I've been converting my two vessel rig in to a smaller, stovetop BIAB setup and brewed my first batch on it yesterday. It's still a work in progress, but here's where I'm at so far:
Brew day is essentially pressing the button on the control panel to start. Then it'll run through all steps, pausing only to allow for grain addition and removal. I monitor temps, time and steps on an iPad or phone.
Web UI and a 1.037 ordinary bitter.
The rig is running a modified version of the HABS BIAB arduino sketch on a Jeenode. The Jeenode has an RFM12 transceiver and sends a payload of brewing data over the air every second or so to my home server where it's collected by another RF transceiver (a Jeelink). The payload then sent over serial to the amazing Node-RED node.js app. Node-RED acts as a broker and outputs the payload to an MQTT topic then as a websocket out node. Within Node-RED i have another flow that configures, hosts and returns an HTML page that is subscribed to the brewery payload websocket. This is where I monitor the status and progress of wort production in real-time. And eventually fermentation.
Here's a mock up of the screens. The first couple are suggesting future enhancement of web-based configuration by linking to Brewtoad recipe api.
The speed and stability of Node-RED is a game changer for me after using python. While I'm currently using it now to deliver real-time brew data to a browser, it'll soon be used to replace the entire arduino sketch that handles stepping through brew day wort production. Also using it to broadcast smoker temps, temp/humidity sensors in my crawl space, and a NFL scoreboard web app. Other capabilities involve broadcasting inputs to multiple outputs (like twitter, a database, etc). One the best features is how easy it is to share these flows. A relatively simple stack for such powerful, easy to use software.
TL;DR The brewdata flow is:
ds18b20 temp probe -> arduino/jeenode -> arduino/jeelink -> Node-RED -> browser
Here's a screenshot of the Node-RED UI. Browser based, drag, drop and connect.
Control panel interface: One button to start/continue, and an on off switch. Got the box from a local army surplus shop. I think it was a swedish gas detection kit.
That hole is the for the heat sink that I've removed since I haven't installed the heating element yet.
eBay SSRs and outlets wired to be protected under the GFCI outlet.
Need some effort on the wire management here. The green pcb is a wifi router that I tried to recycle the ethernet jacks for - didn't work.
Lil' pump action
Hardware
Software
Next on the list is fermentation monitoring and control. This will use a similar setup as the rig. I still need to add the heating element as well. Other ideas are converting old transistor radios or alarm clocks to analog wireless brew-day monitors and distilling beer to make whiskey and NA beer.
Brew day is essentially pressing the button on the control panel to start. Then it'll run through all steps, pausing only to allow for grain addition and removal. I monitor temps, time and steps on an iPad or phone.
Web UI and a 1.037 ordinary bitter.
The rig is running a modified version of the HABS BIAB arduino sketch on a Jeenode. The Jeenode has an RFM12 transceiver and sends a payload of brewing data over the air every second or so to my home server where it's collected by another RF transceiver (a Jeelink). The payload then sent over serial to the amazing Node-RED node.js app. Node-RED acts as a broker and outputs the payload to an MQTT topic then as a websocket out node. Within Node-RED i have another flow that configures, hosts and returns an HTML page that is subscribed to the brewery payload websocket. This is where I monitor the status and progress of wort production in real-time. And eventually fermentation.
Here's a mock up of the screens. The first couple are suggesting future enhancement of web-based configuration by linking to Brewtoad recipe api.
The speed and stability of Node-RED is a game changer for me after using python. While I'm currently using it now to deliver real-time brew data to a browser, it'll soon be used to replace the entire arduino sketch that handles stepping through brew day wort production. Also using it to broadcast smoker temps, temp/humidity sensors in my crawl space, and a NFL scoreboard web app. Other capabilities involve broadcasting inputs to multiple outputs (like twitter, a database, etc). One the best features is how easy it is to share these flows. A relatively simple stack for such powerful, easy to use software.
TL;DR The brewdata flow is:
ds18b20 temp probe -> arduino/jeenode -> arduino/jeelink -> Node-RED -> browser
Here's a screenshot of the Node-RED UI. Browser based, drag, drop and connect.
Control panel interface: One button to start/continue, and an on off switch. Got the box from a local army surplus shop. I think it was a swedish gas detection kit.
That hole is the for the heat sink that I've removed since I haven't installed the heating element yet.
eBay SSRs and outlets wired to be protected under the GFCI outlet.
Need some effort on the wire management here. The green pcb is a wifi router that I tried to recycle the ethernet jacks for - didn't work.
Lil' pump action
Hardware
- 5g Adventures brew pot / lid (AIH)
- Adventures bag (AIH)
- $35 eBay pump. Also here: lighobject website
- Jeenode
- DS18B20
- Silicon tubing (AIH)
- Ball valve (AIH)
- 3 way 1/2 NPT (AIH)
- (1) GFI outlet, 4 regular
- 2.5g carby (AIH)
- US plastics no chill cube
- (4) SSR ebay
- Momentary switch
- On/off switch
Software
- Arduino/Processing/JeeLabs
- HABS arduino automated brewing sketch
- Node-RED
- Bootstrap
- HTML
Next on the list is fermentation monitoring and control. This will use a similar setup as the rig. I still need to add the heating element as well. Other ideas are converting old transistor radios or alarm clocks to analog wireless brew-day monitors and distilling beer to make whiskey and NA beer.
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