How To: BrewPi Over Bluetooth

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I didn't know about the comparability update though so I just ran everything from scratch
 
Even though I keep extensive systems logs for everything in the house - including the lowly RPi systems - I shudder to think about doing a scratch Raspbian build and end up with what I have running perfectly now. It was a blessing that the RPi foundation provided a totally painless upgrade path, and frankly dumb luck I found it without actually thinking about looking for it first.

And of course, I've imaged the new card already :D

OT, but related:

I hate building new system drives for mature systems (meaning there's a hella lot of infrastructure that has to be recreated). I just finished building a new W7U system drive for my workstation (which is a 6 core/12 thread 3.6ghz Xeon/Xtreme beast of a machine I built in 2011 that still maxes out the "Windows Experience" performance metric) while still remaining open for business (so, nights and weekends).

Between the endless OS and Office updates, the CAD/CAE suite installs and their updates, the rest of the application installations and their updates, restoring all the different email accounts and stores, re-establishing shares on customer sites, setting up the system environmentals and performance tweaks, and on and on, it took two weeks/three weekends to get to where I could park the old SSD and use the new one full time for real.

A friggin' horror story necessitated entirely by Windows Entropy®, a phenomenon that anyone that's run every MS OS (except Bob and ME) knows full well is real...

Cheers!
 
day_trippr said:
Even though I keep extensive systems logs for everything in the house - including the lowly RPi systems - I shudder to think about doing a scratch Raspbian build and end up with what I have running perfectly now. It was a blessing that the RPi foundation provided a totally painless upgrade path, and frankly dumb luck I found it without actually thinking about looking for it first.



And of course, I've imaged the new card already :D



OT, but related:



I hate building new system drives for mature systems (meaning there's a hella lot of infrastructure that has to be recreated). I just finished building a new W7U system drive for my workstation (which is a 6 core/12 thread 3.6ghz Xeon/Xtreme beast of a machine I built in 2011 that still maxes out the "Windows Experience" performance metric) while still remaining open for business (so, nights and weekends).



Between the endless OS and Office updates, the CAD/CAE suite installs and their updates, the rest of the application installations and their updates, restoring all the different email accounts and stores, re-establishing shares on customer sites, setting up the system environmentals and performance tweaks, and on and on, it took two weeks/three weekends to get to where I could park the old SSD and use the new one full time for real.



A friggin' horror story necessitated entirely by Windows Entropy®, a phenomenon that anyone that's run every MS OS (except Bob and ME) knows full well is real...



Cheers!
Click to expand...


That's the good thing about the rpi. No windows stuff. All I have running is brewpi and eventually I'll get around to rpints (if cheap flow meters ever come back around when I have money). Using your naming method installs are easy you just hit up and change 1 number. If I ever get around to it I plan on trying to modify the install script a bit for a generic multiple install. But I was also gonna modify the brewpi docs too. I get too busy and then I don't remember all the stuff I have to do when time frees up. I've been delving into fritzing for the past couple days and I've learned a few new curse words...
 
Side note: The docs say to run multiple instances, "Manual installation is required". I assume this just means no scripts for the additional instances, but the original can be script still right?
 
To run multiple instances you want to have a separate folder for each instance all in the brewpi folder. Technically yes you can run the script for the first instance but it will be nested in the main brewpi directory. Which might cause a bit of confusion down the road.
 
@day_tripper, I have been looking into the couple of hc-05s I have here and from the looks of things it seems that most (not all are the same) hc-05s that come on breakout boards are 5v tolerant. I've proven this by running one directly connected to an arduino without the voltage limiting resistors and I haven't found it to be a problem. I would still recommend using them when programming as the key line seems to be directly connected on my board. And if you are still concerned with too much power you can run the hc-05 on the 3.3v rail of the arduino.

Just a little heads up for anyone trying to build a minion and conserve space on your board.
 
wbarber69 said:
And after a bit of cleanup and adding in a header for a fan. This will be my test unit I think. I've found a version of the mini that doesn't squish A4 into the middle of the board and I'll probably use that footprint to make any further revisions to the design

View attachment 260304
Click to expand...

Are those rj 11 or 45 conenctors on the bottom left for the temp sensor? Seems like you have a lot going there for just three connections. And did you need an internal sensor there on the left?
 
They are rj12 jacks 6p6c just like what all the new brewpi sensors will be using. There is an internal temp sensor for testing. This will probably be going directly inside a mini fridge I'll probably do small test batches in. The mini board I'm trying to develop will incorporate the internal sensor as well but on the bottom of the board. I'm attempting to build a fermwrap heater build that will have the BT mini built into the jacket. For use in lagering where I'll probably only need heat. It will be coupled with a 1 channel relay and use the built in sensor as chamber sense with the beer probe going in a thermowell. I figure I'll be able to keep a chest freezer on a steady setting of like 50-55 and just be able to throw these in anywhere and be able to monitor them.
 
wbarber69 said:
Just a concept for right now. Trying to minimize how many wires I need. I have double sided pcb stock so it's not a problem. I'll probably outsource the mini boards.

Here is what I've got so far for the mini
Click to expand...

Don't forget a voltage divider or a logic level converter for your hc-05 rx, also any reason you aren't using the mini's raw pin and onboard regulator?

I made a fritzing part the other day for my knock-off minis so I could draw up a pcb for a project I'm working on, if your mini's look like that one and you'd like the file let me know.

[Edit] Ah, just saw your post #166 where you talked about removing the voltage divider. For the record, I asked about that in the beginning of the thread and got cussed at, see post #7.
 
I know I've ordered some hc-05s from China that "should" look like the buttoned model I already have. And as far as I can tell it had the voltage divider built in. Like I said I'm conceptualizing right now. Trying to shink down small enough to fit 2 pcbs on one 5x10 board. I still need to get all the parts in to assure the pinouts match up before I finalize anything.

As well as this version of mini fills out the board I may add the resistors back just so day_tripper doesn't flip out.
 
thekraken said:
Don't forget a voltage divider or a logic level converter for your hc-05 rx, also any reason you aren't using the mini's raw pin and onboard regulator?

I made a fritzing part the other day for my knock-off minis so I could draw up a pcb for a project I'm working on, if your mini's look like that one and you'd like the file let me know.

[Edit] Ah, just saw your post #166 where you talked about removing the voltage divider. For the record, I asked about that in the beginning of the thread and got cussed at, see post #7.
Click to expand...
Could you draw up a Fritzing part for this knock off Deek-Robot pro-mini please http://www.dominicdube.com/blog/arduino-pro-mini-pinout/
 
Bigdaddyale said:
Could you draw up a Fritzing part for this knock off Deek-Robot pro-mini please http://www.dominicdube.com/blog/arduino-pro-mini-pinout/
Click to expand...

See attached, download it and rename it to a fzz file type. I just made some quick adjustments to the default pro mini to make it look like the one you asked for, not perfect but should get the job done. If I were you I would edit it further to delete the FTDI header, they only get in the way for me.

(I renamed the file from .fzz to a .xml to get it to upload, I apologize in advance if this is in violation of any rules)

View attachment ArduinoProMiniDeek.xml
 
wbarber69 said:
[...]As well as this version of mini fills out the board I may add the resistors back just so day_tripper doesn't flip out.
Click to expand...

LOL! I used to get stabby about such things :D

But I've mellowed with age. A little.
Now I just roll my eyes, shake my head, have a sip of beer and move on...

Cheers! ;)
 
thekraken said:
See attached, download it and rename it to a fzz file type. I just made some quick adjustments to the default pro mini to make it look like the one you asked for, not perfect but should get the job done. If I were you I would edit it further to delete the FTDI header, they only get in the way for me.

(I renamed the file from .fzz to a .xml to get it to upload, I apologize in advance if this is in violation of any rules)
Click to expand...
Thanks-worked like a charm.
 
Finding the right bit is the issue.... Got one more place to try then I'll have to look online.
 
Plus the teensy weensy drill bits snap in half if you look at em sideways. Get extra and be careful. :)
 
wbarber69 said:
Finding the right bit is the issue.... Got one more place to try then I'll have to look online.
Click to expand...

I got my wire bit at my local Ace Hardware. Check there or a true value or something. It's an irwin #60. Hell, PM me your address, Ill send you mine. I dont plan on etching any time soon. I only used it for a couple boards.
 
Picked up a panel vise at hobby lobby it came with 12 different bits. Had to modify my collet to hold them. Drilling holes and etching isn't a problem. Getting solder to stick to both sides of a component that sits flat against the board is the real pain. I've found that if I come back to pins that are double sided with my desoldering iron and use the bulb to blow the solder through the hole I can get the traces to make contact, but it is some tedious work. I think I'll redesign some of this, but the final verdict is that I'm going to get the duino boards professionally done, since I want them to work for years to come.
 
So... Just for reference.... On the hc-05 modules with the button. If you over volt them they will gracefully shutdown. The mini, however, will be dead forever.
 
Oh my. My next pour shall be in honor of the expired mini.

How many volts "over voltage" did you take the pair?

I'm guessing the linear on the 05 saved itself; apparently the mini has no protection?

"Over-volts are bad, mmmkay? Don't over-volt" (in best Mister Macky voice)

Cheers! ;)

[edit] For actual if minor content: I am so pleased with the auto-magic BT client connection thingie, it really makes the whole cluster of minions nearly bulletproof.

There's a bunch of new homes going in not far from here and the 'lectric company loves to drop unscheduled outages on us to hook up transformers and the like. While I have my workstation and network infrastructure on BBS units, the RPis and BT minions are on their own, but so far they always manage to recover without intervention. Very cool.
 
It was my bad. I grabbed the wrong laptop charger. I have (had) a breadboard ps that does 5v and 3.3v using regulators. I grabbed the 15-24v switching psu instead of the 12v one. I was wondering what the hell was going on with the by dongle. It gave a strange code of blinks, then turned itself off. Then I heard the pop. The problem is I was using the programming header to run the mini. So once the reg ic melted I guess about 18v ran directly into the 5v rail of the mini. It still powers up but the green light no longer comes on and ide can't find it. So I'm out about 4 bucks. Oh well.

Day_tripper why aren't you running some cheap backup phone chargers as ups's on those minions? Even though the fridge don't have power doesn't mean you can't keep logging.
 
Ouch. That was a pretty good thumping then.
Kudos to your BT module for not accompanying the Mini to Digital Heaven ;)

I've thought about a small UPS for the RPi running the brewery - and eventually might get around to that. But I don't see much point in keeping the Arduinos running when their charges will be unresponsive until the AC comes back.

You wouldn't want BrewPi to start jacking around with its parameters trying to get a thermometer reading to change...

Cheers!
 
I think I have a problem. I keep ordering hc-05's for no reason! I have like 8 of them now. It's becoming an addiction!
 

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