iSpindle - DIY Electronic Hydrometer

[Tartan1]

is it with the calibration at different sugar levels

Yes you need to calibrate using the following directions https://www.ispindel.de/docs/Kalibrierung.html This should get you in the ballpark.

 

[paulfg]

Yes you need to calibrate using the following directions https://www.ispindel.de/docs/Kalibrierung.html This should get you in the ballpark.

thanks
I just dropped it into my fresh wort (put into fermenter 2 hours ago0 and I get 1.051 on my hydometer and brewspy gives the reading from Ispindel as 1.027 ,so some thing is amiss.
I am going to let this one track the fermentation and I will log the reading and note the hydrometer reading at the same time.
that i think will give a few data points.
Then when this brew is done I will try the sugar calibration as above

 

[DuncB]

You can easily use the readings you get from a ferment as your data points. But beware if yeast is all over the ispindel cap that will effect the readings.
However you will always get this occuring in a beer ferment. Less so if used in wine or mead.

 

[Randybrews]

I just built my ispindel with the WEMOS D1 Mini v4. I had the v3 but I broke the connectors when trying to resolder.

The v4 will flash and enable config mode. It will connect.

It seems to not send data updates after the first update - if the first update sends which is like a 20% chance. I am sending to Grainfather app.

I have seen that the wemos pro has a mod. Could this be the same? I wonder if it’s power related after sleep mode starts.

Anyone have suggestions or expertise to get the v4 to work?

 

[DuncB]

What firmware are you using?
Gravitymon seems to support newer hardware better and has very good support from the developer @mper.

 

[Randybrews]

I used the latest from ispindel

 

[DuncB]

I used the latest from ispindel

Have a look at and try
https://gravitymon.com/

 

[Randybrews]

Gravitymon has really nice documentation. It appears the v4 is not on the menu there as well. It also does not show capability with Grainfather.

I found a v3 on eBay and ordered that.

 

[RyPA]

In my 2 most recent batches my iSpindel does not appear to be reading gravity correctly. Prior to pitching it read 1.055, after pitching it is now showing an insanely off number. I have shaken the fermenter multiple times thinking there was some yeast stuck to it, but nothing, and no change to gravity at 2 days into fermentation. The batch prior to this also did the same. Is one of the hardware components going bad, or do I need to reflash firmware?

 

[Duck&BarrelBrewing]

Just wanted to say this is a great tool. I have two of them for each of my stainless steel fermenters and they are great. I have them integrated with MQTT to HomeAssistant which is a great Home Automation system. I can watch what the fermentation is doing from anywhere on my phone with the HA app and then it also logs all the readings to influx DB and I use Grafana to graf it all.

It is decently accurate, once you get it calibrated, and I mostly use it to track fermentation time. Once the gravity flat lines I know that fermentation is done.

Also I saw some people posting that the battery life is not good. Well it depends on how fast you want to take samples. There is a configuration where you can set the time at which it wakes up and reports the SG. I set mine to ever 15min and mine will last for two weeks of fermentation and 15min is plenty fast enough.

If anyone has questions on setup or how it works please let me know.

 

[DuncB]

Battery life is also impacted by the signal strength to the relay point. I have one Ispindel that I use fermenting wine with half hour signalling and it was working for a year without a recharge in a wine.

 

[redrocker652002]

I have not used mine in quite a while. It never seems to work right. If anybody is interested in purchasing it, I am open to that. To me, it was one of the few purchases I made that was a dud.

 

[RyPA]

I bought a parts kit from cayde1001 2.5 years ago and it has been working perfectly since. The only minor issue I had is the on/off switch died, likely from a trace amount of water that I closed in the tube after cleaning that corroded it. I bought a 20 pack of identical switches on AliExpress for around $5, replaced it, and it has been fine since, until now. Not sure what to do to resolve this new issue, but I may start with a firmware flash. Anyone that has experiene with my issue, please weigh in.

 

[RyPA]

My issue above fixed itself, I think a ton of yeast was caked onto the iSpindel cap. After soft crashing and shaking the fermenter a bit, the gravity line in the graph shot back up to 1.010, as expected.

 

[Renato_Maia]

I have many ESP8266 D1 Mini modules (USB-C and Micro-USB) that simply won't boot when powered on. I burn the software (6.5.1) before finally assembling them on the iSpindel and then test them on an iSpindel with sockets. I adopted this procedure due to many module failures (ESP and GY), purchased on Aliexpress and without having any problems damaging the PCB. None of them had any problems to record the software, but the firmware only starts after pressing several times, in sequence, in the reset button on the module. Has anyone experienced this and could help?

 

[DuncB]

I have many ESP8266 D1 Mini modules (USB-C and Micro-USB) that simply won't boot when powered on. I burn the software (6.5.1) before finally assembling them on the iSpindel and then test them on an iSpindel with sockets. I adopted this procedure due to many module failures (ESP and GY), purchased on Aliexpress and without having any problems damaging the PCB. None of them had any problems to record the software, but the firmware only starts after pressing several times, in sequence, in the reset button on the module. Has anyone experienced this and could help?

Bit late to the party here but have you tried the gravity mon software?
It's a little more forgiving if components aren't working, I think the ispindel software falls over if a sensor fails.

https://gravitymon.com/

Well supported thread on this forum as well and spin offs of the software such as kegmon and pressuremon.

 

[RyPA]

My issue above fixed itself, I think a ton of yeast was caked onto the iSpindel cap. After soft crashing and shaking the fermenter a bit, the gravity line in the graph shot back up to 1.010, as expected.

I discovered that the gyro board does not read accurately, or at all, if the battery is low. With my battery appearing yellow in brewspy, it was reading at a constant 0.903 SG from fermentation start to finish. I at first thought maybe the gyro board was broken due to potential moisture getting to it. But after this batch was done I took the iSpindel out of the fermenter, cleaned it, and gave it a full charge and it is now reading as it should.