HOWTO - Make a BrewPi Fermentation Controller For Cheap

[atoughram]

Thanks Day and Fuzze - something weird is going on. I definitely have the hot side bridge removed. I had tested it when I built it and was able to control each independently. In doing some troubleshooting this morning, I power-cycled everything and upon boot only the cold outlet powered on and not the hot. BrewPi says it is idling, but it is still trying to cool, even when BrewPi is set to off. My first two fermentations did almost exactly what I wanted them to do, even without having implemented a heating element. Is it possible my Arduino board went bad or a relay is stuck?

Are you using a relay board or SSR's?

If your using the relay board, is the little red LED on for the cooling relay?

 

[alfista]

Are you using a relay board or SSR's?

If your using the relay board, is the little red LED on for the cooling relay?

I have a two port SainSmart relay like this. It is mounted behind the outlets so I can't readily see the LEDs. However, if I power down the Arduino completely, it stays powered on.

 

[atoughram]

I have a two port SainSmart relay like this. It is mounted behind the outlets so I can't readily see the LEDs. However, if I power down the Arduino completely, it stays powered on.

OK - Same relays as I have - if you power down the Arduino, the little LED on the relay board should be off too.

If the LED is off but you still have power, either the relay contacts have welded together or you have them wired on the normally closed contacts.

Look at the picture of the relay board - do you have the wires on the yellow squared terminals?

 

[alfista]

OK - Same relays as I have - if you power down the Arduino, the little LED on the relay board should be off too.

If the LED is off but you still have power, either the relay contacts have welded together or you have them wired on the normally closed contacts.

Look at the picture of the relay board - do you have the wires on the yellow squared terminals?

Thanks atoughram. I will take it apart and look at it tonight. To clarify, having the wires connected to the terminals highlighted in yellow would mean it is wired incorrectly, right? The yellow does not match the wiring guide on page one and I'm sure I matched that guide.

 

[alfista]

I just tested the board with webIOPI and another pi and the relay seems fine. I didn't see any LED on when powering on so I must have a short somewhere. Will rebuilt it tomorrow and see if I can get it going.

 

[day_trippr]

Yeah, using the NC and NO points ain't gonna work. For anything.
You need to include the Common in there, and logically, the Normally Open points...

Try this instead...

Cheers!

 

[alfista]

Yeah, using the NC and NO points ain't gonna work. For anything.
You need to include the Common in there, and logically, the Normally Open points...

Try this instead...

Cheers!

Thanks Day_trippr - that is how I had it. The relay module is good and tested. My first fermentations with this ran like it was on rails. Then the Uno/Pi crashed and haven't been the same since. Not sure what is going on. Looking for a short somewhere and rebuilding from scratch.

 

[day_trippr]

Thanks Day_trippr - that is how I had it. The relay module is good and tested. My first fermentations with this ran like it was on rails. Then the Uno/Pi crashed and haven't been the same since. Not sure what is going on. Looking for a short somewhere and rebuilding from scratch.

Before you do anything that dramatic, if the BrewPi gui is telling you it's trying to do the right thing, you've triple checked your Device Assignments, and the relay module works elsewhere, then the problem is either the Arduino, or more likely its connections to the relay module, and that's just four wires (power, ground, and "digital" IO 5 & 6) to check...

Cheers!

 

[wbarber69]

He may have swapped actuator ports accidentally. We need a picture if your configuration and a picture of your list of installed devices. Perhaps you are using fan instead of cooling or something simple like that. Or perhaps the arduino script got corrupted somehow.

 

[atoughram]

My finished brewpi remodel. I took a picture of my control relays - I had it wrong - here is the correct way to wire them.

 

[basisforaday]

Guys,

I'm just starting this project. Have everything wired up and ready to go but now I'm trying to install BrewPi through the automatic installation but I'm getting an error. When I run git clone https://github.com/brewpi/brewpi-tools.git ~/brewpi-tools I get a "failed to connect to github.com:443; connection refused while accessing..." message. Any ideas?

 

[day_trippr]

On the chance that something's out of date, do this in a CLI:

$ sudo apt-get update

Then try the package fetch again.

And maybe change the url to http: instead of https:

Cheers!

 

[basisforaday]

Hmm, now i'm getting a "Couldn't resolve host 'github.com' while accessing..." error. Thanks for the quikc reply by the way!

 

[wbarber69]

Do you have the rpi connected to the internet. Are you using wifi.

 

[basisforaday]

Yeah, its connected to the internet. I can ping google.com. I was trying to use wifi but can't seem to set that up yet.

 

[wbarber69]

Run
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install git-core
Then try again.

And run all your commands with sudo before them

 

[basisforaday]

Actually I thought I was pinging google. Everything I try to ping comes back "64 bytes from github.com (192.168.206.1)"

 

[atoughram]

In a terminal window, at a prompt, type the command "ifconfig" and post what it outputs. should look something like this.

pi@brewpi ~ $ ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr nyb:nyb:nyb:nyb:nyb:nyb
          inet addr:192.168.1.251  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:487937 errors:0 dropped:29 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:215376 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:73635224 (70.2 MiB)  TX bytes:38500826 (36.7 MiB)

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
          RX packets:76 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:76 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:5944 (5.8 KiB)  TX bytes:5944 (5.8 KiB)

 

[basisforaday]

So, I now have my wifi working and when I run ifconfig I get an IP address of 192.168.1.147 for it. For my straight ethernet connection I get an IP address of 192.168.206.2. Once I got the wifi working I was able to run the script and it did download all of the files. However, when I ran the install.sh script ton install everything I received some errors and it said at the bottom that the setup was not completed. I got a lot "Failed to fetch" messages.

 

[atoughram]

I've never ran my brewpi on a wireless connection, I pulled cat5 over to my chamber.

I know your going to have to edit /etc/network/interfaces and /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf to get a static IP on wireless - but it depends on your wireless at home.

 

[day_trippr]

So, I now have my wifi working and when I run ifconfig I get an IP address of 192.168.1.147 for it. For my straight ethernet connection I get an IP address of 192.168.206.2. Once I got the wifi working I was able to run the script and it did download all of the files. However, when I ran the install.sh script ton install everything I received some errors and it said at the bottom that the setup was not completed. I got a lot "Failed to fetch" messages.

Ok, so now you want to do the $ sudo apt-get update.
$ sudo apt-get upgrade is optional but usually a good idea...

btw, it's a bit strange that your dhcp server (usually, your router) is handing out addresses in two different subnets...

Cheers!

 

[alfista]

Ok - I'm frustrated.

After completing one great fermentation using the BrewPi system, my Pi crashed midway through a second fermentation and after the entire system seemed to be having a hard time deciding on heating or cooling.

So I reran all my wires, reformatted the Pi, installed all the software, and refreshed the Uno - erasing all settings. My relays weren't stuck and the wiring was good - tested with another Pi and software to control the relays.

I configured my two sensors easily, and they both showed accurate temps.

So, to test, I first set the Fridge Temp for five minutes, and then the beer temp. In both situations, the current temps were 30 degrees or so above the target so cooling should have kicked in. However, 20+ minutes later, it is still sitting at Idle.

What stupid setting am I missing?

 

[wbarber69]

Did you set up your actuators?

 

[atoughram]

btw, it's a bit strange that your dhcp server (usually, your router) is handing out addresses in two different subnets...

Cheers!

I'd assume he's got two separate routers (Wired and wireless??), both with dhcp turned on, but your right, thats a bit odd.

 

[alfista]

Did you set up your actuators?

Nope! Thanks! I forgot about that step in the build.
Tough work being frustrated, drinking beer and watching game 7 at the same time.

Thanks!

 

[atoughram]

it is still sitting at Idle.

hmm... this has me perplexed - it doesnt think there's anything to do.

On the chamber heater and chamber cooler - each has it's own device slot, is assigned to the same chamber (Chamber 1), are both chamber devices, are inverted, and are on the same pins that you have the wires connected to?

Also - press the "Fridge Constant" tab, enter a temperature where it should heat, and press "Apply".

 

[alfista]

hmm... this has me perplexed - it doesnt think there's anything to do.

On the chamber heater and chamber cooler - each has it's own device slot, is assigned to the same chamber (Chamber 1), are both chamber devices, are inverted, and are on the same pins that you have the wires connected to?

Also - press the "Fridge Constant" tab, enter a temperature where it should heat, and press "Apply".

Thanks - this one was an ID-10-T Error on my part. Not sure what my other issues were.

 

[eelgerg]

I've been following this thread for a short while. Am just starting our all-grain brewing and am looking to control germ temps as much as I can. This system sounds intriguing.

How difficult is it to follow the instructions at the beginning of the thread? Any noob experiences to share here? I have access to old PCs and am going to gather the parts listed on page 1 of the thread and start trying my hand at this little project

Any tips or guidance would be appreciated!


Gregory Lee
Kamloops, BC, Canada

 

[day_trippr]

It's busy inside!

But it's totally working with all the interface cables and the interior lid panel and a myriad of sockets and plugs. Even replicated my R'Pints tap list database from the temporary system to this one tonight, and have been correlating probes and testing spare meters and probes.

Just a few more tasks to get ready for installation...

Cheers!

 

[tob77]

I've been lurking in this thread for a while now and finally completed my build. My craigslist fermentation fridge came with a built in project box and fan I hacked the avr code to keep the fan on continuously as long as the BrewPi is not in off mode.

Big thanks to Elco for sharing this fantastic software with all of us. I couldn't be happier with its performance.
Elco, please add a way to donate some $$ for your hard work. I'd love to buy you a beer or two.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

I've been following this thread for a short while. Am just starting our all-grain brewing and am looking to control germ temps as much as I can. This system sounds intriguing.

How difficult is it to follow the instructions at the beginning of the thread? Any noob experiences to share here? I have access to old PCs and am going to gather the parts listed on page 1 of the thread and start trying my hand at this little project

Any tips or guidance would be appreciated!


Gregory Lee
Kamloops, BC, Canada

Its very simple if you follow the instructions Dont let all these guys huge builds discourage you, they are taking BrewPi to a new level running all of these instances at once across multiple chambers

 

[balrog]

its very simple if you follow the instructions dont let all these guys huge builds discourage you, they are taking brewpi to a new level running all of these instances at once across multiple chambers

+1!

 

[eelgerg]

Thanks for the support Fuzze. I'm doing my best to follow and will take a stab at running through the Linux and other programming steps.


Gregory Lee
Kamloops, BC, Canada

 

[day_trippr]

So I might have stumbled on the answer to why powering an Uno via a USB connection to a RaspberryPi can be problematic.

I plugged one of my Unos directly to an RPi via USB and without a separate power cable, then checked the 5V rail on the Uno - and it was sitting at 4.6 volts. And that was with the beefiest short (12") USB cable I had. With a skinny cable I've never used just because it looked like a complete POS the 5V rail was below 4.5 volts.

I'm betting that's low enough that the Uno's serial to USB convertor starts greying out which would explain why the control seems stable while communication with the BrewPi gui goes to heck.

fwiw, the point of the experiment was to see how I could eliminate the small 7.5V wall-wart I hacked and stuffed into my new system just to power the Uno. With all the reported issues with powering from USB I didn't even want to go there. But you can't just strap a 5V connection to the UNO as it's not designed to allow that - it forces the user into using either USB power or the power socket, probably to try to cut down on the number of murdered Unos.

So it appears the only sane way to do that is to do a small mod on the Uno to disable a switching FET that gates the USB 5V to the Uno 5V if the power socket isn't used. Then I can directly connect the Uno 5V to my system 5V and not pull power from or ship power to the USB connection. And get that silly wall wart out of my system.

I think I'm gonna hack the Uno tomorrow...

Cheers!

 

[NickZA]

I had the same problem when I wired up mine, I was only getting about 4.3V to the Arduino over the USB.

I traced the voltage drop to the Poly-fuses on the RPi. There is one on the underside of the board connected to the 5V micro USB input, and one for each of the USB Ports. Once I bridged them out, I get the full 5V over USB now.

I have an original V1 RPi, and apparently this is a common problem people have with them. I'm not sure if the V2 boards still have the Poly-fuses or not.

 

[wbarber69]

I don't think the b+ has the fuses. Since I can power the pi upstream of the USB hub.

 

[basisforaday]

Ok, so I have BrewPi installed but I'm having trouble programming the Arduino. When I select the hex file for the UNO Rev C in the webpage and hit start programming it doesn't do anything. Any thoughts?

 

[ulnpiper]

Go to the maintenance panel, click on View Logs. Then Refresh.

Do you see any error messages or USB port unknown type of entries?

 

[basisforaday]

Go to the maintenance panel, click on View Logs. Then Refresh.

Do you see any error messages or USB port unknown type of entries?

I got it. Just had to reboot the raspberry pi and reprogram again from the web interface. Now to set up devices, almost done!

What are people using to get an external IP address so you can access from anywhere, not just your local network?

Thanks for all of the halp and quick replies guys!

 

[basisforaday]

I got it. Just had to reboot the raspberry pi and reprogram again from the web interface. Now to set up devices, almost done!

What are people using to get an external IP address so you can access from anywhere, not just your local network?

Thanks for all of the halp and quick replies guys!

Also, when I set up my devices a few minutes ago it found my temp sensors but they are reading "null" values when I select Read Values. Any ideas?