iSpindle - DIY Electronic Hydrometer

[nhannath]

Have you tried blanking out both addresses as shown at the bottom of the page linked below? Do you have a serial monitor output you can share?
iSpindel Firmware Flash | Open Source Distilling

Hi Joe.

I bought several of the Jeffrey 2.1 boards this week. Manufactured on Monday, delivered to CLT on Thursday - WOW. Directions are great. I just can't get any of my D1 Min's to come back in AP mode after flashing the current version. Only 1 of them has been installed on the board. No matter how I press the rest button 3-4 times. I get 4 flashes total with the second being almost a double flash.

 

[HarryB]

@Thorrak
And as I mentioned, I have to take the cap off to charge which always messes with the calibration anyhow.

Precision instruments, they are not.

Sorry, but that is at odds with my own findings. I spent few weeks after building my iSpindel, experimenting with it before risking it in an actual brew and was surprised at just how accurate and reproducible its data output was. I used a Mk 4 PCB, in a 'big XL' PET. That PCB was a little too wide to fit, so I had to carefully file the sides and take the bottom corners off to get it to fit. Shake it and it rattles so its not a perfect fit, it does have some freedom of movement in the PET.

Rather than a battery holder, I soldered the 18650 in place with wire leads. Either side of the battery I put strips of car number plate double sided tape, which retained the battery firmly to the PCB, stuck as low down the PCB as possible. Rather than adding weight to the PET, I added it to the PCB, equally balanced either side of the battery, stuck firmly in place near the bottom on the double-sided tape. For the weights, I used plumber's solder, around 4mm in diameter, around 15grams worth in total.

My iSpindel always floats with the PCB perfectly horizontal, with the battery lower most. I can take the PCB out of the PET, refit it recharge it, but I always see almost the same tilt data being produced. I do take extra care not to nudge or touch the gyro board.

So my suggestion is to make sure the battery is firmly mounted to the PCB and only add weights to the PCB. My PCB always 'flops' down into the same location in my PET. Sticking weight to the PET means that some misalignment can occur between PET and PCB's center of gravity.

 

[Dexlor]

Hey All. Read the last 10 pages but could find what i was looking for. Hoping to find the preform or a similar tube that is available state side. Looking to get one sooner rather than later and with covid, the EK seller on ebay is estimating 4 to 8 weeks delivery.

There was a post from May 2nd that had an amazon link but it is now dead and all of the other preforms on amazon are 25mm.

 

[HarvesterOfBeer]

Hey All. Read the last 10 pages but could find what i was looking for. Hoping to find the preform or a similar tube that is available state side. Looking to get one sooner rather than later and with covid, the EK seller on ebay is estimating 4 to 8 weeks delivery.

There was a post from May 2nd that had an amazon link but it is now dead and all of the other preforms on amazon are 25mm.

Also looking for this! I would be up for ordering PCBs and putting together kits, but relying on a slow boat supply for the tubes is a serious drag.

 

[Dexlor]

Also looking for this! I would be up for ordering PCBs and putting together kits, but relying on a slow boat supply for the tubes is a serious drag.

Hell, the custom PCBs from pcbway made it from China less than a week after ordering.

I considered looking for a local bottling plant but the only ones I found use glass bottles.

 

[HarvesterOfBeer]

Hell, the custom PCBs from pcbway made it from China less than a week after ordering.

I considered looking for a local bottling plant but the only ones I found use glass bottles.

The only supplier of those XL preform bottles I found on eBay indicates 2-4 weeks from Estonia to US. If one were able to make a board (and components) fit in a slightly narrower (~25mm) tube, then it looks like there are a lot more choices.

I just don't have time, but somebody could whip up a PCB that held the components directly rather than buying modules and soldering them on. That would fit no problem.

 

[gingerneil]

The only supplier of those XL preform bottles I found on eBay indicates 2-4 weeks from Estonia to US. If one were able to make a board (and components) fit in a slightly narrower (~25mm) tube, then it looks like there are a lot more choices.

I just don't have time, but somebody could whip up a PCB that held the components directly rather than buying modules and soldering them on. That would fit no problem.

Not sure that would work as most of the 'girth' of the device comes from the battery and not the components mounted on the pins, but you should be able to sand down the sides of the boards quite a bit ?
I'm in the UK, and postage of the pets from Europe was still >week and cost more than the pets themselves! To make things worse, I initially bought the XXL ones, and they're waaaay too big! The PCB rattles about, and the whole thing floats almost level. It would need huge amounts of ballast! The XL ones are a good fit for the Cherry 4 boards - they slide in easily, but tight enough not to move about.

Picking up other posts above - you need to fully build before you'll get into AP mode. The startup checks for the components and will error if things are missing.
Agree that some of the gyros are dodgy - but so far I have been lucky.

A code change in 6.3.1 has fixed config save issues that were tracked down to the JSON page size.

 

[HarryB]

Not sure that would work as most of the 'girth' of the device comes from the battery and not the components mounted on the pins, but you should be able to sand down the sides of the boards quite a bit ?

The 18650, at 18mm diamter, would quite easily fit within 25mm, if it is used wired, rather than with an holder and if not attached to a pcb. How you then squeeze in the essential three pcb's might be the much bigger problem.

 

[HarvesterOfBeer]

The 18650, at 18mm diamter, would quite easily fit within 25mm, if it is used wired, rather than with an holder and if not attached to a pcb. How you then squeeze in the essential three pcb's might be the much bigger problem.

I was thinking about a completely new board which integrates all of the stuff directly, rather than soldering modules onto a carrier board. Alternately, finding narrower modules to solder to a narrower carrier.

 

[HarryB]

I was thinking about a completely new board which integrates all of the stuff directly, rather than soldering modules onto a carrier board.

That sounds doable, but trying to integrate all the components onto one board, would certainly be an expensive, commercial solution rather than a DIY option. There are not many people who have the equipment and even fewer who could manage to cope with surface mount assembly.

 

[gingerneil]

The board design has been updated for surface mount. I looked into ordering, but there didn't seem to be any benefit over the current solder version, and the price was obviously higher. I could see how a commercial version could go that way (how is tilt designed??), but no point for DIY.

 

[HarryB]

I meant everything integrated into one single pcb, instead of the present three pcb's mounted on a main pcb. Going surface mount with the main pcb, is rather a pointless exercise for just the three discrete components - it saves almost no board space.

 

[HarryB]

Some people have found that eventually, after extended use, the softer plastic material of the PET caps can split. I have been on the look out for one which will fit, for when my cap splits and found one on a plastic drinks bottle I was about to put in the recycling bin. The cap is blue in colour, identical to the original one on the 'big XL' PET and came on a drinks bottle marked 'Aquirius - beyond hydration' a sports drink.

 

[HarvesterOfBeer]

That sounds doable, but trying to integrate all the components onto one board, would certainly be an expensive, commercial solution rather than a DIY option. There are not many people who have the equipment and even fewer who could manage to cope with surface mount assembly.

For sure. It'd be a serious project. Probably not worth doing unless you had enough demand to do an actual production run including mounting the components.

 

[Scarabrew]

This is weird: I can only erase/flash the 5.8.6 bin version using the steps below. I also tried other bin versions like 6.3.1 or 6.2.0 and it just doesn't work. After flashing the Wemos blinks 4 times and stops, and no iSpindel wifi connection is displayed. Really don't know what is going on.

Have you tried blanking out both addresses as shown at the bottom of the page linked below? Do you have a serial monitor output you can share?
iSpindel Firmware Flash | Open Source Distilling

Tried the same settings above. Any tips?

 

[Dexlor]

The only supplier of those XL preform bottles I found on eBay indicates 2-4 weeks from Estonia to US. If one were able to make a board (and components) fit in a slightly narrower (~25mm) tube, then it looks like there are a lot more choices.

I found a supplier in the US with USPS shipping. The dimensions match the outer specifications of the one on ebay. I figured for under $3 plus shipping is worth it since I won't be getting the ebay tubes for another month.
https://spacecoastgeostore.com/products/xxl-preform?_pos=1&_sid=74f3abe22&_ss=r

 

[Dexlor]

Using the Jeffery, I got all the way to soldering the battery holder and could not get it to stick for the life of me.

Everything else went so smooth. Any suggestions or thoughts into why I am having issues or what I can do differently? I am using a RadioShack single temperature soldering iron. Could that be the issue?

I tried tinning the holder and the board but they would never "meld" together.

 

[HarryB]

Using the Jeffery, I got all the way to soldering the battery holder and could not get it to stick for the life of me.

Everything else went so smooth. Any suggestions or thoughts into why I am having issues or what I can do differently? I am using a RadioShack single temperature soldering iron. Could that be the issue?

I tried tinning the holder and the board but they would never "meld" together.

I would guess your iron is not man enough for the job, or the tags of the holders are maybe stainless steel and ordinary electronic solder struggles with SS. I haven't used a holder, rather I have soldered the battery to the board with flying leads and stuck it with double sided tape. To not use the holder......

The best advice, but which I don't follow, is to buy batteries with tags fitted. You cannot solder to them with ordinary electronic solder, it will not 'take'.

What I do is use plumber's flux, it is much more aggressive, just a tiny smear on the battery terminals, with an ordinary electronics iron and ordinary electronics solder. Finally I rinse off the flux under very hot soapy water, you do not want it left on the battery.

Another way is to weld copper tags on the battery terminals your self, using a homemade spot welder. There is an how to on Youtube, but not worth while unless you are doing a lot of them. The method involves a car battery, heavy duty relay, a push button and some heavy cable.

 

[gingerneil]

Using the Jeffery, I got all the way to soldering the battery holder and could not get it to stick for the life of me.

Everything else went so smooth. Any suggestions or thoughts into why I am having issues or what I can do differently? I am using a RadioShack single temperature soldering iron. Could that be the issue?

I tried tinning the holder and the board but they would never "meld" together.

I use the holders (the keystone 1043) and never had this problem.. You'd struggle to cause heat damage, so maybe just try holding the iron for longer ?

 

[gingerneil]

I found a supplier in the US with USPS shipping. The dimensions match the outer specifications of the one on ebay. I figured for under $3 plus shipping is worth it since I won't be getting the ebay tubes for another month.
https://spacecoastgeostore.com/products/xxl-preform?_pos=1&_sid=74f3abe22&_ss=r

Those XXL ones are HUGE and you#ll definitely need quite a bit of weight in the bottom to make it float at the right angle. I tried one, and it more or less lay flat on the top of the water!

 

[gingerneil]

This is weird: I can only erase/flash the 5.8.6 bin version using the steps below. I also tried other bin versions like 6.3.1 or 6.2.0 and it just doesn't work. After flashing the Wemos blinks 4 times and stops, and no iSpindel wifi connection is displayed. Really don't know what is going on.



Tried the same settings above. Any tips?

is the device fully built ? Can you share a serial/console output of it trying to boot after you flashed it.

 

[Dexlor]

Those XXL ones are HUGE and you#ll definitely need quite a bit of weight in the bottom to make it float at the right angle. I tried one, and it more or less lay flat on the top of the water!

That's what I read elsewhere but the dimensions listed in Space Coast store 5 5/16" x 1 11/16" (135 mm x 43 mm) are the same as the ebay listing that OpenSourceDistilling recommended. The same seller lists his own XXL tube with larger dimension.

Does it come down to shape difference or could the Space Coast store be calling it by the xxl name though its what we refer to as XL?

Either way, I'm already in for two and will follow up once they come in (and i can get this battery mounted to the board).

 

[HarryB]

My V4 pcb is a perfect fit (once filed down slightly) for what I bought described as a 'BIG XL' PET, measuring

Color	Clear, gently grey
Dimensions (external, MAX), mm	~135 x (d39, d43 MAX)
Dimensions (internal), mm	~123 x d33

 

[JessK_CO]

This is weird: I can only erase/flash the 5.8.6 bin version using the steps below. I also tried other bin versions like 6.3.1 or 6.2.0 and it just doesn't work. After flashing the Wemos blinks 4 times and stops, and no iSpindel wifi connection is displayed. Really don't know what is going on.



Tried the same settings above. Any tips?

I don't mean to hijack your issue, but I'm having a very similar issue. I can flash any version of the FW onto the D1 Mini, but the LED blinks four time and then, nothing. When I open a session to the device and hit the reset a few times, it looks like starts to go into config mode and tries to reboot(?) and then just stops. I've attached my console output.

 

[HarryB]

After bragging about just how reliable and accurate my iSpindle is and in the midst (2nd day) of making my third batch since building it, yesterday lunch it stopped reporting from inside my FV. It is configured to report every 15minutes, to Ubidots, from my batch of red wine.

I opened up the FV, took it out, rinsed it, switched it off and back on, tried pressing reset, went into the configuration and checked that, off and back on again, lots of waiting to see if it was reporting and nothing. 15 minutes is a long time to wait for it to flash and a long time to wait for an update to Ubidots, so then I thought best change the report interval to 60 seconds. At that it sprang back into life, so I changed the reporting back to 15 minutes (900 sec), waited and watched to make sure it carried on reporting then yesterday evening put it back in the FV. It has worked fine overnight.

There was nothing wrong with its config, that I could see, all I changed was the 900 to 60, then back to 900 and away it went (see the graph linked to below). It stopped reporting at 13:33 on the 20th, I finally got it working on the bench at 21:48, then put back into the FV soon after that. It seems either the iSpindle or Ubidots averages the reported values, because it took it several reports to get back to the correct SG value.

Ubidots | Dashboards

What you might notice in the graph, is that the SG rises gradually from the 18th at 20:02 when the batch was started, that is an effect I have noticed on my previous two batches, before the fermentation gets going, then a fall once it begns. I also notice a rise in temperature, once the fermentation becomes more vigorous.

Problem - 15 minute reporting interval is absolutely fine in normal operation, but it is a very long time to wait to see if the iSpindel is reporting properly/ a long time to watch for the blue flash of its LED. It doesn't show up in my list of attached devices in my router, because it only comes on to log in for a fraction of a second, then back off. I am not even seeing it in my router's log.

Question - Has anyone found any way to confirm the iSpindel is reporting properly, before sealing it up in the FV?

 

[ChrisThomas]

I found a supplier in the US with USPS shipping. The dimensions match the outer specifications of the one on ebay. I figured for under $3 plus shipping is worth it since I won't be getting the ebay tubes for another month.
https://spacecoastgeostore.com/products/xxl-preform?_pos=1&_sid=74f3abe22&_ss=r

If you're using a PCB, CherryPhilip or OpenSourceDistilling then DON'T use the XXL, it's too big. You'll have to put in a whole load of weights to get it float at the ideal angle. Definitely go for the XL!

 

[ChrisThomas]

I don't mean to hijack your issue, but I'm having a very similar issue. I can flash any version of the FW onto the D1 Mini, but the LED blinks four time and then, nothing. When I open a session to the device and hit the reset a few times, it looks like starts to go into config mode and tries to reboot(?) and then just stops. I've attached my console output.

Are you flashing the D1 mini before assembly? If so, it will never complete the boot process, it looks for all the hardware first and stops if it doesn't.

 

[ChrisThomas]

Using the Jeffery, I got all the way to soldering the battery holder and could not get it to stick for the life of me.

Everything else went so smooth. Any suggestions or thoughts into why I am having issues or what I can do differently? I am using a RadioShack single temperature soldering iron. Could that be the issue?

I tried tinning the holder and the board but they would never "meld" together.

It could be your soldering iron just isn't getting hot enough? Also don't put too much solder on the PCB or the battery holder, wet both the PCB and holder first then just leave the iron on the holder for 15 seconds (you could try longer), that might get it hot enough without getting to hot to damage the plastic.

 

[ChrisThomas]

This is weird: I can only erase/flash the 5.8.6 bin version using the steps below. I also tried other bin versions like 6.3.1 or 6.2.0 and it just doesn't work. After flashing the Wemos blinks 4 times and stops, and no iSpindel wifi connection is displayed. Really don't know what is going on.



Tried the same settings above. Any tips?

Try using BrewFlasher. Follow the steps in BrewFlasher to erase first. I have had the occational issue with flashing, but BrewFlasher has fixed every one so far.

 

[ChrisThomas]

After bragging about just how reliable and accurate my iSpindle is and in the midst (2nd day) of making my third batch since building it, yesterday lunch it stopped reporting from inside my FV. It is configured to report every 15minutes, to Ubidots, from my batch of red wine.

I opened up the FV, took it out, rinsed it, switched it off and back on, tried pressing reset, went into the configuration and checked that, off and back on again, lots of waiting to see if it was reporting and nothing. 15 minutes is a long time to wait for it to flash and a long time to wait for an update to Ubidots, so then I thought best change the report interval to 60 seconds. At that it sprang back into life, so I changed the reporting back to 15 minutes (900 sec), waited and watched to make sure it carried on reporting then yesterday evening put it back in the FV. It has worked fine overnight.

There was nothing wrong with its config, that I could see, all I changed was the 900 to 60, then back to 900 and away it went (see the graph linked to below). It stopped reporting at 13:33 on the 20th, I finally got it working on the bench at 21:48, then put back into the FV soon after that. It seems either the iSpindle or Ubidots averages the reported values, because it took it several reports to get back to the correct SG value.

Ubidots | Dashboards

What you might notice in the graph, is that the SG rises gradually from the 18th at 20:02 when the batch was started, that is an effect I have noticed on my previous two batches, before the fermentation gets going, then a fall once it begns. I also notice a rise in temperature, once the fermentation becomes more vigorous.

Problem - 15 minute reporting interval is absolutely fine in normal operation, but it is a very long time to wait to see if the iSpindel is reporting properly/ a long time to watch for the blue flash of its LED. It doesn't show up in my list of attached devices in my router, because it only comes on to log in for a fraction of a second, then back off. I am not even seeing it in my router's log.

Question - Has anyone found any way to confirm the iSpindel is reporting properly, before sealing it up in the FV?

Strangley I had my first issue with an iSpindle over the weekend. First few days away from home since March, had to happen then didn't it!

I'm using Fermentrack to log and control a heater belt on my FV and the iSpindle stopped logging on Friday (3rd day away), everything else OK. I just put it down to a sometimes tempremental router. Having said that, this iSpindle has disconnected before but then has reconnected later? When I got home on Sunday, there was no action I could perform remotely that made it reconnect on it's own. Luckily the fermentation had finished so just racked and cleaned everything. iSpindle then started logging again after a restart.

Before I let my iSpindle loose, I just make sure it's logged at least twice before I let it swim.