Fermentrack: Fermentation monitoring & BrewPi-www Replacement for Raspberry Pi

[bee2gee]

I resurrected an old RasPi and updated Fermentrack, oops. Long story, I'm running into SSL lib issues with Python. Is there a simple way to perform a backup from command line and import it into a fresh OS and Fermentrack install? I have a new install running and it's easy enough to configure again, I'd just get some nostalgia from previous ferments

 

[Thorrak]

I resurrected an old RasPi and updated Fermentrack, oops. Long story, I'm running into SSL lib issues with Python. Is there a simple way to perform a backup from command line and import it into a fresh OS and Fermentrack install? I have a new install running and it's easy enough to configure again, I'd just get some nostalgia from previous ferments

What SSL lib issue?

Are you running the docker version, or the non-docker version?

 

[bee2gee]

I’d have to grab the log again, basically because Python 3.7 and Rasbian Stretch with OpenSSL older than 1.1.1+. It’s a non-Docker install. The original was from 2018 or so and I have my fingers crossed I can run something via ssh to generate the standard backup. No big loss if I can’t, just wish I did before I bearishly pressed “update”

 

[Thorrak]

I’d have to grab the log again, basically because Python 3.7 and Rasbian Stretch with OpenSSL older than 1.1.1+. It’s a non-Docker install. The original was from 2018 or so and I have my fingers crossed I can run something via ssh to generate the standard backup. No big loss if I can’t, just wish I did before I bearishly pressed “update”

No worries at all. Yes - there are a couple of ways to back it up, depending on when the last time you upgraded was.

First, let's start by doing a direct backup of the files that constitute your data. Log into your Raspberry Pi, change to the fermentrack directory, and run:

tar -cvzf ~/backup.tgz db.sqlite3 data

The file that generates - "backup.tgz" - contains your database and all your beer/gravity logs. This is the "worst case" solution, as it's the more difficult way to restore, but it still can work!

Next, see if you can run the following:

source ~/venv/bin/activate
./manage.py generate_backup

If it works, perfect! You have a backup generated at the path it provides. If it doesn't work, report back here with the error message you get (and at what step you receive it in the above)

 

[Southyeaster]

Hi Thorrak, I noticed that with the latest master version uploaded today all functionality is fine, but when hitting the "update from github" button, to check the current and newest available versions, the page throws exceptions.

 

[Southyeaster]

Hi @Thorrak, I noticed this after updating to the latest master version uploaded today..
When clicking the "update from github" button to check current/available version the page throws exceptions.
All other functionality appears ok.
Thanks for the amazing work you do on Fermenttrack!

 

[Thorrak]

Hi Thorrak, I noticed that with the latest master version uploaded today all functionality is fine, but when hitting the "update from github" button, to check the current and newest available versions, the page throws exceptions.

I’ve been trying to replicate this on my end, but haven’t been able to thus far. Best I can tell from that error, something happened while performing a Git check earlier which resulted in the stale lock file being generated.

I know it’s cliche, but when you have a sec do you mind rebooting Fermentrack/the Pi? My expectation is that this should delete the lock file. If it doesn’t,let me know, and I’ll see if I can devise a better solution.

 

[Southyeaster]

I’ve been trying to replicate this on my end, but haven’t been able to thus far. Best I can tell from that error, something happened while performing a Git check earlier which resulted in the stale lock file being generated.

I know it’s cliche, but when you have a sec do you mind rebooting Fermentrack/the Pi? My expectation is that this should delete the lock file. If it doesn’t,let me know, and I’ll see if I can devise a better solution.

Not cliche at all, had a similar thought so I tried rebooting the pi, but the issue persisted.

 

[Thorrak]

Not cliche at all, had a similar thought so I tried rebooting the pi, but the issue persisted.

Well - it was worth a shot!

I just pushed out an upgrade that should fix this. Just run ./install.sh and you should be good to go!

 

[Southyeaster]

Well - it was worth a shot!

I just pushed out an upgrade that should fix this. Just run ./install.sh and you should be good to go!

All sorted! Thanks very much.

 

[uSlackr]

Got it up and running again with above tips (normal install.sh). Tried updating to Commit Date: June 18, 2023, 4:53 p.m. again, same failure as yesterday. Wil stay at current build as is.

Just 4 info to you Thorrak!

Had the same issue. Ran an upgrade got the 502 error. Assumed the worse so I temporarily configured Home Assistant to control the temp using the Tilt temp and a smart outlet.
Found this thread - ran the install.sh which brought up FT. Got the warning of the out of date ft-tools. ran git fetch & pull and re-ran install.sh. Appears to have picked up right where it left off. Part way through the beer!

Thanks for the support!!

 

[Thorrak]

FYI - I just pushed out some minor bug fixes to improve the stability of BrewPiScript. This upgrade is recommended for all users, and can be installed by simply logging in and running ./install.sh

Thanks to @RocketBrewer (and @Derp !) for their help in identifying and testing these bugfixes!

 

[Thorrak]

I’m currently reworking the gravity sensor/temperature controller relationship, and have a question for anyone interested in sharing their opinion:

Do you prefer to have gravity sensors “permanently” attached to temperature controllers like they are now (where the linkage has to be set in advance of starting a beer log) or would you prefer to assign a sensor at the time you hit the “begin logging” button?

 

[uSlackr]

I’m currently reworking the gravity sensor/temperature controller relationship, and have a question for anyone interested in sharing their opinion:

Do you prefer to have gravity sensors “permanently” attached to temperature controllers like they are now (where the linkage has to be set in advance of starting a beer log) or would you prefer to assign a sensor at the time you hit the “begin logging” button?

I have multiple Tilts and would find one-the -fly assignment helpful.

 

[pers]

I’m currently reworking the gravity sensor/temperature controller relationship, and have a question for anyone interested in sharing their opinion:

Do you prefer to have gravity sensors “permanently” attached to temperature controllers like they are now (where the linkage has to be set in advance of starting a beer log) or would you prefer to assign a sensor at the time you hit the “begin logging” button?

Prefer to assign when you begin logging. I've accidentally thrown the wrong numbered ispindel into the wrong fermentor more than a few times.

 

[RocketBrewer]

I have multiple Tilts and would find one-the -fly assignment helpful.

+1

 

[Thorrak]

Welp. This is why I asked — Lee and I were debating, and I was expecting people to demand that they stay “permanently” linked

 

[RocketBrewer]

In actuality, I've stopped tying my Tilt's to the chamber because I find it adds a lot of noise to the graph for info I'm already tracking elsewhere (Tiltbridge). I know you can de-select each input, but you have to do it every time you open the dashboard for that chamber. What would be nice is for Fermentrack to keep things toggled off unless I toggle it back on.

 

[uSlackr]

Gravity over time is the most important graph for me. Knowing the temp is correct matters, but I want to see the gravity settle out at the end. Tilt trend shows me the beer is done.

 

[ShaneB]

I noticed fermentrak controlling brewpi-esp32, the minimum temperature default is set to 33.8*F. If I'm running a chest freezer can I set it lower? I'm trying to cold crash to 33*F and it seems like it could go faster if the freezer got colder. Any suggestions on the appropriate minimum temperature value for a 5cu. ft chest freezer? Is the 33.8*F value to prevent frost?

 

[Thorrak]

I noticed fermentrak controlling brewpi-esp32, the minimum temperature default is set to 33.8*F. If I'm running a chest freezer can I set it lower? I'm trying to cold crash to 33*F and it seems like it could go faster if the freezer got colder. Any suggestions on the appropriate minimum temperature value for a 5cu. ft chest freezer? Is the 33.8*F value to prevent frost?

I’m not able to replicate that on my side, unfortunately. The minimum temp should be roughly -12C (10F or so)

 

[pers]

I’m not able to replicate that on my side, unfortunately. The minimum temp should be roughly -12C (10F or so)

It appears to be the default setting in the control constant setting. Does that only apply during a fermentation logging session or when the control is set to beer constant? I've always interpreted it as the low and never messed with changing the values.

 

[ShaneB]

It appears to be the default setting in the control constant setting. Does that only apply during a fermentation logging session or when the control is set to beer constant? I've always interpreted it as the low and never messed with changing the values.

I have mine set to beer constant + logging, I just changed my min temp to 10*F and my beer got down to 33*F in one cooling cycle! My beer was stuck in the high 30s all night. Started cold crash about 20hr ago.

 

[jnharsh]

@Thorrak , Noticed the request to update to latest version the other day. Logged into Raspberry PI and entered the cd fermentrack-tool then the ./install.sh without issue. I entered 80 for the port. Everything seemed to run through fine and reached the end screen. Logged back into Fermentrack and it was working fine, all functions working and the script picking up the controllers, tiltbridge working, etc.

The next day when I logged in again it showed the

I ran through the procedure again, finished fine, worked as expected, then the next day or so, logged back in and got the app is not the latest version again?

This what I see when I hit the link to the upgrade

Any ideas, or something I might be doing incorrectly.


Thanks,
Jeff

 

[Thorrak]

I keep releasing upgrades/bugfixes.

(Not kidding - that's actually it)

 

[jnharsh]

Ok, Cool

I just updated again and seems to be working great.. Thanks for all you do.

Is there a file or notes somewhere that show any of the improvements or changes that came with the upgrade?

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[Thorrak]

I generally try to keep a changelog updated, but admittedly I haven't been as diligent with these small releases over the past few weeks. It's almost entirely bugfixes with the new BrewPi script caller to enhance stability.

 

[ShaneB]

When I set the keezer to serving temp (38F) With min temp at 12*F I'm getting an oscillation at 33.9F-38.1F, it gets much tighter to about 37F-38F with the default 33.8F min temp

 

[Thorrak]

When I set the keezer to serving temp (38F) With min temp at 12*F I'm getting an oscillation at 33.9F-38.1F, it gets much tighter to about 37F-38F with the default 33.8F min temp

View attachment 824676

How much beer do you have in the fermenter?

(Warning - this is a trick question )

 

[ShaneB]

How much beer do you have in the fermenter?

(Warning - this is a trick question )

4.5gal, fermented in a 5gal keg. I have room for 2 corny kegs in a 5cu ft freezer.

 

[Thorrak]

4.5gal, fermented in a 5gal keg. I have room for 2 corny kegs in a 5cu ft freezer.

...uhh, so it wasn't a trick question then. Based on the fluctuations in the beer temp I was assuming that you didn't have much thermal mass attached to the beer sensor, but that definitely isn't the case. How do you have your beer probe attached?

 

[ShaneB]

...uhh, so it wasn't a trick question then. Based on the fluctuations in the beer temp I was assuming that you didn't have much thermal mass attached to the beer sensor, but that definitely isn't the case. How do you have your beer probe attached?

Taped to the outside of the keg, mid level with metalized duct tape

 

[Thorrak]

Taped to the outside of the keg, mid level with metalized duct tape

That's probably it then. The fact that it's taped to the keg means that you get some measurement of the beer inside, but you're still mostly picking up the ambient temperature inside the fridge.

For what it's worth, I used to ferment in a setup like this. One thing I found helped was to tape/bungee cord a kitchen sponge or styrofoam packing material around the probe if you can. Basically, anything you can do to insulate it vs. the fridge will dramatically lower the "swings" you're seeing.

If you want to invest some (small) money in the setup, I ended up having custom lids made for my corny kegs which have a thermowell port attached. If you're interested in going that route I can dig them out and hook you up with the manufacturer (Hi, @Bobby_M )

 

[ShaneB]

Thanks I'll check that out! What if I'm done fermenting and just need to maintain serving temp, shouldn't the temperature equilibrate?

 

[Thorrak]

Thanks I'll check that out! What if I'm done fermenting and just need to maintain serving temp, shouldn't the temperature equilibrate?

Eh, it will probably get close enough for most purposes. It won't be perfect (you aren't getting a truly "clean" read of temperature, so it won't necessarily stabilize at the temperature you are hoping for) but for serving you can always just adjust the temperature in the moment until it tastes right.

 

[Thorrak]

FYI -- I just released a bugfix for BrewPi-ESP which could cause negative temperatures to render their string representation as positive leading to incorrect log points & incorrect temperatures being displayed on the LCD screen. This should only impact users who use Celsius on their controllers near the end of cold crashing. More information is available over in the BrewPi-ESP thread, but v15b is now available via Fermentrack's firmware upgrade interface, in BrewFlasher, BrewFlasher Web, and on GitHub.

 

[kdw2pd]

I fried my microSD card, so installed Fermentrack on a new one. I'm running into an issue with the adding a new temp controller process. I have BrewPi 0.2.4 revision 0.15 installed on an ESP32-S2. It was working perfectly previously.

However, when I try to add the controller now I get an error message in red: "Board type Select a valid choice. esp32-s2 is not one of the available choices." The program is detecting correctly that the board is an ESP32-S2.

I didn't see anything in this thread or on GitHub. Any suggestions?

Edit: adding it manually works fine, leaving this post here in case anyone else comes across the same issue.

 

[Thorrak]

I fried my microSD card, so installed Fermentrack on a new one. I'm running into an issue with the adding a new temp controller process. I have BrewPi 0.2.4 revision 0.15 installed on an ESP32-S2. It was working perfectly previously.

However, when I try to add the controller now I get an error message in red: "Board type Select a valid choice. esp32-s2 is not one of the available choices." The program is detecting correctly that the board is an ESP32-S2.

I didn't see anything in this thread or on GitHub. Any suggestions?

Edit: adding it manually works fine, leaving this post here in case anyone else comes across the same issue.

Glad to hear you found a workaround, but that definitely sounds like a bug. I’ve added it to the issue tracker on GitHub and will try to get a fix out shortly.

 

[kpietro22]

Hi everyone, I am wondering if you could provide some help. I successfully installed Fermentrack on my Pi 4 yesterday using the semi-automated approach with Docker. After receiving the successful installation message, when go to enter the listed IP into my browser, I see there is nothing there. Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[Thorrak]

Hi everyone, I am wondering if you could provide some help. I successfully installed Fermentrack on my Pi 4 yesterday using the semi-automated approach with Docker. After receiving the successful installation message, when go to enter the listed IP into my browser, I see there is nothing there. Any ideas? Thanks!

Did you get the success message at the end?

What do you see when you type "docker ps" on the command line?