HOWTO - Make a BrewPi Fermentation Controller For Cheap

[lettersnumbers_-]

I'm pretty sure I can get your Brewpi to start a new profile without logging in.
I won't do it unless you're happy for me to try, but I think the code is available to be called.

Mine is currently not hooked up to a fermentation chamber or any beer. I'm fine with it, just let me know what you're trying so I can try and figure out how to secure it!

 

[MongooseMan]

Mine is currently not hooked up to a fermentation chamber or any beer. I'm fine with it, just let me know what you're trying so I can try and figure out how to secure it!

OK, proving more tricky than it first appeared (this is a good thing).

Will keep trying, but looks secure so far.

 

[MongooseMan]

Mine is currently not hooked up to a fermentation chamber or any beer. I'm fine with it, just let me know what you're trying so I can try and figure out how to secure it!

I "may" have stopped your script, please check.

 

[dirtybear7]

Hi all,

I'm not sure if this will help anyone, you can also use VPN to give yourself remote access to your network. It is easy to log on to your brewpi (or raspberry pints) pages from there. You can give anyone access but your interface isn't on a public website.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[atoughram]

Why do you have special characters in your name, that could be screwing it up..%20 stands for an ASCII space, but i have no idea what happens if you try to turn that into a file name, i doubt its writing the log file properly so it cant graph.

I have spaces in the names of the beers - and it works find on the control page. It writes log files and works just fine in the original index.php page (Now control.php) - I think it has something to do with PublicBeerPanel.php and the java not initializing..

Here is the original index.php now control.php page. What works on the private side should work on the public side.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

So i got my fancy BrewPi enclosure from Stevereno30, thanks man!

Im dying to put it all together but my BrewPi is in the middle of a brew so i have to wait until next week some time to take it all offline and put it in the enclosure. Im not even going to show you my current setup because ill loose all credibility I may have gained in this thread

 

[dtgrdn]

So i got my fancy BrewPi enclosure from Stevereno30, thanks man!

Im dying to put it all together but my BrewPi is in the middle of a brew so i have to wait until next week some time to take it all offline and put it in the enclosure. Im not even going to show you my current setup because ill loose all credibility I may have gained in this thread

WOW, that looks awesome!!!

 

[lettersnumbers_-]

I "may" have stopped your script, please check.

Nah, I unplugged the Arduino at some point.

 

[srice]

I finally got my BrewPi all buttoned up and running last night. I am currently about 10 days into a DIPA fermentation (it is probably done, but I will let it sit for at least 2 weeks before I do anything else to it). My STC-1000 was set to 19C (66.2F) with the probe taped to the outside of a Speidel fermenter. I switched over to a thermowell when I moved to the BrewPi and found that the beer was sitting right at 65F. I set the BrewPi to 66.5 and let her go. Within an hour, the beer was at temp and overnight the system had settled into a very predictable pattern with the compressor running 4.5 minutes every hour and the beer temp hanging out right at 66.5. I'm looking forward to being able to cold crash by sitting on my couch and adjusting the system via my phone. This thing is working great!

If you have any doubt about building one of these, just do it. My wife doesn't understand my excitement, but being able to program profiles and ramps without having to adjust an STC-1000 multiple times a day is great. I managed to cram everything into one of the large Radio Shack project boxes. It is all nice and tidy and mounted to the back of my freezer.

 

[lettersnumbers_-]

So... Are the filenames control.php and public.php intermingled but the same? I'm all cornfused [sic]..

Also - For some reason my public.php --> now index.php doesnt work no matter what I do - the graphs dont render.

http://clovercreekbrewery.us/brewpi/index.php

The names of the pages might certainly be confusing right now. The original page was index.php. Fuzzewuzze's original private page is index.php and he made a public page called something else. My private page is control.php and public page is index.php.

I would check your .htaccess file first. Rename it to old.htaccess, restart apache and see if your graphs work. If so, it's something you're blocking in there. This will, of course, remove all security for your page while you test it.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

I finally got my BrewPi all buttoned up and running last night. I am currently about 10 days into a DIPA fermentation (it is probably done, but I will let it sit for at least 2 weeks before I do anything else to it). My STC-1000 was set to 19C (66.2F) with the probe taped to the outside of a Speidel fermenter. I switched over to a thermowell when I moved to the BrewPi and found that the beer was sitting right at 65F. I set the BrewPi to 66.5 and let her go. Within an hour, the beer was at temp and overnight the system had settled into a very predictable pattern with the compressor running 4.5 minutes every hour and the beer temp hanging out right at 66.5. I'm looking forward to being able to cold crash by sitting on my couch and adjusting the system via my phone. This thing is working great!

If you have any doubt about building one of these, just do it. My wife doesn't understand my excitement, but being able to program profiles and ramps without having to adjust an STC-1000 multiple times a day is great. I managed to cram everything into one of the large Radio Shack project boxes. It is all nice and tidy and mounted to the back of my freezer.

Good to hear another success, pics!

As a side test i havent myself done yet because i gave away my extra STC1000 to my Brother in law, tape that STC1000 to the outside like you normally do and do some temp comparisons during a ferment to see how different they are.

1.2F isnt horrible, but thats also with no active fermentation within the liquid actually happening, so who knows how great the delta is when that's happening.

 

[Dolomieu]

So i got my fancy BrewPi enclosure from Stevereno30, thanks man!

Im dying to put it all together but my BrewPi is in the middle of a brew so i have to wait until next week some time to take it all offline and put it in the enclosure. Im not even going to show you my current setup because ill loose all credibility I may have gained in this thread

That is sweet! I just found a place in town that i can rent time on a 3D printer. This would be fun to try and print out.

I survived the wedding! so i'll be back at this remote access things soon, so brewerjack you may be getting some PM's soon. Though the VPN access sounds like it may do the trick.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

That is sweet! I just found a place in town that i can rent time on a 3D printer. This would be fun to try and print out.

I survived the wedding! so i'll be back at this remote access things soon, so brewerjack you may be getting some PM's soon. Though the VPN access sounds like it may do the trick.

He made a new file thats available here

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:360709

 

[atoughram]

The names of the pages might certainly be confusing right now. The original page was index.php. Fuzzewuzze's original private page is index.php and he made a public page called something else. My private page is control.php and public page is index.php.

I would check your .htaccess file first. Rename it to old.htaccess, restart apache and see if your graphs work. If so, it's something you're blocking in there. This will, of course, remove all security for your page while you test it.

Nope - Didnt make any difference...

I'll poke around - I think I have a CHMOD or CHOWN issue. If it works with everyone elses, there has to be another clue.

 

[atoughram]

Should all the file owners be the same? For the most part all is group 33 (www-data)

 

[webguru1974]

Looking for a little help I have my wiring all done when I run to configure devices from the web interface the temp probe are not list I double check all wiring and ran a test sketch on my make the probes are found in the aurdino IDE and give me valid temp reading anyone have any ideas as to what I am missing


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[dtgrdn]

Good to hear another success, pics!

As a side test i havent myself done yet because i gave away my extra STC1000 to my Brother in law, tape that STC1000 to the outside like you normally do and do some temp comparisons during a ferment to see how different they are.

1.2F isnt horrible, but thats also with no active fermentation within the liquid actually happening, so who knows how great the delta is when that's happening.

I did a side by side comparison on my last fermentation and the STC1000 was pretty close to being the same temp as my BrewPi. I'm using Debian Wheezy on an old PC and it rocks!! I've even impressed my friends with it and the web interface.

 

[webguru1974]

Please help I followed all the instructions here and have everything wired up the web interface is not seeing the temp probes I tested them with a simple sketch on my PC and they are working correctly not sure why the brewpi software is not seeing the I try both the stable hex files on my aurdino rev3 bot with the same results any help would be great


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

You have to use the Rev C image for the Uno, the other rev wont work.

Can you post a picture of your wiring?

 

[srice]

Good to hear another success, pics!

As a side test i havent myself done yet because i gave away my extra STC1000 to my Brother in law, tape that STC1000 to the outside like you normally do and do some temp comparisons during a ferment to see how different they are.

1.2F isnt horrible, but thats also with no active fermentation within the liquid actually happening, so who knows how great the delta is when that's happening.

I'll try it on my next brew - maybe this weekend if I can get a few things taken care of between now and then.

 

[Dolomieu]

He made a new file thats available here

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:360709

Thanks Fuzze!

 

[webguru1974]

You have to use the Rev C image for the Uno, the other rev wont work.

Can you post a picture of your wiring?

Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[webguru1974]

Here is my wiring the orange lead is connected to the yellow from the temp probes and one end of the 4.7k resistor and to A4 on the board the red is connected to the red and the other end of the 4.7k resistor and 5V on the board the black is to ground on the board


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[webguru1974]

But this same wire works with a basic sketch on the aurdino software


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[atoughram]

Why the Ethernet shield?

 

[day_trippr]

Should all the file owners be the same? For the most part all is group 33 (www-data)

Here are the contents of one of my two BrewPi folders under /var/www.
There are a couple of files that aren't owned by www-data, but this was a manual install which required some massaging of various files, so I don't know if this is typical or not...

Cheers!

 

[webguru1974]

it has been removed still not working

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Here is my wiring the orange lead is connected to the yellow from the temp probes and one end of the 4.7k resistor and to A4 on the board the red is connected to the red and the other end of the 4.7k resistor and 5V on the board the black is to ground on the board


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

I dont see anything immediately wrong with it, what happens when you open up BrewPi and search for the devices? They should show up in the bottom area, you may need to check the "Show values" checkbox when you do it and look for ones that return values.

Can you post or PM me the basic sketch you used to test it? Im wondering if somehow your probes are in parasitic mode and simple code you tested with was working because it was setting them to work that way.

 

[lettersnumbers_-]

I finished my enclosure. Now I just need the fridge. I'm gonna go with a side by side and use the right for fermenting, then later on add another arduino to control the freezer and turn it into a kegerator. At least that's the plan.

 

[atoughram]

Here are the contents of one of my two BrewPi folders under /var/www.
There are a couple of files that aren't owned by www-data, but this was a manual install which required some massaging of various files, so I don't know if this is typical or not...

Cheers!

I CHOWNed them all to www-data and it dodnt make a difference... I'll keep looking!

 

[atoughram]

View attachment 207444View attachment 207445



Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

Go to Radio Shack and buy a Arduino Prototype shield - then solder that all together. It's kinda hard to tell if the circuit is correct. Here's mine with the prototype shield on it. I probably could have made it cleaner...

 

[lettersnumbers_-]

it has been removed still not working

Check here for fixing users/permissions.

 

[MongooseMan]

Mine is currently not hooked up to a fermentation chamber or any beer. I'm fine with it, just let me know what you're trying so I can try and figure out how to secure it!

Yeah, it's not secure.
I can, very easily, do any of the following:
-Stop the script
-Create a new profile
-Set the beer temp to an arbitrary level (think high or low)
-Turn off the settings altogether.

I've PM-ed you details on how to do this, don't want to make it public until you've secured your page or taken it down.

 

[stewart194]

Hey guys. I've been out of town for a while but all of my parts arrived before I left. I finally sat down to wire this bad boy up but ran into a few issues that I want to run past you.

1. The wires inside the computer power cables that I have are not Red, Grey, and Green like Fuzze's drawing shows. Instead they are Blue, Green-Yellow, and Brown. I've Googled this but just want to verify that in my case that Green-Yellow is Ground, Blue is Negative, and Brown is Positive. Is this correct?

2. I bought a GFI electrical socket with a reset button in the middle. There is no "tab" to break on this one between the brass posts on this one. Am I OK or should I go buy a standard outlet?

3. A little off topic, but I've been doing the swamp cooler method with wet towels up to this point. My fermentation times usually go from 3 weeks to 4 weeks before I hit my final gravity. Does having a temp controlled fermentation chamber like this help speed that process up? Or do you guys still typically let it go 3 to 4 weeks before kegging? I've heard that the beer can benefit from letting it sit on the yeast after fermentation is complete to clean up off flavors, but just thought I'd get your opinions on this.

As usual, thanks again! Can't wait to get this up and running!

 

[Herb3]

Ok I have everything wired up just like in the 1st post but no matter what I do I can not get this thing configured. Only thing that I did different was use 25A SSR's that I already had on hand. These I wire the digital 5 and 6 pins to the SSR's negative post and ran 5V to the positive post.

Any ideals on what to try next?

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Ok I have everything wired up just like in the 1st post but no matter what I do I can not get this thing configured. Only thing that I did different was use 25A SSR's that I already had on hand. These I wire the digital 5 and 6 pins to the SSR's negative post and ran 5V to the positive post.

Any ideals on what to try next?

Nothing shows up under the Device Config on pins 5 and 6 im guessing?

 

[Herb3]

Nothing shows up under the Device Config on pins 5 and 6 im guessing?

I have under detected devices:

Device 1 Pin 5(Act2)
Device 2 Pin 6(Act1)
Device 3 Pin A5(Act4)
Device 4 4(Door)

All list device type as None

If I try to assign a slot nothing sticks

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Then its detecting your SSR...I assume you already have your probes found and assigned to the Installed Devices section?

Heres my Config in that section

If you dont have your probes setup yet, its possible your permissions are screwed up and thats why it wont let you set those pins. Not sure why it doesnt list a device type....

 

[Herb3]

No my probes are not listed or detected

 

[day_trippr]

[...]

1. The wires inside the computer power cables that I have are not Red, Grey, and Green like Fuzze's drawing shows. Instead they are Blue, Green-Yellow, and Brown. I've Googled this but just want to verify that in my case that Green-Yellow is Ground, Blue is Negative, and Brown is Positive. Is this correct?

Whoa, Nellie! What are these "computer power cables"?

If you're referring to this picture, the "power cable" is an 120VAC line cord with black (hot), white (neutral) and green (safety ground) wires. The red wires between the relay board and the duplex outlet aren't part of the line cord, Fuzze added those runs.

I'm guessing you're looking at a safety ground along with a DC output wire plus a DC ground wire.

2. I bought a GFI electrical socket with a reset button in the middle. There is no "tab" to break on this one between the brass posts on this one. Am I OK or should I go buy a standard outlet?

If you want to support dual-stage operation, you need a duplex outlet with separable hot-side feeds. I've never seen a duplex GFCI outlet that does that. I suggest Leviton duplex outlets as they use removable bridges and they only need a rectangular cutout.

3. A little off topic, but I've been doing the swamp cooler method with wet towels up to this point. My fermentation times usually go from 3 weeks to 4 weeks before I hit my final gravity. Does having a temp controlled fermentation chamber like this help speed that process up? Or do you guys still typically let it go 3 to 4 weeks before kegging? I've heard that the beer can benefit from letting it sit on the yeast after fermentation is complete to clean up off flavors, but just thought I'd get your opinions on this.

3 to 4 weeks to reach final gravity? That's extraordinarily long.
In general, my brews reach final gravity within a week of pitching, often within 3 or 4 days , even with strict temperature control. With dry hopping and cold crashing it takes 2 to 3 weeks for most of my batches to end up in a keg, the exceptions being big ass stouts and porters.

Running the yeast outside of their recommended temperature range can slow them down - or speed them up. Temperature control just keeps the yeast in their happy place (well, in our happy place - who knows, maybe yeast really enjoy a hot fermentation, while we definitely don't). The brewer is still responsible for producing a fermentable wort and providing a proper yeast pitch...

Cheers!