Native ESP8266 BrewPi Firmware - WiFi BrewPi, no Arduino needed!

[LBussy]

That was all Davespeak for they definitely get hot when switching (like in a PWM,) they can get a little hot when turned on just from internal resistance, and it's all about the specs.

I also agree that all SSRs are not created equal. Chinese parts are a "you get what you pay for" thing in most cases. THAT said, I have used this one from our friends at Inkbird, and have been happy. I was using it for a PWM application, and while it got warm and needed the heatskink, I didn't melt it. They don't provide specs any more than the rest of the Chinese sellers, but they have been good to this community and seem to source a good product. You could always email Inkbird for the specs, I have in the past and someone has always answered.

For a little more surety on the cooling, make sure to use some thermal paste between the heatskink and the plate to which it mounts.

 

[Thorrak]

I just pushed v15-beta5 to BrewFlasher. This release adds the following vs. Beta 4:

• Automatic reset if the Bluetooth scanner stops responding
• Converts from active to passive scanning mode (see note below)
• Adds ability to configure minimum delays for heating/cooling

A major bug was discovered in Beta 4 where due to issues with Espressif's Bluetooth stack the Bluetooth scanner could stop detecting devices. If Inkbird or Tilt sensors were used as a beer/fridge sensor, this could lead to temperature control ceasing to function. Beta 5 adds a check for this condition which will then reset the controller -- but this appears to be triggered about once every 3-4 hours on average (which is far more frequently than I would like).

To prevent this, I have temporarily switched from "active" to "passive" scanning mode which should reduce the frequency of this occurring -- but will also prevent the use of Inkbird sensors with this version of the firmware. This will remain necessary until v3.x of the Arduino framework is released, incorporating the library changes from v5.x of esp-idf -- assuming that the chatter in the esp-idf issues are correct, and v5.x actually resolves the problem. I am not expecting this to be released for several months, however, so Inkbird support appears to now be a v16+ feature.

 

[Thorrak]

I just pushed v15-beta6 to BrewFlasher. This release may fix a bug that might be present in beta 5 which prevents heating/cooling from shutting off at the designated time. The problem with the bug is that it shouldn't exist, and therefore may be hardware-related rather than software -- but this change has no effect at worst, and makes things a bit more explicit at best, and thus makes sense to be included in v15.

 

[Thorrak]

v15 - ESP32, Bluetooth, and HTTP Interface Support

I just officially released v15 of the BrewPi-ESP firmware. For those who have read my beta announcements, you know what this contains, but for those who have not followed this firmware contains a number of significant changes and enhancements, as compared to the previous wide release (v11):

• File system initialization enhancements
• Substantial refactoring and upgrades (e.g. JSON handling)
• Unified handling of Serial and WiFi output
• Add ability to add human-readable names to probes (Thanks @speshak)
• Swap SPIFFS for LittleFS for ESP8266 Builds
• Fix message displayed with temperature control is set to “OFF” (rather than IDLE)
• Added WiFi information command to get signal strength
• Add support for ESP32 and ESP32-S2 modules
• Add Bluetooth scanning support
• Add support for using Tilt Hydrometers as a temperature sensor
• Add support for using TPLink Kasa WiFi switches
• Add mandatory confirmation to firmware to prevent accidental EEPROM resets (“network scanner” bug)
• Add support for TFT LCD Displays on ESP32
• Add support for "extended settings" not traditionally part of the BrewPi firmware
• Added a new HTTP interface for quick sensor assignment & settings updates
• Adds ability to configure minimum delays for heating/cooling

Note about future support​

v15 will likely be the final official release of this firmware for the ESP8266 microcontroller. Although there may be future releases, it is highly recommended that the ESP32 be used for new builds, and existing users that want to use new, upcoming features should explore migrating to the ESP32-S2 which - in builds using Lolin's D1 Mini - has a pin-equivalent board available that may be a direct, drop-in replacement. For discussion as to why, please see this post.

Note about the project name​

As a result of the migration away from the ESP8266, the project is also going to undergo a name change from BrewPi-ESP8266 to BrewPi-ESP. This shouldn't really matter, but if you ever see me refer to "BrewPi-ESP", thats the same thing as "BrewPi-ESP8266".


As always, feedback, bug reports, and feature requests are always welcome - both here and on GitHub.