Tilt signal strength

[kartracer]

I got a RAPT Pill a couple weeks ago and was not getting a good signal from inside my stainless steel conical, so a few days ago bought a Tilt from my LHBS. I'm testing it outside the fermenter, but inside my fermentation chamber in the garage, checking the range from an iPad in my kitchen which leads out to the garage. WiFi router is on the same floor about 35 feet away.

When running the Tilt2 app on my iPAD, I was getting about a -81dBm level which seemed borderline a far as connectivity. I now have the Tilt 6 inches from my iPad on my desk, and the reading is -51 dBm. What is the workable signal strength range for the Tilt? It's a given I will have to sit an old phone on top of the conical to have any hope of getting a BT signal from the Tilt inside, and then hope my WiFi signal is strong enough for that phone to reach the Net to update Google sheets.

I'm no longer IT savvy enough to rig up a Raspberry Pi and build a Tilt bridge, but may have to buy a Tilt repeater. I'd appreciate any advice from experienced Tilt (and Pill) users.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[dperrigan]

I can't speak for the standard Tilt, but the new Tilt Pro has crazy good range. Mine is in my plastic fermenter inside of a chest freezer inside my detached garage 50 feet away and I can get readings on the Tilt2 app from inside my house.

 

[brewbama]

I have a Tilt repeater to give me a signal from my basement. I set it on top of the ferment fridge so it grabs the signal from the Tilt floating in a stainless fermenter inside and sends it upstairs to my iPad.

 

[jdauria]

I have a Tilt 2, beers ferment in a fridge in basement, and I can get a signal on the first floor, if I stand above the area where the fridge is. So maybe 15 feet through the fridge and floor?

 

[hotbeer]

How bad was your signal strength on the Rapt Pill? I was still getting good readings even with it up a little over 80 decibels. But that was just a experiment for several days with a stainless pot full of water with the lid on since my FV is plastic. Did you actually try to see if it'd report data? With either, even if you miss a few data reports, it shouldn't be a big deal.

I've not used a Tilt, but I'd think with an old phone left by the FV, you could have that data collected and then access it from where ever else you are.

 

[Knightshade]

I've got a Pi Zero Wireless running the Tilt software. I have it sitting directly on top of my FC fridge and it operates w/o issue into a Torpedo 6G keg. I transferred that keg into my kegerator to cold crash it last week which is over 4.5 feet away and I was surprised that it had no issue with that distance pushing signal through the front door and through the keg. I transferred to keg a couple of days ago though, so I can't give you any current readings on signal strength.

As far as being tech savvy, it is REALLY easy to get running. Just download the software, modify a file, copy onto a SD card and insert onto the Pi. Done. Tilt has a couple of videos where they walk you through what to do, as well as very well written instructions.

 

[RocketBrewer]

I use a tilt repeater project built on an ESP32 board that you can find for $10 or less on Amazon. It's not my project, but it works very well. I got @Thorrak to add it to his Brewflasher app and Brewflasher Web Edition, which makes it very easy to flash. It will repeat any Tilt signal it can pick up, so it can repeat signals from multiple Tilts. All you need is a wall wart power supply and a small enclosure to keep it safe. His Tiltbridge is also a fantastic project that makes Tilt management and intigration with other software much easier. Tiltbridge is also designed to use an ESP32 board, and there are a couple options with display screens too. IMHO, Tiltbridge is far superior to the TiltPi, and much easier to set up and use. It can push to many other targets besides just Google Sheets too.

 

[Jack Arandir]

I have a Tilt 2 in a Spike CF15 conical. I have to be within a couple feet to get a readable signal. -70-80dB. So I set up an old phone as a permanent data logger. Works great. Here's my latest batch, a barleywine.

 

[kartracer]

All is good now. I parked an old iPad in my fermentation fridge and it picks up the BT signal from the Tilt fine. It also has a good enough WiFi signal to a repeater in the garage where the fermenter is. I was trying to set up my own Google sheet, but have given up on that; using the default sheet and logging is working great. So I've climbed the learning curve and am a happy camper.

Thanks for all the responses above. I can now RDWHAHB.

 

[Henbrew]

I use a tilt repeater project built on an ESP32 board that you can find for $10 or less on Amazon. It's not my project, but it works very well. I got @Thorrak to add it to his Brewflasher app and Brewflasher Web Edition, which makes it very easy to flash. It will repeat any Tilt signal it can pick up, so it can repeat signals from multiple Tilts. All you need is a wall wart power supply and a small enclosure to keep it safe. His Tiltbridge is also a fantastic project that makes Tilt management and intigration with other software much easier. Tiltbridge is also designed to use an ESP32 board, and there are a couple options with display screens too. IMHO, Tiltbridge is far superior to the TiltPi, and much easier to set up and use. It can push to many other targets besides just Google Sheets too.

I also use Tiltbridge and was somewhat intimidated to set it up. It was much easier than I had expected and is far better than using my old iphone. I have it streaming right into Brewersfriend which I really enjoy.

 

[Jack Arandir]

I also use Tiltbridge and was somewhat intimidated to set it up. It was much easier than I had expected and is far better than using my old iphone. I have it streaming right into Brewersfriend which I really enjoy.

That was one quick ferment! Just over a day to hit FG. Was it a kviek?

 

[Henbrew]

That was one quick ferment! Just over a day to hit FG. Was it a kviek?

Used one packet of the Premium High Perfomance version of Lallemand Nottingham Ale Yeast. I didn't start the tilt recording until about 10 hours after pitching though, so that part is missing.

 

[Ballaratguy]

I’ve converted my Guten SVB (same as the Anvil) to run a grainfather controller. I’ve also added a grainfather GCast wifi bridge to the GF controller. This setup will also pair with tilt/s which will then give you a graph of both temp and SG. You can still run the normal spreadsheet via the Bluetooth connection (which o don’t worry about as I only use the tilt to tell me what’s happening as far as how the ferment is going and when it’s finished)