HOWTO - Make a BrewPi Fermentation Controller For Cheap

[shtank]

Then un-invert it…

Switching it to not inverted fixed the problem. WOOHOO!

Now to figure out which outlet is which. If the beer temp is below beer setting the outlet powered should be the heater correct?

Mine are both powered right now.

One other minor detail... The beer is not in a fridge ( its in my basement) I have a fan in the window for cooling and a brewbelt or heater for a heat source.

 

[shtank]

I figured it out which is which by adjusting the beer setting temp.

But they are both running i think because the fridge setting is lower than the room temp. Thought?

 

[wbarber69]

No and no. try switching it back to inverted. as it is now it just runs all the time. nothing should be on unless the screen specifically says cooling or heating. then once we get hat working, imma bet you prolly didn't clip the tab on the receptacle.

 

[wbarber69]

And like was said before, room temp makes absolutely no matter. it had no effect on the control algorithm whatsoever. it's just a cool feature and does nothing at all other than let you know what the room temp is. you only need beer and chamber probes. that's the only thing that will make the relay trip.

 

[shtank]

No and no. try switching it back to inverted. as it is now it just runs all the time. nothing should be on unless the screen specifically says cooling or heating. then once we get hat working, imma bet you prolly didn't clip the tab on the receptacle.

It says heating now... and the relays are popping ans switching. Not sure I should change it to inverted.

The tab on the outlet in clipped, so no luck there.

 

[day_trippr]

What relay module are you using?
If it's the Sainsmart 2-channel board, you definitely need the actuators to be inverted in the BrewPi gui...

Cheers!

 

[shtank]

I think its working now. Fingers crossed. Thanks so much Cheers

 

[shtank]

What relay module are you using?
If it's the Sainsmart 2-channel board, you definitely need the actuators to be inverted in the BrewPi gui...

Cheers!

It is the sainsmart

 

[shtank]

Im scared to change it now

 

[Thor80]

Hi Bigdaddyale

all of them helped me but in the end it was day_trippr regarding the flashing of arduino with the hex file by directly connecting to PC.

cheers to all.

Temp probes arrived today.. super excited to connect them up and see the magic... and boom... nothing.. no devices detected...

awww man... every bloody step of the process. Dont know how many times I have re-checked my wiring.

 

[Bigdaddyale]

Temp probes arrived today.. super excited to connect them up and see the magic... and boom... nothing.. no devices detected...

awww man... every bloody step of the process. Dont know how many times I have re-checked my wiring.

You probably got the mislabeled probes. There is a sketch you can run to check them in the back post.
Do a search for parasite mode DS18B20

 

[user 51917]

I've been away from brewing and my brewpi for longer than I'd like to admit
But I'm back now

Since I've fired it back up I keep getting an aww snap message from chrome and it says something went wrong while displaying this website

Before that comes up I can see the page for maybe 30 seconds and the temps are there and responding and I can make a few changes if I act quick but it eventually comes up with this message

Have any of you run across this problem and any solutions out there
Thanks

 

[Bigdaddyale]

You probably got the mislabeled probes. There is a sketch you can run to check them in the back post.
Do a search for parasite mode DS18B20

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=7556259&postcount=5416

 

[Thor80]

You probably got the mislabeled probes. There is a sketch you can run to check them in the back post.
Do a search for parasite mode DS18B20

All up and running, well currently in a test phase to see how cold my fridge will go without hacking the built in thermostat. A big thank you for your advice and help!

 

[JDL]

Amazing work on this thread, I have read the first 200 pages of posts and am amazed at the amount of information in it. In the beginning I said I better read the entire thread before placing my order so I do not make known mistakes and end up reordering parts.

If only the front page showed the last time it was edited I would not have to ask this question but I saw in the first 200 posts that FuzzeWuzze would go back and continue to update the instructions. I was wondering if that is still up to date or someone can point me to a mid post that has the new ordering information?

If needed, my setup will be pretty simple for some of the projects I have read. Small fridge holding a brew bucket with the small heater recommended and a fan to circulate air. Will use the exact hardware listed on the front page unless there are recommendations that have not been updated that will make the end result better or the build easier.

Thanks in advance as I know this question has been asked more than a few times throughout the life of the thread.

Jeff

 

[wbarber69]

Nope he hasn't been able to edit the original post for about 2 years. there is a brewpi wiki now.

 

[LBussy]

I've been away from brewing and my brewpi for longer than I'd like to admit
But I'm back now

Since I've fired it back up I keep getting an aww snap message from chrome and it says something went wrong while displaying this website

Before that comes up I can see the page for maybe 30 seconds and the temps are there and responding and I can make a few changes if I act quick but it eventually comes up with this message

Have any of you run across this problem and any solutions out there
Thanks

Try this:

sudo sed -i -e 's/KeepAliveTimeout 5/KeepAliveTimeout 99/g' /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

sudo service apache2 restart

This will edit a line of your apache2.conf that deals with timeouts. While it generally does not exhibit itself exactly as you have described, it's definitely in the realm of possibility that this is causing your issue. At worst it will do no harm.

 

[LBussy]

If only the front page showed the last time it was edited I would not have to ask this question but I saw in the first 200 posts that FuzzeWuzze would go back and continue to update the instructions. I was wondering if that is still up to date or someone can point me to a mid post that has the new ordering information?

At the top of the first page:

Up to Date Instructions can be found here
http://diybrewpi.wikia.com/wiki/DIYBrewPi_Wikia

I also wrote up what I think are easier instructions for the software piece and have posted them here:

• BrewPi: Setting up Raspberry Pi
• BrewPi: New Install under Raspbian Jessie

 

[Bigdaddyale]

I think the biggest "Gotchas" for the barebones BrewPi have been
not using the legacy branch
dealing with the CH340 usb chip set
parasite mode DS18B20 sensors

 

[Bigdaddyale]

All up and running, well currently in a test phase to see how cold my fridge will go without hacking the built in thermostat. A big thank you for your advice and help!

I always like to ask "What Did You Do To Fix It" so we know the next time it happens.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Amazing work on this thread, I have read the first 200 pages of posts and am amazed at the amount of information in it. In the beginning I said I better read the entire thread before placing my order so I do not make known mistakes and end up reordering parts.

If only the front page showed the last time it was edited I would not have to ask this question but I saw in the first 200 posts that FuzzeWuzze would go back and continue to update the instructions. I was wondering if that is still up to date or someone can point me to a mid post that has the new ordering information?

If needed, my setup will be pretty simple for some of the projects I have read. Small fridge holding a brew bucket with the small heater recommended and a fan to circulate air. Will use the exact hardware listed on the front page unless there are recommendations that have not been updated that will make the end result better or the build easier.

Thanks in advance as I know this question has been asked more than a few times throughout the life of the thread.

Jeff

After a certain amount of time they stop letting the post creator edit, and i have long since past that time on this thread. On top of that about 2 years ago they totally reworked the entire forum layout and how things are organized, and that's when i lost my access.

As others said i had the mods add a link to the top of the first post to the newest instructions, rather than starting a new thread and losing all of this valuable information.

 

[phishie]

I would appreciate some help dialing in my BrewPi to maintain a more consistent beer temp.

I think this issue has been exacerbated by adding a heater to my setup so I think it may be due to my chamber probe being too close to my heater. Unfortunately, I will not be able to physically change this until I'm home again in a couple days.

Does that seem like most likely the source of the problem? That kind of confuses me if that's the case as it's overshooting the target temp as well and I would think having the chamber probe close to the heater would mean insufficient heat rather than ever have an excess of heat.

The beer probe is in a thermowell and is located about half way through the 6 gallons of beer.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

I agree with your general theory that your too close to your heater. Are you using something with a Fan? If not consider putting a fan in as well somehow.

I say your right, because if you look at the graph, your fridge temperature(blue) and fridge setting(orange) never actually go below your beer temp, yet somehow your beer is still dropping temperature slowly over time, thats not possible. This tells me that your fridge temperature is lying. The overshoot is causing BrewPi to panic and turn on your cooling as well unnecessarily.It wants your blue line to follow the orange line, and your way way way above it with those spikes.

 

[phishie]

I agree with your general theory that your too close to your heater. Are you using something with a Fan? If not consider putting a fan in as well somehow.

I say your right, because if you look at the graph, your fridge temperature(blue) and fridge setting(orange) never actually go below your beer temp, yet somehow your beer is still dropping temperature slowly over time, thats not possible. This tells me that your fridge temperature is lying. The overshoot is causing BrewPi to panic and turn on your cooling as well unnecessarily.It wants your blue line to follow the orange line, and your way way way above it with those spikes.

Thank you, that's a good point. I disabled the heater for now and when I'm home I'll move/reposition it. I'm thinking to better position the chamber probe away from the heater and turn the heater around to face the chamber wall.

Yes there is a fan, it's the lasko ceramic heater with the built in fan.

 

[phishie]

Can anyone please help me understand what causes these "steps" in the actual temp graph? Is it due to a polling period configuration or something like that? My steps are 10-30 minutes long.

 

[Thorrak]

Can anyone please help me understand what causes these "steps" in the actual temp graph? Is it due to a polling period configuration or something like that? My steps are 10-30 minutes long.

Are you using a beer profile?

 

[phishie]

Are you using a beer profile?

Sometimes, sometimes I also use beer constant or fridge constant. In fact I even have those steps right now and the temperature mode is set to OFF.

 

[Thorrak]

Sometimes, sometimes I also use beer constant or fridge constant. In fact I even have those steps right now and the temperature mode is set to OFF.

I apologize - I just noticed the axis labels. What you're seeing is just gradual heating. The minimum resolution of your temperature sensor is 0.1 degree. Your chamber appears to be very well insulated.

 

[froot]

I apologize - I just noticed the axis labels. What you're seeing is just gradual heating. The minimum resolution of your temperature sensor is 0.1 degree. Your chamber appears to be very well insulated.

Or he lives in the southern hemisphere where it's summer right now.

 

[Thorrak]

Or he lives in the southern hemisphere where it's summer right now.

1 degree gain over 12 hours? Quite frankly... hot damn. I wish I could keep my keezer/kegerator to 1 degree an hour some times.