Kegland Rapt Pill floating hydrometer temperature monitor

[GreenEnvy22]

the difference between 80°F and 40°F will only be 0.002 when using a real hydrometer. And that will only be 0.001 on either side of the 68°F the things are calibrated at.

I don't even assume I can read my hydrometer that closely.

I think the pill is much more affected by temp than a normal hydrometer. When I calibrated mine in 20C water, it was reporting like 1.020 when the water got down to 15C. 0.02 is a pretty big difference.

 

[Elric]

I think the pill is much more affected by temp than a normal hydrometer. When I calibrated mine in 20C water, it was reporting like 1.020 when the water got down to 15C. 0.02 is a pretty big difference.

I'm curious to see what happens with the readings on mine when I cold crash!

 

[GreenEnvy22]

Actually I take that back, maybe they implemented a firmware fix already for temperature correction. I looked back at my last brew, and this is what it looked like:

But for sure when I had first calibrated it a week or two before that brew, I saw the SG change with temperature as it sat in water.

 

[Elric]

Actually I take that back, maybe they implemented a firmware fix already for temperature correction. I looked back at my last brew, and this is what it looked like:
View attachment 763009

But for sure when I had first calibrated it a week or two before that brew, I saw the SG change with temperature as it sat in water.

On the info page for your pill on the rapt.io page, the first eight digits are the date the firmware Was released. Mine is from Feb 12th, what's the date on yours?

 

[GreenEnvy22]

Same firmware date for me.

 

[BongoYodeler]

I ordered the Pill this morning to check it out. AliExpres - $59.99 plus $4.35 tax and free shipping. Estimated to arrive on May 3rd.

 

[MikeCo]

I just ordered a Pill from AliExpress from "Brew Ware Store" for the same price of $59.99. They are including a free spare housing. Delivery estimate is May 13th.

 

[RyPA]

It's been a while since I looked around on the forums and its good to see that others have picked up the Pill and provided some feedback/experience. Mine came in a few weeks back -- it was delivered in exactly 3 weeks from the order date to NE U.S. from AliExpress (Keglands store). My brew day kept getting delayed and I didn't have a chance to finally use it until yesterday.

It's pretty straight forward to get it connected to your device and calibrate it. The software isn't very polished but it gets the job done. For lube to screw the Pill pieces together I used a dab of StarSan.

I cooled my wort down to 70 but for some reason the Pill read it at much higher. I am thinking maybe there was warm air trapped in the Pill that took time to cool down?

I set it to provide telemetry updates every 30 minutes but this does not appear to be working, it goes sometimes an hour or more. A few times it gave me an error and I was thinking I'd need to open up the fermenter to reboot it. But it eventually started working again.. so not ideal, but glad it sorted itself out.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1242900/west-coast-ipa
This image was from yesterday around 3 hours after pitching. The OG reading isn't perfect. The Pill states 1.064ish, while I got a reading of ~1.057. I'm ok with that, as I only need to see when it stabilizes so I know it's done.


This is from this morning, with the yeast having made some progress and the temp has also stabilized. It's cool to see the gravity starting to shift. I've always hated guessing where fermentation was at and trying to take samples for a reading as I do not have a spigot on my fermenters.

I'm not sure how much the krausen will impact the reading, but once it dissipates, I plan to shake the fermenter a bit to get the crap off of the pill -- if this doesn't work, I will be cracking the lid to dry hop before fermentation completely finishes so I will have an opportunity then.


Here's the error I sometimes get

 

[BongoYodeler]

Thanks for sharing your initial experiences with it. Mine should arrive later this week. Seems like the firmware is still in its infancy and with time it should improve, hopefully. If you're on Facebook there's RAPT Users Group you should join that offer tips and suggestions to various issues in near real-time. I believe the developers also have a presence there as well.

 

[jwill911]

I also thought the firmware was a bit raw but latest upgrades have improved immensely. Here's a ferment in the later stages and all the numbers jive with the traditional methods of measuring.

 

[RyPA]

I am starting to think that the device will not transmit updates at the specified interval unless value(s) have changed, which makes sense from a battery saving perspective

 

[UdonPete]

Can anyone explain the benefits (or not) of the Pill over the iSpindle please?

 

[RyPA]

It's half the price and allows you to monitor temp & fermentation progress. I've never used an iSpindle so I cannot compare

 

[UdonPete]

Yes I see the Pill is twice the price of an iSpindle but the iSpindle does the same (monitor temp & SG) - but at half the cost

 

[RyPA]

The pill is $60. Where do you see the iSpindle for $30?

 

[UdonPete]

Pill from Kegland : https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100....store_pc_allProduct.8148356.1.550c4139PsGyKa

iSpindle from most places : iSpindel - Smart WiFi Tilt Hydrometer

 

[RyPA]

Sorry, I was thinking of the Tilt which goes for ~$135, not iSpindle. Give it a try and let us know your experience.

Pretty cool that it's open source

 

[GoodTruble]

I tried to look up ispindle to compare. I cannot find real product info, a review, or one listed for sale. .....So ...advantage Pill.

Edit: The link above was posted while I was searching. Seems interesting, but my guess is that its development potential won't keep pace with Kegland. But I agree I'll gladly read and consider whatever feedback users have to offer on it

 

[UdonPete]

I have used the iSpindle for a few months and it does what it says very well (Temp & SG) and a big plus is it can be intergrated with Brewfather - would not pay 2 x for the Pill for the same monitoring

 

[JohnDBrewer]

Not sure about half price since it's £38gbp which is about $48us, plus shipping outside GB. Probably the same price since Ali is free shipping.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Can anyone explain the benefits (or not) of the Pill over the iSpindle please?

There is the video from Kegland below with some info. One benefit that I see is that the Pill is manufactured by a company, hopefully with a level of QA and support behind it (though likely made in China like much of the Kegland products) where iSpindle are more crowd sourced and assembled by a range of different people.

I don't think any of these products can be legally sold in the US due to patents by Tilt.

 

[RyPA]

First batch finished up fermenting. This thing is awesome

 

[BongoYodeler]

I ordered one last month. Was estimated to arrive yesterday. Near as I can tell it's been stuck at Customs since April 21st. No eta just, "Sorry, logistics delay, we will delivery it to you as soon as possible."

 

[RyPA]

Mine sat there for the majority of the 3 weeks as well.

It shipped from China within 1-2 days, and once in the US through customs it travelled from LA to me in NJ in 2 days. So it sat there for 2.5 weeks. It was exactly 3 weeks from ordering to my door.

KegLand needs to make these available from MoreBeer

 

[Elric]

Peeps in the US interested in the rapt pill should look for Canadian homebrew shops that deliver to US. Price at most is $80 cdn so if shipping is less than $50 cdn would be cheaper than Ali and would be way quicker as well.


https://homebrewjunction.com/products/rapt-pill?_pos=1&_psq=rapt&_ss=e&_v=1.0

 

[MikeCo]

I'm in my first batch with the pill and it started off great, but has not transmitted any data for 18 hours. I see the signal at -85dbm is kind of weak. I wonder if the wifi signal from my router is weak to the pill.

 

[BongoYodeler]

I'm in my firat batch with the pill and it started off great, but has not transmitted any data for 18 hours. I see the signal at -85dbm is kind of weak. I wonder if the wifi signal from my router is weak to the pill.

View attachment 769616

That seems to be the issue with a few similar FB posts in the Rapt group there.

My Pill arrived a few days ago, and I charged it overnight. The red battery light was off when I woke up today, but I don’t have a USB-C cable get it on my network. I’ll see if I have one tomorrow at work, but I also ordered one from Amazon.

I typically ferment less than five feet from my router so my signal strength shouldn’t be an issue. Can’t wait to try mine.

*Oh, and make sure you’ve downloaded the latest firmware.

 

[MikeCo]

My Pill arrived a few days ago, and I charged it overnight. The red battery light was off when I woke up today, but I don’t have a USB-C cable get it on my network. I’ll see if I have one tomorrow at work, but I also ordered one from Amazon.

What cable did you use to charge the battery? I thought you could only use a USB C cable to charge.

 

[RyPA]

Yes, to use the built in charging you just connect a USB C cable to a USB C charger.

I had a charger for a flash light that uses the same type of battery and used that to charge the battery. My battery level I don't think is accurate now in the telemetry feed so I'd avoid doing this

 

[BongoYodeler]

What cable did you use to charge the battery? I thought you could only use a USB C cable to charge.

I have a USB-C Lenovo laptop charger That I can plug into an outlet to charge the Pill, but not into my laptop to configure the Pill on my home network.....unless I'm not understanding the directions. They're a bit ambiguous. If I'm understanding correctly I need a USB-C to USB-A cable