[Version 2 Release] RaspberryPints - Digital Taplist Solution

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Actually, I think I proved pins 3 and 4 on an AlaMode are dysfunctional when used by probes.

I can personally vouch for pins 2 and 5 through 9.
Been running on those since Memorial Day week...

Cheers!
 
I switched it to 3, then saw your edit and tried it on 7. Here are the steps I took and the results:

shutdown pi
unplug power
switch yellow wire to pin 7
plugin power
$ps aux | grep flow

pi 2239 0.1 1.0 11524 4784 ? S 17:02 0:00 /usr/bin/python /var/www/python/flow_monitor.py
pi 3171 0.0 0.1 3564 872 pts/0 S+ 17:03 0:00 grep --color=auto flow

sudo kill 2239
edited RaspberryPints.ino to pin 7
verify board is set to Alamode
verify serial port is checked (/dev/ttyS0)
saved RaspberryPints.ino
uploaded RaspberryPints.ino
sudo cp /var/www/python/flowmon /etc/init.d
sudo chmod a+x /etc/init.d/flowmon
use chromium to change 1st (and only) tap to pin 7 in admin.php
sudo reboot
$ps aux | grep flow
sudo kill [pid]
python /var/www/python/flow_monitor.py
open chromium to localhost
POUR (no change in pour stats)
reload chromium window (no change in pour stats)
view terminal window (still hanging on flow_monitor.py with no new data displayed)

Have I missed a step??




mcangeli said:
It looks like your yellow wire is in pin 2.

Move it to pin 3, update your sketch and reupload the sketch to the arduino.

Start the flow monitor script and try a pour.

//EDIT

The arduino code is set for pins 8,9,10,11 by default as we know that those are "clean" pins to use.

There's conflicting information on pins 0-4 as far as what actually is used by the pi/alamode to communicate and getting things to work on the lower pins has been iffy at best from the start (some people report that it works fine, some can't get it to work...). I went through a lot of testing on getting it stable and working, and for a setup with 5 or less taps recommend using pins 7-12.

We assign pin 13 to the onboard LED to use for testing purposes (there's a line of code you can add to the sketch to blink the LED on pin 13 when a pour occurs... I actually have it wired to an external LED on my case that blinks when there is a pour.
Click to expand...
 
Whew! I was still replying to the first post :D

First, I have a copy of my AVR script on my Google Drive here.

It is configured for six taps on pins 2 & 5-9 inclusive, and it will blink the AlaMode LED on digital IO pin 13 a second or so at the conclusion of a pour - which is right around when the AlaMode tries to send the python script a message.

You're welcome to pull it down and give it a try. If you don't see the LED blink you need to back up to the AlaMode wiring and sketch loading to figure out what's broken...

Cheers!

[edit/ps] Reading your list of operations I don't see anything missing, though running the browser was superfluous. Until you see the python script echoing the pour messages from the AlaMode the browser side code will be blythely unaware of anything.
 
Thanks so much for the script and helping me figure this out. D13 did blink (3 fast, 1 slow) while I was uploading RaspberryPints.ino to alamode, but there were no blinks further on down the road in relation to any pour attempts.

So where do I go from here?
I need to check each connection on the 24 pin connector as well as the 3 pins that I am using for my flowmeter. It'll be tomorrow before I get a chance to do that. Assuming all of the connections are good (I will check them, but I've done a fair amount of soldering in my life), the next step is investigating my sketch loading. Can you elaborate on that?



day_trippr said:
Whew! I was still replying to the first post :D

First, I have a copy of my AVR script on my Google Drive here.

It is configured for six taps on pins 2 & 5-9 inclusive, and it will blink the AlaMode LED on digital IO pin 13 a second or so at the conclusion of a pour - which is right around when the AlaMode tries to send the python script a message.

You're welcome to pull it down and give it a try. If you don't see the LED blink you need to back up to the AlaMode wiring and sketch loading to figure out what's broken...

Cheers!

[edit/ps] Reading your list of operations I don't see anything missing, though running the browser was superfluous. Until you see the python script echoing the pour messages from the AlaMode the browser side code will be blythely unaware of anything.
Click to expand...
 
Seeing the IO13 LED blinking during the upload is a good sign (fwiw, the other two LEDs monitor the 5V and 3.3V rails and should always be lit solid).
But more importantly is whether the Arduino IDE thought it completed successfully. There's a window in there somewhere you can see the upload state as it progresses and any transfer errors will be obvious.

Start with my ino file, get it uploaded successfully, hook up one meter to any of the six IOs I use plus power and ground, then blow through the meter (don't cough up a lung - start out easy and build up to where a siren sound starts) while watching the LED.

If everything else is good and you hear that sound and the LED isn't blinking, with nothing else to go on (and my 'scopes are a long way away) I'd say the meter is suspect...

Cheers!
 
From your photo it looks as though you have the usb power plugged into the pi, instead of the alamode. That was my first issue with not getting pours to work, got so caught up in getting it setup that I accidentally plugged it into the wrong one, switched it over and all works like a charm.
 
I finally got something! It turns out that 2 of the 3 meters that I got don't work, but 1 of them does! That's enough to show me that I'm not crazy...
It only registered 5 oz on a 14 oz pour, but that's another battle for another day.

Thanks so much for the help guys. Seriously.


day_trippr said:
Seeing the IO13 LED blinking during the upload is a good sign (fwiw, the other two LEDs monitor the 5V and 3.3V rails and should always be lit solid).
But more importantly is whether the Arduino IDE thought it completed successfully. There's a window in there somewhere you can see the upload state as it progresses and any transfer errors will be obvious.

Start with my ino file, get it uploaded successfully, hook up one meter to any of the six IOs I use plus power and ground, then blow through the meter (don't cough up a lung - start out easy and build up to where a siren sound starts) while watching the LED.

If everything else is good and you hear that sound and the LED isn't blinking, with nothing else to go on (and my 'scopes are a long way away) I'd say the meter is suspect...

Cheers!
Click to expand...
 
Noidios said:
I finally got something! It turns out that 2 of the 3 meters that I got don't work, but 1 of them does! That's enough to show me that I'm not crazy...
It only registered 5 oz on a 14 oz pour, but that's another battle for another day.

Thanks so much for the help guys. Seriously.
Click to expand...

Very happy to hear that! Well, not 'bout the DOA meters, just that one of them worked well enough to show there are signs of intelligent life in your rig :) You should be able to test all of your AlaMode "tap pins" and their communication to the tap list configuration with that one meter.

One hint: I know all six pins used on my setup by heart, but damned if I always forget to set the pin in the My Taps page when I tap a keg.

Anyway, there are plenty of folks here that are happy to help others along, so don't hesitate if you have questions.

Finally, fwiw, all of my meters were "previously used" and I had one meter arrive that would not respond to "blow testing". I ran hot tap water through it (gently!) for a few minutes and then it worked just fine and has ever since...

Cheers!
 
A couple of quick questions...

How many taps fit on a 1080p monitor when using it horizontally? I have 6 taps, but I didn't know if two columns was supported or if 6 will fit on my horizontal display.

Any reasons why when you tap a keg and input the beer name, you have to re-type the SRM/OG/FG/etc? I would think it would auto-update. Maybe this is a bug, or maybe I'm doing something wrong, or neither and thats just how it works?

Thanks!
 
If everything's set up correctly, you don't have to re-enter the values contained in a recipe when you tap a keg.

A keg knows nothing about what's in it (someday that'll be changed, hopefully) so the keg and recipe get married when you tap a keg - and those three values get pulled in to the Tap List display from the selected recipe.

As for how many taps can be displayed on a 1080p monitor: I'd say at least six in one column (I threw my tap list up on my office hdtv and took what looks like a lousy pic but there it is). Full screen (F11) and use ctrl-minus/ctrl-plus to adjust the height to fit. fwiw, I use a 19" 4:3 atop my keezer and the tap list display looks a lot better than sprawled across 16:9.

Anyway, at least a couple of folks have done twin columns and iirc at least one posted the code in either this thread or the other R'Pints thread...

Cheers!

20150125_230752.jpg
 
I think if I had more than 6 taps I'd go vertical. I bet rotating a 4:3, 8 taps would look pretty good. More than that the 16:9 might be the better choice, or twin column.

No matter what, within a week of installing V1 last February the first thing people asked was which was Tap 1. I added a ribbon image across the bottom and that was the end of that.

I gotta take a better picture than this...

Cheers!

brewpints.jpg
 
day_trippr said:
I think if I had more than 6 taps I'd go vertical. I bet rotating a 4:3, 8 taps would look pretty good. More than that the 16:9 might be the better choice, or twin column.

No matter what, within a week of installing V1 last February the first thing people asked was which was Tap 1. I added a ribbon image across the bottom and that was the end of that.

I gotta take a better picture than this...

Cheers!
Click to expand...

Can you post the code for the tap number ribbon you have going across the bottom? I've
got that question several times now as well.
 
Considering my monitor is built into my keezer, it would be hard to go vertical now!

Thanks - good to hear 6 will fit. Will post pics later this week when shes done.
 
crane said:
Can you post the code for the tap number ribbon you have going across the bottom? I've
got that question several times now as well.
Click to expand...

It's just an png with the white text characters on a transparent background, so the text appears to float.
I have a copy of the file on my Google Drive here.
The file goes in /var/www/img.

I added the tags for it at the very end of index.php:

Code: 
<img class="size" src="img/tap_numbers.png" alt="">

Cheers!
 
I notice in the PHP files there is a setting to choose between MySQL and CSV format for data storage. Is this actually implemented?
(I've tried searching the threads, but the forum won't allow a search for CSV because it is too short of a term).

For the very little amount of data that is being stored and used here, text storage seems that it would be quite sufficient.
 
JonW said:
I notice in the PHP files there is a setting to choose between MySQL and CSV format for data storage. Is this actually implemented?
(I've tried searching the threads, but the forum won't allow a search for CSV because it is too short of a term).

For the very little amount of data that is being stored and used here, text storage seems that it would be quite sufficient.
Click to expand...


Currently we only allow database stored content as all of our variables are pulled from our querys. This program started off as csv file and grew into this full on program it is today.
 
mcangeli said:
Damnit.

I have to buy another pi!

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/83-16530

The new Raspberry Pi 2 B is out.
Click to expand...


Should be interesting to see what Microsoft does for it with win 10, not to hate on all the Linux guys who have done amazing work on this project, but for those of us who are PC guys this may be a nice solution. Though, I would assume there may be a need to stay with Linux for the Alamode support with flow meters?
 
mcangeli said:
Damnit.

I have to buy another pi!

http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/83-16530

The new Raspberry Pi 2 B is out.
Click to expand...

Cool! I'll take a couple of those, but mostly for the increased memory.
It looks like OS development will take time to reach maturity, and as nothing I'm doing will benefit from multiple cores, there's little chance of seeing anything remotely like "6X" performance improvement on any application.

What I'm hoping is Debian will quickly evolve a scheduler to use those four cores efficiently for parallel processing, not multi-threaded execution.

In the mean time, the extra memory should improve overall system responsiveness...

Cheers!
 
Has anyone used an ipad as the display yet? Set the ipad to not sleep, go to the website, and have it in a dock so it charges?
 
abeasst said:
Has anyone used an ipad as the display yet? Set the ipad to not sleep, go to the website, and have it in a dock so it charges?
Click to expand...


A lot of people have done exactly that. Except some people go with cheaper knockoff tablets so that they're not using their expensive iPad as a dedicated display.
 
adamranders said:
Should be interesting to see what Microsoft does for it with win 10, not to hate on all the Linux guys who have done amazing work on this project, but for those of us who are PC guys this may be a nice solution. Though, I would assume there may be a need to stay with Linux for the Alamode support with flow meters?
Click to expand...

With the gui on the pi, its almost exactly like running on windows.

You can install raspberry pints on a windows box (though the apache/mysql/php stack the site is coded in runs MUCH better on linux) and you can install the arduino code on windows as well (I do some testing on my windows laptop in an emulator).

The flowmeters do not care if the arduino is running on a pi or attached to a windows box. Its the other code (the python) that cares and is easier to implement on a linux based box. :)

And for the record, Linux machines are PC's.
 
wanger99 said:
Are we good to upgrade to the new pi without any issues I'm assuming?
Click to expand...

Yes, the new pie should work like the older pi or the B+ model (with the 4 usb ports).

The Alamode will sit on top of it and communicate without any issue.
 
delete the stock index.htm file and it will use the r pints html file. Or is it the other way around?

Wait, different page. nevermind
 
After months of not being able to track keg volumes I'm ready to start trouble shooting my system (again).

Everything regarding the tap info works great, it's the flowmeters that are driving me crazy.

I get phantom pours every day.

For example yesterday I kicked all my kegs and then tapped each tap with a new keg. I did use different beginning volumes to try to find any correlation with my problem.

I didn't pull any beer from any of the taps but when I look this morning I see:
keg 1 has had 4 oz poured
keg 2 has had 90 oz. poured
keg 3 has had 347 oz. poured
keg 4 has had 160 oz. poured
keg 5 has had 1335 oz. poured
keg 6 has had 820 oz. poured

I bought used flowmeters in the beginning but have replaced two of them with new meters thinking the used meters might be a problem but obviously was not the problem.

The pin numbers I use are 8,9,10,11,12,13 and the problem is occurring on all the pins/taps.

I have tried different SD cards and I have tried 2 different RPi units and the problem persists.

Up to this point my helter skelter 'maybe this will fix it' method of troubleshooting has not worked.

I would REALLY appreciate some help to find/isolate/repair the problem.
 
Dirty power to the meters? I would hook up one and do the same test. If that behaves, add a second, test again. Continue until it reoccurs. If it reoccurs swap out that meter/switch pins just in case it is doing something funky.

Maybe use a different source of power for meters instead of the one in directions?
 
Anybody know if replacing the wire to the meter is a possibility? My ******* was loading a keg last night and pulled the wire right out of the meter itself, and I don't know if it is at all possible to disassemble these...
 
raysmithtx said:
After months of not being able to track keg volumes I'm ready to start trouble shooting my system (again).

Everything regarding the tap info works great, it's the flowmeters that are driving me crazy.

I get phantom pours every day.

For example yesterday I kicked all my kegs and then tapped each tap with a new keg. I did use different beginning volumes to try to find any correlation with my problem.

I didn't pull any beer from any of the taps but when I look this morning I see:
keg 1 has had 4 oz poured
keg 2 has had 90 oz. poured
keg 3 has had 347 oz. poured
keg 4 has had 160 oz. poured
keg 5 has had 1335 oz. poured
keg 6 has had 820 oz. poured

I bought used flowmeters in the beginning but have replaced two of them with new meters thinking the used meters might be a problem but obviously was not the problem.

The pin numbers I use are 8,9,10,11,12,13 and the problem is occurring on all the pins/taps.

I have tried different SD cards and I have tried 2 different RPi units and the problem persists.

Up to this point my helter skelter 'maybe this will fix it' method of troubleshooting has not worked.

I would REALLY appreciate some help to find/isolate/repair the problem.
Click to expand...

Have you checked *all* of the connections on your tubing and meters to make sure they're air tight? I was seeing phantom pours and that pretty much went away after I worked more on making sure that my connections were all tight (at the connectors to the taps, the kegs and on the flow meters themselves)

Also, in the raspberry.ino file, find the line that says:
Code: 
 pinMode(13, OUTPUT);

and change it to:
Code: 
// pinMode(13, OUTPUT);

then reupload the sketch to the alamode and try it again.
 
billybryson54 said:
Anybody know if replacing the wire to the meter is a possibility? My ******* was loading a keg last night and pulled the wire right out of the meter itself, and I don't know if it is at all possible to disassemble these...
Click to expand...

It appears that the two halves of the shell are cemented together.

If you sheared the cable flush to the case it'll be a challenge to do anything with what's left. You might be able to excavate the plastic around the remains of the cable deep enough to solder the cable to the stub ends, but don't breach the case.

Next keg that kicks I think I'm going to run all my meter cables under a cable tie/strain relief...

Cheers!
 

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