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

[Taps]

Hi, when calibrating the ispindel am I supposed to have an equation in the ispindel setup page?
I did the guided calibration with a somewhat correct formula in the ispindel setup.
I have a beer ready to go with its gravity at 1.074.
When I put the ispindel in it reads 1.124.
If I put the formula in the ispindel I got from the guided calibraiton as well as the one in fermentrack it reads 1.045.
I can't put the correct formula in the ispindel and wipe the fermentrack.
Any help would be great

 

[Taps]

ok, so looking at the angles it looks like its so far off so maybe I just stuffed up the calibration. Unless someone can come up with another answer.

 

[poorman]

ok, so looking at the angles it looks like its so far off so maybe I just stuffed up the calibration. Unless someone can come up with another answer.

Is your iSpindel 20-30 degrees at 1.000? I had this problem until I added some weight (12MM nuts) to the bottom of the ispindel until it was 25 degrees in pure water. Then I calibrated with the different sugar water measurements. Put the measured readings into the spreadsheet and generated my formula. I do NOT have the frementrack setup yet so I may be missing your point.
~Jay

 

[frenchbrewer]

I am lost... I used to have Fermentrack up and running with a ESP8266 in wifi - worked for maybe 10 batches.

Last week I unplugged my ESP8266 because I was not fermenting anything.

Yesterday after my brew day I plugged the ESP and tried to set the temperature.
Fermentrack was not finding my ESP anymore.

I reinstalled everything... The Pi, refreshed the ESP... not working.

After several tests it looks like my ESP managed to connect for a couple of minutes and then I cannot see it anymore on my router..... Any idea why?

I now suspect an issue with Xfinity router....

 

[LBussy]

Fermentrack was not finding my ESP anymore.
... I now suspect an issue with Xfinity router....

mDNS is fickle sometimes. I recommend you test independent of Fermentrack and see what you see.

First, install mdns-scan:

sudo apt install mdns-scan

Next, run it and see if you can pick out your ESP8266 device:

pi@brewpimule:~ $ mdns-scan
+ GFiber-TV-Box-15ef93e34bc3fa77a079b809da63ad9a._googlecast._tcp.local
+ GFiber-TV-Box-19c2e4657452bbdf866ab541a5037200._googlecast._tcp.local
+ GFiber-TV-Box-60e374b1573b8ed046e5035e29fcda93._googlecast._tcp.local
+ GFiber-TV-Box-a66a878a51bd101f4d9537d36e90d6f3._googlecast._tcp.local
+ GFiber-TV-Box-7a0b07c002c0809faff626f45e6f5623._googlecast._tcp.local
+ PIHOLE._smb._tcp.local
+ PIHOLE._device-info._tcp.local
+ GFiberTV-3 [f4:f5:e8:87:03:67]._workstation._tcp.local
+ GFiberTV-3._ssh._tcp.local
+ GFiberTV-3._sftp-ssh._tcp.local
+ GFiberTV [f4:f5:e8:87:04:8f]._workstation._tcp.local
+ GFiberTV._ssh._tcp.local
+ GFiberTV._sftp-ssh._tcp.local
+ GFiberStorage [f4:f5:e8:6b:b3:7b]._workstation._tcp.local
+ GFIBERSTORAGE._smb._tcp.local
+ GFiberStorage._ssh._tcp.local
+ GFiberStorage._sftp-ssh._tcp.local
+ GFiberTV-5 [f4:f5:e8:86:92:47]._workstation._tcp.local
+ GFiberTV-5._ssh._tcp.local
+ GFiberTV-5._sftp-ssh._tcp.local
+ 0._teamviewer._tcp.local
+ 3.20.2.34-DUDE.a1fdc4e7-3db0-4b49-b317-9c23f638040c._nvstream_dbd._tcp.local
+ GFiberTV-2 [f4:f5:e8:87:02:bb]._workstation._tcp.local
+ GFiberTV-2._ssh._tcp.local
+ GFiberTV-2._sftp-ssh._tcp.local
+ OctoPrint instance on octopi._http._tcp.local
+ OctoPrint instance on octopi._octoprint._tcp.local
+ GFiberTV-4 [f4:f5:e8:87:03:c3]._workstation._tcp.local
+ GFiberTV-4._ssh._tcp.local
+ GFiberTV-4._sftp-ssh._tcp.local
+ 1115865659._teamviewer._tcp.local
+ Living Room._spotify-connect._tcp.local
+ HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M177fw[B3DB4F]._http._tcp.local
+ HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M177fw[B3DB4F]._pdl-datastream._tcp.local
+ HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M177fw[B3DB4F]._printer._tcp.local
+ HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M177fw[B3DB4F]._scanner._tcp.local
+ HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M177fw[B3DB4F]._ipp._tcp.local
+ HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M177fw[B3DB4F]._http-alt._tcp.local
Browsing ... |

Hit Ctrl-C to stop.

If you can see the name of your ESP8266 device, then you will know it's visible and the issue lies with Fermentrack. If you cannot, the issue lies with the network or with your ESP8266 device.

 

[frenchbrewer]

Just run it and as suspected it does not show up... The weird part is that :
1 - It shows up in my router list for a minute let say
2 - Looking at my LCD on the ESP8266 it looks like it is normal...

I may have an old router to troubleshoot the router issue - which I suspect because it is the only thing that would have "change" maybe by some updates pushed to the Xfinity Router.

But how can I change the network my ESP will connect too? Any idea?

 

[LBussy]

But how can I change the network my ESP will connect too? Any idea?

I think the most straightforward method will be to re-flash the controller with BrewFlasher and select the "Erase Flash" option. After that, you will connect to it as an access point as you did initially and re-set the network. You will lose your device configuration when you do this as well.

 

[exoticatom]

Hi guys,

Sorry for spamming and if this is wrong thread. I posted already in fermenters.

My configuration is iSpindel with Fermentrack (I am using it only to follow fermentation) and recently I noticed that gravity shows extreme ABV. Specific gravity seems to be ok as plato.
Do you know maybe what could be the reason for gravity to show such high number?

It seems to me as the ABV is calculated like it is an SG value but graphs are showing Plato. I am not aware where you can switch between gravity units?

thank for help and suggestions.

 

[LBussy]

It seems to me as the ABV is calculated like it is an SG value but graphs are showing Plato. I am not aware where you can switch between gravity units?

Does it work correctly when you use SG?

 

[troyp42]

Hey guys anyone know what could be causing this. Every now and again my controller just shows blank temperatures. If I unplug and plug my probes back in it resets and shows the temperature again but a very high reading of say 45C but then starts to drop quickly. Any ideas what could be causing this?

 

[LBussy]

Hey guys anyone know what could be causing this. Every now and again my controller just shows blank temperatures. If I unplug and plug my probes back in it resets and shows the temperature again but a very high reading of say 45C but then starts to drop quickly. Any ideas what could be causing this?

I had this issue with Brew Bubbles on occasion. I chatted with @day_trippr about it and the best we could come up with was a bad connection to the sensor. Note that the sensor is a small TO-92 device inside of the SS capsule at the end of the lead. A connection issue could be at that junction as well. Ultimately I was unable to successfully reproduce the issue and therefore was not able to figure out a software means to address it.

If it happens on occasion and then tapers off, I'd check the standard things:

• Try a different/better power supply
• Check the soldering junctions, especially those for the pullup
• Try a different sensor
• Try a different controller

Good luck!

 

[troyp42]

I had this issue with Brew Bubbles on occasion. I chatted with @day_trippr about it and the best we could come up with was a bad connection to the sensor. Note that the sensor is a small TO-92 device inside of the SS capsule at the end of the lead. A connection issue could be at that junction as well. Ultimately I was unable to successfully reproduce the issue and therefore was not able to figure out a software means to address it.

If it happens on occasion and then tapers off, I'd check the standard things:

• Try a different/better power supply
• Check the soldering junctions, especially those for the pullup
• Try a different sensor
• Try a different controller

Good luck!

Thanks for the tips. Ive got another one I built that works perfectly. I used the PCB I brought from Thorrak for both of them. Ill double check solder connections and go from there..cheers.

 

[exoticatom]

Does it work correctly when you use SG?

yes that was it, I had to switch my calibration formula to SG.

 

[MacDee]

That's expected, that's one of the new changes (there were other changes beyond just the WiFi reset in that firmware)

It should display the AP name and password on the LCD when you flash - the AP name should be BrewPiAP and the pass should be brewpiesp

One of my esp8266 controllers started acting weird and dropped its contol so I tried to reflash. Has the password changed for the AP which comes up as MicroPython-c48a10 I don't have LCDs but it used to be brewpiesp but that doesn't seem to work anymore.

 

[Thorrak]

One of my esp8266 controllers started acting weird and dropped its contol so I tried to reflash. Has the password changed for the AP which comes up as MicroPython-c48a10 I don't have LCDs but it used to be brewpiesp but that doesn't seem to work anymore.

This project doesn't use MicroPython - I'm not sure what you flashed...

 

[MacDee]

I flashed the wifi (beta ) for slow APs I don't see anything else come up. This is my flash output
Flash Command: esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 write_flash --flash_mode dio 0x00000 /home/fermentrack/fermentrack/firmware_flash/firmware/ESP8266 - BrewPi w WiFi (Beta) - v2.4.2r0.12 -- Beta - With WiFi autoreconnect - firmware.bin

esptool.py v2.6
Serial port /dev/ttyUSB0
Connecting....
Detecting chip type... ESP8266
Chip is ESP8266EX
Features: WiFi
MAC: cc:50:e3:c4:9a:10
Uploading stub...
Running stub...
Stub running...
Configuring flash size...
Auto-detected Flash size: 4MB
Compressed 427408 bytes to 299151...

Writing at ......
Writing at 0x00048000... (100 %)
Wrote 427408 bytes (299151 compressed) at 0x00000000 in 27.0 seconds (effective 126.8 kbit/s)...
Hash of data verified.
Leaving...
Hard resetting via RTS pin…"

It is strange then that the AP that comes up has the same last digits as the MAC address.
MicroPython-c49a10 previous post typo said C48a10 but its 9a10. SO fro the flash output that seems to be the same chip.

 

[MacDee]

I ended up punting and starting over. Reinstalled Fermentrack then reflashed my controllers and set them up. Didn't have to use the APs from the chips so all good now. Don't know what that Micro_python thing was about.

 

[nvogt1]

I've been using fermentrack for a few years now and everything has been great!

However, with the upgrade to python 3, I ended up having to do a fresh install of raspbian buster, and then re-installed fermentrack. Now I'm having issues displaying the graph when I'm fermenting -- it's just blank. I've started and stopped and finalized several logs just to test and none of them display on the graph. If I go to "manage beer logs" I can see all the test logs, but all of them says "no data logged".

If I go into the "data" folder in the fermentrack user files on my raspberry pi (which is where I believe they are stored), there are no CSV files there.

Everything else works perfectly with displaying the temperatures and controlling the fermentation chamber, it just seems to be an issue of logging the data points.

Any ideas of where to start to troubleshoot this?

Thanks!

 

[Thorrak]

I've been using fermentrack for a few years now and everything has been great!

However, with the upgrade to python 3, I ended up having to do a fresh install of raspbian buster, and then re-installed fermentrack. Now I'm having issues displaying the graph when I'm fermenting -- it's just blank. I've started and stopped and finalized several logs just to test and none of them display on the graph. If I go to "manage beer logs" I can see all the test logs, but all of them says "no data logged".

If I go into the "data" folder in the fermentrack user files on my raspberry pi (which is where I believe they are stored), there are no CSV files there.

Everything else works perfectly with displaying the temperatures and controlling the fermentation chamber, it just seems to be an issue of logging the data points.

Any ideas of where to start to troubleshoot this?

Thanks!

Are you using a gravity sensor, or just a BrewPi controller? Are you on the master or dev branch?

 

[nvogt1]

Are you using a gravity sensor, or just a BrewPi controller? Are you on the master or dev branch?

Just a BrewPi controller -- I have a iSpindel that works and communicates with fermentrack, but I haven't calibrated it so I'm not using it for this fermentation. It's turned off and not assigned to any fermentation chamber.

I used the automated install of fermentrack (curl -L instal....), so I believe I'm on the master branch.

Thanks!

 

[Thorrak]

Just a BrewPi controller -- I have a iSpindel that works and communicates with fermentrack, but I haven't calibrated it so I'm not using it for this fermentation. It's turned off and not assigned to any fermentation chamber.

I used the automated install of fermentrack (curl -L instal....), so I believe I'm on the master branch.

Thanks!

Can you log into Fermentrack, click the gear in the upper right, and log in (if needed)?

You should be able to see your settings on that page - what do you have "Update preference" set to?

 

[nvogt1]

Can you log into Fermentrack, click the gear in the upper right, and log in (if needed)?

You should be able to see your settings on that page - what do you have "Update preference" set to?

I have it set to only upgrade when updates are officially released

 

[Thorrak]

I have it set to only upgrade when updates are officially released

OK. Click the "Update" button that page - I just pushed the update live to master so it should now show up.

 

[nvogt1]

OK. Click the "Update" button that page - I just pushed the update live to master so it should now show up.

That worked! Thanks!

 

[Stand]

I hit the update this morning, and now I am getting 504 error, just me?

 

[Thorrak]

I hit the update this morning, and now I am getting 504 error, just me?

Hmm - How old of a version were you upgrading from? Did you install within the past ~3 months, or did you previously upgrade & run the fix-environment script?

 

[Stand]

Hmm - How old of a version were you upgrading from? Did you install within the past ~3 months, or did you previously upgrade & run the fix-environment script?

I installed Raspbian and Fermentrack in April. I am sure I have done normal upgrades along the way, but not the fix script.

 

[nvogt1]

I hit the update this morning, and now I am getting 504 error, just me?

When I updated this morning it took a long time to compile one of the packages but it eventually finished.

 

[Stand]

I ran the fix-environment command and it works again!

 

[Thorrak]

I ran the fix-environment command and it works again!

Perfect!

Sorry about that -- glad that script took care of everything!

 

[kdw2pd]

A question for folks: has anyone had an issue where either or both of the relays will continue engaging, even when the controller is supposed to be idling? Assuming it must be a wiring issue, because I can only get the relays to engage when they're set up as "not inverted" in Fermentrack.

I wired the power, heating and cooling using this build (and the case): muh's Fermentrack\BrewPi Remix Build

And used the ESP8266 wiring from this post: Native ESP8266 BrewPi Firmware - WiFi BrewPi, no Arduino needed!

I have another ESP8266 wired pretty much the same way that works as expected. After comparing the two BrewPis, I can't see any differences in wiring, so not sure where my mistake is. Hoping someone has had this issue who can point me in the right direction.

Edit: the BrewPi that I'm struggling with will work normally when cool/heat is called.

 

[day_trippr]

The relay control GPIOs MUST be inverted to operate properly, whether BrewPi or Fermentrack...

Cheers!

 

[dvargo]

There are two PCBs that I’m currently using for my builds - a board that hosts the ESP8266 (the one @Bigdaddyale was showing in the previous post) and a board that all the temperature sensors connect to. For the latest versions of my PCB designs, you use an Ethernet cable to connect them together.

Both PCBs are optional, but were designed to make builds much easier based on frustrations I’ve had when building controllers on my end. That said, of the two most people looking to do more than just test a build end up using one of the “main” PCBs to wire everything together - the “sensor” breakout PCB is the more likely one to be skipped.

This is what one of the sensor boards looks like from when I photographed a recent build:

View attachment 646310

You can see there are a number of unpopulated headers - these are for adding additional sensors if necessary.

Thorrak or anyone else... What are you using as a wire clamp in this little box to keep the strain off of the soldered wires??

 

[Thorrak]

Thorrak or anyone else... What are you using as a wire clamp in this little box to keep the strain off of the soldered wires??

Assuming you mean the sensor board, my case design has a slot for a zip tie. Idea is to solder the wires to the PCB, thread the cables through the zip tie, then zip tie it down to the case. Hope then is that any strain is transferred to the zip tie rather than to the wire ends themselves.

 

[dvargo]

Yes I was talking about the sensor board and your case design. Zip tie makes so much sense.... I was definitely over thinking this one. Thank you for the quick reply and all of your work in this project.

 

[HairyJamie]

Phew, what a thread! Just read through the whole thing in one sitting!

I have a BrewPi Uno board based controller that connects via Bluetooth to my Pi that has been running continuously for at least 4 years. I finally took the plunge and upgraded to Fermentrack.

I've yet to run a brew through it, but it is solid so far.

@Thorrak - a few posts back you mentioned a simpler PCB layout, I'd like a controller PCB without any RJ connections, just dupont or screw terminals. I don't need to have a breakout for the sensors as my controller sits on top of the fridge.

Did this ever come through?

I downloaded the boards and installed Eagle to have a go myself but I need a beer after looking at it for 15 mins ...

Thanks for an excellent project!

 

[LBussy]

Phew, what a thread! Just read through the whole thing in one sitting!

You, sir, win the Internet!

and upgrade to Fermentrack.

Pshfft! A sidegrade at best!

I'd like a controller PCB without any RJ connections, just dupont or screw terminals

None of the models I know of are without that. The easiest thing would be to put the breakout in the same box with a short CAT5 cable. Or, there's the "drink beer till Eagle makes sense" approach.

 

[HairyJamie]

None of the models I know of are without that. The easiest thing would be to put the breakout in the same box with a short CAT5 cable. Or, there's the "drink beer till Eagle makes sense" approach.

I like your style!

Putting the breakout in the same box, why didn't I think of that?

I suppose I could dispense with the network cable and just solder short cable runs.

Of course I could just do that to the main board and throw a bit of stripboard in there but I have some pride ...

 

[Bigdaddyale]

Phew, what a thread! Just read through the whole thing in one sitting!

I have a BrewPi Uno board based controller that connects via Bluetooth to my Pi that has been running continuously for at least 4 years. I finally took the plunge and upgraded to Fermentrack.

I've yet to run a brew through it, but it is solid so far.

@Thorrak - a few posts back you mentioned a simpler PCB layout, I'd like a controller PCB without any RJ connections, just dupont or screw terminals. I don't need to have a breakout for the sensors as my controller sits on top of the fridge.

Did this ever come through?

I downloaded the boards and installed Eagle to have a go myself but I need a beer after looking at it for 15 mins ...

Thanks for an excellent project!

You could just solder in header pins into the appropriate spots instead of the rj-45 jack then run dupont wires

 

[LBussy]

You could just solder in header pins into the appropriate spots instead of the rj-45 jack then run dupont wires

Heathen!