Fermentrack Question

[IDMaynard]

I built a Fermentrack controller and I am not having any luck with it. I set up profiles but it never turns the power on to the heating or cooling outputs. The LCD and SW interface are only showing the thermocouple values and not the profile setpoint for the profile it is suppose to be running. LCD shows it is running a "Beer Profile" but the SW is having issues displaying the LCD output.

Final issue I am seeing is the it keeps kicking itself off the connection to the Pi, I have no issue with the Pi falling off the network but the Fermentrack keeps resetting itself due to connections being lost.

I am pretty sure I have everything wired up correctly inside the unit. I am by no means a programmer, I can provide the error logs and other data if someone understands this stuff a bit more than I do. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[rkhanso]

Your upper right black box should show data if the ESP8266 is communicating with Fermentrack. It still says "Script starting up" - which means you might have to wait longer, or it's not communicating. Nothing will happen without that working first.

Can you see your ESP8266s on your WiFi? Getting an IP address? Is there a good signal strength?

I gave my two ESP8266s (one for heating, one for cooling) a static IP address. I can see them on the WiFi network and see below that they're communicating with Fermentrack.

I think you need to start there - ESP8266 controllers have to have a good solid connection to WiFi.

Here's what mine looks like:

 

[IDMaynard]

Your upper right black box should show data if the ESP8266 is communicating with Fermentrack. It still says "Script starting up" - which means you might have to wait longer, or it's not communicating. Nothing will happen without that working first.

Can you see your ESP8266s on your WiFi? Getting an IP address? Is there a good signal strength?

I gave my two ESP8266s (one for heating, one for cooling) a static IP address. I can see them on the WiFi network and see below that they're communicating with Fermentrack.

I think you need to start there - ESP8266 controllers have to have a good solid connection to WiFi.

Here's what mine looks like:
View attachment 775758
View attachment 775759

rkhanso, Appreciate the feedback. Your comment about the script starting is understood. That is one of the issues (among many) that I am attempting to understand. I will have to read through the Wemos/Python literature to see how to assign static IP addresses to see if that helps with the connectivity issue.
It appear from your images you are set up how I am attempting to set mine up. I have a glycol chiller and two conical's, I did not see anything in the set up on how to assign a controller as a "glycol controller". As mentioned I am pretty illiterate when it comes to programing.
You images also show the controllers are turned off, when they are on how many temperature readouts do you have? Thorrak's videos show that there should be four read outs (two from his thermocouples and two from the setpoints), is that what your system shows when it is actually running?

 

[rkhanso]

I set up the static IPs through my DHCP server, not on the ESP8266.
The screenshots above are just of Fermentrack powered up and talking to the controllers. I'm not using it to ferment/control anything now.

Here's a screenshot after setting up a "test" beer

 

[IDMaynard]

I set up the static IPs through my DHCP server, not on the ESP8266.
The screenshots above are just of Fermentrack powered up and talking to the controllers. I'm not using it to ferment/control anything now.

Here's a screenshot after setting up a "test" beer

View attachment 775779

Thanks for the feedback. So if I understand you correctly you set up a static IP address for your Raspberry PI? I will see if that helps.

Looks like the SW and HW are having trouble staying connected (according to what I think I see in the error log). Hopefully setting a static IP on the PI will help.

 

[day_trippr]

So if I understand you correctly you set up a static IP address for your Raspberry PI?

I believe @rkhanso is using "DHCP Address Reservation" on his router to assign IP addresses to his RPi and ESP...

Cheers!

 

[rkhanso]

Yes @day_trippr - that's correct. It's very easy to do in my Untangle Firewall appliance. I take the MAC address and assign it a "static" IP address at the DHCP server, not in the ESP8266.

But I think the main issue is....why are the ESPs losing access to Fermentrack? Checking signal strength of those "connections" at your WiFi AP might be informative.
I'm guessing the logs posted are from Fermentrack, right? The "Unable to connect to BrewPi 192.168.86.108 on port 23. Exiting" and subsequent "Error: controller is not responding to new data requests. Exiting" ?

I suspect either the signal strength is poor, or maybe the ESP is losing power intermittently and/or rebooting? It appears down for just under 1 minute.

 

[IDMaynard]

Yes - that's correct. It's very easy to do in my Untangle Firewall appliance. I take the MAC address and assign it a "static" IP address at the DHCP server, not in the ESP8266.

But I think the main issue is....why are the ESPs losing access to Fermentrack? Checking signal strength of those "connections" at your WiFi AP might be informative.
I'm guessing the logs posted are from Fermentrack, right? The "Unable to connect to BrewPi 192.168.86.108 on port 23. Exiting" and subsequent "Error: controller is not responding to new data requests. Exiting" ?

I suspect either the signal strength is poor, or maybe the ESP is losing power intermittently and/or rebooting? It appears down for just under 1 minute.

Thanks everyone, I will review my wire connections to make sure I am not losing power intermittently (which is one of the things I thought too).

As to the static IP address I am still a bit unclear about that. rkhanso, if I read this thread correctly you are taking the MAC addresses for the Wemos devices and assigning them in the DCHP server, is that how I read this? If that is correct I will have to figure that out.

What I did in the router was to break off a group of IP addresses 1-25 in the LAN setting so I could assign those to specific devices but it appears that is not what I needed to do since I would have to code a static IP address into the Wemos and that is not what you said to do.

 

[rkhanso]

What type of WiFi device do you use? What model?
Or more specifically, what is running your DHCP server?

 

[IDMaynard]

What type of WiFi device do you use? What model?
Or more specifically, what is running your DHCP server?

Wemos D1 mini for the controller, the router is an ARRIS surfboard

 

[rkhanso]

Here are a couple links I found - not knowing the actual model of your device. These might help point you in the right direction.

https://arris.secure.force.com/cons...6782-v8-4-x-IP-Address-Reserve-Setup/?l=en_US
https://arris.secure.force.com/cons...-Reservation-Setup/?l=en_US&fs=RelatedArticle

 

[rkhanso]

Did you get this working @IDMaynard ?

 

[IDMaynard]

Did you get this working @IDMaynard ?

I was able to get it working with the serial connection. There was a problem with v0.14 however it showed a large offset between the temperature readout(s), I loaded v0.11 and did not see this problem.
One of images you showed said you were using a glycol chiller, which version of SW are you running? I am trying to understand where I need to try a adjust the cooling delay (I found a spot in the TempControl.h code but it appears that all the version of SW use the same delay). I guess I could play around with that value and reinstall the SW package to see how it effects the delay. Anyway I appreciate your help with this and I will post again with anything I figure out on the cooling cycle delay.

 

[rkhanso]

I certainly am not a programmer or know how to change cooling delays in code. I'm using the latest version of Fermentrack (based on telling it to upgrade and it knowing I already have the latest release - Can't tell you what version number that is). I don't understand Docker very much. Sorry, can't be any help to you there.

I'm not sure what the built-in cooling delay is, but am pretty sure there is one. Maybe 10 minutes? I'm talking about a cooling delay to protect a fridge/AC compressor from cycling too frequently.

I won't be using the Glycol Chiller function any longer since I sold my old Fermenting setup. I now ferment in Corny Kegs under pressure in the basement with no temp control. I guess, I probably won't need to use Fermentrack any more at all.

 

[Thorrak]

Apologies - completely missed this thread earlier.

I was able to get it working with the serial connection. There was a problem with v0.14 however it showed a large offset between the temperature readout(s), I loaded v0.11 and did not see this problem.

What do you mean "large offset between the temperature readouts"? What was the bug you were experiencing?

v0.14 has quite a number of changes, but should work just fine in most cases. If you've found an issue, I'd love to try to get it solved!