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

[Thorrak]

Yeah, all assigned! Up next on the build is Bluetooth and a rotary encoder.

Speaking of rotary encoders, does anyone have a schematic for what the wiring/debouncing circuit looks like in an Arduino build?

 

[CadiBrewer]

Mispost

 

[Thorrak]

Mispost

I feel like there should be a gif for that. One involving frogs, or bunnies...

 

[CadiBrewer]

I feel like there should be a gif for that. One involving frogs, or bunnies...

Hahaha!

I have the wiring diagram that @day_trippr came up with in his build and I translated into the schematic for the shield. But I know nothing of debouncing.

 

[Thorrak]

Hahaha!

I have the wiring diagram that @day_trippr came up with in his build and I translated into the schematic for the shield. But I know nothing of debouncing.

I might have an old version of your shield — the version I have didn’t support the encoder, I thought

 

[CadiBrewer]

I might have an old version of your shield — the version I have didn’t support the encoder, I thought

All of the versions support the encoder. There are three resistors and three capacitors that are associated with the encoder and they are on the shield. Just plug your encoder push button lead into pin 7 on the shield, and the rotary functions into 8 and 9. The other leads go to ground and 5v.

On version 1.2, I added header pins to make hookup more obvious.

Here's the basic schematic courtesy of @day_trippr:

 

[day_trippr]

Right, the caps are primitive noise filters.
imo true switch contact debouncing is best done in code...

Cheers!

 

[jeeppilot]

Trying a new setup here and need some help. I am a former BrewPi on Arduino moving to Fermentrack on Rpi3b. I have setup the Rpi and successfully installed Fermentrack software. I have accessed my page and setup my profile. I’m stuck now. The page is asking me to add a new device. I thought this meant temp sensor, but it’s asking for a controller. One that must not be plugged for the first scan, but then connected for the next. It doesn’t find any controller. I’m confused, isn’t my Rpi the controller? Why do I need to flash a controller? Or why doesn’t it recognize my Rpi? Is it looking for the old Arduino? That would seem to defeat the purpose of going to the new setup. Any thoughts?

Btw, here is my (non-final) configuration... are my pins correct?

Pin 1 - Power to the relays 3.3V? I thought it was 5V on the Arduino.
Pin 6 - Ground
Pin 7 - Data
Pin 11 - Relay 1 control
Pin 13 - Relay 2 control

 

[Bigdaddyale]

Fermentrack needs both an RPI and an Arduino or ESP8266 as a controller
http://docs.fermentrack.com/en/master/hardware.html

 

[day_trippr]

[...]I’m confused, isn’t my Rpi the controller? Why do I need to flash a controller? Or why doesn’t it recognize my Rpi? Is it looking for the old Arduino? That would seem to defeat the purpose of going to the new setup. Any thoughts?[...]

Fermentrack replaces the BrewPi-WWW host-side code. It doesn't obviate the need for actors such as an Arduino. It does expand the possibilities for actors by adding the ESP8266, which is a good thing.

"The purpose" would be moving to a setup that is actually supported by someone
And then there are the cool extras that Thorrak is adding that you'd never get with classic BrewPi...

Cheers!

 

[jeeppilot]

Thanks guys. I clearly missed that “minor” detail when I started this. This networking and coding stuff is way outside my wheel house, which is one reason I love this board.

Hooked up my Arduino and most everything is working as advertised. Since my Onewire temp probes are on the Arduino, is sending that temp data to the Rpi (Fermentrack) simply jumper wires from one pin to another? Or is it more complex?

 

[CadiBrewer]

Thanks guys. I clearly missed that “minor” detail when I started this. This networking and coding stuff is way outside my wheel house, which is one reason I love this board.

Hooked up my Arduino and most everything is working as advertised. Since my Onewire temp probes are on the Arduino, is sending that temp data to the Rpi (Fermentrack) simply jumper wires from one pin to another? Or is it more complex?

Hookup is the same as you did for your former BrewPi setup. Everything gets hooked up to the Arduino and then you connect the Arduino to the Pi with a serial cable.

 

[jeeppilot]

I think I’ve been jumping the gun a little here. My bad. The display was showing the temps, control mode etc on the older BrewPi window, but not the new Fermentrack windows. Until I started a test brew and began logging. Now it is showing. Again, jumped the gun. Thanks for being patient with some dumb questions.

 

[kgranger]

I have a new issue with getting a rotary encoder working. As a reminder, I am using cadibrewer's shield (v1.1), so I assume all of the resistors needed for the encoder are in place on the board, right?

I see from the diagrams that the encoders pins include a Push button, Rotary A, Rotary B, 5v, and GND. My encoder has printed on it CLK (I was thinking this is push button), DT (Rotary A?), SW (Rotary B?). Do these sound right, or am I mixing them up?

I've tried multiple combinations swapping pins, and from what I understand, the push button should plug into Pin 7 on the shield, Rotary A to Pin 8, and Rotary B to Pin 9, with 5v and GND in available respective headers. Is this right?

I have it hooked up like this, and when I interact with the knob the backlight of the LCD screen will wake up, so it must be getting some signal, however nothing moves or adjusts with turns and clicks.

Thanks in advance!

 

[kgranger]

I just realized something after posting this. The back of the chip my encoder is soldered to, are these the resistors it needs already in? Does this mean that it could be "double resisting" since there are resistors on the shield as well? Wondering if this is the problem.

 

[Thorrak]

I was just researching that this morning!

CLK is A
DT is B
SW is Switch/push button.

I do think that board has all the necessary pull-up resistors, but I don’t know what impact having both would actually have in practice.

 

[day_trippr]

Depends on the switch module wiring and the resistor values used. If they're like 10K pull-ups to VCC they're unlikely to cause a problem with the 10K's on the shield, as long as that "+" pin is connected to 5V. Left unconnected things could get more interesting...

Cheers!

 

[Car Ramrod]

Wish me luck im running the fermentrack script. I have a RPi with RPints with flowmeters installed and running. I am building multiple wire instances to be controlled. I read day tripper mention that i will need to install each BrewPi instance in subordinate folders (eg: /var/www/brewpi1, /var/www/brewpi2, etc).

Im not at that point yet, but is it pretty self explanatory? are there walk throughs for this?

I did read this but the webpage isnt active anymore
"Please note - Any existing apps that require Apache (including RaspberryPints and BrewPi-www)
will be deactivated. If you want support for these apps it can be optionally installed later.
Please read http://apache.fermentrack.com/ for more information."

So im assuming RPints is not working now and needs to be resetup?

 

[Thorrak]

Wish me luck im running the fermentrack script. I have a RPi with RPints with flowmeters installed and running. I am building multiple wire instances to be controlled. I read day tripper mention that i will need to install each BrewPi instance in subordinate folders (eg: /var/www/brewpi1, /var/www/brewpi2, etc).

Im not at that point yet, but is it pretty self explanatory? are there walk throughs for this?

I did read this but the webpage isnt active anymore
"Please note - Any existing apps that require Apache (including RaspberryPints and BrewPi-www)
will be deactivated. If you want support for these apps it can be optionally installed later.
Please read http://apache.fermentrack.com/ for more information."

So im assuming RPints is not working now and needs to be resetup?

Correct, kind of. That link needs to be reforwarded- it should now forward to this doc:
http://docs.fermentrack.com/en/master/getting started/Apache and PHP Support.html

That said, I haven’t tested it recently so if you have any issues, let me know.

 

[Car Ramrod]

Ok i read that and ran the automated script and got an error right after
"Now installing additional packages required for legacy (PHP/Apache) software support"

this was in the log file

Package php5-cli is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
Package php5-common is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
Package php5-fpm is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package 'php5-common' has no installation candidate
E: Package 'php5-cli' has no installation candidate
E: Package 'php5-fpm' has no installation candidate
[31m*** ----------------------------------(B[m
[31m*** ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR ***(B[m
[31m
(B[m
[31m*** ----------------------------------(B[m
[31m*** See above lines for error message(B[m
[31m*** Setup NOT completed(B[m
[31m*** More information in the "install.log" file(B[m

 

[kgranger]

Depends on the switch module wiring and the resistor values used. If they're like 10K pull-ups to VCC they're unlikely to cause a problem with the 10K's on the shield, as long as that "+" pin is connected to 5V. Left unconnected things could get more interesting...

Cheers!

I looked up the code on the resistors mounted to the encoders board (103) and it says 10k. Not sure what is causing the problem. I tried removing the encoder from the board it was mounted to, and directly wired the pins to the shield. Turning of knob didn't cause any action, and pressing the button would seemingly reboot the whole thing - LCD would turn off momentarily, and the Idle timer would reset to 00m00.

 

[Thorrak]

Ok i read that and ran the automated script and got an error right after
"Now installing additional packages required for legacy (PHP/Apache) software support"

this was in the log file

Package php5-cli is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
Package php5-common is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
Package php5-fpm is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package 'php5-common' has no installation candidate
E: Package 'php5-cli' has no installation candidate
E: Package 'php5-fpm' has no installation candidate
[31m*** ----------------------------------(B[m
[31m*** ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR ***(B[m
[31m
(B[m
[31m*** ----------------------------------(B[m
[31m*** See above lines for error message(B[m
[31m*** Setup NOT completed(B[m
[31m*** More information in the "install.log" file(B[m

Ah. It’s because PHP5 isn’t available on Stretch. I forgot about that.

Was RPints working before? If so, do you have the install guide you used for it so I could take a look?

I looked up the code on the resistors mounted to the encoders board (103) and it says 10k. Not sure what is causing the problem. I tried removing the encoder from the board it was mounted to, and directly wired the pins to the shield. Turning of knob didn't cause any action, and pressing the button would seemingly reboot the whole thing - LCD would turn off momentarily, and the Idle timer would reset to 00m00.

That’s odd. What pin do you have SW, +, and GND connected to now?

 

[Car Ramrod]

Ah. It’s because PHP5 isn’t available on Stretch. I forgot about that.

Was RPints working before? If so, do you have the install guide you used for it so I could take a look?

Yes it was. What do you need? I was using RandR+ auto installation script and helping him debug it. (I know nothing about codeing i was just running it and finding some errors) here is his post about his script.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/...-taplist-solution.487694/page-96#post-8470336

Im not opposed to running 2 PIs since i have a few laying around. But i know people try to optimize.

 

[kgranger]

Thorrak - I have the SW in Pin 7, + in the 5v header on the other side, and GND in the GND header next to it.

 

[Thorrak]

Unfortunately, that wiring sounds reasonable.

 

[Car Ramrod]

Should I go ahead and use 2 rpis, until you have time to go through everything? I could downgrade to Jessie, too.

 

[Thorrak]

Should I go ahead and use 2 rpis, until you have time to go through everything? I could downgrade to Jessie, too.

I think downgrading to Jessie would likely fix things - if you have any issues getting Fermentrack to run on Jessie let me know and I'll see what I can do to help. If you aren't following the BrewPi-ESP8266 thread, you should follow that as well - we're having a similar conversation over there at the moment.

 

[Car Ramrod]

I'm following a bunch of threads. I'm striving for a pi running raspberrypints with fermentrack that connect to multiple wifi controllers with a rotary knob. So I'm following this, the pints thread, your wifi thread, the wireless controller thread, and the LCD rotary switch thread.

Go big or go home, amirite?!

 

[day_trippr]

If wiring the encoder module directly to the Uno like this:

SW to D7
CLK to D8
DT to D9
+ to 5V
GND to GND

...doesn't work there is something fundamentally wrong.
Either the module is fubar, or the code running on the AVR isn't "oem"...

Cheers!

 

[Thorrak]

I'm following a bunch of threads. I'm striving for a pi running raspberrypints with fermentrack that connect to multiple wifi controllers with a rotary knob. So I'm following this, the pints thread, your wifi thread, the wireless controller thread, and the LCD rotary switch thread.

Go big or go home, amirite?!

VERY. FAIR. Sorry about that. Just coincidental that multiple people are asking the same thing at the same time. It must be Raspberry Pints season.

 

[kgranger]

If wiring the encoder module directly to the Uno like this:

SW to D7
CLK to D8
DT to D9
+ to 5V
GND to GND

...doesn't work there is something fundamentally wrong.
Either the module is fubar, or the code running on the AVR isn't "oem"...

Cheers!

Just confirmed the encoder module is working. Wired it up to the UNO directly via breadboard and ran a script I found that just changes a value up or down 1 with the turning of the knob. Working as expected. Not sure what the issue is with the shield registering this. It’s weird, just like before with the sensor issue I had, maybe it will just decide to work someday

 

[day_trippr]

I have five of those shields running...

 

[Car Ramrod]

VERY. FAIR. Sorry about that. Just coincidental that multiple people are asking the same thing at the same time. It must be Raspberry Pints season.

yea well i know the guys in the Pints thread have made some strides in getting Pints working on Stretch. SO a bunch of people are getting it installed on stretch. So when i went to add fermentrack, boom.....ran into the same issues with stretch and jessie.

So i think for the time being im going to get everything up and running on 2 separate PIs, one running stretch and Pints and the other running jessie and ferment track. And maybe soon i will be able to install fermentrack on the stretch version and move everything over to one Pi.

 

[CadiBrewer]

I have five of those shields running...

Could it be a power issue if he's running the LCD, the probes and the encoder all powered by the Pi?

 

[kgranger]

Could it be a power issue if he's running the LCD, the probes and the encoder all powered by the Pi?

So it's noted, I have the UNO running of the power adapter as well as the USB connection to the Pi.

 

[day_trippr]

There's zero chance any legit powering method used would have a deleterious effect on the encoder function...

 

[kgranger]

Well, worst case scenario, the encoder does wake the backlight up on the LCD, so it wasn't a total waste of money!

 

[TonyB]

I've set up Fermentrack for a family member and now need to move the Pi etc to his place on a different wifi network is there an easy way to do this eg set up a secondary wifi network within Fermentrack/Raspbian or do I have to re-install Fermentrack again at his place?

 

[Thorrak]

I've set up Fermentrack for a family member and now need to move the Pi etc to his place on a different wifi network is there an easy way to do this eg set up a secondary wifi network within Fermentrack/Raspbian or do I have to re-install Fermentrack again at his place?

@garzlok actually taught me about one this past weekend as part of the tutorial he wrote documenting how to set up Fermentrack from within windows. You’ll want to set it up in advance, but you can edit your wpa_supplicant file to specify failover networks pretty easily. I’ll shamelessly quote the document he sent across as to how he did it:

4.4 Add additional Networks and set priority. (Under your original network configuration, add new networks.

network={
ssid="Main-Network-Name"
psk="main-network-password"
priority=1
id_str=“MainNetwork”
}

network={
ssid="Secondary-Network-Name"
psk="Secondary-Network-Password"
priority=2
id_str=“SecondaryNetwork”
}

 

[garzlok]

Just as an FYI, that will work on the latest version of Stretch. I’m not certain at what point multi network support became available on the RPi’s so if you’re running anything else...I don’t know if the wpa_supplicant change will work.

Just remember, when you change networks, there is a very strong possibility that your IP address will change.