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adrianoftyriel said:
Hello all, I've recently switched to Fermentrack from BrewPi Remix as I'm thinking of setting up a second chamber. In my last (first) ferment with it, I really just needed cooling, but now I'm fermenting with a Kveik and need some heat. The problem lies with the heat duty cycle being too low. If I remember correctly (it was 3 years ago that I first set up a BrewPi), BrewPi self-corrects the PID algorithm over time, but how can I force it to heat more now?

View attachment 706410

Note: I've also lengthened my filter times to try to get rid of those drops to 0C.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure there is an upper limit to how hot you can go. You can change it in the settings but I'm not sure how to do it- Hang on I'm sure one of the guys will jump in and give you more information.
 
I use a mini-fridge as a dual purpose fermentation chamber and beverage cooler and am bypassing the auto defrost feature. Is there a way to add a defrost timer to Fermentrack for when I just want fridge constant for beverages?
 
adrianoftyriel said:
I've recently switched to Fermentrack from BrewPi Remix as I'm thinking of setting up a second chamber.
Click to expand...
I'm offended - adding multi-chamber was the first thing I did (after upgrading to PHP7)! :p

What do you mean "drops to 0?"

I do think you are above the max - you will have to figure out where that limit is set in Fermentrack.

brian402 said:
I use a mini-fridge as a dual purpose fermentation chamber and beverage cooler and am bypassing the auto defrost feature. Is there a way to add a defrost timer to Fermentrack for when I just want fridge constant for beverages?
Click to expand...
That seems a little complex to be a simple addition. If a person were to do it, the flow would be to have a six-hour timer (older fridges used 12) and run a heater on the coils for 21 minutes (older was 15 mins).

One way to go would be to use a relay pair for the fridge. Allow the existing timer to pull a relay and turn on the heater elements. That relay should also break the circuit to the compressor. Then if the Controller calls for cooling but the heater is on, the compressor will not run till the heat cycle is done.

The existing defrost timer may do all of this for you, so energizing the compressor circuit before the timer would be another way depending on accessibility to the wiring. You'll have to look at the wiring schematic on your particular fridge.
 
Oh yes, I can see all that styling you did ...

1605285815624.png
 
LBussy said:
I'm offended - adding multi-chamber was the first thing I did (after upgrading to PHP7)! :p
Click to expand...
I can see how offended you are. Seriously though, I wanted to have a single pane of glass.



LBussy said:
I do think you are above the max - you will have to figure out where that limit is set in Fermentrack.
Click to expand...

1605305001203.png


I've adjusted those. It just seems like it thinks it's got a powerful heater in there and cuts it off.

LBussy said:
What do you mean "drops to 0?"
Click to expand...

See my graph here. I seem to be losing connection to my temp sensors. Haven't done much troubleshooting yet.

1605305182890.png
 
Sort of wondering if those temp drops aren't related. What voltage are you using to power the probes, and how strong a pull-up?

It really seems to make a difference (for me anyway) to use 5V to power the probe, and 3V3 with a 2K2 pull-up on data.
 
LBussy said:
Sort of wondering if those temp drops aren't related. What voltage are you using to power the probes, and how strong a pull-up?

It really seems to make a difference (for me anyway) to use 5V to power the probe, and 3V3 with a 2K2 pull-up on data.
Click to expand...

I'm running 5V with a 4k7 resistor for data.
 
LBussy said:
The pull up is 3V3, right?

Do you have the ability to try a 2K2?
Click to expand...
Thanks, I swapped for a 2k2 resistor (at 21:53) and things got better, but still not right. The resistor is on 5V, should it be 3v3 for data still, even though I'm running 5V to the probe?

1605327795334.png
 
Yes, the pull-up should be to 3.3v because that is the voltage the esp io cells run at. Pulling to 5v will stress those same cells and could make them die...

Cheers!
 
Hey all. I’ve finally decided to upgrade my ancient fuzzewuzze laptop/UNO brewpi system to Fermentrack. Some questions:
Is FT happy running on the latest rpi-4b and 64-bit rpi Foundation OS?

Actually, What I’d really like to do is keep using the laptop instead of an rpi because it’s got a nice screen for the UI and sits nicely on my chamber mini-fridge. Will FT run on the latest pi OS for PCs? (I didn’t even know that existed until tonight.) That’d be ideal. And I’d save a couple bucks not buying a rpi, which would be redundant.

Maybe I should just try it.

-100amps
 
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day_trippr said:
Yes, the pull-up should be to 3.3v because that is the voltage the esp io cells run at. Pulling to 5v will stress those same cells and could make them die...

Cheers!
Click to expand...

Thanks! I made that change. I guess I'm coming from an Arduino world, which runs at 5V.

However, now, with 3V3 and a 2K2 resistor, my temp drops are back full force.

1605365846745.png
 
That suggests you have a very long lead or a poor connection somewhere. Since using the stronger pull-up helped (as well as 5V), I'm guessing your signal is dropping out. Check connections, swap out sensors one at a time, see what works.

There's no sense in worrying about whether the heater is working correctly until you get a steady signal to the controller.
 
100amps said:
Hey all. I’ve finally decided to upgrade my ancient fuzzewuzze laptop/UNO brewpi system to Fermentrack. Some questions:
Is FT happy running on the latest rpi-4b and 64-bit rpi Foundation OS?
Click to expand...

With apologies, I didn’t realize there was a separate thread for Fermentrack. I thought this one was all things Thorrak. 🙄
 
100amps said:
Hey all. I’ve finally decided to upgrade my ancient fuzzewuzze laptop/UNO brewpi system to Fermentrack. Some questions:
Is FT happy running on the latest rpi-4b and 64-bit rpi Foundation OS?

Actually, What I’d really like to do is keep using the laptop instead of an rpi because it’s got a nice screen for the UI and sits nicely on my chamber mini-fridge. Will FT run on the latest pi OS for PCs? (I didn’t even know that existed until tonight.) That’d be ideal. And I’d save a couple bucks not buying a rpi, which would be redundant.

Maybe I should just try it.

-100amps
Click to expand...

Sorry for having missed this!

Short answer:
  • Definitely works (tested) on the latest Raspbian running on RPi 3/4/400 (32-bit armv7/armv8 arch)
  • Probably works (untested) on the latest Raspbain running on older RPis (1/Zero/Zero W/older 2s) (32-bit armv6 arch)
  • Definitely works (tested) on the latest Ubuntu (and therefore probably Debian) running on traditional desktop/laptop hardware (64-bit amd64 arch)
  • Possibly works on anything else you throw at it

The long answer:

Raspbian (now RPi Foundation OS) is based on Debian, but is designed to run on either the 32 bit armv6 (RPi Zero/1), armv7 (some RPi 2s), or armv8 (other RPi 2s, RPi 3, 4, and 400) architecture. As you noted, the newest armv8 Pis also support the 64 bit arm64 - for which they are currently working on a 64 bit version of Raspbian. Raspbian packages are typically provided for the combination of the architecture and the debian distribution (e.g. wheezy, stretch, buster) that version of Raspbian is based on. Given that 99%+ of packages compiled for 32 bit armv7 work on armv8 they typically end up compiling the 32 bit packages twice per distribution - once for armv6 and once for armv7.

With the advent of the 64 bit RPi OS they now have to compile all the packages a third time - for arm64.

Fermentrack itself isn't compiled to binary, so as long as its dependencies are available it should work just fine. While I have tested and can guarantee availability for 32 bit armv7 on the latest distributions of Raspbian, I haven't tested it on other architectures. It should work on armv6 (though there are reasons I'd avoid the Pi Zeros if possible) and might work on arm64, though I haven't tested it.

In contrast to all the above, Debian for RPi Desktop is - as the name suggests - just Debian with some extra "stuff" thrown in. Debian has far wider package compatibility than Raspbian for desktop architectures - both 32 and 64 bit - so it's likely that anything that works on Raspbian will also work on Debian. Fermentrack works just fine on Ubuntu which is Debian based - even without the RPi Desktop "stuff". (My dirty little secret is that my "production" Fermentrack box is actually a VM running Ubuntu on my NAS at home. Tell no one. ;) )

Separate from all the above, again - python package compatibility is really the key. Fermentrack works great (after a few tweaks) on MacOS. I've also heard it works well on Windows. So long as you're willing to take the time to fix the supporting architecture around Fermentrack (or live with a few broken features) then you can probably get it up and running on whatever hardware/OS you have lying around!



100amps said:
With apologies, I didn’t realize there was a separate thread for Fermentrack. I thought this one was all things Thorrak. 🙄
Click to expand...

All good - and again, sorry I missed this!

I prefer to use this thread for firmware questions, but there are plenty of Fermentrack questions asked here. There's also the Fermentrack thread (where people sometimes ask BrewPi-ESP8266-related questions). There's the TiltBridge thread for questions related to that - and the BrewFlasher thread if you just want to flash some stuff.

And more coming soon!
 
We collected some information about the different BrewPi based and inspired applications to help make this more clear. The only problem is: where do you put it?

I actually did register a pretty good domain name for the "all things brewing automation-related" but I've just never done anything with it. One of these days. :)
 
Thorrak said:
Short answer:
Definitely works (tested) on the latest Ubuntu (and therefore probably Debian) running on traditional desktop/laptop hardware (64-bit amd64 arch)

Possibly works on anything else you throw at it.
Click to expand...

I’m stoked. Can’t wait til my current brew gets to lager temp so I can behead the system and get after this.

Separate from all the above, again - python package compatibility is really the key.
... you can probably get it up and running on whatever hardware/OS you have lying around!
Click to expand...

So it’s pretty much completely python (and cross-platform dependencies) then. That’s brilliant.

I also have an iSpindel to integrate. And Brewfather, so, again, I’m stoked.
 
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Hello!

Currently amidst a fermentrack and BrewPi-esp8266 combo build at the movement.In short this is amazing, and fermentrack is really good and well integrated with the BrewPi-Esp8266 firmware/implementation. So pretty committed to retaining this arrangement.
However I have some hardware questions, which may have come about my previous ignorance between BrewPi-Esp8266 and BrewPiLess. Namely, whether there is a BrewPi-Esp8266 fork that has the physical up and down buttons configured and LCD timeout? (I think I might have a duff LCD board at the moment anyway..) As, forgive me if I am wrong, I could spot anything in the default fermentrack config tools.

I did have a search around this forum, but I think my search abilities are lacking, as didn’t come up to a categorical answer. Heard about Config.h file adjustments, but I guess I would have to recompile or something (this is where my expertise runs out) before flashing a bin to the esp8266. So thought this would be a good place to ask in the first instance!
Thanks!
 
MarvinHomeAlone said:
Hello!

Currently amidst a fermentrack and BrewPi-esp8266 combo build at the movement.In short this is amazing, and fermentrack is really good and well integrated with the BrewPi-Esp8266 firmware/implementation. So pretty committed to retaining this arrangement.
However I have some hardware questions, which may have come about my previous ignorance between BrewPi-Esp8266 and BrewPiLess. Namely, whether there is a BrewPi-Esp8266 fork that has the physical up and down buttons configured and LCD timeout? (I think I might have a duff LCD board at the moment anyway..) As, forgive me if I am wrong, I could spot anything in the default fermentrack config tools.

I did have a search around this forum, but I think my search abilities are lacking, as didn’t come up to a categorical answer. Heard about Config.h file adjustments, but I guess I would have to recompile or something (this is where my expertise runs out) before flashing a bin to the esp8266. So thought this would be a good place to ask in the first instance!
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Unfortunately there is not. I was going to make one, but got distracted and ended up running off in a different direction. That will eventually get released but it’s behind another project at the moment which is absorbing my development cycles.
 
Thorrak said:
Unfortunately there is not. I was going to make one, but got distracted and ended up running off in a different direction. That will eventually get released but it’s behind another project at the moment which is absorbing my development cycles.
Click to expand...

Thanks Thorrak! I think I’ll go for the path of least resistance and put the ability to put the buttons in at a later date, once the firmware allows!

Really impressive stuff though!!
 
following on from my comments about a duff LCD above (getting two lines of white squares despite any contrast setting), assuming it’s some dodgy connections somewhere (power pin is nicely at 5V , but SCA and SCL are a tad shy ). But wanted to confirm whether the I2C address still needs to be 0x27?
 
MarvinHomeAlone said:
following on from my comments about a duff LCD above (getting two lines of white squares despite any contrast setting), assuming it’s some dodgy connections somewhere (power pin is nicely at 5V , but SCA and SCL are a tad shy ). But wanted to confirm whether the I2C address still needs to be 0x27?
Click to expand...
Nope - the firmware will auto detect any device at any address on the I2C bus. I would double check the wires for SCA and SCL - that’s the most likely culprit as long as the I2C backpack is good.
 
Thorrak said:
Nope - the firmware will auto detect any device at any address on the I2C bus. I would double check the wires for SCA and SCL - that’s the most likely culprit as long as the I2C backpack is good.
Click to expand...
Cheers! I think I have tracked it down to my logic level converter. Bought the thing that looked “right” in the pictures on Amazon, but didn’t read the description. A think turned up in the post that looked right with same form factor and hastily put into place. However on looking closely at it it’s not what was pictured. Live and learn I suppose!
 
MarvinHomeAlone said:
Cheers! I think I have tracked it down to my logic level converter. Bought the thing that looked “right” in the pictures on Amazon, but didn’t read the description. A think turned up in the post that looked right with same form factor and hastily put into place. However on looking closely at it it’s not what was pictured. Live and learn I suppose!
Click to expand...
Yeah - Unfortunately there are two different pinouts for the level shifters out there - both with the same footprint. It's really frustrating. Sorry that it got you in this case!
 
I'm curious if anyone made progress on glycol with the ESP? I see the initial commit LBussy put out there about a year ago but haven't gone much further. I wanted to see if there was progress before I dug into things myself. My glycol chiller is coming along. I plan to use constant fridge to handle it for now, but profiles would be nice.
 
Hey guys, I've lost my dashboard (504 Bad Gateway) and I've been trying to run the Fix Environment script, but it's failing. Here's the last snippit:

Code: 
chown: changing ownership of '/home/fermentrack/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/contrib/redirects/migrations/django.po': Structure needs cleaning
chown: cannot access '/home/fermentrack/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/contrib/sites/LC_MESSAGES': Structure needs cleaning
chown: cannot access '/home/fermentrack/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/contrib/sessions/LC_MESSAGES': Structure needs cleaning
chown: changing ownership of '/home/fermentrack/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/conf/locale/nb/__pycache__/django.mo': Structure needs cleaning
chown: changing ownership of '/home/fermentrack/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/conf/locale/nb/__pycache__/django.po': Structure needs cleaning
chown: cannot access '/home/fermentrack/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/conf/locale/__pycache__/LC_MESSAGES': Structure needs cleaning

Any ideas?
 
adrianoftyriel said:
Hey guys, I've lost my dashboard (504 Bad Gateway) and I've been trying to run the Fix Environment script, but it's failing. Here's the last snippit:

Code: 
chown: changing ownership of '/home/fermentrack/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/contrib/redirects/migrations/django.po': Structure needs cleaning
chown: cannot access '/home/fermentrack/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/contrib/sites/LC_MESSAGES': Structure needs cleaning
chown: cannot access '/home/fermentrack/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/contrib/sessions/LC_MESSAGES': Structure needs cleaning
chown: changing ownership of '/home/fermentrack/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/conf/locale/nb/__pycache__/django.mo': Structure needs cleaning
chown: changing ownership of '/home/fermentrack/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/conf/locale/nb/__pycache__/django.po': Structure needs cleaning
chown: cannot access '/home/fermentrack/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/django/conf/locale/__pycache__/LC_MESSAGES': Structure needs cleaning

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Yikes - I can't recall hearing "structure needs cleaning" errors before. Your SD card sounds like it is either corrupt or pretty darn close to being corrupt. I would back up your data folder, your database, and your secretsettings.py file ASAP and migrate everything to a fresh install on a new SD card.
 
Yikes. Okay!
Thorrak said:
Yikes - I can't recall hearing "structure needs cleaning" errors before. Your SD card sounds like it is either corrupt or pretty darn close to being corrupt. I would back up your data folder, your database, and your secretsettings.py file ASAP and migrate everything to a fresh install on a new SD card.
Click to expand...


Yikes! I guess I'll try to get a new card tomorrow!
 
You know, I'm thinking about going a different way here: If I set up a VM running RPi OS, can I run Fermentrack on that? I guess I'd need to flash firmware manually from my PC. But I can do that, so long as I can get the bin files.

Any concerns with that @Thorrak?
 
adrianoftyriel said:
You know, I'm thinking about going a different way here: If I set up a VM running RPi OS, can I run Fermentrack on that? I guess I'd need to flash firmware manually from my PC. But I can do that, so long as I can get the bin files.

Any concerns with that @Thorrak?
Click to expand...
None whatsoever. Secret confession: my main Fermentrack install the past few months has been running in an Ubuntu VM on my NAS.

For flashing firmware, there’s always BrewFlasher ;)
 
Thorrak said:
Also, containerized Fermentrack running in docker is coming soon (but it won’t use SQLite so it’s not yet ideal for migrating existing installations)
Click to expand...
Are you migrating to Mongo? I would love to be able to run Fermentrack on my Synology.
 
Thorrak said:
Nah, Docker.

My primary install of Fermentrack is actually in a VM on my Synology right now. I'm hoping the docker version will work just as well.
Click to expand...
Gotcha I was curious what DB you were moving to with the docker version. I am also willing to beta test on my Synology (DS918+) in Docker if you need any testing.
 
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