Rapt Pill with Metal Fermenter?

[Clint Yeastwood]

Has anyone here tried a Rapt Pill hydrometer with a metal fermenter?

I thought electronic hydrometers were stupid until I had three beers fermenting at once. Combine that with the size and price of the Rapt, and they don't look so bad now. But I have stainless fermenters now, and putting a radio transmitter in a can is not good for range.

I have no interest in the video-game stuff where they graph your beer's fermetation in real time on the web or whatever. I don't want to play Grand Theft Beer against children on the web. I just want to be able to walk into the garage, look at my phone, and get a current SG figure that is accurate enough to show me whether things are going as they should.

 

[hotbeer]

There are quite a few posts about it for Rapt Pills, Tilts, I-spindles and whatever.

Essentially you'll get a signal if the FV is close enough to the receiving network appliance you use.

They give you a signal strength number so you can know quickly if you are marginal, poor or great.

I use plastic FV's right now but was curious about stainless steel and the reception. So I put my pill in a heavy sided SS stock pot with water and a SS lid. From about 40 or 50 feet and two interior walls away I was able to still get readings. However the signal loss was up in the 80's for dBm and it did miss some of the reports.

There are various options available to you though. Some might include putting a old cell phone next to the FV and using it's wifi or bluetooth connection. Or getting a second wifi appliance added to your home network and put it in a closer location.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

It looks like they're not selling these in the US. Wonder if there's a patent dispute.

 

[hotbeer]

I just want to be able to walk into the garage, look at my phone, and get a current SG figure that is accurate enough to show me whether things are going as they should.

With my pill I can be in Colorado visiting my son, look at my phone and see what my beer in the FV in Mississippi is doing.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

With plastic, you said?

I'm satisfied with being able to get a reading in the garage. I rarely visit your son.

 

[hotbeer]

It looks like they're not selling these in the US. Wonder if there's a patent dispute.

Might be more that they were late to the party and Tilt beat them out, along with willingness of supply houses in the US to bring it to market to compete with the Tilts they already committed to. And maybe some trade agreement type stuff.

I got mine from AliExpress for half the price of a Tilt bought in the US. However I've noticed they aren't available for the last several months. Not completely sure why.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

It looks like they're not selling these in the US. Wonder if there's a patent dispute.

That is my understanding. Tilt has a US Patent which prevents other brands from selling in the US. Some people have purchased internationally and had them shipped to the US.

I suspect you will be able to get a reading via Bluetooth with your phone as long as you are close to the fermenter. For a wi-fi connection, you might need a repeater close by. (I don't have any of them, but I am thinking about getting a pair of RAPT Pills.)

 

[hotbeer]

With plastic, you said?

I'm satisfied with being able to get a reading in the garage. I rarely visit your son.

And with stainless steel I said!

I don't know why you'd want to visit my son either.

I don't know why you only want to stay in a garage!

 

[hotbeer]

A Tilt will put data into google sheets and might be better for you if you are wanting to get data more directly from the device.

The rapt pill requires you to go through a cloud app or portal to see your data and you'll have to have wifi or bluetooth connectivity that will get it's data to that cloud.

And your phone, tablet or computer will have to be able to contact that portal in the cloud.

So if you even marginally an off the grid type, or worry about your beers data falling victim to hackers, then the pill will not be your best plan.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

And with stainless steel I said!

I don't know why you'd want to visit my son either.

I don't know why you only want to stay in a garage!

Oh, I'll find my way out. Don't you worry about that.

Then certain relatives will get what's coming to them.

I've said too much.

 

[day_trippr]

The inventors of the Tilt floating hydrometer do indeed have a couple of patents published by the USPTO...

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20140260607A1/en
and

https://patents.google.com/patent/US9234828B2/en
The latter may have superseded the former...

Cheers!

 

[RyPA]

I used a Rapt Pill for many batches, and I ferment in a Torpedo keg 90% of the time. To get the pill to work, I had to put my fermenter in the bedroom next to my home office where my router is, otherwise I'd get no updates

I recently switched to an iSpindel and couldn't be happier. Below is my first batch using it, but this time I'm fermenting in a Fermonster and it's communicating across my house.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

The inventors of the Tilt floating hydrometer do indeed have a couple of patents published by the USPTO...

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20140260607A1/en
and

https://patents.google.com/patent/US9234828B2/en
The latter may have superseded the former...

Cheers!

This is actually the same patent. US 2014/0260607 A1 is just the application.

I used to be a patent attorney, but I have forgotten most of what I knew. It looks like the PTO only granted 13 of the 32 original claims.

It may also be that the PTO forced them to split the patent up. Some of the claims in the original application may have become independent patents, or the inventors may have abandoned them because there was no hope they would be granted.

The PTO is self-supporting and loves generating unnecessary fees. Most people don't know this. When they can split a patent application up, they can get more money. Every application requires its own fees. They split patents up in ways that are not appropriate and which cause patentees problems later. They don't care as long as they make more money. Patent attorneys really hate it, except for the additional work and attorneys' fees.

Far as I know, there is no such thing as a patent "superseding" another, but patentees get their attorneys to work hard to find ways to get the PTO to extend the lives of patents.

Interesting trivia: patents are called patents because they are published. "Patent" means "obvious." When the details of an invention are published by the PTO, they are considered obvious to anyone who bothers to look. Patent attorneys always pay to have the PTO's records searched before they go forward with applications, in order to make sure their clients aren't trying to patent old inventions. There are companies that do nothing but patent searches.

The purpose of issuing patents is to encourage inventors to come up with new stuff to benefit humanity. In exchange, they get the right to prevent others from making/using/whatever their inventions. A patent doesn't give you the right to do anything except exclude others. If you patent something, you don't necessarily get the right to make it.

In exchange for all this, you have to agree to let the government publish all the details of your invention so other people can start using it the second your patent expires. The ultimate purpose of your patent is to give your invention to strangers for nothing. Your temporary right to exclude them from using your invention is intended to help you make money so you and others will be encouraged to keep inventing.

 

[scogan]

With plastic, you said?

I'm satisfied with being able to get a reading in the garage. I rarely visit your son.

I have an ispindel in a corny ,mine needs to be a few feet away from a range extender.

 

[BongoYodeler]

I suspect you will be able to get a reading via Bluetooth with your phone as long as you are close to the fermenter. For a wi-fi connection, you might need a repeater close by. (I don't have any of them, but I am thinking about getting a pair of RAPT Pills.)

Just for clarity for those considering a Rapt Pill, the Pill, when used by itself, cannot send data to the portal via Bluetooth, it can only send via wifi. However when paired with the Rapt Temperature Controller the Pill can connect to the temperature controller via bluetooth, and the temperature controller in turn sends that data to the portal via wifi.