aubiecat
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Well done Floydsview. Very well done.
HOWTO - Make a BrewPi Fermentation Controller For Cheap
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Well done Floydsview. Very well done.
aubiecat
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Good find. I would easily pay the extra $8.00 if I needed them for an ongoing build. I will probably use these when I upgrade my electric BIAB rig.
For anyone wondering about the accuracy of the DS18B20 temperature sensors, I tested my system for the first time the other day, with two sensors hooked up, in my living room. The sensors were about 3 inches apart. I put my Thermapen near them and let everything equilibrate to the room temperature for 10-15 minutes (maybe longer). All three sensors read the same temperature (72.4 degrees F). I was pleasantly surprised!
This is probably a noobish question, but whatever. When I installed Rpi, it told me what URL to use to get to the web interface. Fast-forward a few days. The Rpi has been powered down and powered back up. I just tried accessing the web interface, but the page didn't load. It turns out that the URL has reset. I was only able to determine this by hooking a monitor and keyboard up to the Rpi and looking at the wifi configuration. Is there a way to prevent Rpi from changing the web interface url?
How do I determine that? Isn't that what changed on me? It was one number, now it's another.
wbarber69
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Not to sound too crass. But if you can't determine your ip address without assistance, then you're going to have a hell of a time keeping the rpi going with wifi.
I'd suggest you login to your router and look under attached devices (or whatever your router calls it). Look for the one labeled RASPBERRY-Pi. It'll have an IP address address associated with it. Usually starts with 192.168
I'd suggest you login to your router and look under attached devices (or whatever your router calls it). Look for the one labeled RASPBERRY-Pi. It'll have an IP address address associated with it. Usually starts with 192.168
craigmw
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Go into your router's configuration page and have it list all the devices on your local network. It should have assigned an IP address to the WiFi dongle on your RPi. Use this IP address to access the BrewPi web page.
There are also directions in the brewpi setup to make your IP address static. If you can't find them you can look through the raspberrypints setup instructions and find them there. Then you will not have to look it up each time.
BillKlineVT
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There's a pretty handy app for iOS called Fing that will scan the network your phone is on and give details of each device it finds. I use this for the pi I deployed that isn't setup with a static IP. It finds the pi and tells me its current IP address. It's much easier to make the pi IP static if you can via your router settings, as previously mentioned.
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jcc4507fly
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Overall, this looks to be working quite nicely. Great work, Elco![/quote]
Looks great! For your blow off try using a plastic gallon milk/water jug. The hose slides right into the handle of the jug and keeps it below water/sani level in the jug. Plus it has a smaller footprint than the bed pan you're using. Just a suggestion! :cheers:
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BillKlineVT
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I use wine bottles... The blowoff tube stays in no prob without any clamps and they are skinny enough to fit next to the carboy
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craigmw
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Overall, this looks to be working quite nicely. Great work, Elco!
Looks great! For your blow off try using a plastic gallon milk/water jug. The hose slides right into the handle of the jug and keeps it below water/sani level in the jug. Plus it has a smaller footprint than the bed pan you're using. Just a suggestion! :cheers:
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Good suggestion! I usually don't use blow off tubes, but I like your idea. BTW, that has never been used as a bedpan (AFAIK)
craigmw
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Great idea! I have quite a few wine bottles around, but no empties. I will need to rectify that first before I can implement this.
craigmw
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Hmm, interesting thought. I may have to try this out, although I'm not all that concerned about compressor cycling. Keep in mind that while the fridge temp appears to be varying quite a bit, that's stretched over a week. I would guess no more than about 12-15 cycles per day. Most of the time, the fridge is idling. The only important thing to me is that the beer temp is even, and it is certainly right on temp. I'm currently bringing it up to 68F (without a heater) over a 2 day ramp up, and then will hold for 2 days for a diacetyl rest, and then drop it down to 36 for a cold crash before kegging it.
One of the cool things about being able to plot this info out is that it is quite clear when the most active fermentation took place on the chart. During the first four or so days, the fridge temp was about 5-10 degrees F below the beer temp. As active fermentation died down, the fridge temp is centered around the beer temp. This is a good indicator of the exothermic stage of high fermentation. It'd still be cool to have an automated SG probe though. I hope Elco does finally get around to selling it.
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Great idea! I have quite a few wine bottles around, but no empties. I will need to rectify that first before I can implement this.
I've had issues with the small volume wine bottles pooting krausen-flecked StarSan bubbly goop. I use a growler. Just sayin.
This is exactly the kind of info I was looking for. Thanks!
It looks like there's a Fing app for Android, too, if anyone's interested. Thanks for the heads up!
Indeed there is, and it's actually pretty cool.
I have a multi-tiered LAN with a public subnet, private subnet, and a subnet dedicated to MoCA devices. Seeing all of those nodes enumerated on my phone was pretty impressive...
Cheers - and thanks for the tip!
I've finally got a fridge to hook up to the brewpi, a 14.5 cuft chest freezer. I scavanged all my electronics from other projects, sous vide and a bbq temp controller. I only had one dallas one-wire temp probe, I have more on order but delivery is pretty far out (I'm having trouble with the seller).
So I figured I could at least do "Fridge Constant Control" and still use the fermentation chamber until the new sensors are delivered.
I wired it up last night and ran through the night for testing. With all default controller settings I'm getting about a 6 degree F temp swing over about 45 minute cycles. Is this about normal, or should I tune my setting? Will these chamber temp swings be fine on a fermenting batch of beer?
I was thinking that I would just set my fridge setpoint to the bottom of the yeast's temp range + 6 or so, or maybe even lower for the first few days of fermentation. Thoughts?
So I figured I could at least do "Fridge Constant Control" and still use the fermentation chamber until the new sensors are delivered.
I wired it up last night and ran through the night for testing. With all default controller settings I'm getting about a 6 degree F temp swing over about 45 minute cycles. Is this about normal, or should I tune my setting? Will these chamber temp swings be fine on a fermenting batch of beer?
I was thinking that I would just set my fridge setpoint to the bottom of the yeast's temp range + 6 or so, or maybe even lower for the first few days of fermentation. Thoughts?
wbarber69
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First off I've had good results with this seller on amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CHEZ250/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
Secondly. You're going to have better temp control once you've got a large mass of liquid in there. The brewpi software uses an algorithm that tries to keep the beer constant by altering the temperature of the air in the chamber. You'll see that once you have a probe inside a thermowell in your fermenter that the liquid will be consistent while the chamber temp may fluctuate to compensate for what's going in the fermenter. But 6 degrees f is not that bad for just air temp inside your freezer. I take it you don't have a fan in there yet? But yeah, the brewpi algorithm will be much more efficient if it actually has something to do.
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I went with these: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007STHA22/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
While the seller has been polite enough in our conversations, it's been over a month and I'm still waiting on delivery.
I don't have a fan in there, but I was just thinking about that this morning. I have a 120mm cpu fan that I that I thought I could use, but does a fan really make that much of a difference? I take it by the way you stated your question that the use of a fan is fairly common? Do you rig a fan up to run constantly or just when the relays are switched? Even better, does the brewpi already have support for a separate fan device?
While the seller has been polite enough in our conversations, it's been over a month and I'm still waiting on delivery.
I don't have a fan in there, but I was just thinking about that this morning. I have a 120mm cpu fan that I that I thought I could use, but does a fan really make that much of a difference? I take it by the way you stated your question that the use of a fan is fairly common? Do you rig a fan up to run constantly or just when the relays are switched? Even better, does the brewpi already have support for a separate fan device?
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wbarber69
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Brewpi had an actuator for a fan that only comes on with the heating or cooling. But most of us put something I there that runs either constantly or on a timer. Cold air falls while warm air rises without circulation.
aubiecat
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A fan keeps the air from stratifying. The air temp will be the same in every corner of the fermentation chamber. Yes the BrewPi has support for the fan.
If you want to use a fan you'll need to get a 4 channel relay. The fan will turn on simultaneously when the cooling or heating cycle is running.
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I think I'll try some computer fans and a mosfet first, still trying to keep this thing "for cheap"!
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Wall wart from old phone, case fan from cpu, always on, stirring it all to the same beery goodness temperature.
I agree. On all the time or not at all. You have no convection when you're not heating or cooling, so that's when you would need it most in my opinion.
wbarber69
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When I finally get around to finishing my setup I think I'm going to use 1 fan to cool and another to circulate. Use sing the both sides of the relay. So when my cooling kicks on the circulating fan will kick off and the cooling fan will kick on. But I haven't quite figured that part out yet.
bufford
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Ok So I am back again asking for help. I have abandoned the Mega's and now have my system up using 2 uno's. I followed daytripprs instructions on page 140. Everything seemed to be going fine! Then I discovered that neither brewpi arduino will follow a profile. Bother work like a dream when set to beer constant. I also am unable to change the brew name under the BrewPi logo on the screen. When I attempt the change the graph goes blank. Upon reboot it returns to My First BrewPi Run. I think it is a permissions issue but have no idea how to fix it. If there is any help out there I would greatly appreciate it.
Do y'all just dangle a fan in your fridge and let her rip or are y'all deliberate about how you set it up? I was thinking of trying to use the fan with a tube to draw air directly from the bottom and force it to the top like in the case of the "Mother of a Fermentation Chiller".
aubiecat
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My deep freezers came with wire baskets. That made an optimal location to mount the fan. I just zip tied the fan to the basket.
I found these nice 12mm three pole aviation plugs on ebay that look like they are good quality for a great price.
As a matter of fact, while I was posting this I decided to purchase some. 10 sets for $10.16 delivered. I may not get them till December but I'll have them for future projects.
Those are M12 connectors, I sell the same kind in the shop.
Someone requested a chart only webpage.
Check the chart-only branch on my GitHub:
https://github.com/elcojacobs/brewpi-www/blob/chart-only/chart-only.php
The way the pages are built is a bit nasty, so I had to just copy a lot of code from other pages. I promise to built it better in the next version
In my write-up, find the section re: running the fix permissions script(s).
I found if you edit the fixPermissions.sh file stored in each BrewPi instantiation to point to the proper paths, they work fine.
For example, edit fixPermissions.sh for the first BrewPi instance (note my path names might not match yours):
$ sudo nano /home/brewpi/brewpi1/utils/fixPermissions.sh
Change webPath to point to the brewpi1 folder under /var/www:
webPath="/var/www/brewpi1"
Save the file, then repeat for the next instance. Continuing with the example:
$ sudo nano /home/brewpi/brewpi2/utils/fixPermissions.sh
webPath="/var/www/brewpi2"
Then run each fixPermissions.sh script:
$ sudo bash /home/brewpi/brewpi1/utils/fixPermissions.sh
$ sudo bash /home/brewpi/brewpi2/utils/fixPermissions.sh
If you aren't running WinSCP on a peecee, you should consider it.
It makes finding and fixing ownership and permissions a lot easier than via command lining...
Cheers!
Yup, my office is totally infested with monsters, from R'Pints through multi-BrewPi through temperature loggers to motion sensors. It's a good thing I set my own work schedule or plates would be hitting the floor
Cheers!
Cheers!
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