HOWTO - Make a BrewPi Fermentation Controller For Cheap

[wbarber69]

Okay, fixed the hostname and I get no message from apache. I see my brewpi site on my home network with no password prompt. Outside the LAN (my phone with wi-fi turned off) I still get a "not available."

Well you'd have to forward it to outside your lan, you'd need to know your up address, you'd need to forward all the appropriate ports and stuff. If your going in your phone and using your data connection to find http://brewpi then you're going to have a bad time

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

This one of the best threads on this entire site. I really appreciate the hard work you guys have put into this and helping everyone out. I wish all internet communities were this good.
Having said that, I am throwing up the white flag. I give up! BrewPi and Debian have smacked me down. I am a true blue linux Noob with a capital N. I am at loggerheads with this problem and I for the life of me figure it out.

I keep getting these error messages:
E: Unable to locate package python-psutil
E: Unable to locate package python-git
E: Unable to locate package arduino-core

I actually have the BrewPi webpage up with the red "Script No Running!" warning. My Uno is wired correctly and ready to go.
It's so frustraiting because I am so tantalizingly close. It's probably something very simple but I just can't find it.
Just for the sake of being able to get a BrewPi system up and running I broke down and purchased an PRI, which will be here tomorrow or Saturday.
I still want to know how to get it running on a Debian PC.
If nothing else this thread has turned me on to the Linux operating systems.

Ha, should have posted earlier its probably a pretty simple fix. That said i still think the RPI is better just because of its small form factor, you can just velcro the tiny thing to the side of your ferm chamber. Wbarber posted the sudo commands to install it, just make sure your BrewPi debian PC is on the internet so it can download those packages.

And the RPI's seem to have less USB problems for whatever reason, i would think that a full fledged PC would work better but myself and many others always have had crashing Arduinos using PC's.

 

[day_trippr]

Okay, fixed the hostname and I get no message from apache. I see my brewpi site on my home network with no password prompt. Outside the LAN (my phone with wi-fi turned off) I still get a "not available."

Did you set up your router to port-forward your chosen BrewPi port from the WAN side to your LAN? If you don't do that you're going nowhere...

Getting rid of that Apache startup message fixes pretty much nothing, fwiw...

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

This one of the best threads on this entire site. I really appreciate the hard work you guys have put into this and helping everyone out. I wish all internet communities were this good.
Having said that, I am throwing up the white flag. I give up! BrewPi and Debian have smacked me down. I am a true blue linux Noob with a capital N. I am at loggerheads with this problem and I for the life of me figure it out.

I keep getting these error messages:
E: Unable to locate package python-psutil
E: Unable to locate package python-git
E: Unable to locate package arduino-core

[...]

Do this:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade

Then try installing your missing packages.

fwiw, packages move, particularly if they've been revised. If you don't do an apt-get update, your package installer is using out-of-date package links, and you will indeed get those errors...

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

Brewpi has been running great for a couple of months on my home network, so I thought I would try getting it on the web. I signed up for a duckdns.org account and followed Fuzze's and day_tripper's instructions on setting up .htaccess. With the changed apache default file, I get an Internal Server Error with no prompting for password on the home network and nothing outside. With the apache file put back to AllowOverride=None, I get my brewpi graph at http://[I]mybrewery[/I].duckdns.org on my home network, but not outside of it.

So what do you get through your dynamic dns access?

When I run apache, I get a message, but from what I've been able to find, it isn't serious[...]

It is indeed non-serious, with no effect on anything you care about.

I would remove the .htaccess stuff and get your pages accessible through your dyndns access first. Then you can play with .htaccess and know you're not fighting multiple problems...

Cheers!

 

[aubiecat]

Ok I did the
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade

and

sudo apt-get install arduino-core
sudo apt-get install python-git
sudo apt-get install python-psutil

with the results:

E: Unable to locate package arduino-core
E: Unable to locate package python-git
E: Unable to locate package python-psutil

I wonder if I should just uninstall everything and start over?

 

[wbarber69]

This one of the best threads on this entire site. I really appreciate the hard work you guys have put into this and helping everyone out. I wish all internet communities were this good.…

I have to totally agree with you there… but it includes the whole hbt forum. I've basically stopped using the brewpi forums since they seem to get stale before someone will answer. And hbt.com users are some of the best (reminds me of the sagetv forums). I've been out of work lately and I use the hbt app. I've been able to respond to instant updates from the forum and in the past 2 weeks I've managed to jump into the early beta for a new hopback… and just this morning I won a naming contest for a new heatstick coming out from brewhardware.com.

In the past I've been able to get help, have custom parts built for me, gotten free schematics drawn up, basically used the page as swap shop…the list goes on and on.

Definitely some of the most informative forums out there too.

 

[robfar]

Well you'd have to forward it to outside your lan, you'd need to know your up address, you'd need to forward all the appropriate ports and stuff. If your going in your phone and using your data connection to find http://brewpi then you're going to have a bad time

So what do you get through your dynamic dns access?

I do have the port forwarded. At home, I enter the URL fakebreweryname.duckdns.org and I get the site with no password prompt. I can also get that by entering the local IP address. Through 4G cellular, I get nothing with the duckdns address.

I would remove the .htaccess stuff and get your pages accessible through your dyndns access first. Then you can play with .htaccess and know you're not fighting multiple problems...

I'll try that. Thanks guys.

 

[wbarber69]

Got most of the hard work done now I'm starting to install the totally retrofitted control guts back into the fridge. The only thing left from the original panel is the lightbulbs and 2 necessary molex connectors

 

[day_trippr]

Ok I did the
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade

and

sudo apt-get install arduino-core
sudo apt-get install python-git
sudo apt-get install python-psutil

with the results:

E: Unable to locate package arduino-core
E: Unable to locate package python-git
E: Unable to locate package python-psutil

I wonder if I should just uninstall everything and start over?

That is so weird.

Those error messages mean the package installer can't find the packages on your local repository. Were there any accompanying messages that might shed even a glimpse of light?

Cheers!

 

[robfar]

So what do you get through your dynamic dns access?

I would remove the .htaccess stuff and get your pages accessible through your dyndns access first. Then you can play with .htaccess and know you're not fighting multiple problems...

Cheers!

My brewpi is on the web through duckdns. Found a typo in my duckdns token

.htaccess is giving a missing ">" error that I can't find. It's a mirror image of Fuzze's example. I'll find it eventually:

<FilesMatch "index.php">
Allow from all
authuserFile /var/www/private/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName "fake-brewery-name"
AuthType Basic
<Limit GET POST>
require valid-user
</Limit>
</FilesMatch>

<FilesMatch "beer-panel.php|config.php|configuration.php|control-panel.php|
maintenance-panel.php|previous_beers.php|program_arduino.php|save_beer_
profile.php|start_script.php">

Order deny,allow
Deny from All
Allow from 192.168.1
</FilesMatch>

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

My brewpi is on the web through duckdns. Found a typo in my duckdns token

.htaccess is giving a missing ">" error that I can't find. It's a mirror image of Fuzze's example. I'll find it eventually:

Maybe its a typo on my example but in the list of files there is a save_beer_profile.php it looks to me like it says s ave_beer_profile. Remove that extra space.

 

[robfar]

Maybe its a typo on my example but in the list of files there is a save_beer_profile.php it looks to me like it says s ave_beer_profile. Remove that extra space.

I did fix that in my .htaccess, but for some reason is shows when I cat the file and copy it here. Must be something there.

 

[robfar]

<FilesMatch "index.php">
Allow from all
authuserFile /var/www/private/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName "fake-brewery-name"
AuthType Basic
<Limit GET POST>
require valid-user
</Limit>
</FilesMatch>

<FilesMatch "beer-panel.php|config.php|configuration.php|control-panel.php|
maintenance-panel.php|previous_beers.php|program_arduino.php|save_beer_
profile.php|start_script.php">

Order deny,allow
Deny from All
Allow from 192.168.1
</FilesMatch>

retyped "save" and it copies correctly now, but still displays wrong on HBT. Not a real problem, here is the entry from the apache error log:

[Fri Sep 19 10:54:35 2014] [alert] [client 192.168.1.6] /var/www/.htaccess: <FilesMatch> directive missing closing '>', referer: http://192.168.1.20/

 

[balrog]

Ha, should have posted earlier its probably a pretty simple fix. That said i still think the RPI is better just because of its small form factor, you can just velcro the tiny thing to the side of your ferm chamber. Wbarber posted the sudo commands to install it, just make sure your BrewPi debian PC is on the internet so it can download those packages.

And the RPI's seem to have less USB problems for whatever reason, i would think that a full fledged PC would work better but myself and many others always have had crashing Arduinos using PC's.

Have to agree with the small form factor. The 17" lappy I use is a beast, but it logs nicely and (knock on wood) continues to run for me.

 

[robfar]

Commented out all of the <File> stuff and everything worked: prompted for password and got the entire brewpi page. I'm a programming N00B, so what am I missing with this arrangement?

#<FilesMatch "index.php">
Allow from all
AuthUserFile /var/www/private/.htpasswd
AuthName "fake name"
AuthType Basic
<Limit GET POST>
require valid-user
</Limit>
#</FilesMatch>

#<FilesMatch "beer-panel.php|config.php|configuration.php|control-panel.php|maintenance-panel.php|previous_beer$
#Order deny,allow
#Deny from All
#Allow from 192.168.1
#</FilesMatch>

Update: After it was up and running I uncommented everything and it continued to run error-free. Confused, but happy.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Me again! I am so very thankful that members like day_trippr, FuzzeWuzze and wbarber69 can help a noob like me get this far. So I got everything running to the point of flashing my arduino and then I have issues again. I try to reprogram the arduino from the web interface. It starts when I try to download the .hex as my arduino is a mega 2560. It doesn't matter which .hex I choose this is the error that I get.

**** Arduino Program script started ****

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/brewpi/brewpi1/brewpi.py", line 620, in
{'settings': restoreSettings, 'devices': restoreDevices})
File "/home/brewpi/brewpi1/programArduino.py", line 71, in programArduino
boardsFile = loadBoardsFile(arduinohome)
File "/home/brewpi/brewpi1/programArduino.py", line 45, in loadBoardsFile
return open(arduinohome + 'hardware/arduino/boards.txt', 'rb').readlines()
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/usr/share/arduino/hardware/arduino/boards.txt'
Sep 15 2014 17:38:02 Notification: Script started for beer 'My First BrewPi Run'
Sep 15 2014 17:38:29 Warning: Cannot receive version number from Arduino. Your Arduino is either not programmed or running a very old version of BrewPi. Please upload a new version of BrewPi to your Arduino.

I recompiled their AVR code and set it to Mega2560 as the board type, they have support for the Mega just dont actually do builds for it. The only thing the Mega cant do apparently is the Rotary encoder, but my DIY brewpi build doesnt include any of that stuff anyways so you should be fine.

Let me know if it works and ill add it to the main post, download this and save it as a hex file and try uploading it. (Right Click Link -> Save File As...)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2798684/brewpi_mega2560.hex

 

[bufford]

So Thanks a ton FuzzeWuzze! I really appreciate the effort. I gave it a try and things are definitely different, however, I still got this error.


Sep 19 2014 17:16:01 Notification: New day, creating new JSON file.
Sep 19 2014 17:18:03 Notification: Script started for beer 'My First BrewPi Run'
Sep 19 2014 17:18:31 Warning: Cannot receive version number from Arduino. Your Arduino is either not programmed or running a very old version of BrewPi. Please upload a new version of BrewPi to your Arduino.
**** Arduino Program script started ****

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/brewpi/brewpi2/brewpi.py", line 620, in
{'settings': restoreSettings, 'devices': restoreDevices})
File "/home/brewpi/brewpi2/programArduino.py", line 71, in programArduino
boardsFile = loadBoardsFile(arduinohome)
File "/home/brewpi/brewpi2/programArduino.py", line 45, in loadBoardsFile
return open(arduinohome + 'hardware/arduino/boards.txt', 'rb').readlines()
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/usr/share/arduino/hardware/arduino/boards.txt'
Sep 19 2014 17:21:02 Notification: Script started for beer 'My First BrewPi Run'
Sep 19 2014 17:21:30 Warning: Cannot receive version number from Arduino. Your Arduino is either not programmed or running a very old version of BrewPi. Please upload a new version of BrewPi to your Arduino.

 

[bufford]

So I stand corrected all the errors are the same.

 

[aubiecat]

All I can say is WoW! Got the RaspberryPi in this morning and it was easy as heck to set up. When I saw the script start running in the web interface I all of a sudden remembered what it felt like on Christmas morning when I was a kid. What fun this is!

Any of you guys contemplating using an old PC/lap top but you're not versed in Linux I recommend just getting the RPI instead. What an amazing little device. Having the install script just do everything for you, without so much as a hitch, is worth the cost of the RPI alone.

Now I gotta put it all in a box and get to brewing!

 

[day_trippr]

So I stand corrected all the errors are the same.

When you load the hex file are you turning OFF the two radio buttons for restoring old settings or devices?

And, just for grins, is there a /usr/share/arduino/hardware/arduino/boards.txt file on your 'Pi?
There should be - although to be honest I wouldn't think it's a run-time issue...

Cheers!

 

[bufford]

Yes, I did select no on both of the radio buttons. I also run an old HP PC with Debian Wheezy. I will try and check and see if the file is there.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

All I can say is WoW! Got the RaspberryPi in this morning and it was easy as heck to set up. When I saw the script start running in the web interface I all of a sudden remembered what it felt like on Christmas morning when I was a kid. What fun this is!

Any of you guys contemplating using an old PC/lap top but you're not versed in Linux I recommend just getting the RPI instead. What an amazing little device. Having the install script just do everything for you, without so much as a hitch, is worth the cost of the RPI alone.

Now I gotta put it all in a box and get to brewing!

Good to hear, the rpi is defiantly a bit easier. I need to do a debian install and try the install script and see what doesn't work, some people seem to have varying levels of success. I can probably push some changes to their install script for future people doing a pc. The cost savings is quite large not using a rpi so I can understand going that route, I mean if you go that route the cost is the same as a stc1000 basically.

When you get it boxed up give some images

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Yes, I did select no on both of the radio buttons. I also run an old HP PC with Debian Wheezy. I will try and check and see if the file is there.

I'll check with the brewpi guys and see what else I gotta do. In the meantime can you flash the mega with a blank arduino image?

I assume if you had these already you know how? If not get the arduino ide off their website, connect your mega to that pc, select the board type from the drop down, then do file new to get a blank image with just a loop and main function I think and then flash that on. If that works then hook it back up to brewpi and flash the new image.

Sometimes it's possible for the arduino to get screwy from failed flashes with brewpi.

 

[wbarber69]

I've had some success using the install script on Debian. All I did was edit one line of the script. I commented out the line where it tries to run rpi-update. It would fail on pc because rpi-update doesn't work anywhere but in raspbian. After that all I had to make sure to do was setup Debian using pi as the default user. But I did all this on a vm so your results may vary…

 

[balrog]

I did a step by step for one guy long ago, clicks and all. It was only specific for getting the wireless drivers. Be glad to send if you want. You can edit if I missed or under/overstated anything.

 

[aubiecat]

Good to hear, the rpi is defiantly a bit easier. I need to do a debian install and try the install script and see what doesn't work, some people seem to have varying levels of success. I can probably push some changes to their install script for future people doing a pc. The cost savings is quite large not using a rpi so I can understand going that route, I mean if you go that route the cost is the same as a stc1000 basically.

When you get it boxed up give some images

I have since tried the balrog instructions and I was able to get it up and running on my Debian PC
In earlier attemps I kept trying to install as a regular user and I was getting errors because it installed the BrePi tools in my regular user home file.
When I followed balrogs instructions I installed Debian under the name "pi".
Today I am going to do a fresh install one last time and document it.

 

[wbarber69]

Yes this is what I've found to work best. The install script assumes 2 things… you have a raspi, and the default user is pi…. If the install script can be changed in some way to accommodate different setups then it would work for everyone without editing it…

 

[Elkoe]

Yes this is what I've found to work best. The install script assumes 2 things… you have a raspi, and the default user is pi…. If the install script can be changed in some way to accommodate different setups then it would work for everyone without editing it…

You know, I will happily take a pull request for the required changes that make the install script more universal.

Also, about missing things in our documentation: the documentation is open source as well and the repo is here:
https://github.com/BrewPi/brewpi-userdocs

That repo is compiled by our build server and posted to the docs page.
It would be cool if missing info is added there, instead of this topic.

You posted on the BrewPi forum that our multi instance docs are out of date. I do not have a multi-instance test setup right now, so I would really appreciate it if you contribute your knowledge in the form of a pull request.

I do not really mind this topic. Getting all the parts for BrewPi can get expensive and not everyone will have that kind of money. The shield includes lots of connectors and those are the most expensive components, much more expensive than semiconductors.

Yes, you can just get an Arduino and add OneWire sensors and then run the web interface from a computer. But users will encounter issues when doing this, so we choose to not support it officially. Fuzzewuzze is helping people out here, so it will not take up much of my time, so I let it go. I am swamped with work already and supporting these custom builds, that do not support the project in any way, is not a wise way to spend my time.

I just want to say that I am working 60 hours a week on BrewPi and make just enough to pay rent. I can't compete with the cheapest prices from China and keep my head above water. But that's okay. I am in this for the long run. I hope that if we make it more plug and play, we can sell through an American distributor. I just think it is too early for that now.

The temp sensors we offer are a bit more expensive than the cheapest on amazon, but they have silicone cables, are guaranteed waterproof and high temperature proof. Fuzze, wbarber, just ask and I'll send you one of our temp sensors. Feel the difference. Same goes for the SSRs, they are much better than Fotek!

The case also adds to the price, but actually my margin on the cases is very small, I just want to be able to offer a nice package.

Another issue for most people I guess is the high shipping costs. Just a shield can ship for 5,25. A full kit for 16 with tracked mail. If you want it in a few days with FedEx it's more.

But if anyone things the price is too high for the shield kit, I can send a RevB PCB for free (just postage) to anyone who requests it. It will require you to solder SMD components though. RevB is a failed batch: the holes for the green terminals are too small for the pins, but you can make it work by pinching the pins a bit. You'll get just the PCB though, not the components. Try putting these in a your shopping basket on DigiKey and see what you end up at.

I am working on a new version that is more plug and play and cheaper to manufacture. Meanwhile, we are building a HERMS and making a lot of custom stainless steel parts. I hope the investment pays off. I want to revolutionize home brewing. I cannot do it by myself, so that's why I made this open source. This thread helps spread the word, and just getting the software in peoples hands is a win. They might contribute in the future.

Feedback is always welcome by the way. I would rather see the people in this thread work with us towards a better system, than think they should keep the cheap BrewPi a secret. We just chose to build it in a way that we can support. So this is me reaching out to you guys: please try to help improve the project and the docs, instead of the starting post of this thread. It will help more people in the end.

Stay tuned, and happy brewing.

And if you didn't see it yet, check the HERMS plans.

Cheers,

Elco
(Founder of BrewPi)

 

[wbarber69]

I fully intend on contributing to the documentation, once I've completed and tested my build. If I was going to build a single fermenter I would have bought a new fridge and I would have purchased the entire kit from brewpi.com. And for what it's worth, when I assembled my cart on the brewpi site the shipping was way more than 16usd. It was enough to discourage my purchase at the time, nearly 30usd if I remember correctly. But someone ended up dropping an old kitchen fridge with freezer in my lap for free, so I was motivated enough to give the raspberry pi and arduino a go (this is me first project with either component). But building 3-4 systems by means of purchasing everything from brewpi.com was incredibly expensive. Fuzze put together this build for people not building official setups and that's why the people posting here do so. As to not fill the official brewpi forums with too much "I need free help" posts. I've only asked for info on the official forums when at an impass that I or we have not had any luck figuring out.

Personally, I applaud what you've built Elco. And I definitely appreciate all the help you've given to even those that haven't bought anything. Supporting unsupported builds is not found too much outside the open source community. And this project has taught me a lot.

I went the path it seems mdma took and am using ds2413s. I found very little info on these chips, but the amount of info in the brewpi forums was enough to intrigue me. I fully intend to lend my knowledge on them once I've finished my build and can write up my own entry into the build thread.

 

[Elkoe]

And for what it's worth, when I assembled my cart on the brewpi site the shipping was way more than 16usd. It was enough to discourage my purchase at the time, nearly 30usd if I remember correctly.

It is 16 euro for tracked mail. Fedex is 27 euro for 6 day shipping, 30 for 2 day shipping.

I went the path it seems mdma took and am using ds2413s. I found very little info on these chips, but the amount of info in the brewpi forums was enough to intrigue me. I fully intend to lend my knowledge on them once I've finished my build and can write up my own entry into the build thread.

I plan to offer DS2413 breakout boards for SSRs and for and ball valves/motors. The base board will be small, but we will rely on bus architectures to be able to daisy chain lots of sensors and actuators. One big downside of fully automated HERMS systems is the bunch of wires. I think we can prevent that by not having a big central control panel.

 

[wbarber69]

I plan to offer DS2413 breakout boards for SSRs and for and ball valves/motors. The base board will be small, but we will rely on bus architectures to be able to daisy chain lots of sensors and actuators. One big downside of fully automated HERMS systems is the bunch of wires. I think we can prevent that by not having a big central control panel.

I saw to early mock ups of the ssr boards, they look great. I ended up doing something similar for my 8 channel relay board, although it's much larger, uses 4 separate ds chips and was hastily built by hand. I also built in the combined ssr control into the same board and ended up using a screw terminal output to the ssr.

I'm hoping that my system will be future proof, anticipating the multi-ferment release you keep hinting at.

 

[wbarber69]

I've got my control wire cable (cat5) hooked up. It's about 15-2 foot right now, since I have it run over to my work table while I'm making sure it all works.

There is no problem with data or voltage traveling that far on the cat5. So the rest of the build is a go.

Now I just have to come up my fan system, finish building all my ferm wraps, and decide what kind of connectors I'm going to use for the temp probes then u can start the real tests to see how it works under full load…

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

You know, I will happily take a pull request for the required changes that make the install script more universal.

Also, about missing things in our documentation: the documentation is open source as well and the repo is here:
https://github.com/BrewPi/brewpi-userdocs

That repo is compiled by our build server and posted to the docs page.
It would be cool if missing info is added there, instead of this topic.

You posted on the BrewPi forum that our multi instance docs are out of date. I do not have a multi-instance test setup right now, so I would really appreciate it if you contribute your knowledge in the form of a pull request.

I do not really mind this topic. Getting all the parts for BrewPi can get expensive and not everyone will have that kind of money. The shield includes lots of connectors and those are the most expensive components, much more expensive than semiconductors.

Yes, you can just get an Arduino and add OneWire sensors and then run the web interface from a computer. But users will encounter issues when doing this, so we choose to not support it officially. Fuzzewuzze is helping people out here, so it will not take up much of my time, so I let it go. I am swamped with work already and supporting these custom builds, that do not support the project in any way, is not a wise way to spend my time.

I just want to say that I am working 60 hours a week on BrewPi and make just enough to pay rent. I can't compete with the cheapest prices from China and keep my head above water. But that's okay. I am in this for the long run. I hope that if we make it more plug and play, we can sell through an American distributor. I just think it is too early for that now.

The temp sensors we offer are a bit more expensive than the cheapest on amazon, but they have silicone cables, are guaranteed waterproof and high temperature proof. Fuzze, wbarber, just ask and I'll send you one of our temp sensors. Feel the difference. Same goes for the SSRs, they are much better than Fotek!

The case also adds to the price, but actually my margin on the cases is very small, I just want to be able to offer a nice package.

Another issue for most people I guess is the high shipping costs. Just a shield can ship for 5,25. A full kit for 16 with tracked mail. If you want it in a few days with FedEx it's more.

But if anyone things the price is too high for the shield kit, I can send a RevB PCB for free (just postage) to anyone who requests it. It will require you to solder SMD components though. RevB is a failed batch: the holes for the green terminals are too small for the pins, but you can make it work by pinching the pins a bit. You'll get just the PCB though, not the components. Try putting these in a your shopping basket on DigiKey and see what you end up at.

I am working on a new version that is more plug and play and cheaper to manufacture. Meanwhile, we are building a HERMS and making a lot of custom stainless steel parts. I hope the investment pays off. I want to revolutionize home brewing. I cannot do it by myself, so that's why I made this open source. This thread helps spread the word, and just getting the software in peoples hands is a win. They might contribute in the future.

Feedback is always welcome by the way. I would rather see the people in this thread work with us towards a better system, than think they should keep the cheap BrewPi a secret. We just chose to build it in a way that we can support. So this is me reaching out to you guys: please try to help improve the project and the docs, instead of the starting post of this thread. It will help more people in the end.

Stay tuned, and happy brewing.

And if you didn't see it yet, check the HERMS plans.

Cheers,

Elco
(Founder of BrewPi)

Do you guys have a paypal or something to take donations? I am sure most here would love to give money.

Also atleast for me its not entirely the cost of the Shield. For me the spawn of this entire idea was that its that the features it gives dont interest me. Honestly i think the software control is where its at, i dont care to spend another $100+ USD for a rotary encoder and LCD panel and the other widgets ill never use. Just like my chamber that i rarely look into, I just set the Brewpi temp via my phone and leave it for 2 weeks.

 

[day_trippr]

Do you guys have a paypal or something to take donations? I am sure most here would love to give money.

Um...no.

But Elco is more than welcome to grab my multi-BrewPi installation script, strip out my stream-of-consciousness comments, and use it.
Heck, it got wbarber69 out of the hole, so it should work for anyone

Cheers!

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Um...no.

But Elco is more than welcome to grab my multi-BrewPi installation script, strip out my stream-of-consciousness comments, and use it.
Heck, it got wbarber69 out of the hole, so it should work for anyone

Cheers!

Why not? While i do enjoy DIY cheapness, as a software developer myself even if hes doing it open source i realize a mans gotta live and eat

As for helping Elco I hope to be able too some day, i am just not exactly sure what types of things need to get done and being where i am and such a different schedule its hard to chat on IRC except on weekends. And now a baby coming in 3 months my free time is more limited

FWIW I write Test automation software for Network adapters in C/C++ currently for the last 5 years. Honestly I didnt expect this thread to grow so huge, i mean i know its power but i wasnt sure if there was a huge demand for it especially with the work alphaomega did with the STC-1000+ firmware. I just want to get it into as many users hands as possible.

Its also possible i may write a article for the front page of HBT to get even more people in, so if there is any way people can donate to the cause via Paypal or the like, for those that dont have the skill set to donate code that would be good to have.

 

[day_trippr]

Why not? Good question.

Mailing a $20 check instead of spending all those hours supporting BrewPi here would certainly have been the easier row to hoe...

Cheers!

 

[bufford]

So I have tried everything FuzzeWuzze Suggested. Still no love!

I did get this reply fro elco:


Commented by elco:

You don't seem to have the arduino-core package installed, so it cannot find the boards.txt file in the default location: /usr/share/arduino/hardware/arduino/boards.txt

Any Idea how I can fix this issue?

 

[wbarber69]

Sudo apt-get install arduino-core

 

[wbarber69]

Perhaps it's the length of my testing cable but now I'm having issues with my temp probes connecting and disconnecting every second…

Gotta shorten the lead and see what comes of it.