PillRepeater - Repeater for Kegland RAPT PILL

[Diyhomebrewers]

Hello! brewers.

I made a new DIY gadget, just to see what you think. It is a BLE repeater for Kegland's RAPT PILL.

With this device, what I was looking for was to solve the problems for those who cannot use the Rapt Pill because they do not have Wi-Fi or enough Wi-Fi to use it since it sends via BLE, and at the same time be able to use it with local systems such as BrewBlox, CraftBeerPi and Home Assistant.

I leave you a link with the gadget and an explanatory video.

I know it is in Spanish, I'm sorry, it is my main language and although I can express myself in English, I think that my English is not the most suitable for writing articles with a minimum of seriousness. There are link buttons for direct translation of the article and try to give the video an extra boost with subtitles.

Explanation and assembly step by step:
https://www.diyhomebrewers.com/2023/11/pill-repeater-repetidor-para-el-rapt.html
Explanatory video:


Greetings!

 

[Funnyx]

Great, just what I was looking for. I'll give it a try once I get my hardware in. Will the source be available?

 

[Diyhomebrewers]

At the moment, the source is not public. It is in beta phase, but three users have already reported to me that they have been installed and that they are working correctly. I am debugging errors with comments from users who are testing it.

 

[Funnyx]

Thanks for getting back to me. I'm fine with the source not being public, I was mainly thinking about support for different screens. I'm not a programmer anymore, but I can add drivers for a different screen if needed.

Anyhow, things moved fast for a change and I got all hardware in today, including the PILL. I'm used to search for solutions before there are actual problems, but I'm keen to check your solution together with Brewblox.

 

[Diyhomebrewers]

Thanks for getting back to me. I'm fine with the source not being public, I was mainly thinking about support for different screens. I'm not a programmer anymore, but I can add drivers for a different screen if needed.

Anyhow, things moved fast for a change and I got all hardware in today, including the PILL. I'm used to search for solutions before there are actual problems, but I'm keen to check your solution together with Brewblox.

With Brewblox it works correctly for me, it's how I use it on my team, but if there's anything strange, don't hesitate to comment!

 

[Funnyx]

With Brewblox it works correctly for me, it's how I use it on my team, but if there's anything strange, don't hesitate to comment!

Unfortunately, I keep getting an error when trying to connect with the PillRepeater network, wrong password apparently.

 

[Diyhomebrewers]

Unfortunately, I keep getting an error when trying to connect with the PillRepeater network, wrong password apparently.

What version of PillRepeater are you using?

 

[Funnyx]

I'm using PillRepeater 1.0.1.2 and using Diyhomebrewers2 as password. When I try to connect to the PillRepeater it gives me a message that it can't connect to the network.

Not much info in serial monitor:
Dir509: �
Dir510: �
Dir511: �
[ 2834][E][WiFiSTA.cpp:232] begin(): SSID too long or missing!
Connecting to WiFi...
Connection in progress...
Connection in progress...
Connection in progress...
Connection in progress...
Connection in progress...
Conexión fallida
Web server started

 

[Diyhomebrewers]

I'm using PillRepeater 1.0.1.2 and using Diyhomebrewers2 as password. When I try to connect to the PillRepeater it gives me a message that it can't connect to the network.

Not much info in serial monitor:
Dir509: �
Dir510: �
Dir511: �
[ 2834][E][WiFiSTA.cpp:232] begin(): SSID too long or missing!
Connecting to WiFi...
Connection in progress...
Connection in progress...
Connection in progress...
Connection in progress...
Connection in progress...
Conexión fallida
Web server started

That message is that it does not connect with the configured Wi-Fi, not with the AP (because you will not have it configured yet), as an AP you should connect without any problem. and then access the IP http://192.168.4.1/ to add your WiFi credentials.

 

[Funnyx]

That message is that it does not connect with the configured Wi-Fi, not with the AP (because you will not have it configured yet), as an AP you should connect without any problem. and then access the IP http://192.168.4.1/ to add your WiFi credentials.

I understand you have to configure the wifi first, but I can't access the repeater. I'm trying to connect to the PillRepeater network with my phone, but it won't let me.

 

[Diyhomebrewers]

I understand you have to configure the wifi first, but I can't access the repeater. I'm trying to connect to the PillRepeater network with my phone, but it won't let me.

Try it from a PC, mobile phones often tend to disconnect from the network if they don't have a network.

 

[Funnyx]

Try it from a PC, mobile phones often tend to disconnect from the network if they don't have a network.

Thank you, that worked indeed and I've got things running. Normally it works fine with the phone, but that might be some hardware issue. I also had a few times the MQTT server (Brewblox) couldn't be reached, but it has been working for the last 10 hours or so.

 

[Diyhomebrewers]

Thank you, that worked indeed and I've got things running. Normally it works fine with the phone, but that might be some hardware issue. I also had a few times the MQTT server (Brewblox) couldn't be reached, but it has been working for the last 10 hours or so.

Fantastic!

 

[LeapingLamb]

Is the beta still going and are you close to releasing the source code?

 

[Diyhomebrewers]

Is the beta still going and are you close to releasing the source code?

Hi! I know that a few must have been built, but no one tells me that they are using it without problems. Mine in my scenario works correctly but I hardly have any more feedback.

 

[LeapingLamb]

Hi! I know that a few must have been built, but no one tells me that they are using it without problems. Mine in my scenario works correctly but I hardly have any more feedback.

That is good to know. I think it the userbase that has a PILL, and the expertise/need to build the repeater is fairly limited. Would you be willing to share the source code on the Github for folks like me that would like to learn and tinker with it? It would seem that everything is working as it should based on your findings and no-one else reporting issues.

 

[angryduck]

I had a few problems after flashing the firmware.

After flashing and entering wifi information and saving, the device crash. And won't start with the wifi, you have to remove everything. I wiped everything with linux and reflash the firmware.​

I have to remove the garbage text in the webpage before saving to get it working​

​

Second, the latest English version, the layout for mqtt brewblox is wrong. I had to go back one version to get it working.​

​

I would also like, if it's possible to switch to Plato/SG/Brix on the screen.​

But i really like the software, and will use it as soon as the next brew.

 

[hornetmech]

I can connect to the repeater but when I type in the 192.168.4.1 the page dies and says not reachable.

 

[brewstuff]

I am using 1.0.1.2 and the PillRepeater is not logging to Brewfather. I can clearly see the display update when the Pill sends telemetry. I have entered the Brewfather ID and Activated Sending in the Data Send Settings. Does anyone have suggestions

 

[Stuunami]

I can connect to the repeater but when I type in the 192.168.4.1 the page dies and says not reachable.

same

 

[ogunshay]

This looks amazing, thanks for sharing it! I was hoping to just find something to repeat the signal, but the display is a huge plus!

Great to see there are already a few integrations supported; would it be straightforward enough to link into the Grainfather system as well? They already support RAPT Pills directly, but I assume the repeater would need to be / could be added as a 'custom' device. Happy to share more info if helpful, and thanks again!

 

[Daniöl]

I can connect to the repeater but when I type in the 192.168.4.1 the page dies and says not reachable.

same

Hi!
Thanks for sharing a great idea OP!
I do also have the same problem as hornetmech and Stuunami. I tried connecting with two different laptops and even one iphone. Can't connect to it. Tried reflashing it, did not work. Tried reflashing it with older software. Did not work either.

Any solutions?

 

[Daniöl]

Hi again!
I found a helping solution and a lot more support in the discord group. I do recommend visiting the discord group in case anyone needs help.
Should be a link here: https://diyhomebrewers.com/contacto

The solution to the problem was to set a static IP from that range to help it connect.
Just connect to pillrepeater and set a fixed IP from the range on your wifi network card. For example 192.168.4.111
On my PC laptop it was something like: system > network and internet > wifi > pill repeater > ip-settings >
ip assignment > change to manual and change IPv4.
(Trying to translate from swedish to english so something in the path might be named differently)

The settings that worked for me for IPv4 was as bellow:
IP address: 192.168.4.111
Subnet prefix length: 24
Gateway: 0.0.0.0
DNS settings where left blank

After that you can connect with a browser (for example, Firefox) to the IP 192.168.4.1
If it does not work, try restarting the repeater and try again, took me a couple of tries.
And from there configure your wifi data.

 

[ogunshay]

Following up on this, I've had a few snags along the way, so sharing here to help others troubleshoot.

For flashing, I'm running OSX at home (can't install anything on my work PC) so I don't have easy access to a flasher. Instead I used the Adafruit web tool. I set the baud to 921600 as instructed, erased the device, and set the memory offsets to the following before flashing:

• 0x 1000 bootloader.bin
• 0x 8000 partitions.bin
• 0x 10000 PillRepeater_1_0_2_1_EN.bin

I took these addresses from the ESP pages on the Bootloader and Partition Tables.

After flashing, I disconnected from the Adafruit webtool, hit the reset button, and had to wait a while before the PillRepeater network appeared. I could only access the PillRepeater network on my PC (OSX throws an error that the network 'could not be found')

To access the IP 192.168.4.1, I had to modify Daniöl's solution above (still using IPv4 instead of DHCP):

• IP address: 192.168.4.111
• Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
• Gateway: 0.0.0.0
• Preferred DNS 8.8.8.8

I had to power cycle the ESP device a few more times, but eventually managed to connect to the IP 192.168.4.1 and add my WiFi details.

I still need to connect the screen and configure the RAPT Pill to send over Bluetooth, but this looks like good progress so far!