Tilt, Tilt Pi Question

[farmskis]

I was gifted some funds to spend at a brew store and I am looking into what I want to add. As the title suggests I am considering a Tilt monitor. Currently I run an older brew pi setup for temp control and I am curious on a few things.
I don’t want to really mess with the brew pi setup as it is working as I want and I don’t want to mess with it as I am a firm believer it “don’t mess with it if ain’t broke”

My thoughts are to build a Tilt Pi with a pi zero w to push Tilt info to Brewfather app.

1. How strong is the tilt signal? I brew in glass carboys inside a fermentation chamber that is a mini fridge. Will I have signal issues getting the signal from the Tilt to a Tilt Pi that is mounted on top of the fridge? Currently I only use glass carboys, don’t see me using a stainless vessel in the future but curious if the Tilt would have a problem going through stainless and a fridge wall considering the close proximity of the Tilt Pi to the Tilt device.
2. Will the Tilt Pi push logging data to my Brewfather app without having the app open? I would like to view my gravity data from the app at anytime.
3. I have seen Fermtrack and it looks like this would do all of what I am looking to do (except maybe push log data to Brewfather) with one pi but as I mentioned I don’t really want to mess with setting it up and the $20 is worth the cost to just set up a new Pi zero W for the Tilt and leave the other be.
4. Any thoughts on Tiltbridge vs Tilt Pi for my desired use?

Just trying to get some info on the Tilt to see if this setup would work for me.

 

[Bago-0]

I do not know about glass fermenter but I use a stainless steel fermenter in a mini fridge and need a tilt repeater to get a signal to my tilt bridge or tilt pi if placed outside the refrigerator. I started with a tilt pi and its very easy to set up and works well to view gravity from local network. I switched to tilt bridge since I built a controller and use fermentrack. Check out fermentrack 2. Tilt support is supposed to be added and I believe it will support Brewfather.
I do not use brewfather so not sure how that would work.

 

[farmskis]

Thank you!
I will take a look at Fermentrack 2. Being not familiar and you use it, I have a couple questions.
I currently use an old brew pi setup , pi and Adruno. Does fermentrack upon setup provide a way to access from remote off of local network? Also will it run on a pi2 with WiFi dongle? Basically I am curious if I could use the same hardware as my current setup and just flash the new software to run the controller?

 

[matt_m]

I wouldn't mess with a PI, TiltBridge worked far better for me. I can't answer the question on a fridge but I had to go with Tilt Pros for reliable connections in Spike fermenters. You could always stick your data collection device inside the fridge since the wifi radio should be more powerful.

 

[farmskis]

I wouldn't mess with a PI, TiltBridge worked far better for me. I can't answer the question on a fridge but I had to go with Tilt Pros for reliable connections in Spike fermenters. You could always stick your data collection device inside the fridge since the wifi radio should be more powerful.

I believe Spike fermenters are stainless which I easily could believe the Tilts having trouble passing through with stainless and also a fridge.
Copy on the bridge as that’s also the direction I am leaning after finding out about that device.
My WiFi out to the brew area is an outside WiFi antenna and although it has no problem now communicating with my brewpi that is mounted outside my fridge in the closet, I’m afraid that tucking a pi/bridge inside a metal fridge inside a closet about 400 ft from the antenna might push the limits for reliable communication.

 

[Bago-0]

I believe the Pi requirements are:; "Raspberry Pi 2B, 3, 4, 400, (or newer) /w Internet Connection".

I have a Arduino controller and set it up using ferment rack 2 on the Pi (I have a Pi 3B+). This is done via serial-to-fermentrack. It logs temps to the fermentrack 2 site which can be accessed remotely through a browser. As of now Tilt support is not available yet. For that I use a tilt bridge a nd remotely connect through my home network.
Maybe @Thorrak will chime in. He is the Fermentrack developer. Check out his fermentrack thread

 

[Thorrak]

Hey there! Tilts are amazing - I love them and would never think of brewing without one.

TiltPi vs. TiltBridge

As you might have researched, a TiltBridge can be built with as little as a bare ESP32 controller, flashed with BrewFlasher, and will pick up your Tilt's signal and transmit it anywhere you want (including to BrewPi-Remix, legacy Fermentrack, Brewfather, or - soon - Fermentrack 2). A TiltBridge can cost you anywhere from $6-$50, depending on if you want it to have a case, screen, etc. - but all are optional.

The TiltPi is a Raspberry Pi-hosted application which can use the Bluetooth radio on your Raspberry Pi to pick up your Tilt's signal and send it elsewhere. Because of the Raspberry Pi requirement, it costs anywhere from $15 (for a Pi Zero W) and up, depending on which model of Raspberry Pi you want.


Ultimately, which route I would recommend to somewhere here depends a lot on their personal situation (and what hardware they already owned). If I was trying to buy hardware and build a device that was going to be 100% dedicated to doing nothing but picking up my Tilt's signal, I'd build a TiltBridge. If I already had a spare Raspberry Pi, I might start with a TiltPi, and then switch to a TiltBridge if I needed to repurpose the Pi later. These are both good options, it really just comes down to what you already have on hand and personal preference.

With either option, you would be placing the Bluetooth-receiving-device outside your fermenter/fridge, which hopefully means the WiFi signal will be stronger. No guarantees, but hopefully it would be better.



BrewPi & Fermentrack 2

Fermentrack 2 (and Fermentrack.net) is the next version of Fermentrack, which is my alternative web interface for BrewPis. With your current setup, you likely have your BrewPi (Arduino) connected to your Raspberry Pi, which is running BrewPi-www as the web interface. With Fermentrack 2, you would have your BrewPi (Arduino) connected to your Raspberry Pi, which is running Serial-to-Fermentrack, which then connects with Fermentrack.net.

The advantage to the Fermentrack 2 approach is that it minimizes what your Raspberry Pi is responsible for: letting it bridge your hardware to the internet, but not forcing it to also handle logging and everything else. The advantage to the BrewPi approach is that it is self contained. Again: this is a personal preference, (but if it wasn't obvious due to me having created Fermentrack 2 in the first place, I've lost too many SD cards on Pis to trust them).

One advantage to Fermentrack.net is that it's cloud-based, so you can access/control/monitor your beer from anywhere in the world.



Tilt Hydrometers & Fermentrack 2 (and Brewfather)

Fermentrack 2 is adding specific gravity sensor support very soon, with the data being sent either from a TiltBridge or from a Raspberry Pi running specific software*. This will allow you to track your fermentation temperatures from your BrewPi on the same graph as your changes in specific gravity and will - eventually - allow you to set up temperature profiles based on % attenuation of your beer.

Fementrack 2 will also eventually push data directly to Brewfather for both your temperature controllers and connected gravity sensors, but this is not yet available. If you use a hardware TiltBridge, however, you can set it up to simultaneously push your Tilt's data to both Fermentrack 2 and Brewfather if you like.