TiltBridge - Tilt-to-WiFi Device for Tilt Hydrometer

[SimKow]

I updated to the newest beta release yesterday but I'm still struggling with google sheets support. It creates a new google drive worksheet with the name I provide but seems to only provide an initial dataset -- it doesn't appear to be updating every 15 minutes as expected.

Also, oddly, the display still only shows the Tilt color and gravity reading, no temperature. While I don't really care about the actual display, I'm wondering if I did something wrong.

Any thoughts?

 

[Thorrak]

I updated to the newest beta release yesterday but I'm still struggling with google sheets support. It creates a new google drive worksheet with the name I provide but seems to only provide an initial dataset -- it doesn't appear to be updating every 15 minutes as expected.

Also, oddly, the display still only shows the Tilt color and gravity reading, no temperature. While I don't really care about the actual display, I'm wondering if I did something wrong.

Any thoughts?

Are you using the OLED or TFT firmware/branch?

And, for the google sheets support, did you use an existing "app" that was deployed to google sheets, or did you restart the deployment process for the Google Sheets app from scratch?

 

[SimKow]

I used the OLED one (I'm using the "TTGO" OLED Board) firmware

As for the google sheets app, I used the existing one but re-copied the URL into the Tilt settings and renamed the sheet to something new.

 

[Thorrak]

I used the OLED one; perhaps that's the issue?

As for the google sheets app, I used the existing one but re-copied the URL into the Tilt settings and renamed the sheet to something new.

Yep, that's it. I didn't add the temp to the OLED screens - just the TFT ones. I'll have to take a look at the OLED screens again here in a bit and see if there's enough room to get temp added.

For the google sheets, you must restart the deployment process from scratch to get it working. There were a handful of bugs in the previous version of the app that this version fixes.

 

[SimKow]

Yep, that's it. I didn't add the temp to the OLED screens - just the TFT ones. I'll have to take a look at the OLED screens again here in a bit and see if there's enough room to get temp added.

For the google sheets, you must restart the deployment process from scratch to get it working. There were a handful of bugs in the previous version of the app that this version fixes.

Once I redid the google sheets process, it's now working great. Thank you! I did notice about every few days, the hardware seems to lose connection to my wifi network -- a restart seems to fix it but I wonder if there's any tricks. Worst case is I plug it into a smart outlet and set a turn off/on schedule to force an auto-restart daily.

 

[Thorrak]

Once I redid the google sheets process, it's now working great. Thank you! I did notice about every few days, the hardware seems to lose connection to my wifi network -- a restart seems to fix it but I wonder if there's any tricks. Worst case is I plug it into a smart outlet and set a turn off/on schedule to force an auto-restart daily.

Interesting. That's not ideal - I'll have to see if I can implement some kind of watchdog timer for it.

 

[fun4stuff]

During my last fermentation that finished yesterday, fermentrack and tiltbridge both seemed to lose connection every few days.

 

[Cougar281]

So, interesting thing. I ordered a LCD, which arrived today, and after wiring it up and flashing the 0.2 TFT beta firmware, when I boot it up, I get 'Access your TiltBridge at:' on the LCD and it gives the mDNS name and it's IP - But when I go to the IP, I'm still not getting a web interface. Any thoughts?

 

[SimKow]

Make sure you're on the same wifi network as the TiltBridge. I've noticed I've had to swap networks to connect to mine.

 

[Cougar281]

Sort of related to fun4stuff's post about the TiltBridge dropping off the network, while I haven't had issues with the devices dropping off, we had a power blip last night and while I do not know if my BrewESP8266 or Tiltbridge actually reset, oddly, my Watchguard Access Points did reset (What makes it odd is they're powered off of my Procurve switch and that is on a UPS and it didn't reset). It was more of a brownout, it seemed, so it's possible the PS powering the Brewpi and Tiltbridge never stopped powering the devices and they never reset. Anyway, once it was all over and the APs were back up, the BrewESP was back up on the network working as expected, while the TiltBridge was not - I ended up having to power cycle that to get it back. Just throwing another data point out there.

 

[sjdenton08]

My LOLIN D32 pro arrives from china today, but unfortunately when I ordered there were no TFT screens available and they are still out of stock, I was hoping they would have the new ones available by now, oh well. Anyhow for a noob like me to this project and indeed a noob to this D32 pro how do I go about setting it up without a display? I use brewfather for software! Thanks in advance! Im comfortable in Linux!

 

[sjdenton08]

Ive got to the point where ive flashed my LOLIN D32 pro with TFT v0.2 firmware via BrewFlasher. Booted it and set AP details. I can then ping tiltbridge.local on the correct wifi network but no web access. Im guessing ive gone as far as I can without a screen?

 

[Cougar281]

Ive got to the point where ive flashed my LOLIN D32 pro with TFT v0.2 firmware via BrewFlasher. Booted it and set AP details. I can then ping tiltbridge.local on the correct wifi network but no web access. Im guessing ive gone as far as I can without a screen?

If you flash it with the 0.1 OLED firmware, it'll boot up and work.

 

[sjdenton08]

If you flash it with the 0.1 OLED firmware, it'll boot up and work.

Right i've got things working without a screen! Using Brewflasher 1.0.1 you need to flash TiltBridge BETA - v0.2 - TFT followed by TiltBridge - v0.1 - OLED in that order, because the OLED firmware doesnt flash otadata and bootloader partitions!

Personally I would really like a NO screen attached firmware! Any chance of this going forward @Thorrak ? Thanks for the efforts so far though!

 

[sjdenton08]

Oh and thanks @Cougar281 for pointing me in the right direction!

 

[sjdenton08]

Oh no! No brewfather integration in OLED version im guessing?! (face plant emoji) ha ha!

 

[Thorrak]

Right i've got things working without a screen! Using Brewflasher 1.0.1 you need to flash TiltBridge BETA - v0.2 - TFT followed by TiltBridge - v0.1 - OLED in that order, because the OLED firmware doesnt flash otadata and bootloader partitions!

Personally I would really like a NO screen attached firmware! Any chance of this going forward @Thorrak ? Thanks for the efforts so far though!

There's not going to be a no screen attached firmware, because it wouldn't accomplish anything that the OLED firmware doesn't already accomplish.

I will try to get a note added to the documentation though, so that people know what version to flash if they don't have a screen.

Oh no! No brewfather integration in OLED version im guessing?! (face plant emoji) ha ha!

You should be able to flash the BETA v0.2 OLED firmware instead of the v0.1 firmware, which should fix all your problems (BrewFather integration included!)

 

[sjdenton08]

You should be able to flash the BETA v0.2 OLED firmware instead of the v0.1 firmware, which should fix all your problems (BrewFather integration included!)
[/QUOTE]

I dont seem to have that option BETA v0.2 OLED in the drop down menu in Brewflasher? Should I go find manually?

 

[sjdenton08]

Sorry Im going blind!

 

[sjdenton08]

Installing BETA v0.2 OLED did the trick, also noticed it writes all 5 partitions! Added my brewfather code and bobs your uncle, live data! Happy days all working well, thanks very much!

 

[sjdenton08]

Brewfather also allows you to configure offsets on that device which is perfect.

 

[sjdenton08]

Any chance of degrees c in the web front end? Being a fussy English man and all!

 

[Thorrak]

Any chance of degrees c in the web front end? Being a fussy English man and all!

At some point, absolutely. Probably at least a few weeks away though (unless someone wants to submit a pull request)

If you can, raise an issue on GitHub so I don’t forget

 

[Thorrak]

Update

It's crazy how much things can change, even over the course of a couple of weeks. In early March someone on GitHub ported a new Bluetooth stack to the ESP32 which - as of this morning - seems to have had enough of the crucial bugs squished to allow for integration into TiltBridge.

While I don't expect any non-programmers to agree, this library is a monumental shift. Using this library frees up 9% (!!) of the allocated flash memory vs. the default BLE stack. The available heap goes from <20kB to >110kB. I can actually call HTTPS libraries without having to micro-manage everything that could drain available RAM! While entirely a behind-the-scenes change, this really is a massive step forward.

Thankfully, this also happened before I have officially released v0.2 of the TiltBridge firmware.

I've posted replacements to v0.2 of the beta firmware which use the new BLE stack. While this should (hopefully) be unnoticable for most users, there may be strange, new bugs that warrant reporting. If you flash the new firmware and see anything strange, let me know!

 

[sjdenton08]

So after yesterdays success I setup a tilt in a glass of water to make sure stability is OK. This morning all readings have appeared in Brewfather, wonderful! Ive upgraded to the new v.2 OLED firmware as per @Thorrak's request. Upon re-flashing the Brewfather string was lost in the TiltBridge settings, so I had to re-enter it. As of 4 hours later all still looks good! Will leave it running a week and report back. I must say im impressed so far with TiltBridge!

 

[sjdenton08]

Is losing the brewfather setting during a firmware upgrade expected?

 

[Thorrak]

Is losing the brewfather setting during a firmware upgrade expected?

As in having to re-set it, or having the option to use BrewFather disappear?

 

[sjdenton08]

Just re-entering the brewfather connection string as it was blank after I did the new Bluetooth firmware upgrade from the previous v.2 firmware.

 

[garzlok]

Upgraded to the latest TFT firmware via BrewFlasher Today.

Did this during an active ferment with the Tilt bound to a controller. (Started to cold crash, so I don’t need anymore tilt data and was a low risk maneuver to see what would happen)

Flashed with no issues.
TiltBridge received and displayed the tilt readings on the TFT.
Able to access my TiltBridge IP and displayed were the current tilt readings.
Fermentrack displays the tilt reading prior to flashing the TiltBridge and did/does not update to the current status.
Reset TiltBridge WiFi (no change)
Reset TiltBridge (no change)
checked mDNS, Fermentrack and TiltBridge have the same mDNS.
....still stuck with Fermentrack unable to pull the current Tilt data.

didn‘t know if this is predictable behavior or not, and wanted to share.

 

[Thorrak]

Upgraded to the latest TFT firmware via BrewFlasher Today.

Did this during an active ferment with the Tilt bound to a controller. (Started to cold crash, so I don’t need anymore tilt data and was a low risk maneuver to see what would happen)

Flashed with no issues.
TiltBridge received and displayed the tilt readings on the TFT.
Able to access my TiltBridge IP and displayed were the current tilt readings.
Fermentrack displays the tilt reading prior to flashing the TiltBridge and did/does not update to the current status.
Reset TiltBridge WiFi (no change)
Reset TiltBridge (no change)
checked mDNS, Fermentrack and TiltBridge have the same mDNS.
....still stuck with Fermentrack unable to pull the current Tilt data.

didn‘t know if this is predictable behavior or not, and wanted to share.

Did you reconfigure the TiltBridge after flashing?

One of the consequences of flashing is that it wipes out the previous configuration, so your TiltBridge likely lost track of where it was supposed to send the data.

 

[garzlok]

Yeah...I figured it out. After I re-entered the Fermentrack URL in TiltBridge I only hit the update button. TiltBridge needed to be restarted after I updated the URL.

 

[sjdenton08]

Is there no way of retaining user configured options during firmware updates? Either by storing it somewhere else to sync back during a reboot or maybe an option in brewflasher?

 

[Thorrak]

Is there no way of retaining user configured options during firmware updates? Either by storing it somewhere else to sync back during a reboot or maybe an option in brewflasher?

There isn't. I could theoretically add an option to BrewFlasher to not flash the SPIFFS partition, but that creates issues when - for example - new features requiring edits to the Web UI are added. The goal really is to not have to flash your TiltBridge that often (right now is the exception, as development is particularly active!) thus reducing the overwriting of settings to a minor annoyance.

 

[sjdenton08]

I guess it all depends how many more settings appear going forward, for the moment for me it's just the brewfather connection string. Anyhow had the new v.2 running nearly a week now and it's not missed a beat during that time. I should really consider a case for it!

 

[Thorrak]

Minor Update

I just pushed out another tweak to the "beta" firmware. This version adds code to automatically reconnect to WiFi if the signal is lost for any reason. Although the library that I am using should have done that anyways, I've had users report that their TiltBridge dropped off their network in some cases never to be seen again. This should (hopefully!) fix that.


Separately, the main thing holding up the conversion of the "beta" firmware to an actual release is LOLIN restocking the screens. I think at least four separate people (myself included!) have reached out to them, and the answer is consistently "check back in a few days". And so we wait.

 

[Cougar281]

Minor Update

I just pushed out another tweak to the "beta" firmware. This version adds code to automatically reconnect to WiFi if the signal is lost for any reason. Although the library that I am using should have done that anyways, I've had users report that their TiltBridge dropped off their network in some cases never to be seen again. This should (hopefully!) fix that.


Separately, the main thing holding up the conversion of the "beta" firmware to an actual release is LOLIN restocking the screens. I think at least four separate people (myself included!) have reached out to them, and the answer is consistently "check back in a few days". And so we wait.

Is there a particular reason it HAS to be the lolin screen? I ended up picking up a 'random' TFT of the proper size and resolution, that uses the same TFT and touch chips off Amazon, then I got the proper connector to connect up to the Lolin TFT port along with the wires for the connector and made the proper 'harness ' to connect the TFT to the Lolin TFT Port. I can post more info if anyone's interested.

 

[Thorrak]

Is there a particular reason it HAS to be the lolin screen? I ended up picking up a 'random' TFT of the proper size and resolution, that uses the same TFT and touch chips off Amazon, then I got the proper connector to connect up to the Lolin TFT port along with the wires for the connector and made the proper 'harness ' to connect the TFT to the Lolin TFT Port. I can post more info if anyone's interested.

The only reason is to make it easier on people to build/source. Otherwise, any TFT screen with the same resolution/chipset should be fine. For the BrewPi port I’m working on I actually have a PCB design specifically for people that want to use other TFT screens (in case they want a larger screen, for example).


That said - how did you source the connector/harness?

 

[Cougar281]

So I determined that the connector on the Lolin D32Pro's is a JST SH 10 cavity, which is available as Digkey part number 455-1400-ND. They also have 6" leads with the proper terminals on both ends for the JST SH connector, Digikey P/N 455-3076-ND. Now, if you are looking to build a cable to connect the Lolin D32Pro to a Lolin LCD, then you'd need two connectors and ten wires. To connect the Lolin to a 'generic' LCD, you'd (most likely, because MOST boards use 'standard' 2.54mm headers) need one connector, ten wires and ten of 609-4848-1-ND. In my case, while the connector on the LCD had 11 terminals, only ten in a row were used, so I needed one of 609-2333-ND (I actually already have a box full of the Amphenol male and female terminals, as well as 1-10 terminal housings, so I didn't actually need to order the Amphenol parts, so I'm not absolutely certain of those terminals - the images on Digikey look a little different than what I have). I then used the schematics for the D32Pro and the LCD that I purchased to pin it out properly. The most important thing is of you're going to get a LCD other than the exact Lolin one, make sure it uses the ILI9341 TFT driver and XPT2046 touch driver, and is 320x240 pixels. Any LCD that fits that criteria should work 100% when wired right.

In the past, I've always 'hand crimped' the Amphenol terminals (and other similar, small terminals) using small needle nose to 'crimp' them and then soldered them. I have to say now that I have an actual crimp tool, I'm fairly impressed on the quality of the crimps. But you don't NEED to have the proper crimp tool in order to make them work. It CAN be done without it with a fine hand and a soldering iron.

Now, did the creation of that cable cost me more than the 97 cents I think AliExpress wanted for their cable? Yup. But I had everything in about three days, versus I believe 50-90 days from AliExpress, and I did, in some small part, keep at least a little money here in the US. And it is a custom cable, not a JST SH 10 cavity to JST SH 10 cavity (something I suspect will be hard, if not impossible to come by), so I can use it with the LCD I got, and if I needed to, I could repin it again should I need or want to get and try 'some other' LCD.

So what I did is without question more involved than getting a premade cable from AliExpress, but it's always an option for anyone so inclined.

 

[H0phead]

So I was able to install TiltBridge on my ESP32 board and can access the bridge locally at the TiltBridge ip address, and add sensors to Fermentrack. But Fermentrack is not showing any data from TiltBridge. Any thoughts?

View attachment 626715 View attachment 626716

@mwayne112 Did you ever get this sorted?

I'm having the exact same issue...my Tiltbridge is communicating on my network (I can hit the web interface) and it is bound to my Fermentrack instance, but it doesn't seem to be able to pass temp/gravity readings to the Fermentrack.

 

[Thorrak]

@mwayne112 Did you ever get this sorted?

I'm having the exact same issue...my Tiltbridge is communicating on my network (I can hit the web interface) and it is bound to my Fermentrack instance, but it doesn't seem to be able to pass temp/gravity readings to the Fermentrack.View attachment 681027

Which firmware are you running? The "beta" firmware or the regular firmware?