HOWTO - Make a BrewPi Fermentation Controller For Cheap

BrewSwag 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.
how long before the temp sensors begin to record temps?

i've got everything put together and brew pi is open, i've got a test profile running, the script is running and I can see the constants that I've selected, but i'm not getting any input from the temp sensors

I must have an issue of some kind, not sure what it might be. It recognized my devices and I set them up as instructed, but the temp sensors aren't feeding any data
 
DivrDwn said:
how long before the temp sensors begin to record temps?

i've got everything put together and brew pi is open, i've got a test profile running, the script is running and I can see the constants that I've selected, but i'm not getting any input from the temp sensors

I must have an issue of some kind, not sure what it might be. It recognized my devices and I set them up as instructed, but the temp sensors aren't feeding any data
Click to expand...

After some troublshooting online, my power supply may be to blame.
 
I just had that exact scenario occur. I'm tempted to finger my mucking around with brewpi's crontab, but at the end I had to power cycle everything - including the Uno. Then it all came right back up. It's conceivable the one-wire bus got wedged and it took a power cycle to unjam it.

Question: in the Maintenance Panel - Device Configuration, does the device list show any "Installed Devices"? Or is everything shown under "Detected Devices"?

My BrewPi install refuses to provide any obvious means of storing device configuration - or pretty much anything wrt settings. Everything - and especially the device configuration - seems remarkably volatile. I'm wondering if this is normal or if my installation got hosed along the way and BrewPi isn't writing out a configuration file that it would reload if it could find it...

Cheers!
 
FuzzeWuzze said:
My config stays across reboots on the RPI
Click to expand...

Ok. Thanks for that.
How about the devices under Maintenance Panel - Device Configuration? Everything under Detected Devices or are some/all "Installed Devices"?


So I definitely have something amiss here - which actually makes me feel better about BrewPi (it would be shabby to release something that can't remember what you just did two minutes later ;) )

When I get a chance I'll poke around a bit but if all fails I'll just do a fresh installation. Since I know what the potential conflict is between BrewPi and RaspberryPints as I went through the manual install I can manage a full auto-magic installation this time and let 'er rip...

Cheers!
 
Yes their all under installed, not detected anymore since i set them up.

My guess is that your permissions are what is wrong, either you dont have a brewpi & pi account, and or they dont have the right permissions to write to specific directories that you should set via commands.

if i remember correctly somewhere in the brewpi stuff is a fixpermissions.sh script or something similar you could try running.
 
FuzzeWuzze said:
[...]if i remember correctly somewhere in the brewpi stuff is a fixpermissions.sh script or something similar you could try running.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same, but I had run that script prior (it's in /home/brewpi/utils). I ran it again but frankly didn't expect that to fix anything at this point (and it didn't).

Thanks for the thought though...

Cheers!
 
So here's the beauty of making frequent SD card images: I was able to roll back to just before I manually installed BrewPi, boot up, make an on-card back-up of the /var/www folder (that the BrewPi automatic installer will also back-up before erasing - but I just wanted to be totally safe on that) run the installer, rename the BrewPi index.php to brewpi.php (so my RaspberryPints index.php wouldn't conflict) then move the entire backed-up contents of /var/www back to its original location.

Et voila! After running through the initial BrewPi setup I have it all running again - and this time it actually remembers the device configuration and other settings over reboots. I have no idea what was missing with my manual install but I suspect there's either step(s) missing from their writeup or somehow I skipped something.

Also...I found a better way to suppress the emails issued by the BrewPi cron jobs: keep the original BrewPi job strings intact, and add one line to the brewpi cron file:

MAILTO=""

Yup. It's that simple. Now BrewPi's log files get updated as designed, the only thing that doesn't happen is a stream of emails being sent every time BrewPi checks itself to see if it's running (every minute)...

Cheers!
 
I think i have the arduino side of things all wired up on the bread board. I'm a noob at this so if there is something alarming please let me know. there is a resistor in there. Sorry for the bad phone photos.

my sensors are red (vcc), yellow (gnd), and Green (data).

IMG_20140521_194435_198.jpg


IMG_20140521_212135.jpg
 
oy.. so i set up both arduino's with two instances of brewpi (named freezer and fridge) on the same raspberry pi and if i start the scripts manually (from terminal, not web interface) they both work..

fridge will autostart perfectly on restart but on freezer i get this error in the stderr.txt log

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/brewpi/freezer/brewpi.py", line 707, in <module>
csvFile = open(localCsvFileName, "a")
IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/home/brewpi/freezer/data/Lagering/Lage$

anyone have any idea? when i ran into other permission problems it was because i didnt add brewpi to the group.. but i can't see that being the case here since it is working for the fridge brewpi

the cron.d files are exactly the same. i save as-ed the working fridge one as the freezer one and fixed the path.. so i know its not from that

edit: ran fixPermissions.sh and that seems to have fixed it? for now at least
 
ok, I have this running great except for the following issues:

1. I don't have wifi connected to it but the logs show that it's constantly checking for wifi. How can I turn that off?
2. I can't get the .htaccess script to work. I've followed the directions but it still allows anyone to view it on the web.

Thanks for all of the hard work from everyone, especially Fuzze!!!!
 
dtgrdn said:
ok, I have this running great except for the following issues:

1. I don't have wifi connected to it but the logs show that it's constantly checking for wifi. How can I turn that off?
2. I can't get the .htaccess script to work. I've followed the directions but it still allows anyone to view it on the web.

Thanks for all of the hard work from everyone, especially Fuzze!!!!
Click to expand...

for 1. its a line in the /etc/cron.d/brewpi i'm pretty sure

2. i have no idea
 
For the first problem:

cd /etc/cron.d
sudo nano brewpi

There should be two lines with "wifichecker".
The first is a comment. Make the second line a comment, too.
Thusly:

# entry:wifichecker
#*/10 * * * * root $scriptpath/utils/wifiChecker.sh 1>>$stdoutpath 2>>$stderrpath &


For the second:

Worth reviewing your steps. I've gone through this a few times and this has worked consistently.


cd /etc/apache2/sites-available

sudo nano default

look for <directory /var/www/> ... </directory>
change allowOverride to All

restart apache:
cd /usr/sbin
sudo apache2ctl -k graceful

cd /var/www

sudo nano .htaccess
Add all this including the punctuation:

<Files "index.php">
AuthUserFile /var/www/private/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName "Put Your Brewery Name Here"
AuthType Basic

<Limit GET POST>
require valid-user
</Limit>
</Files>

Write the file out and exit.

mkdir private
cd private

htpasswd -c .htpasswd username (where username is whatever actual username you'll use to access the web page. I use brewpi, fwiw)...

Cheers!
 
day_trippr

Thanks for the clear instructions! I found links for disabling wifi but they weren't clear on commenting the second line. After looking at your instructions for the password file I found 2 issues with mine. I changed the wrong Allowoverride in sites-available and had a spell error in my .htaccess.

Both work like a charm now!!

Thanks for you help :mug:
 
sub'd

I've been developing in Linux for over 10 years for work and just came across this thread. Hoping to build something similar soon.
 
dtgrdn said:
day_trippr

Thanks for the clear instructions! I found links for disabling wifi but they weren't clear on commenting the second line. After looking at your instructions for the password file I found 2 issues with mine. I changed the wrong Allowoverride in sites-available and had a spell error in my .htaccess.

Both work like a charm now!!

Thanks for you help :mug:
Click to expand...

Happy to help!

I've been having more fun with this stuff than actual brewing.
Is that bad?

Cheers! ;)
 
day_trippr said:
Happy to help!

I've been having more fun with this stuff than actual brewing.
Is that bad?

Cheers! ;)
Click to expand...

No it's not bad at all!

I'm the same way. I work in technology so this is all fun to me. When I first started brewing I didn't realize how much technology was involved in these little projects. I think it keeps it more interesting.

Cheers!!
 
day_trippr said:
Happy to help!

I've been having more fun with this stuff than actual brewing.
Is that bad?

Cheers! ;)
Click to expand...

I know the feel, this is probably my 3rd fermentation build the first two being my own code.

I have some theories and ideas on making a digital hydrometer, the so called "Holy grail" of homebrewing gadgets IMO...I really need to do some more work on it to see if its feasible. Its really the only thing no one has cracked to make truely functioning and cheap..theres some products but they are just way too expensive and from what i understand way too sensitive to going out of calibration.
 
FuzzeWuzze said:
I know the feel, this is probably my 3rd fermentation build the first two being my own code.

I have some theories and ideas on making a digital hydrometer, the so called "Holy grail" of homebrewing gadgets IMO...I really need to do some more work on it to see if its feasible. Its really the only thing no one has cracked to make truely functioning and cheap..theres some products but they are just way too expensive and from what i understand way too sensitive to going out of calibration.
Click to expand...

I have actually been working on this as well. Let me know if you want to bang heads together for this.:tank:
 
FuzzeWuzze said:
I have some theories and ideas on making a digital hydrometer, the so called "Holy grail" of homebrewing gadgets
Click to expand...

Interesting! Count me in as watching closely. So far I"ve seen the BrewBug measure weight of object suspended by fishline, then the tilting capsule whose tilt changes with density, and the two pressures of tubes at different heights--I stand by with breathless antici....pation to see what you come up with, given the resounding success of your past endeavors. :rockin:
 
My .htaccess file

Code: 
<Files "index.php">
AuthUserFile /var/www/foo/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName "Clover Creek Brewery Restricted Area"
AuthType Basic

<Limit GET POST>
require valid-user
</Limit>
</Files>

my /etc/apache2/sites-available/default file
Code: 
<VirtualHost *:80>
	ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost

	DocumentRoot /var/www
	<Directory />
		Options FollowSymLinks
		AllowOverride None
	</Directory>
	<Directory /var/www/>
		Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
		AllowOverride All
		Order allow,deny
		allow from all
	</Directory>

	ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
	<Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin">
		AllowOverride None
		Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
		Order allow,deny
		Allow from all
	</Directory>

	ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log

	# Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
	# alert, emerg.
	LogLevel warn

	CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

and lets assume that my .passwd file is correct and in the correct place.

File Permissions
/etc/apache2/sites-available/default 644
/var/www/brewpi/.htaccess 644
/var/www/foo/.htpasswd 644

It's still not working..
 
cool77 said:
Hello,

I have seen a Temperature Sensor Shield Module on eBay. Is this module replace the need of the 4.7K resistor? If I understand correctly what I read so far, I would be able to plug in all the sensors on one of this module.

I'm starting to build my brewpi fermentor with the help of this thread.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-DS18B20-Temperature-Sensor-Shield-Module-without-DS18B20-Chip-/141271598463

Thanks

Cool77
Click to expand...

uh.... that is probably a 4.7K resistor and a current limiting resistor for the LED. My pi's arduino has a proto-shield plugged into it with the 4.7K resistor and four DS18B20's soldered onto it. Buy a protosheild like this and solder a resistor into it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Arduino...417?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27e03e2fe1
$_57.JPG
 
Never mind on the .htaccess help - got it to work - It's amazing how things look different when you post them on a forum - the error becomes glaringly obvious... I changed the AllowOveride in the first group "DocumentRoot" to All.
 
FYI

If you're having a problem with brewpi recognizing but not reading your temp sensors after you assign them, it could be a power problem you're having. I was using a 5V 1A cellphone charger to power my Rpi and I had everything set up correctly but was getting a "null" value for my temp sensors after assigning them.

I did some reading and due to the high resistance of the cheap wires in the cell phone charger, my system wasn't able to draw enough power.

I picked up a different power supply for the Rpi and a power supply for the arduino, and I'm now in business...WOOHOO
 
FuzzeWuzze said:
I have some theories and ideas on making a digital hydrometer, the so called "Holy grail" of homebrewing gadgets IMO...I really need to do some more work on it to see if its feasible. Its really the only thing no one has cracked to make truely functioning and cheap..theres some products but they are just way too expensive and from what i understand way too sensitive to going out of calibration.
Click to expand...


The dream. Just think of the custom brewing profiles you could create base on gravity instead of just time and temp. All through an interface without opening up the fermenter.



Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
cool77 said:
I have seen a Temperature Sensor Shield Module on eBay. Is this module replace the need of the 4.7K resistor? If I understand correctly what I read so far, I would be able to plug in all the sensors on one of this module.[...]
Click to expand...

Clearly you could only "plug" one sensor into that little module.
What you need is something that looks like this - only prettier ;)

Cheers!

1wire_bridge_01_sm.jpg
 
Looks good, my only advice is just make sure there isn't a bunch of bare wire if you're cramming it in that tight, I'd hate to see the 120v lines short and start a fire, wrap exposed wires in electrical tape.
 
Thanks. there's no exposed wires, everything is soldered and shrink wrapped.

Thanks again for your write up, I can't wait to use this on my next brew!
 
Hook it up with some water before hand to work out any issues

Also what plastic box is that
 
I just picked up my spare fridge and it is now in place. More noob questions...

1. Will the freezer portion of the refrigerator still work? Or will both sections be the temp you set it at in brewpi?

2. Can you bypass the freezer portion altogether? If so would that be a good place to store my netbook, arduino, relay board, etc? Then just drill a hole straight through the bottom of the freezer floor for the temp probe? I know there wouldn't be a lot of air movement in there, but I got the netbook for free and am not really worried about it prematurely breaking on me...plus my garage will be plenty hot this summer anyway....regardless if it is sitting on top of the refrigerator or not.

3. Where can I purchase the 4.7k resistor? Are they all a standard type?

Thanks!
 
1. Work yes, get cold enough i dont know it really depends. The brewpi will control the entire refrigerator, the freezer and fridge are one...and in most cases the fridge gets some of its cooling from the freezer compartment anyways. But because the fridge will be turning on and off repeatedly i wouldnt actually use it as a freezer as i dont know how cold it will keep things, you could try putting in one of those digital thermometers that track high and low in there to see how cold it gets over a typical brew cycle of turning on and off and if it remains cold enough for what you want to put in it.

2) Not really no, as i said earlier a lot of fridges get atleast some of their cooling from the freezer. I wouldnt go drilling holes inside as you may hit a coolant line and ruin the entire unit.

3) Radio shack sells them in various wattage sizes, the wattage doesnt really matter just get one thats large enough for you to work with..i think i got a pack of 5 for a few dollars...
 
Thanks guys. I really appreciate the advice and guidance as this is completely new territory for me.

SO basically, if I understand this correctly, once this is all wired up...the refrigerator plugs into one of the sockets and the heater plugs into the other correct? You don't need to hard wire anything into the electrical system of the refrigerator itself?

If this is correct, then really the only things that need to be ran into the inside of the refrigerator are the temp probe (which attaches to the arduino) and the power cable going to the heater? All of the other components can be mounted outside of the refrigerator?

If this is correct, where is the best place to drill a hole in the fridge to get these things inside?

Thanks again!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

K
Help With Wiring of AC Side of BrewPi?
Replies
7
Views
2K
day_trippr
day_trippr
T
Sold Free* BrewPi-ESP8266 Temperature Controller
Replies
3
Views
1K
Thorrak
T
D
Unable to install devices on BrewPi Remix
Replies
5
Views
1K
day_trippr
day_trippr
B
need to rebuild a controller
Replies
16
Views
713
BrewingCanuck
B
rkhanso
For Sale Completed/tested BrewPiLess-32 Controllers for sale. $40, shipping included
Replies
9
Views
2K
rkhanso
rkhanso
BrewSwag 300

Latest posts

Back
Top