My Fermentrack Build

[garzlok]

Glad it’s helped you Paul. Though it’s kinda buried, I did write-up the process I completed on my build to address your question.

Additional (optional) Steps
....

1. On the Power Supply Modules.
   1. Desoldered and removed inlet power connectors
   2. Soldered in more robust 2-Pin Screw Terminals
2. Used Female DuPont connectors to open wire ends to connect PS to PCB Breakout Board.

The screw terminals allow you to use a heftier gauge wire that can handle the 120V and in my case 15A going into the PSU.

I also have very minimal soldering skills, but I promise, desoldering that part from the component and then soldering in the screw terminals is not that difficult.

 

[pdavidc]

Glad it’s helped you Paul. Though it’s kinda buried, I did write-up the process I completed on my build to address your question.

Additional (optional) Steps
....

1. On the Power Supply Modules.
   1. Desoldered and removed inlet power connectors
   2. Soldered in more robust 2-Pin Screw Terminals
2. Used Female DuPont connectors to open wire ends to connect PS to PCB Breakout Board.

The screw terminals allow you to use a heftier gauge wire that can handle the 120V and in my case 15A going into the PSU.

I also have very minimal soldering skills, but I promise, desoldering that part from the component and then soldering in the screw terminals is not that difficult.

Thanks so much. Yes I did miss that. I guess I should read more carefully instead of just looking at the great pictures lol.

Thanks again for a great write up

 

[garzlok]

No worries.

Looking back at the pictures. I did use some kind of female connector to the 5V (Load and Neutral) Out from the PSU. For the life of me, I don't remember what I used, but I would have picked it up from my local MicroCenter or Frys. If memory serves me correctly, I was not completely happy with the Female DuPont Connector and it felt like a loose connection.

EDIT: I used something similar to the female connector pictured here. This picture was found on Amazon searching for 2 pin connectors. Again, this is just a representation of the connector I used to attach to the 5V 2A Out of my PSU.

 

[garzlok]

Well, it only took me 15 months and I don’t want to look at the receipts, but my system for fermentation control is “done”.

I actually had to go in and swap out a bad relay and trouble shoot some LCD issues, and I’m happy to say, it was a pretty easy process with the spacing of the build. (I even swapped out an LCD)

Not only can I hold fermentation to about 0.2F of my target temp (thanks @Thorrak ), but I can deliver and hold CO2 pressure in my Brew Buckets at 0.5PSI without worry of explosion, implosion or O2 ingress (Thanks @day_trippr ). I can also harvest CO2 and purge my kegs of O2 before filling.

 

[kxavier_23]

Phase 5
Tilt Bridge Installation

As I was coming to a close with my Fermentrack Build, the Tilt Bridge Project was announced. I currently do not have a Tilt Hydrometer, but I know that will change in the future. The toughest part of the install was designing an enclosure. I taught myself how to use OpenSCAD and designed my enclosure. After bouncing some design ideas off of Thorrak, I decided to move forward and have a design printed using shapeways.com.

B.O.M.

• M3 Nylon Screws and Nuts (Micro Center)
• ESP32 OLED Wemos WiFi Module+ Bluetooth Dual ESP-32 ESP-32S ESP8266 OLED For Arduino (Ali Express)
• Female to Female DuPont Connectors (Ali Express)
• Male Pin Header (Ali Express)
• Custom 3D printed ESP32 Surface Mount Enclosure (shapeways.com)

1. Design ESP32 enclosure
2. 3D print the design
3. Flash ESP32 with Tilt Bridge **
4. Solder male header pins onto the 3V, Gnd, Gnd, 5V locations on the ESP32.
5. Place ESP32 into the enclosure, centering the OLED with the enclosures OLED window.
6. Mark locations of the ESP32 mounting holes on the enclosure.
7. Drill pilot holes on the marks and expand holes to allow the nylon screws to go through.
8. Push nylon screws through the enclosure and through the ESP32 mounting holes.
9. Position enclosure.
10. Mark where nylon screws contact the surface.
11. Mark where the male header pins contact the surface.
12. Drill pilot holes on the surface marks where the screws contacted, and expand holes to allow nylon screws to go through.
13. Drill pilot holes on the male pin marks, and expand if necessary.
14. Mount ESP32 with enclosure to the surface using nylon screws and nuts to secure ESP32.
15. Remove 1 Female DuPont terminus from 2 DuPont wires.
16. Run 5v and Gnd wires from PS to ESP32 accordingly.

**when flashing the ESP32, please use Thorrak’s tutorials/references as your guide.


www.tiltbridge.com
docs.tiltbridge.com/en/master

Couple of things I picked up along the way...

When flashing, if Fermentrack doesn’t see the ESP32 when in serial mode, there’s a good chance the USB cable is at fault. If you are using a charging cable, this will happen. You will need to find a USB cable that is for Data transfer.

Once I started to use the correct cable, my flashing would timeout and Tilt Bridge would not flash onto the ESP32. I found that there can be an issue where an RPi and the USB to UART Bridge on the ESP32 will not communicate and allow flashing to occur. To get past this, I held down the ‘boot’ button on the ESP32 while flashing to install the Tilt Bridge.

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I don't suppose you would share or sell your Custom 3D printed ESP32 Surface Mount Enclosure?

I am looking to make the same 3 fermenter setup.

 

[kxavier_23]

Phase 2
RJ45 Breakout Board Control Box Build

Ultimately, I want to close up my fermentation control box and forget about it. I don’t want to go in and connect USB cables to my D1 Mini or if a temp probe goes bad, have to open up, rewire, and swap-out probes.

Since the PCB is called an RJ45 Sensor Breakout, I thought I would create an RJ45 Breakout Board Control Box. I would run three (3) pairs of DS18B20 Temperature Probes into one project box. The project box would contain three (3) RJ45 Sensor Breakout PCBs. A pair of probes would be connected to an RJ45 Sensor Breakout PCB. An Ethernet cable (x3) would connect an RJ45 Sensor Breakout Board to the Main Control Box.

1. Purchase a project box that is large enough to comfortably hold as many RJ45 Sensor Breakout PCBs as desired
2. Cut a piece of Aluminum to fit inside project box to act as a sub-board.
3. Place PCBs on aluminum and mark mounting hole locations.
4. Drill holes in aluminum where mounting holes were marked.
5. Add standoffs to mounting holes.
6. Drill hole(s) large enough to allow 2 temperature probes/hole through.
7. Install grommets onto the holes
8. On opposite side of the temperature probes, drill pilot holes lining up with RJ45 Jack on PCBs.
9. Using pilot holes as a guide, cut opening to fit RJ45 Socket.
10. On the DS18B20 probes, add Female DuPont connectors to the exposed wire ends.
11. Solder the following on the RJ45 Sensor Breakout PC
    1. RJ45 PCB Socket
    2. 2-pin Screw Terminal Block
    3. Male Pin Headers to the Data, 3v3, and Gnd locations on the PCB
12. Secure completed RJ45 PCBs to the standoffs.
13. Insert aluminum sub-board with RJ45 PCB(s) into project box
14. Thread DS18B20 Wire ends through the grommets
15. Attach DS18B20s to the appropriate Data, 3v3, and Gnd location on the PCBs
16. Close the project box
17. Connect Ethernet patch cables to the RJ45 sockets.
18. Run Ethernet patch cables to the main control box.

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If I only want to watch the temperature of the fermenter(s) via a thermowell, I would only need one temp probe right? I assume because you are using a fridge for your chamber, you want to know the chamber and beer temp, correct?

 

[garzlok]

I don't suppose you would share or sell your Custom 3D printed ESP32 Surface Mount Enclosure?

I am looking to make the same 3 fermenter setup.

There's my OpenSCAD file and an .stl file in the zip folder. I don't incorporate the holes in my 3D design. I find it easier to mark where the holes will be, and drill holes.

 

[garzlok]

If I only want to watch the temperature of the fermenter(s) via a thermowell, I would only need one temp probe right? I assume because you are using a fridge for your chamber, you want to know the chamber and beer temp, correct?

Well...yes you can do that if you're only interested in recording temperatures. However, if you want to to use Fermentrack for its intended design as Fermentation Temperature Control, you need both the Fridge and Beer temperature probes per instance.

 

[garzlok]

I don't suppose you would share or sell your Custom 3D printed ESP32 Surface Mount Enclosure?

I am looking to make the same 3 fermenter setup.

Realized you asked for the ESP32 Enclosure. Just to make sure you know, the D32 Pro with TFT is the latest iteration of TiltBridge and is much less problematic to set-up compared to the ESP32 OLED.

 

[kxavier_23]

Realized you asked for the ESP32 Enclosure. Just to make sure you know, the D32 Pro with TFT is the latest iteration of TiltBridge and is much less problematic to set-up compared to the ESP32 OLED.

Is there a preference on manufacturers?

I saw a preference before on Lolin

 

[garzlok]

Is there a preference on manufacturers?

I saw a preference before on Lolin

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/thread...evice-for-tilt-hydrometer.664368/post-8728911
The link takes you to the components I am currently running.

 

[kxavier_23]

Phase 3
3 Instance Main Control Box Build

As I said in Phase 2, I really don’t want to have to open and enter the project box holding the controllers. If I want to flash a D1 Mini, I don’t want to open the box. If a temperature probe goes bad, I don’t want to open the box.

I only have one (1) fermentation cooler, but a second will be added. I also currently have a fridge used to lager (hold Temp at 40F). With an eye to the future, this is a 3 instance build. Two (2) controllers will be held at Beer Constant/Profile and one (1) controller will be at Fridge Constant.

Looking at the module sizes and how I wanted to position the modules, I decided on a 12” x 12” x 6” Junction Box. This box is huge and I thought I made a mistake going with the larger box. As I assembled the control box, for me, this was the perfect size for a 3 instance control box.

1. Purchase a project box that is large enough to comfortably hold as many Controller Instances as desired
2. Cut a piece of Aluminum to fit inside project box to act as a sub-board.
3. Place Modules on aluminum and mark mounting hole locations.
4. Drill holes in aluminum where mounting holes were marked.
5. Add standoffs to mounting holes.
6. Determine location of Keystone Plate(s)
7. Cut opening to fit Keystone Plate(s)
8. Install Keystone Plate(s)
9. Determine location of 3 Pin Inlet Power Plug Socket
10. Cut opening to fit Socket
11. Install Power Plug Socket
12. Determine location of 3 Pin Power Socket Panel Receptacle AC125V 15A.
13. Cut opening(s) to fit Receptacles
14. Install Receptacles
15. Determine location of LCD Modules on the Project Box lid
16. Cut openings to fit LCD Modules
17. Install LCD Modules to the Project Box lid
18. Solder the following on the ESP8266 Breakout Board for BrewPi:
    1. 2-pin Screw Terminal Block
    2. RJ45 PCB Socket
    3. 1206 SMD 100uf Capacitor (to C1)
    4. 0805 SMD 4.7K Resistor (to R1)
    5. 0805 SMD 10K Resistor (to R2, R3, R4, R5)
    6. Mosfet SMD (to Q1, Q2)
    7. Male Pin Headers To LCD, Relay, and JP1 Contacts
    8. Female Pin Headers to contacts for the D1 Mini.
19. Solder Male Pin Headers to the D1 Mini (make certain Male Pins point away from the D1 antenna)
20. Secure PS Module, Relay Module, and completed ESP8266 Breakout Board to the standoffs.
21. Insert aluminum sub board with attached modules into the project box.
22. Run Electrical wires appropriately (I referenced Thorrak’s how to site tinybat.ch to wire accordingly) from the Inlet Socket to the PS. From the PS to the ESP Breakout Board. From the Power Receptacles to the Relays, and all the points/connections in between.
23. Install the USB and RJ45 Keystone Inserts into the Keystone Plate(s)
24. Run Ethernet Patch Cable from RJ45 Keystone Insert to RJ45 Socket on the ESB Breakout Board.
25. Connect D1 Mini to the ESB Breakout Board
26. Run USB Patch Cord from USB Keystone Insert to D1 Mini.
27. Connect Female to Female DuPont connectors appropriately from the ESB Breakout Board to the 2 Channel Relay.
28. Connect Female to Female DuPont connectors appropriately from the ESB Breakout Board to the LCD Module.

Additional (optional) Steps

1. Added handle to top of case
2. Construct/install wood frame to trim around LCD Screen
3. Ran Trim Lok edge trim around the Aluminum sub-boards (not only to protect skin and wires from getting cut, but if measured and cut properly, acts as a friction mount and holds the sub-boards in place to the project box)
4. On the Power Supply Modules.
   1. Desoldered and removed inlet power connectors
   2. Soldered in more robust 2-Pin Screw Terminals
5. Used Female DuPont connectors to open wire ends to connect PS to ESB Breakout Board.
6. Used shims with the 3 Pin Receptacles to get a snugger fit
7. Had to adjust LCD contrast using the potentiometer on the back of the LCD Screen
8. Added labels to identify LCD Screens, Inputs, and Outputs.

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I am sure I overlooked this, but where so the 3 USB A connections go to on the bottom of the Main Control Box? I get the network cables would go to the RJ45 Breakout Board Control Box.

 

[garzlok]

...for future generations....

I run USB patch cables (x3) from my D1 Minis to the USB Keystones inside the control box.

From the outside bottom of the control box, the USB ports will not be used often. The reason I designed the box, the way I did, was to keep me from opening the whole thing up if I had to flash a mini.

I am a firm believer that many people experience issues with these DIY builds due to loose/bad/improper connections. If I could design a build that would lessen the threat of jostling/moving components and wires around, I would be better served.

 

[kxavier_23]

So if I am mounting the main box right next to my fermenters, what is the advantage or use for running Titlebridge vs just connecting directly to the Tilts?

I assume the obvious reason is you have the visual screen readouts of the SGs, but what is there beyond that?

FYI Thorrak had some extra parts I needed in addition to the PCBs. I think I will have this all sourced and received this week and look forward to getting this up and running

 

[garzlok]

If your RPi running Fermentrack will be next to your Fermentation Chambers, then no, you would not necessarily need TiltBridge. However, if your RPi is far away, there’s a good chance the Tilt Bluetooth signal would not reach your RPi and you would not be able to monitor SG through Fermentrack.

The TiltBridge takes the Tilt Bluetooth signal and converts it to WiFi for increased range.

 

[kxavier_23]

Phase 4
Controller Flashing/Controller WiFi Connection Set-up/Adding a new Temp Controller

Make life easy on yourself and Flash your D1 Mini’s (or whatever approved device) through Fermentrack. My recommendation, flash the system test first. This will let you know if your wiring, probes, and general set-up is in working order. Once the test is complete, flash with the appropriate version of BrewPi.

The next step is to connect your D1 Mini (or whatever Approved device) to your network. I feel like a heel, but this step stymied me. When you first power up your D1 Mini (either through USB or 5v PS) it will broadcast an Access Point (AP) for about 5 minutes. During this 5 minutes, you want to use your smart phone, tablet, computer, or whatever you have to connect to the AP. When you connect, you will set the WiFi. Locate your network SSID, type in the network password, and connect. You’re D1 Mini is now connected to your network and you can work through Fermentrack to add a new temp controller.

 

[garzlok]

@kxavier_23 Did you get this figured out?

 

[kxavier_23]

I did, thanks though.

Your build was my inspiration

I still need to add the TiltBridge. Wired, not mounted yet.

 

[garzlok]

I did, thanks though.

Your build was my inspiration

I still need to add the TiltBridge. Wired, not mounted yet.

Awesome! I’m excited to see the build when it’s finished!

 

[jlaframboise]

Hoping this is a good place to ask; but did you have any issues with flashing/setting up your tiltbridge TFT variant? I'm attempting to flash it the ESP32 board with TFT via Fementrack, and it'll finish. Then I don't get anything on the screen, and there's no TiltBridge WiFi to connect to either. The OLED has had the best success for me so far.

 

[Thorrak]

Hoping this is a good place to ask; but did you have any issues with flashing/setting up your tiltbridge TFT variant? I'm attempting to flash it the ESP32 board with TFT via Fementrack, and it'll finish. Then I don't get anything on the screen, and there's no TiltBridge WiFi to connect to either. The OLED has had the best success for me so far.

The TFT variant (unlike the OLED variant) requires a connected TFT screen using the D32 Pro pin mapping that the firmware can see/interact with to boot. If your TFT screen isn't connected using the correct pinout or has any kind of issue responding when the firmware looks for it, then the firmware will hang.

The OLED variant doesn't care and will boot regardless of whether a screen is present/can be detected or not.

 

[jlaframboise]

Hey @Thorrak, thanks for the quick reply!

When you say the firmware hangs, do you mean on bootup of the ESP32? Would a signal of it not working possibly be a constantly blinking red LED? I'm fairly new to setting this up, so I apologize if this is covered somewhere else and I didn't find it. Feel free to point me in the right direction.

Are there any steps/troubleshooting I should follow to ensure I have the right pinout/connection? The screen does light up, but that red LED constantly blinks despite flashing, and it never advertises a WiFi signal.

 

[garzlok]

just to add-on my experience with what @Thorrak has said.

No, I didn’t have any issues with my TFT/D32Pro. However, I didn’t flash TBridge via Fermentrack. Instead, I used BrewFlasher.

“Firmware hanging” is yes, during boot-up of the TBridge. You’re not seeing an SSID and not being able to connect via WiFi because your “ESP32” board is stuck.

You may want to share a picture of your TBridge set-up and post it in the following thread with some background on your problem.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/tiltbridge-tilt-to-wifi-device-for-tilt-hydrometer.664368/
Someone in that thread may have encountered your same issue and resolved it.

 

[jlaframboise]

I've been having issues with using BrewFlasher or the pyflasher for that matter. I suspect that is more on me, but I couldn't figure it out. Fermentrack has been good for me with flashing so far, so I've leaned on it a bit.

Thanks, for the link!

 

[garzlok]

hmm, that's pretty strange to have issues with BrewFlasher. BrewFlasher was developed to relieve the pain point of flashing devices.

Any questions or problems concerning BrewFlasher can be directed at this thread:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/thread...ashing-esp8266-esp32-brewing-projects.674823/
Your in a pretty odd circumstance. Looking at the picture you supplied in the TBridge thread, it looks like you're running a D32 Pro, and I know the TFT cable only attaches to each device in one configuration. Why things aren't working doesn't make sense, but if you're struggling with BrewFlasher...maybe that tells @Thorrak something.

 

[jlaframboise]

Thanks again for the link, I'm not sure why I didn't come across these when googling. I'm almost certain there's an issue with a driver or something similar that prevents me from using brewflasher correctly. I tried it with the OLED variant and had the same "no serial found" issue. I'm sure with a little more effort I can get that working but like I said, I'm fiarly new to some of this stuff. FWIW it was the same issue on 2 different Windows PCs. I'll peruse the BrewFlasher thread though, thanks!

 

[garzlok]

If you are trying to have BrewFlasher find the serial port, you need to disable BlueTooth otherwise you'll have problems with BrewFlasher finding it.

The other common problem is cable. Not all USB cables have a data line and some are for charging only. Using a cable that is only for charging could cause the issue you describe.