HOWTO - Make a BrewPi Fermentation Controller For Cheap

[KLucky_13]

Like the way the fans are opposed. Do they run constantly?

Yes, they run constantly

 

[KLucky_13]

Sweet looking setup! I guess I really didn't know what you meant by CCT Panel and resistors. But now I don't know why your seeing the overshoot. But it looks like it may have calmed down.

It calmed down for 1 cycle, now it's back to the heating - cooling cycling again.. There are 2 things I could try, 1 is to put the fridge probe under the plate (in the zone where the resistors are). So It will feel the heat much quicker. See what that would do (off course the PIDs will need to calibrate themselves again).

If that does not work, I will connect the resistors in series or just use 1.

I will do this testwork after this beer is ready, no need to start messing in there right now. I'm planning to start cold crashing in a few days anyway

 

[SHvanBommel]

So i'm looking at making a PI/Arduino Bridge that includes all additional components to make a brew work without a million wires.... any and all input would be great. the idea is that this thing would create a solid bridge between pi and arduino and bypassing the need for a usb cable... making it a smaller footprint. I know cadibrewer's design is more refined but i am hoping for some input to head in that direction. It also has a secondary connector to retain all pi GPIO.

 

[day_trippr]

[edit] Had a hard time seeing how that mechanically connects to an RPi and an Uno.
Aside from not supporting the ISP header on the Uno I guess it'd work.

That said, you're missing all the decoupling capacitors...and the Bluetooth/Wifi header...

Cheers!

 

[SHvanBommel]

Bluetooth and wifi are both on the pi already, I thought perhaps they would be redundant but I might not be visualizing it properly. I can understand in your integration where you are not using a pi at each "minion" (as I understand your setup). There is connection between the UART pins on the pi and pins 0,1 (rx,tx) on the arduino. If that's confusing I can understand but was merely trying to communicate between arduino and pi via pins instead of USB.

 

[day_trippr]

You're right, there's no need for wireless link between the two :smack:
Still want to put some .1uF/10V caps at the power pins and the shift register...

Bluetooth and wifi are both on the pi already, I thought perhaps they would be redundant but I might not be visualizing it properly. I can understand in your integration where you are not using a pi at each "minion" (as I understand your setup). There is connection between the UART pins on the pi and pins 0,1 (rx,tx) on the arduino. If that's confusing I can understand but was merely trying to communicate between arduino and pi via pins instead of USB.

 

[SHvanBommel]

I guess that's what I'm asking for help on would be most effective places to put as in, pin specific assignment.

 

[day_trippr]

Definitely want one at the shift register VCC pin to the closest GND net.
Then, at each point that power is entering or leaving the bridge.

btw, you aren't thinking of tying the Pi 5V to the Uno 5V are you?
I would not...

Cheers!

 

[SHvanBommel]

I was thinking of going pi 5v to duino Vin... or maybe just using an mp1584en and powering both as well as 5v net

 

[day_trippr]

I was thinking of going pi 5v to duino Vin... or maybe just using an mp1584en and powering both as well as 5v net

You definitely don't want to go from 'Pi 5V to Uno VIN. Arduino VIN is on the "wall-wart side" of the Uno's 5V linear regulator (ie: what would usually be a 9-12VDC external power supply).

If you're determined to run the Uno with the 'Pi 5V you do want to go 'Pi 5V to Uno 5V.

But the 3A buck regulator would be a better way to go and power both boards from it.
You'd need to add a barrel receptacle or equivalent for a 12VDC wall-wart, but you have the room.

fwiw, I use a ton of MPS buck and dual-buck regulators (mostly because Intel ended up with Enpirion who's buck/dual-buck/triple-buck product line I preferred, but that's another story) and they work well if you pay attention to the placement and routing recommendations.

BUT (and it's a biggie) you'd be signing everyone up for soldering an 8 pin SOIC, and it has a thermal pad underneath that should be solder-bonded to a matching copper fill.
With all the whining about the BSS84 used on my shield design, THAT's going to be interesting

Cheers!

 

[SHvanBommel]

Yeah, I knew adding the buck would change the configuration and think it worth the effort. I'll look at it again and re-post

 

[LBussy]

With all the whining about the BSS84 used on my shield design, THAT's going to be interesting

I was NOT whining, I was sniveling and crying!

 

[day_trippr]

I was NOT whining, I was sniveling and crying!

Distinction noted

Here's a way to allow soldering the thermal pad on the buck: put a large-ish hole in the middle of the pad outline. Then after soldering the 8 gullwing pins you can flip the board over and flow some solder through the hole and onto the pad and let capillary action do the rest...

Cheers!

 

[Bigdaddyale]

Distinction noted

Here's a way to allow soldering the thermal pad on the buck: put a large-ish hole in the middle of the pad outline. Then after soldering the 8 gullwing pins you can flip the board over and flow some solder through the hole and onto the pad and let capillary action do the rest...

Cheers!

Has anybody tried using the oven and baking the board?I know when I put together my brewpi shield all of the resistors slipped about a 1/2 inch up off the board when I flipped it over to start soldering. I set the board on an empty soup can in the oven with the resistors pointing up and baked the board at 385f for 10 minuets and was able to push down the resistors with a wooded spoon.

 

[day_trippr]

Those were all through-hole resistors, and if you bend the leads outwards you can pin the body to the other side of the board so it won't go anywhere while you flow the solder through the holes...

Cheers!

 

[Bigdaddyale]

Those were all through-hole resistors, and if you bend the leads outwards you can pin the body to the other side of the board so it won't go anywhere while you flow the solder through the holes...

Cheers!

Homebrew might have been a factor.

 

[day_trippr]

Homebrew might have been a factor.

lol!
Irony. It's everywhere!

 

[KLucky_13]

Today I wanted to check my brewpi from work and now (after more than 2 weeks of logging), I get a webpage which says:

403 Forbidden
You don't have permission to access / on this server.
-----------------
Apache/2.4.10 (Raspbian) Server at xx.xxx.xx.xxxPort 80

Any idea why this is the case all of a sudden? The IP of the raspberry is fixed so it should not have changed IP.. What are other possible causes?

I hope this did not change anything to the process, makes me a bit worried not being able to view the current temperature etc...

 

[lgbainbridge]

Sounds like your ISP may be blocking port 80 try switching your external port to 8080 and forward to Internal port 80

 

[KLucky_13]

Should he still be blocking this when I turn of the firewall? I'm currently not at home so I can't test that much. I tried turning of the firewall of my modem and still no access.

The strange thing is that I have used brewpi for several brews, and now it's been running for the past 2 weeks without any changes to the raspberry.. So I'm looking for something that could have changed without my input?

EDIT: I looked it up, port 80 is not blocked

 

[Mikmonken]

ISP changing your IP address maybe?

 

[lgbainbridge]

This has nothing to do with your firewall. It is your Internet Service Provider that is blocking that traffic. If you change your port forwarding (external) on your router then you should be ok.

 

[ame]

This has nothing to do with your firewall. It is your Internet Service Provider that is blocking that traffic. If you change your port forwarding (external) on your router then you should be ok.

His ISP is running Raspbian?

 

[KLucky_13]

The IP address of my modem/router did not change (that's also the first thing I was thinking).

And why would the port forwarding would be blocked now and not before?

If you change your port forwarding (external) on your router then you should be ok.

What do you mean by this? In the settings of my modem, I added the fixed IP address of my Raspberry Pi with ports 79 to 80 open. Always worked like this until now

 

[stlbeer]

I experienced this as well about a month ago. I should have investigated it, but instead did a power cycle. When it came up all was fine except I did lose the recording of the temps. So the temp graph looks funky.

Probably should review the syslogs.

 

[KLucky_13]

When I get home this evening, that's the first thing I will try as well. Just see if rebooting the Raspberry will help. Otherwise I will need to check what's going on.

 

[KLucky_13]

I found the problem

After a reboot, the pi completely stopped working, apparently the SD card crashed... Worst that could happen.. Lucky for me I'm already cooling the beer so I don't need the control anymore.

 

[LBussy]

Something changed. 403 is a Forbidden response from Apache. Something in your .htaccess has changed since the last time it worked.

 

[KLucky_13]

Something changed. 403 is a Forbidden response from Apache. Something in your .htaccess has changed since the last time it worked.

Like mentioned above, my SD card is dead after a reboot. Probably at that point some files might already been affected.. Explaining why something "changed" without my input

 

[day_trippr]

I found the problem
After a reboot, the pi completely stopped working, apparently the SD card crashed... [...]

That's happened a few times here, latest one was just a week ago. System was kinda/sorta limping along with its mission (surveillance cams) and then went tits up on a restart with a totally FUBARd SD card.

That inspired me to make sure every RPi has an up-to-date backup SD card (files that may change - like my R'Pints database - are pushed to a NAS box nightly). So, minimum downtime...

Cheers!