what kind of work do you do for a living? Looks amazing! Great job, and nice writeup as always.

 

[Toxxyc]

I looked through this thread.

You guys are insane. In a good way, but insane nonetheless.

I wish I was this crazy...

 

[BrunDog]

I assume you bench tested it first?!?

 

[crane]

Out of curiosity, what kind of work do you do for a living? Looks amazing! Great job, and nice writeup as always.

I'm an electrical engineer. I design large circuit boards for large compute systems. Each one of the systems costs ~$500K to make. They are used for prototyping/emulating cell phone processors prior to making the actual chip.

 

[crane]

I assume you bench tested it first?!?

Yup. I tested it on the bench before soldering in the screw terminals and installing in the control panels. Tested all interfaces again once it was in the panel.

 

[crane]

Last thing to do before mounting the control panels. My wife is hand painting the lettering for each connector. She's got some mad artistic talent. You can check out her cake decorating skills at sugarlacedcakes on instagram.

 

[crane]

Grain mill scale is up and running. I am using 3 10Kg load cells that are wired in parallel into a single HX711.

 

[BrunDog]

It's not your fault! It's a sickness!

 

[crane]

Here is the control box for the grain mill scale. I added a relay to turn on/off the mill. I plan to use a script to turn the mill off after it mills a buckets worth of grain. I will then swap out buckets and then continue milling the rest of the grain.

 

[crane]

Finally. The control panels are installed and the brew stand is reassembled. Time to make a bunch of cables.

 

[crane]

Done making cables. Almost ready to fire it all up.

 

[bruce_the_loon]

Crane, you're cheating. I see a factory-made Ethernet cable in there.

Good work man, neat and tidy.

 

[DuncB]

Wow, do you actually make beer as well?
Amazing stuff and heres me panicking about making a brewpiless or brewpi remix. I have taken a chill pill after seeing this.
Insane. I'd rather weigh one grain count and multiply to work out my grain weight than tackle your project.
Do please keep posting it's fascinating.

 

[crane]

Wow, do you actually make beer as well?
Amazing stuff and heres me panicking about making a brewpiless or brewpi remix. I have taken a chill pill after seeing this.
Insane. I'd rather weigh one grain count and multiply to work out my grain weight than tackle your project.
Do please keep posting it's fascinating.

Yes I do have a BIAB setup that I have been brewing on while I have been working on building the automated rig.

 

[GoeHaarden]

Yes I do have a BIAB setup that I have been brewing on while I have been working on building the automated rig.

Can I ask what type of hose you are using? Or is that just a braided sleeve?

 

[crane]

It's a stainless steel hose I got off of AliExpress.

 

[BrunDog]

Fire it up! Fire it up!

 

[e-gorка]

Superrrr!!!!!

 

[Transamguy77]

This is so epic! I have knowledge of electronics and wiring but this is on a whole other level, if I did this I’d fire it up and let all the smoke out!!

 

[crane]

Unfortunately some water got into the Hop Boss dispenser electronics. The MCU turns out to be an Arduino Pro Mini. The Arduino and the stepper motor were fried. Fortunately, the Darlington transistor array that drives the stepper motor wasn't damaged so I didn't have to do any soldering. I reverse engineered the circuit board with a multi meter to ohm out the Arduino pinout. The original Arduino used was the 5V version. I switched to the 3.3V version so the IO voltage levels are compatible with the NodeMCU. I rewrote the firmware for the Arduino to make it easier to interface with BruControl.

I originally had a 1.5" TC butterfly valve, but I had issues with hops getting stuck in the valve. I upgraded to a 3" TC valve. Hopefully I won't have any issues with hops getting stuck.

 

[crane]

I was helping someone build a clone of my setup and after acquiring most all of parts for the build they have decided to go another direction. I am helping them sell off everything, so if you see anything on my setup that you would like, we most likely have more of them to sell. They are motivated to clear out their garage, so they are selling at a discount from the price they paid. This includes all the sensors, valves, control panel parts, tri-clamp parts and tubing. If you are interested in anything send me a DM.

 

[jcav]

Absolutely fantastic, this whole thread! Amazing system!

John

 

[cyberbackpacker]

I’d be interested in the MFM setup if there is one…

 

[crane]

I’d be interested in the MFM setup if there is one…

We weren't able to source all the parts for the MFM setups. We do have 2 of the Moore Industries HIM Hart interface modules.

Edit: we also have a spare Rosemount 268 to get rid of.

 

[DonWMason]

How about the hop boss? Available?

 

[crane]

How about the hop boss? Available?

DM sent

 

[jlash630]

DM sent

does he have the Coriolis flow meters?

 

[crane]

does he have the Coriolis flow meters?

No, never got those