New BCS-462 / RPi Control Panel Build

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brum said:
Very cool build. I'm doing something similar but running the ebrewsupply PID setup. I wanted a way to keep recipes on hand so I am running Brewtarget on an RPi and an adafruit 10.1" non touch screen. I will just be running a wireless keyboard I think. The damn hard part is mounting the screen. My company does a lot of work with that 3m VHB and other crazy tapes but I think I'm going to go the hard mounted route.

Rough setups in the pics. Still need to tweak it all. You can barely see the cut out lines where I'll mount the screen. Hopefully I'll be able to do that soon.

20150602_205653_zps6xulrzyp.jpg

20150602_195825_zpsl7v9hjs8.jpg
Click to expand...

Brum -

Well done my friend. One of my initial ideas was to be able to use beersmith on the RPi to have my recipes on hand. While there is a linux version available on the beersmith website, I have been unable to install on the Rpi. I'll check out brewtarget.

Anybody with connections to the beersmith folks? I'd love to see a new distro that works.

Brum, keep us posted on the build. Great work.
 
Yeah I was pretty bummed I couldn't get Beersmith to work. I think some other people were trying to get them to compile an RPi compatible version. Maybe you'll be successful. Brewtarget is decent though
 
A few changes in the works - I was disappointed with my herms coil setup so I've installed a new RIMS tube. With the tube I need to install a new breaker, outlet, and temperature probe to the BCS. So, for now brewing is on hold. No real rush as I have 3-4 kegs on tap, plus 15 gallons of Helles lagering in the lagering fridge.
 
Gotcha thanks. Good luck. I am in the process of installing bottom drains (done) and electric ball valves (electric done, plumbing to be done). I will then be doing the RPi/touchscreen.

Quick question: do you use an actual keyboard or is there a functional on-screen keyboard?

-BD
 
So, I have a Wireless keyboard TouchPad that I use when I need to. However, most of the actual programming I do remotely from my pc inside the house.

Can you tell about your new ball valves? Are they 3 wire? Where did you pick them up - China?
 
Yes got them direct from manufacturer. They were good to work with. A few two ways and a few three ways, but the coolest one is a proportional valve. Yes all are three wire. My arduino controls it based on two inputs from the BCS. When both off, the valve is closed. When first on and second off, it is in recirc mode and it's about halfway open. With those reversed it is in sparge mode and the arduino will adjust the valve on the fly by reading the flowmeter to get 1 qt/min flow. Both on means the valve is fully open. I will do the write up on my rig page when I am done assembling it all.

-BD
 
BrunDog said:
Yes got them direct from manufacturer. They were good to work with. A few two ways and a few three ways, but the coolest one is a proportional valve. Yes all are three wire. My arduino controls it based on two inputs from the BCS. When both off, the valve is closed. When first on and second off, it is in recirc mode and it's about halfway open. With those reversed it is in sparge mode and the arduino will adjust the valve on the fly by reading the flowmeter to get 1 qt/min flow. Both on means the valve is fully open. I will do the write up on my rig page when I am done assembling it all.

-BD
Click to expand...

Have a link to the proportional valve and flow meters?

Thanks!
 
BrunDog said:
Yes got them direct from manufacturer. They were good to work with. A few two ways and a few three ways, but the coolest one is a proportional valve. Yes all are three wire. My arduino controls it based on two inputs from the BCS. When both off, the valve is closed. When first on and second off, it is in recirc mode and it's about halfway open. With those reversed it is in sparge mode and the arduino will adjust the valve on the fly by reading the flowmeter to get 1 qt/min flow. Both on means the valve is fully open. I will do the write up on my rig page when I am done assembling it all.

-BD
Click to expand...

Perfect, let me know when you get a write up done as I'd like to eventually replicate electronic valves on the brewery.
 
I like this build. The BCS has always appealed to me and seeing it built as an integrated system using an RPi is fantastic. Will keep an eye on your future posts.

Keep up the good work!
 
BrunDog said:
Status?
Click to expand...

Aside from the RIMS coil addition this last fall, I've been busy brewing without much thought to future upgrades. At some point I'd like to plumb in electronic valves. A big addition would be a 220v run to the garage with full electric conversion. However, because of the placement of the main breaker in the house I am looking at a 125' run of 6 gauge through the house which is quite spendy.

My only complaint right now is the time associated with heating strike water for the mash with the 120v coil. Good news is with the BCS, I can start it heating in the early morning from the comfort of my bed (via smartphone), and then go back to sleep.

The touchscreen is by far the best part of the system which gets many compliments from fellow brewers and neighbors.
 
Jon, yes I'm using the BCS Web interface. So far it works well on the RPi as well as my android smartphone.
 
It worked natively out of the box. As far as the pi goes, I use it with Ubuntu mate Linux. Calibration took a little work as one of the axises was switched. A quick Google search provided instructions on editing a configuration file and using touchscreen calibration program. Let me know if you have any issues and I'll try to help.
 
ryanryates said:
My only complaint right now is the time associated with heating strike water for the mash with the 120v coil. Good news is with the BCS, I can start it heating in the early morning from the comfort of my bed (via smartphone), and then go back to sleep.
Click to expand...

So, for Jon, and others, is there a way to setup a process to automatically begin heating the strike water on a countdown?

For instance, let's say I know my setup will heat the water 2° per minute, and I want to brew at 9am and it's going to take approx 50 minutes to raise to strike temp. Is there a way to begin a process before I go to bed at say 11 PM to being with a countdown for 9 hours than begin heating (at 8 AM) so it's basically ready by the time I am ready to brew? I have a lot to learn about programming the BCS.

Also is there a way to see a log of what the timstamps are? Such as, set boil kettle to bring to boil at full blast then when it's at 212°, go to next state for throttle the element to a duty cycle to maintain the boil. Can you look up how long it took from starting the bring to boil process to go to the next state?

Really nice build! Where are you mounting the Rpi in your panel? Great forethought on prewire for move to electric. You really think you'll be able to do 1/2bbl in 20 gallon kettles without boiling over without concentrated boil?

How do you like those stout kettles??

TD.
 
I've not figured out a way to set up an automatic timer to say begin heating at X time. Typically I do all my water chemistry the night before and fill Mash and hlt. Then, set my alarm early and hit go on the bcs Web portal on my phone. By the time I've slept in, had coffee and breakfast the strike water is ready to go.

In terms of the location of the RPi, it's located on the upper din rail in the panel next to the ethernet switch. I'll repost a photo.

As far as volume goes, I regularly brew 16 gallon batches on the system. If it's super high gravity, I drop to 10-11. I did an Imperial Black IPA a couple weeks back with just over 40lbs of grain in the mash tun. No problem.

The Stout tanks have worked flawlessly. Very happy customer.
 
Cool!

I just revamped my brew system. Didn't have foresight that electric would be so appealing when I built my Brutus and decided to sell it to fund the new system which is an indoor HERMS based in three 20 gal kettles (not stout though I strongly considered them). I was almost tempted to use my old 15 gal kettles to do 10 gallon batches but moving indoors I didn't want to risk a boil over at any cost. This is why I asked about doing 1/2bbl in a 20gal kettle. I would occasionally get boil overs on my propane outdoors which wasn't a big deal really. Need to get comfortable with using my new system on ten gallon batches before I'd consider any larger.

My setup has ability to do remote auto fill with float switches. It takes a while to fill from the crappy filter on my RO tank, and the tank will only dispense about 13 gallons until it needs to regenerate slowly.. Hence the fill setup. I am realizing that I probably also need to fill the MLT or else my HERMS coil will be exposed as soon as I dough in using water from the HLT. That will require some manual intervention the day before in order to achieve the goal of walking into the brew area ready to go. It'll also permit more active control over the chemistry. Though, I am thinking about ditching the sparge to save some time.

Thanks for sharing! Love the DIY touchpad on the panel! Let's see a finished picture when it's all completed.
 
TrickyDick said:
So, for Jon, and others, is there a way to setup a process to automatically begin heating the strike water on a countdown?

For instance, let's say I know my setup will heat the water 2° per minute, and I want to brew at 9am and it's going to take approx 50 minutes to raise to strike temp. Is there a way to begin a process before I go to bed at say 11 PM to being with a countdown for 9 hours than begin heating (at 8 AM) so it's basically ready by the time I am ready to brew? I have a lot to learn about programming the BCS.

Also is there a way to see a log of what the timstamps are? Such as, set boil kettle to bring to boil at full blast then when it's at 212°, go to next state for throttle the element to a duty cycle to maintain the boil. Can you look up how long it took from starting the bring to boil process to go to the next state?

Really nice build! Where are you mounting the Rpi in your panel? Great forethought on prewire for move to electric. You really think you'll be able to do 1/2bbl in 20 gallon kettles without boiling over without concentrated boil?

How do you like those stout kettles??

TD.
Click to expand...

Pretty easy to do the countdown. Set state 0 of the process to do nothing except count down and then exit to state 1 when the timer = 0. In state 1, set your target temp and start heating.

Not really sure what you mean about seeing "timestamps". Each process/state is configured to do what you want and you can use the timers to exit states and trigger other processes to start/stop. There is no master list of "timestamps" for what you've programmed. The BCS does not use date/times, it merely counts up or down based on the timer intervals you specify.

I run some timers at the start of heating and cooling to see how long those steps take. If you want to see how long it took though, you need to specify a timer to track that.
 
Yeah Jon, one of these days I'll get around to trying your standalone UI. You said you got it to work with the win10 on the RPi?
 
How is the screen size working out for you? I just ordered my bcs today and trying to decide how I want to control it. I am interested in the new pi version with the screen you used. Only problem is the screen is out of stock on amazon right now.
 
vince805 said:
How is the screen size working out for you? I just ordered my bcs today and trying to decide how I want to control it. I am interested in the new pi version with the screen you used. Only problem is the screen is out of stock on amazon right now.
Click to expand...

The size works great for me. I definitely would not go smaller though. I have no issues with the size and resolution. Touch panel works well with my finger on the BCS web interface. When browsing the internet, I use a handheld keyboard / touchpad combo.

You could go bigger possibly, if you had room in your panel.
 
ryanryates said:
The size works great for me. I definitely would not go smaller though. I have no issues with the size and resolution. Touch panel works well with my finger on the BCS web interface. When browsing the internet, I use a handheld keyboard / touchpad combo.

You could go bigger possibly, if you had room in your panel.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. I would like to go 14.1, it would cost more but the piecing everything together and hoping it works is what is holding me back. I don't want to have to wait extra long :)

I found this kit on ebay with everything (screen, controller board and touchscreen panel) that I might go with. It's 10.1" and $111 for the whole kit.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-1inch-12...DMI-AV-VGA-USB-Controller-board-/371231650137
 
Last edited:
I use an HP 21" touchscreen monitor that I picked up on buy.com years ago for cheap. You can use any point of sale or other touchscreen monitor as long as you can hook up the video and USB for the touchscreen. I used a HDMI to DVI cable to connect video and then just plugged in the USB for mouse/touch control. The style that Ryan links to here with his build is great for building into a control panel, but if you have flexibility of just mounting it to the wall or something else, then you can get a plug & play monitor.
 
The input button allows the user to communicate with the BCS. For example I can program the BCS to require user input before moving from one state or process to another. The alarm is just a light/buzzer that goes off when the BCS needs to communicate to the user. For example, I can program it to alarm when the mash reaches a certain temp, or sparge time, or hop addition, etc.
 
I honestly do not understand the value of a button over the touchscreen interface. I push the next state buttons when starting and ending doughing in and when ready to transfer into the fermenter. Seems like this is a legacy option but the BCS interface obviates it. Anyway, my opinion... Certainly willing to be convinced otherwise.
 
ryanryates said:
The input button allows the user to communicate with the BCS. For example I can program the BCS to require user input before moving from one state or process to another. The alarm is just a light/buzzer that goes off when the BCS needs to communicate to the user. For example, I can program it to alarm when the mash reaches a certain temp, or sparge time, or hop addition, etc.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response.Do you find yourself using the input button with the touchscreen in place?

I like the idea of the alarm buzzer. How else can the BCS give audible alerts? Can you use a speaker connected to the pi?

BrunDog said:
I honestly do not understand the value of a button over the touchscreen interface. I push the next state buttons when starting and ending doughing in and when ready to transfer into the fermenter. Seems like this is a legacy option but the BCS interface obviates it. Anyway, my opinion... Certainly willing to be convinced otherwise.
Click to expand...

This is what I was thinking also. I dont know if I will need the input button since I am planning on having the touchscreen.
 
The push button is nice to have, especially when you have dirty, or sticky hands. Having both options provides more flexibility fir me. You may have other needs and preferences so go with what makes you happy.
 
JonW said:
Nice job - looks great! Now you need to make a custom UI with BCS Desktop. ;)
Click to expand...

OK Jon -

I finally got around to installing the BCS desktop on the raspberry pi. Everything seems to work great in testing. Tomorrow I plan to brew a batch of my house amber ale using the BCS desktop software. I do like the level of customization that can be incorporated into the UI - very nice work. At some point I'll plan to come up with some images and graphics to "make it pretty."

Again, great work - much thanks.
 

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