Speidel Sent me a Braumeister Cable

[Clint Yeastwood]

In another thread, I wrote about my Braumeister troubles. Speidel wrote their firmware poorly so the machine gives "Temp Err" messages when using Fahrenheit units. The preferred fix is to update the firmware using the $400 wifi module only available from Speidel. It is also possible to use a cable which you can't duplicate or buy, running a program on your PC.

Some say you CAN duplicate the cable, but I have found no evidence that anyone has succeeded. When I say you can't buy the cable, I mean you will have a hard time finding it. You may be able to order it from a vendor overseas, or maybe I somehow managed to overlook a USA source in spite of Googling a lot. Speidel claims Morebeer can order it.

Speidel graciously sent me a cable for nothing, and today I flashed my Braumeister. There are two types of firmware. One is for the wifi adaptor, and the other is for the Braumeister controller. I don't have the adaptor, and it appears the Braumeister will not let you use the wifi update without it.

Useful info: when you try to connect your Braumeister to your PC, you need to connect the cable when the Braumeister is unplugged. You plug it in and then run the update software. It will not accept the update otherwise. The program is called SpeidelSoftwareUpdater. Your computer may have to install some stuff to make the connection work.

I was hoping the cable would let me use Speidel's "Myspeidel" site to input and store recipes, because putting them in the Braumeister manually is a nightmare. So far, I have not been able to do it. It seems bizarre that you can connect to the web with a wifi adaptor but not with a direct wire, but it looks like that's how Speidel does things. They should really create a way for the PC to shoot information into the Braumeister without Speidel or wifi. It's amazing they didn't do this.

Hopefully, I can now brew in Fahrenheit without problems. If I learn anything new, I'll put it here for everyone else. I'll upload the software.

The cable's part number is 66943.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I used the Braumeister in Fahrenheit today, and it ran without problems. I used firmware version 1.1.26 instead of the latest. The newest version requires some kind of crazy registration which is said to conflict with hacks intended to break people's dependence on Speidel's website.

It's too bad Speidel can't combine German quality with American user-friendliness and respect for independence. This machine needs a phone app and a desktop app. It should be easy to hook it to a PC and download schedules, and it should not be necessary to join Speidel's website. The Braumeister is excellent mechanically, but the user interface is very poor, and I don't want to have to join a cult or go online and access a company website in order to use my own recipes. What if Speidel goes out of business and the site disappears?

Making a proprietary wifi adaptor was really unwise. The adaptor costs $400, and it is not always available. A Chinese adaptor from Amazon costs $9. The Braumeister should have been made so any wifi adaptor would pop in and put a user in touch with his PC. Also, it should be possible to display the Braumeister's folders and files, just as you can display a phone's folders and files. The Braumeister should also have an SD card slot so huge libraries of recipes could be moved to it instantly. These suggestions are just common sense.

Having brewed with this machine 4 times, my conclusion is that you should forget the programming and run it manually with a kitchen timer. It does a wonderful job, but the automation is not worth the hassles.

 

[Pennine]

Not sure what version you have but mine is really easy to set 5 mash schedules on it and it works like a charm. It makes the timing on brew day much easier.

And in Spiedels defense using imperial units is much more complicated than metric and it would have saved you a huge hassle. Take the plunge and switch you won't regret it.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Far as I can tell, mine accepts 3 schedules. Maybe I am mistaken, but 5 and even 20 are tiny numbers, and a $2000 machine should do a lot better. No engineer has an excuse for a blunder like this.

You have to enter every character by running through a huge menu using up and down buttons. It takes maybe 10 minutes per recipe to do this simple task which would take about 30 seconds if Speidel used applications like the rest of the world.

They could have provided a USB port like everyone else, allowing the use of a $4 cable or $9 wifi adaptor, and they could have allowed the internal files to display in Windows so recipes could be dragged and dropped. Instead, the rarely-available cable and adaptor cost $40 and $400.

Does anyone else on Earth make a wifi adaptor that costs $400? My Starlink box didn't cost much more, and it came with a motorized satellite dish.

To fully comprehend the absurdity of the recipe limit, consider the fact that a 128GB card costs $15.

The Braumeister also limits the temperatures you can use after the first step, which makes no sense. I haven't checked to see if the update fixed this.

The final blunder was making a new controller that can't be installed in the old machines. That seems like a deliberate effort to orphan them and motivate people to risk buying new ones.

Metric brewing is not easier. It's exactly the same, except the temperatures are less precise.

My recipes are all imperial. Everyone knows the metric system is superior, but homebrewers in the US don't use it much, and it's silly to convert things back and forth.

Why would anyone sell an expensive machine that can't perform a basic advertised function?

 

[Pennine]

Do you have this one?

 

[Pennine]

I have the more modernized display bought in 2016, that was when wifi connected brewers were starting. I'd imagine cost is high because the don't sell very many.

Anyway it's too bad your experience has been poor. That was their first edition and it sounds like they made some good upgrades over the original. Also they do not sell that one anymore. I dropped a bunch of money on the grainfather and absolutely hated it so I feel for

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I am not venting to be a jerk. I hope the things I say will help other brewers make smarter decisions and possibly help Speidel do a better job serving its market. Consumer criticism makes products better, or at least that's how it works in America. Maybe criticism is bad form in Germany.

I have what I think is the model before the current one. Black controller, but no built-in wifi. The newest one is supposed to be great, but I have a grand in this one, and I wouldn't go near a new one unless I was positive it was free of problems.

I think I'm giving an overly negative impression. I will try to give a fair picture. I might have bought this machine even if I had understood the problems, which are annoying but minor. There are a lot of great things about it. I'm not positive, because BIAB looks really good. I haven't tried it. I think BIAB would have won out. If this machine had Bluetooth and a PC UI, BIAB wouldn't even be in the running.

I'm about to do BIAB for the first time, on a beer that goes 1.084. I will probably return and compare the experience to the Braumeister.

The build quality of the machine seems to be excellent. It's easy to use and clean. I love the way the motor and faucet pop out in a hurry. I like the fact that parts can be replaced easily. That shows good thinking on the part of the mechanical engineer. Once you get it programmed and debugged, it does exactly what it should. Grain, hops, and water in; wort out. It's easy for one person to carry. I'm just unhappy with the IT side, but like I said before, you don't have to use that. You can run the heater and pump manually, which is a lot easier than dealing with a stove or turkey fryer.

Think what it would be like if someone like Samsung or LG had made it. Bluetooth included. Web app. Phone app. Desktop app. SD card. Obvious stuff, easily done. Everybody would want a Braumeister. They would be knee-deep in backorders. Grainfather would go out of business.

I hope they get it together, because it seems like nobody makes an affordable machine that really satisfies customers. I couldn't find one. The Braumeister has tons of potential.

I wonder if I could bypass the controller and fix this thing with an Arduino or Raspberry Pi. That would be amazing, and I would never need a new machine. I'm pretty bad at Arduino, but no one has more time on his hands than I do.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Hey, I have what might be great news. A guy on the Braumeister forum made an Arduino controller. Oops; okay, a different platform. Not Arduino.

I know nothing about it. He says it works. Caveat hackor.

Link to Arduino Thread

Link to Github Project

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Here is some text from Github, which must be where all the gits hang out:

BrewManiacEx is a brew controller based on ESP8266. It was started by mimicking famous Arduino-based Open ArdBir, so most of Open ArdBir functions are included.

• Manual and Automation brewing process control
• PID and PWM heat control
• Automatic PUMP control

The most important feature that BrewManiacEx differs from Open ArdBir is

• WiFi Enabled, Web-based interface You can view, change the settings, monitor and control the brew on your phones, tablets, and computers.

Additionally,

• Multiple sensors support Up to 5 sensors are supported. Different sensors can be used in different stages.
• PID autotune Run the PID Autotune to get the best PID parameters for your system instead of guessing.
• Sparge water Heating control Run the sparge water heating when the main heating element is idle during mashing to enable using only one 15A/20A GFCI socket.
• Temperature logging chart Watching the temperature chart during brew and after brew
• [Untested/uncompleted] Distilling PWM controlled heating instead of PID controlled. Customized 4 stages: pre-heat, head, heart, and tail, which are defined by temperature ranges.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

The Braumeister only has four connections going to the controller: pump, thermal probe, and two for the heating element. I don't know if the heating element is AC or DC, but I guess it's not hard to find out.

A clever person who threw a controller together would just need to tie these three components to it, and once that was done, he could put the whole controller a couple of feet away from the Braumeister, where it would be safer.

 

[Pennine]

That's the model I have. Well I am not sure I understand your issue other than the fault error you are getting. Programming a recipe takes me maybe 30 sec at most and it's saved until you change it. Once I get a brew started mine always keeps the brew day quick and easy. I have always felt the €1,500 price tag was worth it. 200+ brews in and not replacing anything other than the malt pipe gasket seems like money well spent. My biggest gripe is the size of the malt pipe and the tendency to channel and eject wort all over. But with some process changes I have those figured out. Maybe I am ok with things being a little more manual?

Anyway good luck, hope you get it set up exactly the way you want.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

There is no way to enter even a name on my machine in 30 seconds.

Speidel says they don't have the wifi module now, so anyone who doesn't have one better jump. Very poor support. I'm going to buy several gaskets because Speidel can't be trusted.

I found out I can replace the controller with a Raspberry Pi, so that's what I'll eventually do.