iSpindle - DIY Electronic Hydrometer

[BreeBrew]

es, the Floaty really is elegant, just two inexpensive boards and a battery......

You think so? You also need a relatively expensive 3D printed sled. Regarding that the design of @Open Source Distilling is much more elegant, just a custom pcb, some parts a battery and a tube. And no lose wires, the battery is in a holder soldered to the PCB.

 

[ZeSlammy]

Indulge me, save me some scrollback, and tell me about (or link me to) information on the floaty?

This in English might be slightly more useful : Floaty hydrometer : Wireless Electronic Hydrometer & Thermometer

 

[DuncB]

I think the floaty is bluetooth, so not sure you can access it from everywhere that easily.

 

[toadyus]

There are plenty of sites that discuss the electronics required to make the iSpindel work. Briefly, diode to stabalise the reset circuit, resistors pull up for the temperature sensor and voltage divider to allow the D1 mini to measure the battery voltage. The iSpindel won't complete the boot cycle if it doesn't find all of the hardware.

I've looked at making a very small iSpindel, smaller than the 50ml tube, but I cannot find a suitable tube, small enough to fit into (and out of) a 1 gallon demijohn. I've based it on a ESP12F and it works fine on the bench, I've even layed out a PCB in anticipation. It's more difficult to flash as it requires a separate USB to serial converter, but is straighforward.

The electronics part is the easy part, getting it to be buoyant is the hard part. I've been working on a smaller sized unit that fits in a 2l preform or the containers that white labs used to sell yeast in and I am about to give up on the dream of a smaller ispindel.

 

[ChrisThomas]

@toadyus The float angle and behaviour was something that I am worried about, but as I can't find a suitable container I can't experiment with. You say you used a 2l preform? The 2l preforms I've looked at have on outside diameter almost the same at the inside diameter of my glass demi-johns so I've avoided. What are the dimensions of the preform you have?