[Version 2 Release] RaspberryPints - Digital Taplist Solution

[raysmithtx]

I'm trying to change the pin numbers on my system but am getting an error message when I try to upload the sketch.

I select the Arduino IDE
I open the file and edit the pin numbers
I save the file but don't exit
I select the Alamode board
I select the serial board
I click on the box with the arrow in it and after a couple of minutes I get a message (in red) with :

user configuration does not exist or is not a regular file

I have tried searching Google for a few hours to solve it but no luck.

I have tried 2 different RPi boards and 2 different Alamode boards and get the same error with both. I have updated and upgraded the OS too.

I set the preferences to verbose and the red messages start with:
"System wide configuration file is "/usr/share/arduino/hardware/tools/avrdude.conf"
User configuration is "/home/pi/.avrduderc"
User configuration file dies not exist or is not a regular file, skipping

Can anyone help me out here? Thank you.

 

[day_trippr]

Those messages are informational, not errors.

There is a window that you can see avrdude doing its thing, there's probably 30 lines of messages that are posted as the upload progresses. See if you can find that window - it actually might be the bottom status area in the second IDE page - stretch it out before you start uploading the sketch and hopefully you'll see what's going on.

btw - It's been awhile since I changed my setup (like, the first week in June) and I may be conflating things with BrewPi, but I think you have to stop the python script before uploading the sketch...

Cheers!

 

[raysmithtx]

Thank you for trying to help me with this...

Those messages are informational, not errors.

There is a window that you can see avrdude doing its thing, there's probably 30 lines of messages that are posted as the upload progresses. See if you can find that window - it actually might be the bottom status area in the second IDE page - stretch it out before you start uploading the sketch and hopefully you'll see what's going on.

I set the preference to Verbose and can see all of the errors. At the end it says 'the programmer could not be loaded" so the changes are not loaded into the alamode board.

I cannot compile any of the example sketches preloaded (like "Blink") either. Since I have tried multiple boards (RPi and alamode) I'm wondering if it is in the new updates to the Raspbian OS. As a complete noob on this stuff I'm at a loss.

Any insights/suggestions you might offer will certainly be appreciated.

 

[day_trippr]

I really don't have anything here, I've not only never seen that "the programmer could not be loaded" message, like you I'm getting nothing out of Google on it.

Did you stop the flow monitor script before trying to upload the AVR sketch?

$ sudo /etc/init.d/flowmon stop

What version of the Arduino IDE are you using?

Cheers

 

[raysmithtx]

Day-Trippr

Just saying thank you isn't enough. I appreciate the fact that you seem to have taken the lead for problems with the Raspberry Pints system.

Did you stop the flow monitor script before trying to upload the AVR sketch?

$ sudo /etc/init.d/flowmon stop

I was not entering the command correctly but the above worked perfectly. Thanks again.


Over the last week of trying to get the problems worked out of my system I found a few things that people trying to install for the first time may need to know about:

1. The instructions reference modifying a file in the LXDE directory but with the new Raspbian update the directory is now LXDE-pi.

2. If you want to install the temperature monitoring system (thanks day_trippr for the system) then you need to add a line in the /boot/config.txt file. With the new system it will not work with DS18B20 sensors until you add this line to the config.txt file: dtoverlay=w1-gpio,gpiopin=4

3. If you have activated the flowmonitor system and want to change the pin designations then you need to stop the flowmon system prior to trying to upload the modified sketch. If you don't then the programmer (avrdude) will crash every time you try:
From the terminal issue this command: sudo /etc/init.d/flowmon stop
Then proceed upload the sketch as instructed in step 9 on the RaspberryPints website.

These problems took me over a week to work through so maybe this will help someone else avoid the hassles I experienced.

Thanks again day_trippr for all the free technical support you give the people on this forum.

 

[day_trippr]

<blush> Well, jeeze, thanks for the kind words.

The payoff to me is all about the satisfaction of helping other folks get their systems up - because I know just how cool RaspberryPints (and BrewPi, and all the other stuff I've been playing with) are once up and running. And hopefully makes up for the whole "freeloading forum member" thing

Otherwise, as I set my own work schedule I'm probably just the most available helper here.

So, excellent that you got past the roadblocks - and thanks for posting those tips. My NOOBS v1.3.4 image is from around February 2014 and while I've regularly updated all my RPi's it's clear there are some version-dependent differences. The whole LXDE-pi thing doesn't exist here, for instance...

Cheers!

 

[Noidios]

Day-Trippr

2. If you want to install the temperature monitoring system (thanks day_trippr for the system) then you need to add a line in the /boot/config.txt file. With the new system it will not work with DS18B20 sensors until you add this line to the config.txt file: dtoverlay=w1-gpio,gpiopin=4

I missed this section. Can you please point me in the right direction for instructions on how to add temp monitoring?

 

[day_trippr]

Here you go...

Cheers!

 

[skemp45]

This is very true,

day_tripper you have been an amazing help for the community of RaspberryPints and we can not thank you enough. If it was not for you I would say we would have not have half of the up and running Pints as we do. This one is to you

 

[njs170]

This is very true,

day_tripper you have been an amazing help for the community of RaspberryPints and we can not thank you enough. If it was not for you I would say we would have not have half of the up and running Pints as we do. This one is to you

I second that!
Thank you for all your time!!!

 

[day_trippr]

Y'all are embarrassing me. Stop that!

Cheers!

[edit/ps] I'm thinking the Model 2 RPi might be the thing to use if I want to add camera tricks to my keezer system.

Like facial recognition.

The extra cores couldn't hurt with that...

 

[billybryson54]

Welp, add me to the list of people who have a corrupted SD card. Makes me wonder how temperamental these things really are. Fortunately, I backed everything up a few weeks ago so fixing my situation won't be too much of an issue. Still sucks though...

 

[crashtest22]

well seeing the search will not work for short words and I dont have the brain capacity to search all 24 pages does anyone know if we can use the Raspberry Pi Model B+ (B PLUS) 512MB Computer Board instead of the regular B?

or even the latest raspberry pi?
I am going to assume so but no point in buying if it will not.

Thanks in advance.
btw this is for a 6 tap keezer....currently

 

[day_trippr]

You can use the B, B+ or Pi 2. They'll all work with everything we've been playing with here, including RaspberryPints and BrewPi.

I just upgraded one of my systems with the Pi 2 and would advise anyone getting into this stuff to go directly to the Pi 2, as it runs rings around the B and B+...

Cheers!

 

[crashtest22]

Figured as much....Thanks Day_Trippr

 

[billybryson54]

Hmmm...well I was under the impression that I had a corrupt SD card, but changing it out didn't solve my problem, nor did a new power supply. I even disconnected the Alamode, and finally changed out the HDMI cord for the heck of it. Still nothing. I'm getting the power lights to come on but there's no activity, no display, and zero difference after all those changes I made to try to narrow down the problem. Could it be that my pi crapped out? Hope not, it's less than a year old. Although this WOULD be a good excuse to go buy the new model...

 

[day_trippr]

Although this WOULD be a good excuse to go buy the new model...

Ethically and morally just!

Sad to hear of an RPi gone to Heaven, but there is that upgrade upside.
I wouldn't even think twice, especially if you can get it for close to the $35 Foundation price.

Do you not get even a blink or two of the "active" LED?
If it's going for the boot block it should at least blink once.

If you get even one blink, I'd check the SD card socket, as I've read it's not particularly robust. If you flip the board over you'll see this cantilever beam spring contact that apparently indicates that the SD card is populated (an epically stupid scheme). Make sure the springy side hasn't been bent so the SD card misses it.

If you aren't even seeing a blink the first thing I'd check is the 3.3V rail to see if the linear regulator bit the dust.

But at the end of the day, the Pi 2 is worth the upgrade. Even an unexpected one...

Cheers!

 

[billybryson54]

Unfortunately, I'm getting absolutely zero activity. The light doesn't even attempt to blink upon boot. Side note, I see what you mean now about that stupid spring that works with the SD card. I've never noticed that before. The whole thing kind of makes me curious as to what could have caused this failure, though. I'm a firm believer in the phrase "Stuff happens" but I haven't been particularly harsh to my pi. A few random power-outtages around my neighborhood is about the worst treatment it had received. I guess either I got a lemon, or it was just time for it to go. Oh well. Stuff happens. Now to cruise Amazon for more stuff that the wife is going to yell at me for later on. If this Model 2 is as awesome as you say it is, Day-trippr, it'll be worth the yelling. Lol

 

[DrunkleJon]

Hmmm...well I was under the impression that I had a corrupt SD card, but changing it out didn't solve my problem, nor did a new power supply. I even disconnected the Alamode, and finally changed out the HDMI cord for the heck of it. Still nothing. I'm getting the power lights to come on but there's no activity, no display, and zero difference after all those changes I made to try to narrow down the problem. Could it be that my pi crapped out? Hope not, it's less than a year old. Although this WOULD be a good excuse to go buy the new model...

Just a thought. Are you doing the flowmeter version or without? If with, which micro usb connection are you powering your Pi through? It should be the one on the add on card and not the pi itself. You also have to make sure that you flip the switch. That could cause some of it.

 

[billybryson54]

I'm using the flowmeter version with the power supply plugged into the Alamode. I hadn't made a single change to anything, it's just seemed to crap out on me randomly. Also, i did flip the switch long ago when I first purchased the Alamode

 

[crane]

Hmmm...well I was under the impression that I had a corrupt SD card, but changing it out didn't solve my problem, nor did a new power supply. I even disconnected the Alamode, and finally changed out the HDMI cord for the heck of it. Still nothing. I'm getting the power lights to come on but there's no activity, no display, and zero difference after all those changes I made to try to narrow down the problem. Could it be that my pi crapped out? Hope not, it's less than a year old. Although this WOULD be a good excuse to go buy the new model...

You could have bricked it from ESD damage. This time of year most houses are very dry from running the fernace all the time.

With that being said I have only seen ESD damage once and I design and work on circuit boards for a living. I had someone walk up to my desk on carpeting in the winter back when I lived in Wisconsin and he handed me a board. I felt a shock when I grabbed the board from him. And consequently the board would no longer boot. Fortunately for me there was no real damage, the ESD strike corrupted the bootloader code in the flash. After reflashing the bootloader it was back up and running. So although it's unlikely, it is a possibility of what happened to your board.

 

[billybryson54]

I suppose at this point, anything is a possibility. I didn't ever handle the board once it was installed but either way, when I have a little spare cash, I'll be picking up the new model and probably doing something about the abundance of wiring that is dangling from the back of my keezer.

In the meantime, I've been working on another issue I've had. A little while back I broke a flowmeter. I was loading a keg and pulled the wires out from the sensor itself. Since at this point I have nothing to lose, I decided to disassemble the sensor(Which wasn't exactly easy on my nerves) and attempt to reattach the wires. So far, so good. I was able to split the sensor in half right at the joint using a pair of PVC ratching cutters working them all the way around, and very slowly of course. Once I had the two pieces, I was left with about 3/16's of wire remaining, so i used a razor blade to very carefully slice off some of the insulation and solder on a few dupont jumpers. Right now I'm waiting on some food grade RTV to arrive before I can reassemble it but so far it's looking promising. Problem is, since I don't have a pi I have no real way to test to see if my little experiment was a success or not.

 

[raysmithtx]

Now that's persistence and dedication to the task at hand. Props to you.

 

[billybryson54]

Now that's persistence and dedication to the task at hand. Props to you.

Ha. Thanks. For me it's about trying to save money on a new sensor. $80.00 that I really don't have to spare right now thanks to tax time being around the corner. If this works then hopefully I can help someone else with a similar issue. Besides all that, I really don't have anything to lose. Not like I can screw it up worse. Lol

 

[andrewmalizia]

Unfortunately, I'm getting absolutely zero activity. The light doesn't even attempt to blink upon boot. Side note, I see what you mean now about that stupid spring that works with the SD card. I've never noticed that before. The whole thing kind of makes me curious as to what could have caused this failure, though. I'm a firm believer in the phrase "Stuff happens" but I haven't been particularly harsh to my pi. A few random power-outtages around my neighborhood is about the worst treatment it had received. I guess either I got a lemon, or it was just time for it to go. Oh well. Stuff happens. Now to cruise Amazon for more stuff that the wife is going to yell at me for later on. If this Model 2 is as awesome as you say it is, Day-trippr, it'll be worth the yelling. Lol

Are you just not getting a display? Can you SSH into it?

Maybe you accidentally put it into a different video mode to boot to composite NTSC composite or something. Try hitting 1 or 2 while booting to put it back to HDMI.

A good resource if you havent come across it yet...
http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=58151

 

[day_trippr]

Ummm....if the activity LED on an RPi never ever blinks - not even once - after power is applied, I guarantee the problem is not software...or settings...or video...

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

Aaaaaaand thar she blows!

My keezer BrewPints system decided tonight would be a fine time to barf up an SD card.

Fortunately, I had a solid image of that system from a couple of weeks ago. And, serendipitously, I had cloned the RaspberryPints database from the keezer system to my backup crate Sunday after finalizing the RPi 2 upgrade. Not even sure why I did that but it was a huge help in this case.

Bottom line, I was able to burn a spare SD card and get the system back up in under an hour.

It's becoming clear that the SD card is a weak point in the 'Pi architecture. Leaving aside the fact I have a duplicate backup crate I can swap in if it comes to that, this would have been an epic pita if not for the system image.

I cannot stress enough the importance of creating a backup anytime anything significant has been changed. Disks - whether magnetic or solid state - fail.

I spent a large part of my career designing systems that are still guaranteed to be available for all but 30 seconds per year ("Six Nines") and a lot of failure analysis went into the architecture. Next to site power, disk drives were the sore thumb. So every system used two three-drive mirror sets - mirrors of mirrors - to bury the disk failure rate down to well below noise level (which - when you're only allowed a max of 30 seconds of un-availability a year including OS and application software updates - is very, very low).

So, get religion, folks. Aggravation takes time off your clock. Card readers are cheap, and name-brand 16GB cards (plenty of space for anything we're doing here) are under $8 delivered if you look around.

The 'Pints database is the tough part. I got lucky this time but I think I'm going to come up with an automated nightly backup of the database to a USB key...

Cheers!

 

[JonW]

Aaaaaaand thar she blows!

My keezer BrewPints system decided tonight would be a fine time to barf up an SD card.

Not to rub salt into your wound, but I think you jinxed yourself day_trippr!

Remember when you said this:

Ok, I don't get it.

I've had a pair of full-blown RPi-based systems both running all kinds of quasi-real-time stuff with R'Pints and multiple (like, four in one case) instances of BrewPi and temperature loggers and minions on Bluetooth links, all of it intertoobs accessible. So two database engines and sometimes a half-dozen pages being served on each machine. I flog the hell out of these things!

And I've never lost an SD card. I've had to re-image a bazillion times when I've dumb-thumbed the software side of things (I'm a hardware guy, dammit! ) but otherwise these li'l dudes have been amazingly stable.

So, no, I can't relate, and as far as "known problem", well, I apparently my machines are outliers. I have no clue how..

Btw, what does this actually mean: "Seems this happens regularly with the RPi platform if you don't change your partitions or read only."?

Cheers!

Good thing you had a backup. Wise advise for everyone else!

 

[day_trippr]

LOL! Yeah, I kinda set myself up there

I guess it was just a matter of time before I got bit.

For the record, I wasn't doing anything on that system, I just went down to pull my "last-call" chocolate stout and the screen didn't wake up to greet me. There was a bit of life left at that moment - log-ins from my workstation were actively refused - but when I rebooted it was clear the card had gone to Solid State Heaven.

I'm too old not to always have a reliable "way back" across every single system we have here. It's a near-obsession.
Can't be wasting time doing rebuilds just because I was lazy at some point...

Cheers!

 

[Browningbuck]

hey gentleman its been a bit since i bugged you guys for info, i was making sure i knew what i wanted to do before asking for direction. ive decided i want to run my monitor in landscape. Ive been told to run JonW's code for split taplists but decided i didnt want that either. i want 9 taps on one landscape screen however Pints only is showing 6 with the skinny top of the 7th. why am i having issues with the resizing of the image for the tap list?

i know its hard to see but its the only image i had at the moment

 

[day_trippr]

Try not starting R'Pints in kiosk mode. Launch Chromium from the desktop, then play with the zoom (ctrl-minus and ctrl-plus) while going in and out of full screen mode (F11). You might find a setting that works well...

Cheers!

 

[Browningbuck]

ok, would this have to be done each time it is booted up or will the preference be saved after shut down?

why is it no one else has encounter this? did i set up something up in config incorrectly?

 

[DrunkleJon]

ok, would this have to be done each time it is booted up or will the preference be saved after shut down?

why is it no one else has encounter this? did i set up something up in config incorrectly?

Most browsers remember your zoom settings.

Most people do not have more taps than desktop real estate. Or use it in portait mode, or the dual column.

 

[Browningbuck]

Most browsers remember your zoom settings.

Most people do not have more taps than desktop real estate. Or use it in portait mode, or the dual column.

seems to me that Pints is designed around those that need management... if you need this to manage 2-4 kegs that seems overkill(im one for over kill!) but the the system states up to 10 kegs(im only at 9 so it seems like the software parameters are met for it to work correctly in my case).

then if i use in portait i have the same issue



i think its more than zooming...

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, you are missing the column that tracks the keg volumes.

seems to me that Pints is designed around those that need management... if you need this to manage 2-4 kegs that seems overkill(im one for over kill!)

.



So....what would be your threshold for how many kegs justifies a RaspberryPints system? Do my six taps make the grade?

(If it isn't obvious, I completely disagree with your premise).

but the the system states up to 10 kegs(im only at 9 so it seems like the software parameters are met for it to work correctly in my case).

I believe the number of faucets that RaspberryPints can support is currently only limited by the number of AlaMode digital IO pins that can be used without any issues.

Between me and mcangeli we've proven IO 2 and 5 through 11 work perfectly, so that's 8 taps that will work for sure.

IO 0 & 1 can't be used as they're the hw uart pins. I've never tried using IO 3 as it's connected to an RTC output pin - it may work, but I didn't need to try anything that wasn't obviously free of encumbrances. And I had issues using IO 4.

IO 13 may work, but my R'Pints AVR code is modified to use the AlaMode's "Blink LED" to confirm a pour, and that LED is plumbed to IO 13. That leaves IO 12.

As for geometry issues, given the wide gamut of display types and sizes out there, and as few as one and as many as - let's call it 10 - taps in use, 'Pints - appropriately - is pretty much agnostic about displays. There are settings you can tweak on the Raspbian side and in the browser, and you can play with the css, to come up with a nice presentation.

fwiw, the 'Pints system on my keezer goes months between boots, so bringing Chromium up manually and then pressing F11 isn't too onerous...

Cheers!

 

[Ricand]

I just finished reading all 96 pages, geez! This seems just the ticket for the Copper Cat Brewery and I've ordered the parts. If anyone has a place to get accurate flow sensors for less, please let me know. I've been searching Ebay and elsewhere, but so far no luck. I may buy 2 to start with and then get the rest as budget allows, with 8 taps we are talking ~$500 for just sensors. I'm assuming I can show my taps and only have 2 actually live on the flow sensors. Thanks to all the contributors. Hopefully I won't have any unique problems that aren't already addressed here.

 

[billybryson54]

Well, I got a little bit further on my attempted repair of a flow sensor. After adding a small o-ring to the inner stem of the flow sensor just for peace of mind, I used some RTV to try to seal up the two pieces back together. After applying a very heavy bead, and three days of cure time in a bench vise with very gentle pressure, I put it back into service just to see if it would hold pressure and not leak, but not actually wiring it back up just yet.

The results? Failure.

For some reason the RTV did not bond at ALL to the plastic that this sensor is made of. Even though I cleaned it, roughed it up and cleaned it some more, the stuff just did not want to stick. So I'm going all out for attempt #2: using JB weld instead of RTV. The way I look at it, the stuff is safe enough to use in large quantities on a heat stick, and thanks to the previously installed o-ring on the stem, there shouldn't be any of this stuff at all that contacts the beer. I'm going to give the goop two full days at a minimum to cure, and will see where that takes me.

 

[crane]

Aaaaaaand thar she blows!

My keezer BrewPints system decided tonight would be a fine time to barf up an SD card.

Fortunately, I had a solid image of that system from a couple of weeks ago. And, serendipitously, I had cloned the RaspberryPints database from the keezer system to my backup crate Sunday after finalizing the RPi 2 upgrade. Not even sure why I did that but it was a huge help in this case.

Bottom line, I was able to burn a spare SD card and get the system back up in under an hour.

It's becoming clear that the SD card is a weak point in the 'Pi architecture. Leaving aside the fact I have a duplicate backup crate I can swap in if it comes to that, this would have been an epic pita if not for the system image.

I cannot stress enough the importance of creating a backup anytime anything significant has been changed. Disks - whether magnetic or solid state - fail.

I spent a large part of my career designing systems that are still guaranteed to be available for all but 30 seconds per year ("Six Nines") and a lot of failure analysis went into the architecture. Next to site power, disk drives were the sore thumb. So every system used two three-drive mirror sets - mirrors of mirrors - to bury the disk failure rate down to well below noise level (which - when you're only allowed a max of 30 seconds of un-availability a year including OS and application software updates - is very, very low).

So, get religion, folks. Aggravation takes time off your clock. Card readers are cheap, and name-brand 16GB cards (plenty of space for anything we're doing here) are under $8 delivered if you look around.

The 'Pints database is the tough part. I got lucky this time but I think I'm going to come up with an automated nightly backup of the database to a USB key...

Cheers!

What are you doing to create backup images of the SD card. Are you just attaching it to another Linux machine and dd'ing it to a file?

 

[day_trippr]

I usually just use a card reader on my W7U system with Win32DiskImager. But, one thing you need to know is this is essentially a block-based imager - it images every block on the SD card.

The major implication of that versus a file-based image is you won't be able to restore the image to an SD card that doesn't have at least exactly as many blocks as the source SD card.

And as the block counts from one, say, 16GB card to another, can vary, you can easily end up with the target card being a few blocks short, in which case this program will refuse to write the image to the new card. Even a single block shy will cause that (and I've had 16GB cards that differ by a hundred blocks or so that couldn't be written with the latest image).

So...when I really have a nicely-tuned system after doing anything major, I'll make a clone by attaching the card reader directly to the RPi, then going through a (rather extensive but worthwhile) process, taken from a fairly well-written web page here.

Using this file-based cloning procedure you can use target SD cards that can be substantially "smaller" than the existing SD card.

It's clearly a lot more involved than slapping the card into a Windows machine and clicking the mouse a few times, but otoh, a backup image that can't be restored is not a backup image at all...

Cheers!

 

[BadNewsBrewery]

So it seems like every month or two, my Pi freezes up and stops running. I don't know if there's something specific that causes it, or if it's just a side effect of running non-stop for 2 straight months. A simple power down reboot and it's back up and running. So that has me thinking - is there a simple way to set a script to auto-reboot the Pi at some set time interval, like every week? Then if my theory is right about it getting 'garbled up' with non-stop running, and the reboot clears it up, then I won't ever find myself pouring a pint with the Pi frozen or totally dead. (I keep my monitor off most of the time, and only turn it on to check volumes from time to time, so it can be a surprise when the Pi does this).

I saw a link to a Watchdog Countdown Reboot Timer that looks like it may work, but I'd be just as happy to do a timed based reset.

Any code masters have any thoughts or input on this?
-Kevin