Save Pill signal locally before it goes to the cloud?

[OpenFermenter]

A post in ~March mentioned the Pill Bluetooth might be closed, did anyone manage to get data from it? My internet connection goes down periodically but my wifi doesn't have an issue, so I'm hoping to scrape data locally rather than having chunks missing on the rapt cloud.

I've been using both an iSpindel and a rapt Pill in a 7 gallon jacketed conical with a ~1/2inch thick steel lid (Stout tanks, with three walls, for glycol and an insulation layer). Never had an issue with wifi signal, my router is a rt-ac66u ~7 feet from the middle of the fermenter. So I expect connection issues people have are probably router related rather than the ESP8266. I do have internet outages though so was hoping to record the Pill signal before it goes out to the cloud using another ESP8266 to accept the periodic wifi transmission, or maybe the Bluetooth signal. I can get the data from the iSpindel without issues, but it leaked once and the Pill hasn't so far, so I would rather use that if I can, especially when fermenting under pressure, but I keep missing chunks of data.

 

[Zippy123]

A post in ~March mentioned the Pill Bluetooth might be closed, did anyone manage to get data from it? My internet connection goes down periodically but my wifi doesn't have an issue, so I'm hoping to scrape data locally rather than having chunks missing on the rapt cloud.

I've been using both an iSpindel and a rapt Pill in a 7 gallon jacketed conical with a ~1/2inch thick steel lid (Stout tanks, with three walls, for glycol and an insulation layer). Never had an issue with wifi signal, my router is a rt-ac66u ~7 feet from the middle of the fermenter. So I expect connection issues people have are probably router related rather than the ESP8266. I do have internet outages though so was hoping to record the Pill signal before it goes out to the cloud using another ESP8266 to accept the periodic wifi transmission, or maybe the Bluetooth signal. I can get the data from the iSpindel without issues, but it leaked once and the Pill hasn't so far, so I would rather use that if I can, especially when fermenting under pressure, but I keep missing chunks of data.

@OpenFermenter Check out this post from pocketmon. Sounds like he was able to use Bluetooth to connect to the Rapt pill.



https://www.homebrewtalk.com/thread...-hydrometer-temperature-monitor.699057/page-7

 

[OpenFermenter]

@OpenFermenter Check out this post from pocketmon. Sounds like he was able to use Bluetooth to connect to the Rapt pill.



https://www.homebrewtalk.com/thread...-hydrometer-temperature-monitor.699057/page-7

Thanks @Zippy123, that's great! I had got it to work in Home assistant using the recent BLE integration but this direct way with BrewPiLess adds even more flexibility. Maybe can get it to work with Fermenteack.

 

[pocketmon]

Thanks @Zippy123, that's great! I had got it to work in Home assistant using the recent BLE integration but this direct way with BrewPiLess adds even more flexibility. Maybe can get it to work with Fermenteack.

I found the information before I decided to buy a Pill.

https://gitlab.com/rapt.io/public/-/wikis/Pill-Hydrometer-Bluetooth-Transmissions

It works. I've push source onto Github while I need some time to verify it.

 

[OpenFermenter]

Thanks @pocketmon I got 4.4 going with glycol chiller, cartridge heater, onewire and Pill on a esp32 dev board and an Elegoo relay board. Only tricky bit was finding the serial port name (which was slightly complicated by the fact I had it plugged into the wrong computer for the first half hour or so Now I'm tempted to get a pressure transducer and solenoid valve. At some point I need to adapt my MaiCook induction hob with another esp to control the mash. I already had partial success but accidentally blew it up so waiting for a replacement induction controller board from Aliexpress to try again (hopefully it will fit).

 

[Zippy123]

Since I have a Rapt Pill and a few extra Pi's lying around, and since I enjoy tinkering, I may need to give this a try. Thanks for posting the resources.

 

[hotbeer]

You did see that when you go in to their cloud app they list the API's didn't you? Although they might only be for integrating your own stuff with your own app through the cloud site. I haven't programmed in 20 years. So I haven't looked at them closely.

 

[Zippy123]

You did see that when you go in to their cloud app they list the API's didn't you? Although they might only be for integrating your own stuff with your own app through the cloud site. I haven't programmed in 20 years. So I haven't looked at them closely.

If this is directed to me, yes I see the API funcationality in the Rapt portal. However I could barely make the Rapt webhook work with the brewersfriend custom API integration. My tinkering does not extend to Python or C++ so a custom integration is out of the question for me. However I might be able to make a custom integration work by following someone else's success closely, if they have documented it well enough for me to understand.

Edit: Perhaps I can get AI to help me with the integration. I did use AI to write a Python script to capture temperature data from a DS18B20 temperature sensor. Kinda scary really.

 

[OpenFermenter]

You did see that when you go in to their cloud app they list the API's didn't you? Although they might only be for integrating your own stuff with your own app through the cloud site. I haven't programmed in 20 years. So I haven't looked at them closely.

Yes that api is on the cloud side so doesn't help if data didn't made it there. The local solution works great.

 

[OpenFermenter]

Hi @pocketmon , should the 4.2 logviewer be able to read the 4.4 logs (including pill)? I'm getting an "Invalid log" error when I try to read it into BPLLogViewer.htm I don't see a BPLLogViewerV2.htm in the htmljs/dist/english folder. (I tried disabling "Record Angle/Raw" but got same error). Is the log data still good, just formatted differently from 4.2? (in which case I can try to figure out how to read it).

 

[pocketmon]

Hi @pocketmon , should the 4.2 logviewer be able to read the 4.4 logs (including pill)? I'm getting an "Invalid log" error when I try to read it into BPLLogViewer.htm I don't see a BPLLogViewerV2.htm in the htmljs/dist/english folder. (I tried disabling "Record Angle/Raw" but got same error). Is the log data still good, just formatted differently from 4.2? (in which case I can try to figure out how to read it).

You need new log viewer to view logs of version 4.4. I just updated the new viewer. Check dist subfolder of HTMLJS on Github.

The format changed a little bit. The calibration data after 4.4 survives through batches, and it will be written into logs every it changes and when the log starts.

 

[OpenFermenter]

Thanks for the quick fix @pocketmon ! I'm still seeing "invalid log" error with the updated BPLLogViewer.htm, it says it is 3 hours old but still shows v4.2 when I open it in chrome.

 

[pocketmon]

Thanks for the quick fix @pocketmon ! I'm still seeing "invalid log" error with the updated BPLLogViewer.htm, it says it is 3 hours old but still shows v4.2 when I open it in chrome.

Sorry. I forgot to some part.

 

[OpenFermenter]

That fixed it thanks, and the temperature control is working great!