I am not sure what this means for the Brewtroller/Fermtroller project but the place that sold all of the hardware and provided support is closing down.
https://www.oscsys.com/
https://www.oscsys.com/
OSCSYS is shutting down
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jpalarchio
Well-Known Member
That's too bad, I remember when that project started on this forum over in the groups: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/groups/open+source+mash+computer/
Jeremiah, Matt and everyone that contributed on the project really did some amazing things before the Arduino and RasPi became easily available and used by novices.
I have an early board that was hand soldered and etched at home by Jeremiah; it still works today. It can't run the current code but I forked my version from the main code stream years back.
Sounds like the code will all be up on Github which is great, I still look back at the code today.
It's been a nice run. Thanks BrewTroller team.
Jeremiah, Matt and everyone that contributed on the project really did some amazing things before the Arduino and RasPi became easily available and used by novices.
I have an early board that was hand soldered and etched at home by Jeremiah; it still works today. It can't run the current code but I forked my version from the main code stream years back.
Sounds like the code will all be up on Github which is great, I still look back at the code today.
It's been a nice run. Thanks BrewTroller team.
schaez
Well-Known Member
This news was unfortunate. I've been using BrewTroller for years and was looking forward to software updates to make it more flexible for the use of the valves I just setup as well as improved network capability. I plan to continue to use it as it, but I'm also tracking the various projects for Raspberry Pi and Beaglebone.
biertourist
Well-Known Member
I was about to order a dx2 and noticed they had none in stock. Looking at the bcs now but means I need to buy all new sensors too
Yep and the fact that BCS pretty much never gets updated and never releases even the most asked for features is all-the-more depressing.
We really need a new brewery automation shop that can provide the ease-of-use of BCS with a dedicated developer who actually cares about releasing updated features...
Yes, I know this post will act as troll bait, but that's not my intention; just trying to vent some steam as BCS is really almost a perfect solution, if only it had 20x better support.
Adam
Bummer, I really like my Brewtroller and their hardware was very reasonable. I will continue to use it since it does exactly what I need, glad to see the code will remain available.
kickflip_mj
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That a bummer, I just finished my build not to long ago and now this. I guess its time for PLC
jpalarchio
Well-Known Member
It's a tough niche area which is why I think that you don't see many players. It's probably a pretty small market if someone is trying to do it for income. Otherwise that means they're doing it for fun and I think the project just gets too large and time consuming and people develop other interests and priorities. Then you figure at a minimum you need both a software guy and an electronics guy and the electronics changing all the time.
I have a BrewTroller and I've been in the process of moving to my own setup which requires that I learn about a lot of areas where I previously had limited experience. For me, the build and development side is as much fun as brewing so it's like two hobbies in one.
The other option is go the Electric Brewery method. You'll see that Kal has a statement out there on why he doesn't use proprietary hardware or move towards more automated processes. He makes several good points in that if you just want to get down to it and brew, his setup makes sense.
I disagree with this. There have been several updates to the 3.x versions since Brewers Hardware took over the BCS. If you've been on their forum at all, you'd also see there are several users running the latest beta of a 4.x version that is leaps and bounds better than the 3.x version. The release of that is set for the very near term. All existing BCS's will be able to run the new version.
Technical support for BCS is handled through their forum. If you have a specific issue, call them - they answer the phone.
sandyeggoxj
Well-Known Member
I second the phone call. Always been very responsive over the phone. Great phone support. Written stuff is crappy at best.
If the market is so small how come BH can't keep the bcs in stock? They build 20 and are sold out nearly immediately. I think they could build more at a time but that is just me. If you built a better option I would buy it. There is a lot about the bcs that I don't like. My next build will be an industrial PLC with touch HMI .
If the market is so small how come BH can't keep the bcs in stock? They build 20 and are sold out nearly immediately. I think they could build more at a time but that is just me. If you built a better option I would buy it. There is a lot about the bcs that I don't like. My next build will be an industrial PLC with touch HMI .
There is no link for the 4.0 that is public. Only the 3.7 version is currently available publicly. The only holdup on 4.0 right now is browser compatibility issues. It may release with a caveat that only Chrome is fully supported at the moment (IE & FF will be supported though).
I somewhat agree with the e-mail issues. I'll bring it up to them that they should either check the messages or have an auto-responder to tell people to ask the questions on the forum.
jpalarchio
Well-Known Member
My thought there is that homebrewers represent a small percentage of overall consumers; then within that segment, guys that are interested in automation is an even smaller percentage yet (although a growing one). I pushed for the "Automation" forum a while back and have certainly seen it grow but it's not a market that I would be eyeing if I was looking to release a new product.
The other side is that homebrewers are inherently DIY people and there are no shortage of open source / DIY options out there. It's tough competing against products that have a perception of being "free".
I think if all you were doing was releasing a product to market for homebrew automation, you're not going to have enough clients to make it a legitimate business.
biertourist
Well-Known Member
This IS good news; excited to hear what the new version brings and even more excited to hear that Brewers Hardware isn't just trying to sell the crap out of them without improving the product.
Any support for measuring liquid volumes or reusing 3 wire pt100 temp probes from a previous PID build in the 4.0 version? (Seems to be the most asked for features.)
Adam
Short answer is no, but long answer is YES.
4.0 now has the ability to give you raw resistance values for the analog temp ports. While immediately this doesn't give you anything new in the interface, it does give you direct access to the data via the API. With this, you can easily do a custom interface to read and control the BCS via Javascript, PHP, etc. There are several JS examples that come with the 4.0 version that will help people in doing customizations. Examples so far include a config backup/restore tool, a 3.x configuration migrator and a recipe variable facility.
The API for 4.0 is all new and very web friendly. The BCS interface is now broken into a web UI server and the API (JSON) server. What this means is that the web interface uses the exact same API to read/write data that any 3rd party app would use. You literally could save all the web UI files to a local machine and modify them as a custom interface and just point the API source to the BCS hardware. I was easily able to add a couple of lines of code to my RaspberryPints interface to pull in my BCS temperature. Customized interfaces are going to be very common with 4.0.
biertourist
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aubiecat
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Sad indeed. That was a very good site for parts and pieces.
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I'm a little dense, I fear, but I don't follow this. Does this mean than someone with coding skills can write code that will permit volume measurement, but that will require a Raspberry Pi to talk to the BCS?
I never said anything about requiring a Pi to do volume measurement. I said the API can give you the raw resistance values and you could utilize that data in a custom interface.
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