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kcinpdx

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Hi all- I've been trying to get in touch w Corey for a bit to no avail. The brewtronix website had an interesting message posted today:

"With the recent release of the Raspberry Pi 4, we are currently closed until fall as we look to redesign our product line and spend some much needed vacation time with family. All current products are discontinued. I will be updating the website over the next few weeks with schematics of previous models and how to guides to keep your legacy products brewing beer.

It's been a fun last few years helping out the homebrew community. Please bear with us as we look to the future."

I've been using the 5BC for several years and have been very happy with it. I'm hoping that he actually does revamp the lineup and this is not a sign of throwing in the towel....
 
After a year and a half of building a house and setting up infrastructure for an electric brewery, I logged in to buy his product to find that message.

I guess it’s better than buying the old version and the next day it’s discontinued. Ha! I’m ready to pull the trigger so hopefully it won’t be too long.
 
kcinpdx said:
Hi all- I've been trying to get in touch w Corey for a bit to no avail. The brewtronix website had an interesting message posted today:

"With the recent release of the Raspberry Pi 4, we are currently closed until fall as we look to redesign our product line and spend some much needed vacation time with family. All current products are discontinued. I will be updating the website over the next few weeks with schematics of previous models and how to guides to keep your legacy products brewing beer.

It's been a fun last few years helping out the homebrew community. Please bear with us as we look to the future."

I've been using the 5BC for several years and have been very happy with it. I'm hoping that he actually does revamp the lineup and this is not a sign of throwing in the towel....
Click to expand...


I'm having the same issue. I have a problem with mine and can't get a hold of him. Sucks to have a 1 year warranty that can't be used. I really hope I don't now have $400 paperweight.
 
Bane said:
I'm having the same issue. I have a problem with mine and can't get a hold of him. Sucks to have a 1 year warranty that can't be used. I really hope I don't now have $400 paperweight.
Click to expand...

Yeah I emailed him a couple of days ago and haven't heard anything back. I'm not under warranty, but my RaspberryPi OS install has clearly **** the bed, so I'm sure I can get it back working eventually, but this is going to be quite a pain to do, so it would've been really nice if he had some easy restoration process / guide.
 
SaveloyDip said:
Yeah I emailed him a couple of days ago and haven't heard anything back. I'm not under warranty, but my RaspberryPi OS install has clearly poopy the bed, so I'm sure I can get it back working eventually, but this is going to be quite a pain to do, so it would've been really nice if he had some easy restoration process / guide.
Click to expand...

Same; I discovered my SD card may be corrupt as it is no longer writing/saving files between reboots. I'll try cloning it in a few days, or otherwise cracking open the box and seeing if I can install a new SD card with a clean OS install... PITA.
 
OS installation issues have nothing to do with brewtronix. As conveyed in other threads, It's super easy to reflash NOOBS and then github the SBE install. Worst part is twiddling your thumbs for 15 minutes while it happens.
 
The SD card was corrupted; I got sent a link by another user to a pre-configured hosehead image, reflashed, and installed (he thankfully included instructions on which screws to undo) the new SD card and got it working again. Thankfully, the new image also included other files (namely the hoseheadbackup folder) missing from the one I had purchased.
 
I emailed Corey a few days back to ask if it was worth waiting for new products as I’m jumping up to a 1bbl but no response. So it looks like the Hosehead is dead.
 
chiefwigms said:
Just put craftbeerpi on... brewtronix hasn't been updated in forever!
Click to expand...

I think most people have moved over to CBPi anyway.... Corey even had instructions on how to replace SBE with CBPi on his web site.

The hardware side of the hosehead controller really isn't that complicated. In fact it's probably less complicated to construct than some of the gargantuan steel panel boxes that are all the rage these days. You're essentially replacing a bunch of PIDs with one small PC board and you no longer need a billion lights and switches.....

If you're not familiar with the RPi OS, you're proabably in for some frustration, whether you buy a factory hosehead unit or build your own.
 
For me; wiring up the circuit breaker and RV outlet was enough of a learning experience and I'm not the only one. That's why the hosehead was appealing: I didn't have to do much all to get it up and running beyond that, it was cheap, and it had the features of a $1,000 panel.

If I had to do it all overagian, I'd be looking at the blichmann with the touch screen.
 
golfindia said:
I think most people have moved over to CBPi anyway.... Corey even had instructions on how to replace SBE with CBPi on his web site.

The hardware side of the hosehead controller really isn't that complicated. In fact it's probably less complicated to construct than some of the gargantuan steel panel boxes that are all the rage these days. You're essentially replacing a bunch of PIDs with one small PC board and you no longer need a billion lights and switches.....

If you're not familiar with the RPi OS, you're proabably in for some frustration, whether you buy a factory hosehead unit or build your own.
Click to expand...

I agree. When you open it up, there’s not that much going on. I’d love to find someone who has the 1 barrel expansion module and just build one myself.
 
One HUGE disadvantage of RPI is the sd card becomes corrupted very easily if the system crashes or power is interuppted without properly shutting down the OS I use RPI for my beer list displays on tvs with taplist.io and Ive had the sd cards become corrupt at least 3 times not just from employees mistakenly turning them on and then accidentally turning them back off while they are booting up.

So what im saying here is if you dont already know this, its important to not kill power to the pi while its busy computing/booting up/ writing to the card while running a program. Its also a very good idea to make a backup of the card which is fairly easy.
 
augiedoggy said:
One HUGE disadvantage of RPI is the sd card becomes corrupted very easily if the system crashes or power is interuppted without properly shutting down the OS I use RPI for my beer list displays on tvs with taplist.io and Ive had the sd cards become corrupt at least 3 times not just from employees mistakenly turning them on and then accidentally turning them back off while they are booting up.

So what im saying here is if you dont already know this, its important to not kill power to the pi while its busy computing/booting up/ writing to the card while running a program. Its also a very good idea to make a backup of the card which is fairly easy.
Click to expand...

Reading these posts the last week or two has me believing The Brew Commander is a better choice for me than waiting for the new Hosehead as I have less than zero programming capability.
 
carpathia said:
The SD card was corrupted; I got sent a link by another user to a pre-configured hosehead image, reflashed, and installed (he thankfully included instructions on which screws to undo) the new SD card and got it working again. Thankfully, the new image also included other files (namely the hoseheadbackup folder) missing from the one I had purchased.
Click to expand...
Do you by chance still have that link or a copy of it?

A friend bought a hosehead last year on my recommendation and has had nothing but issues, and now finally what he believes is a bad install. (files missing).

Corey, like with most, has stopped responding.
 
git clone https://github.com/DougEdey/SB_Elsinore_Server.git ~/SB_Elsinore_Server
sboyajian said:
Do you by chance still have that link or a copy of it?

A friend bought a hosehead last year on my recommendation and has had nothing but issues, and now finally what he believes is a bad install. (files missing).

Corey, like with most, has stopped responding.
Click to expand...

No need to involve Corey. It's on github:

git clone https://github.com/DougEdey/SB_Elsinore_Server.git ~/SB_Elsinore_Server
 
Has anyone ever assigned 2 elements to the same actor? I’m wondering if I could use the hose head w cbpi as a two element biab system.
 
Unless the two elements need to being doing two different things, it's easier to just wire them together further downstream. E.G. run two SSRs off of one GPIO. Or run another 120 with an on/off switch to kill one element. Otherwise it's just extra clicking and fiddling with settings for no reason.
 
golfindia said:
Unless the two elements need to being doing two different things, it's easier to just wire them together further downstream. E.G. run two SSRs off of one GPIO. Or run another 120 with an on/off switch to kill one element. Otherwise it's just extra clicking and fiddling with settings for no reason.
Click to expand...

That would require me the open up the hosehead box [emoji23]. The settings would only have to be fiddled with once I wound think. I’ll experiment this weekend.
 

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I've had to open my hosehead controller several times and reflash raspberry pi. I've done it so many times now that I purchased a 2nd microSD to have a fresh version on so I can just swap it out and then re-setup craftbeerpi. I keep having an issue where the hosehead no longer outputs via the HDMI port so I cannot use the mouse to navigate to the menu to properly shut down the system. No idea why it keeps happening but it's happened on several clean installs.
 
You should not need ro run a display from the Pi controller. Everything can be done over the network, including system power off. Running a display on the machine just bogs down the processor, and it's not designed to operate that way. You can also Putty or SSH into the machine in a worst case scenario.....
 
golfindia said:
You should not need ro run a display from the Pi controller. Everything can be done over the network, including system power off. Running a display on the machine just bogs down the processor, and it's not designed to operate that way. You can also Putty or SSH into the machine in a worst case scenario.....
Click to expand...

I tried to SSH but couldn't get it to work. I must have put the SSH file in the wrong spot. I also have a mac and Putty is windows based I believe?
 
You can't get to it via its local IP address in a browser?

E.G.
192.168.xxx.xxx:8080/controller
 
golfindia said:
You can't get to it via its local IP address in a browser?

E.G.
192.168.xxx.xxx:8080/controller
Click to expand...

I can do that to control CraftBeerPi but cant say access the raspberry pi desktop remotely. If i wanted to change any settings etc.
 
I am thinking of selling my Hosehead 5BC. It works great now but I am afraid if it gives me trouble I will ruin a brew session. I had trouble a couple years ago. I called Cory and he had it up and running in a few minutes by telling me what to do.
Anyone interested in it or at least know what it's worth?
Thanks
 
Here’s the issue - with no support, it’s going to be a tough sell. However On the plus side, craftbeerpi still has a large user base and an active community, and most of the issues I’ve seen w the hose head are software related. Another plus is that all the parts in the hosehead are easily sourced and would not be difficult to replace. I use mine regularly, but eventually will replace with a traditional panel.
 
Craft beer pi software is way more complex than SBE software. If you have problems and need support to use SBE, your craft beer pi experience probably won't be better.
 
Mine Hosehead died today. I hit the power switch and a electrical burning smell was apparent. The monitor went on then went black. Resetting a couple times did not help.
Out of commission for now.
My local HBS tried ordering some Blickman controllers but he says he can not get ahold of them.
 
jdr01 said:
Mine Hosehead died today. I hit the power switch and a electrical burning smell was apparent. The monitor went on then went black. Resetting a couple times did not help.
Out of commission for now.
My local HBS tried ordering some Blickman controllers but he says he can not get ahold of them.
Click to expand...

I still have a couple brewcommanders in stock.
 
Does anyone know if the temperature probes from the hosehead are compatible with any thermometers. I tried with two thermometers I have and they did not work. I like where I have all the probes located now. The brew commander only comes with one probe.
 
Hello everyone, I have been trying to get ahold of corey for a while from hosehead, and no response. Not sure what's going on, but i have a question, maybe someone can answer here. I have a hosehead controller 5BC i think, with the first raspberry pi that was wifi capable, i think the 3. I spent a day brewing, shut down, cleaned my equipment, and fired the system back up to roll boiling water through my lines, and the controller stopped working. It said it couldn't find the IP address for the raspberry pi. I've tried everything, including the instructions in the controller to completely re-install the software, no avail. Does anyone have any suggestions? I have to get 2 beers for our xmas party ready to rock, and i'm wondering, should i just go buy a new controller now and hope i get it asap? I can't find anything with 50 amp for 2 heater elements, so i'd have to completely redo my electrical box to support 2 30 amp plugs as well as add 2 new outlets and wire myself, for anything i'm finding on google. Any advice would be amazing!!

my email is [email protected] if anyone has any good advice to offer, thanks much, in a time pinch here, lol.
 
Kristofik said:
Hello everyone, I have been trying to get ahold of corey for a while from hosehead, and no response. Not sure what's going on, but i have a question, maybe someone can answer here. I have a hosehead controller 5BC i think, with the first raspberry pi that was wifi capable, i think the 3. I spent a day brewing, shut down, cleaned my equipment, and fired the system back up to roll boiling water through my lines, and the controller stopped working. It said it couldn't find the IP address for the raspberry pi. I've tried everything, including the instructions in the controller to completely re-install the software, no avail. Does anyone have any suggestions? I have to get 2 beers for our xmas party ready to rock, and i'm wondering, should i just go buy a new controller now and hope i get it asap? I can't find anything with 50 amp for 2 heater elements, so i'd have to completely redo my electrical box to support 2 30 amp plugs as well as add 2 new outlets and wire myself, for anything i'm finding on google. Any advice would be amazing!!

my email is [email protected] if anyone has any good advice to offer, thanks much, in a time pinch here, lol.
Click to expand...

Could be that the sd card got corrupted. I had my controller die after a power surge along with my temperature sensors. Got a new card, reloaded, replaced the sensors. One way to check is to open it up and connect the HDMI port to a tv or monitor, turn it on and see if it boots.
 

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