Raspberry Pi Brew Controller

[MI_Dogman]

This looks great!

I have a raspberry pi on the way with a 7" touch screen. I would love to use this for an automated BIAB setup. I have no SKILLS with programming at all. I was wondering if you could be so kind to talk me through how to put this on my raspberry pi? Untill I become familiar with how to program with python and creating applications, I need something that is user friendly. This looks like it would work great for me.

Thank You!!

 

[tob77]

Thanks for your interest. Unfortunately, I did not make this project with flexibility in mind. I tailored the software to fit to my specific hardware. I tried to make the code in a modular fashion so that it could be modified easily. But this was my first python and html project so I am no expert. The html5 widgets that I used for the web design are solid. They work great and they were relatively easy to use. Unfortunately the developer of the widgets stopped supporting them and took down the website that used to have all of the demos and documentation. You will probably be better off checking out some of the other more user friendly projects around if you are looking for something fast and easy. If I haven't completely scared you off and you are willing to get your hands a little dirty with python, java script, and html, I'll help you get going. What type of rig do you have? Propane? Electric? What kind of sensors, valves, pumps, motors are you planning on using?

 

[MI_Dogman]

I have a 5gal eBIAB. I want to start with small automated batches and to get familiar with the process. This is all I need it to do:

Run one chigger pump I can speed control.

One 5500 watt heat element that dosnt dry fire.

One DS18B20 temperature sensor

My goals for a program would be:

Have a temperature control setting that I could set.

Be able to turn the pump on and off (it would be nice if I could get an auto function that I could set the pump to turn on and off at 80*f or so)

Be flexible to upgrade to a three vessel HERMS in the future.

I have started to read about python and how to use it. But, I have never done any programming before. I have python portable on a thumb drive right now and have started to play with it a bit with internet instruction.

 

[tob77]

It sounds like your setup is fairly similar to mine so it wouldn't be too difficult to adapt my program to fit your application. You would have to delete all of the servo specific code that I am using and write some PWM (pulse width modulation) code that would control your heating element. I recommend checking out a couple of other more documented projects before you get too far into this. The StrangeBrew https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/new-strangebrew-elsinore-thread-475456/ project seems to moving along nicely and is a bit more user friendly. I used steve71's rpi project as a model when I first started programming. His web site has some good info about how to get started http://raspibrew.com/. If your still interested in my project, I think that you could relatively easily use my code to develop a custom application tailored to your exact needs. You will need to install all of the python libraries as well as the web.py framework. This is all documented on steve71's website.

 

[MI_Dogman]

Awesome! Thank you for the direction! Looking forward to getting started!

 

[chixxi]

Hello everybody.

I am Patrick from Switzerland. I have been brewing for 1.5 years and I am about 30 years old.

First of all: A huge THANK YOU from my side for making this software public.

I adapted your Software to control an electric Setup with a 3500 Watts induction cooker and translated it. Some images (and informations in German) can be found here:
http://hobbybrauer.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2942
http://hobbybrauer.de/modules.php?name=eBoard&file=viewthread&tid=22525

I also did some other changes, like making it work with a PiFace, removing the hop-rests and so on. I don't think it makes sense to publish this since I rather hacked everything to work like I wanted rather than doing a clean generic adaption of the code.

 

[jrubins]

Hello everybody.

I am Patrick from Switzerland. I have been brewing for 1.5 years and I am about 30 years old.

First of all: A huge THANK YOU from my side for making this software public.

I adapted your Software to control an electric Setup with a 3500 Watts induction cooker and translated it. Some images (and informations in German) can be found here:
http://hobbybrauer.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2942
http://hobbybrauer.de/modules.php?name=eBoard&file=viewthread&tid=22525

I also did some other changes, like making it work with a PiFace, removing the hop-rests and so on. I don't think it makes sense to publish this since I rather hacked everything to work like I wanted rather than doing a clean generic adaption of the code.

Put it on github, homie. Somebody may really like your version

 

[chixxi]

I am working on cleaning everything up, at the moment I have made such an mess I don't think this would be usefull. As soon as have done this I will ask for permition to publish this.

 

[tob77]

Hello everybody.

I am Patrick from Switzerland. I have been brewing for 1.5 years and I am about 30 years old.

First of all: A huge THANK YOU from my side for making this software public.

I adapted your Software to control an electric Setup with a 3500 Watts induction cooker and translated it. Some images (and informations in German) can be found here:
http://hobbybrauer.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2942
http://hobbybrauer.de/modules.php?name=eBoard&file=viewthread&tid=22525

I also did some other changes, like making it work with a PiFace, removing the hop-rests and so on. I don't think it makes sense to publish this since I rather hacked everything to work like I wanted rather than doing a clean generic adaption of the code.

Great work and thanks for sharing! My project was never intended to be a one size fits all type of application. It was tailored to fit my hardware and function the way I wanted it to. I commend the way that you took it apart and and made it your own by tailoring it to your needs. You've got a nice setup with some beautiful equipment there. I'm jealous

I am working on cleaning everything up, at the moment I have made such an mess I don't think this would be usefull. As soon as have done this I will ask for permition to publish this.

You don't have to ask permission from anybody, it's open source! Post away! I liberally used code from all over the internet. To the best of my knowledge all of the code that I used was open source software.

 

[ih8lag]

Worng Forum.

 

[jrubins]

Doing a little thread necromancy... I'm trying to get brewNpi working on my raspberry pi2, but I'm having some trouble. @tob77, I sent you a PM, but maybe better to handle here?

 

[Shannanigans]

You could just use a rims rocket so you don't have to cut another hole