[Version 2 Release] RaspberryPints - Digital Taplist Solution

[rabeb25]

i receive this error now evey time i try to upload the sketch:

avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding

You must stop the flowmon script if you want to upload or make any changes via the arduino ide. sudo /etc/init.d/flowmon stop.. make sure you restart it after the upload. That burned hours troubleshooting a avr stk 500 error.

See quote.

If you haven't applied the flowmon fix yet try..
sudo killall python and see if that works.

 

[mcangeli]

Yea, if the python script is running at all, it will be blocking the serial port and the sketch will not upload to the alamode or arduino.

 

[billybryson54]

Well, test #3 turned out to be a bit more positive. Some good news, some bad. The good is that my pours are significantly better with the new beer length ahead of the meter, but they still aren't quite where I want them. Still getting a decent amount of foam but not nearly as bad as it was. I've just turned my serving pressure down to about 9 so I'll see where that takes me. It's ALMOST "Ok" enough to live with, but I'd prefer less...problem is, I think I'm getting close to being out of options, unless you folks can suggest another method? The really bad news is that I definitely have a bad meter. Doesn't work on any of my pins at all, but other meters WILL work on those same pins. So I need to get this one exchanged.

The one bright side is that I got to "Test" with my newly tapped Vienna-Centennial SMaSH beer. Holy crap it's beyond delicious. This 5 gallon batch is gonna go WAY too quick. And with an OG of 1.064 Seriously, why didn't anyone tell me about SMaSH beers before? Lol

Follow-up: 9 psi did the trick! I'm all good now, minus the broken flow meter...

 

[VikeMan]

Sorry if this has been brought up before (long thread!). It would be more than awesome if there were a selection of different "glassware" options so that a different type of serving glass could be shown, depending on the beer. In addition to the Pint... a Tulip, a Wheat Beer, and a Pokal would rock. Thanks for your consideration!

 

[Almfamily]

Sorry if this has been brought up before (long thread!). It would be more than awesome if there were a selection of different "glassware" options so that a different type of serving glass could be shown, depending on the beer. In addition to the Pint... a Tulip, a Wheat Beer, and a Pokal would rock. Thanks for your consideration!

If memory serves, you can go to the Pints site and there is a place to make suggestions for additional functionality.

 

[VikeMan]

If memory serves, you can go to the Pints site and there is a place to make suggestions for additional functionality.

Disabled.

 

[Adeering]

So got everything wired up to my kegerator (instead of next to my computer for testing) and it seems to work. For my setup I have the RaspPi next to my kegerator (just two taps right now ) with no monitor and using no-ip to host it online. Heres the link

Also currently only have beer on tap as Im about to deploy (and move while deployed) for 3 months so shut off my supply line.

For those who want to do a monitor less (or a tablet like im gonna do) all I did different was comment out the last line in the pours.php line

edit: Just uploaded a new background but cant get it to show on the page. It is in the admin section and I have restarted but it wont show

 

[mcangeli]

You have to make sure the file has the right permissions.

 

[Adeering]

So uploading on through the admin panel doesnt work? Thats how i changed the logo and it worked fine

 

[day_trippr]

When you select the background image file do you actually see it in the Admin panel display?

Anyway, as you can select a file from outside the RPi domain I'd be surprised if permissions or ownership could be the problem. If the Choose File browser widget can see the file I think you're good on that count.

Is there a size constraint? I can't remember...

Cheers!

 

[andrewmalizia]

Just curious if anyone is pressing line straight into flow monitors or if everyone has purchased the 1/4" barbs.

 

[Adeering]

I can see the file in the admin panel, it just doesnt show it on the actually page

 

[Adeering]

Just curious if anyone is pressing line straight into flow monitors or if everyone has purchased the 1/4" barbs.

Before I upgraded my line I tried pushing directly in, which would work (if you have the right size line) except my line was slightly too large so didnt make a good sell and water shot out everywhere

 

[andrewmalizia]

Before I upgraded my line I tried pushing directly in, which would work (if you have the right size line) except my line was slightly too large so didnt make a good sell and water shot out everywhere

Thanks. I may try it. Seems like cleaning and suck may be easier with the barbs. I'll buy some at some point maybe. Still need an aka mode or uno


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[andrewmalizia]

Edit. Multipost. Stupid phone.

 

[andrewmalizia]

Edit. Multipost. Stupid phone.

 

[VikeMan]

I'll be building my system next weekend and plan to use the display in landscape mode, displaying 4 taps. Anyone have any issues displaying 4 taps in landscape, and if so, any tips?

 

[billybryson54]

A lot of us have that same setup. Including myself. As long as you pay attention to your screen resolution setup in the installation instructions, you should be fine.


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[billybryson54]

To go a little further with my last statement, I'm displaying on a 24' LCD tv right above my keezer. The only "resolution" that it lists was 16:9. I had no idea what that meant and it took me forever to get it correct. After a bit of googling, I discovered that my ideal settings were;
HDMI mode: 2
HDMI group: 39

Once I set it to that it displayed absolutely perfect. Depending on your screen size your settings will vary but make sure you know your monitor's resolution before you attempt to set it up to avoid future headaches. Also, make a note of what settings you did indeed use, so if you ever choose to do a clean install in the future there is no guesswork.


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[adamranders]

16:9 is the aspect ratio, that still leaves you with a plethera of resolutions (i.e. 1080HD, 720HD, and 1600*900 are all 16:9)

 

[adamranders]

Usually one easy way to find the resoluion is in the settings of the display.

 

[day_trippr]

I can see the file in the admin panel, it just doesnt show it on the actually page

Did you get your background working yet?

The image file ends up at /var/www/img/background.jpg
You could try a straight replacement, set the ownership and access rights to match the other files in the same folder, and see if a refresh brings it on...

Cheers!

 

[dryboroughbrewing]

So I decided I didn't like relying upon the chromium 'kick' to refresh the page, and I didn't like the flash of the page refreshing if I used a metadata refresh call, so I opted to move all of the beer related database calls into a separate JSON generating end point and then redo the UI using AJAX, I now get an every 3 second non flickering update on all of my devices.

Next I'll see about just spawning chromium or midori via xinit instead of using lightdm, see if I can save some cycles on the pi.

I'm also pondering rebuilding pours.php to accept POSTs so that I can simply attach a wifi shield to my arduino (not using the Ala Mode) and just have it POST to the pi on updates, it would get rid of the flow monitoring daemon for me entirely and cut my reliance upon serial communications which would be cool.

I have some PIR sensors on the way (thanks day_tripper for the idea) I've got a rough script ready to go that'll turn the monitor off and on upon events (I'm just using flow detection as the event right now. go go tvservice). Now I just need to figure out what sort of audio clip I'd like to play while it pours... preferably something creepy.


Anyone aware of what sort of solenoid's KegCop uses? I'm pondering playing a bit with the RFID branch that I saw checked in, and adding authorization to the authentication seems like it might be entertaining.

I saw that the laravel branch had been dropped, has the plan to move to an MVC framework been scrapped entirely?

Also I apparently was testing flow calibrations too much tonight as I seem extra chatty.

 

[mcangeli]

So I decided I didn't like relying upon the chromium 'kick' to refresh the page, and I didn't like the flash of the page refreshing if I used a metadata refresh call, so I opted to move all of the beer related database calls into a separate JSON generating end point and then redo the UI using AJAX, I now get an every 3 second non flickering update on all of my devices.

Next I'll see about just spawning chromium or midori via xinit instead of using lightdm, see if I can save some cycles on the pi.

I'm also pondering rebuilding pours.php to accept POSTs so that I can simply attach a wifi shield to my arduino (not using the Ala Mode) and just have it POST to the pi on updates, it would get rid of the flow monitoring daemon for me entirely and cut my reliance upon serial communications which would be cool.

I have some PIR sensors on the way (thanks day_tripper for the idea) I've got a rough script ready to go that'll turn the monitor off and on upon events (I'm just using flow detection as the event right now. go go tvservice). Now I just need to figure out what sort of audio clip I'd like to play while it pours... preferably something creepy.


Anyone aware of what sort of solenoid's KegCop uses? I'm pondering playing a bit with the RFID branch that I saw checked in, and adding authorization to the authentication seems like it might be entertaining.

I saw that the laravel branch had been dropped, has the plan to move to an MVC framework been scrapped entirely?

Also I apparently was testing flow calibrations too much tonight as I seem extra chatty.

You're putting more work on the pi by having the DB queried every 3 seconds (I would think) plus the fact that you're refreshing the page on any device you have open to it every three seconds...

You can get rid of most of the stuff in the autostart file so that the ONLY thing that opens is chromium and not a full desktop if you only want chromium open.

If you're going to go directly from the arduino to the pours page (which we had considered but decided against to keep the cost down, who really wants to add a wifi shield if it isn't needed) it should accept the data from the arduino, you would just need to change the arguments to accept the way the arduino is sending them (currently that bit is handled by the python script which then sends what the php page needs)...

It was decided, in order to get the flow meter code out and to keep rpints as open as possible to drop the laravel code for the time being. The laravel code is great and there were some good improvements made to it, however it was not as easily customizable as the current code and until we are able to develop an easy and simple way to add plugins and themes we decided to make it easy for the end user to customize.

 

[dryboroughbrewing]

You're putting more work on the pi by having the DB queried every 3 seconds (I would think) plus the fact that you're refreshing the page on any device you have open to it every three seconds...

Yup absolutely true, though the load has seemed trivial to me, and I like the dynamic updating, if it becomes a massive issue (the multiple devices that is) I can always add in a caching layer at a later date.

You can get rid of most of the stuff in the autostart file so that the ONLY thing that opens is chromium and not a full desktop if you only want chromium open.

Again yup, but I'll probably just stuff what I need into xinitrc rather than loading a desktop manager.

If you're going to go directly from the arduino to the pours page (which we had considered but decided against to keep the cost down, who really wants to add a wifi shield if it isn't needed) it should accept the data from the arduino, you would just need to change the arguments to accept the way the arduino is sending them (currently that bit is handled by the python script which then sends what the php page needs)...

The wifi shield is just my way of disconnecting the PI and Arduino so that I don't have to have them in the same physical location. The changes are definitely trivial, right now it's just processing ARGV, so I'll just add the ability to read in the environment variables passed in via a post.

It was decided, in order to get the flow meter code out and to keep rpints as open as possible to drop the laravel code for the time being. The laravel code is great and there were some good improvements made to it, however it was not as easily customizable as the current code and until we are able to develop an easy and simple way to add plugins and themes we decided to make it easy for the end user to customize.

cool thanks for the answers.

 

[glacious]

I'll be building my system next weekend and plan to use the display in landscape mode, displaying 4 taps. Anyone have any issues displaying 4 taps in landscape, and if so, any tips?

I have 3-taps easily displayed in landscape mode on a 9.7" HP Touchpad (device resolution: 768x1024).

For 4 taps on a high-res monitor in landscape, it won't be a problem. Keep in mind you have a few options, like monitor resolution and text size that can be used to fit more content onto the screen.

 

[day_trippr]

So I've had RaspberryPints v2 and now what might be 2.01 running for a few days more than a week. A welcome addition to my keezer, it's impressed everyone that has seen it in operation and fascinated some of my more tech-oriented friends.

For the most part it's been well-behaved, but I have had two false keg kicks in the last three days (different meters).

I've been maintaining a log of the remaining keg volumes since Day 1 as I had been aware of "ghost pours" and random kicks from the Github dialog over the last many months. And aside from the kicks the meters have been rock stable (ie: no random ticks).

Which makes the kicks all that more weird: if I understand correctly a kick is detected when there's a high-speed set of ticks from a meter. I'd have thought there would be minor random ticks happening before something that dramatic occurred. But I'm not seeing that in my logging.

One thing that would be helpful would be to have 'Pints write a log file that does essentially what I'm doing by hand: list the remaining keg volumes each time there's a change due to the flow_monitor script. It could be a simple text file with one time-stamped line per record. If nothing else, this would allow fairly painless recovery from a kick - as you'd know what the pre-kick remaining volume was to use when resetting the keg.

I know one goal was to keep flow_monitor.py as light as possible - plus now that it's a service process writing user-accessible log files might be problematic. So maybe after flow_monitor.py has posted to the pour table it could trigger a separate process to scan the remaining volumes and append the record to the log. If one wanted to get fancy the logging could be enabled/disabled via an admin panel switch.

And that log file could be used to discern pouring trends: dump it as tabular data into a charting program and the rate of declines could be seen. Might be useful for predicting when house favorites are going to kick, or to put off a re-brew of a slow-moving recipe...

Cheers!

 

[mcangeli]

It is essentially creating that log.

It doesn't do anything at the moment when a kick message is sent (no log to the db) but it would be simple to have it dump those to another table...

On another note, I have an rfid reader working with the rpints setup and actual user tracking now for pours (when people remember to use the rfid) so next will come reporting.

I just have to make it easier to add users and rfid tags...

 

[mcangeli]

Also, picked up a 6x6x4 box at Lowes today that let me mount two leds in the top (one for power one for pours) and 5 of the mini xlr connectors on the side.

I drilled another hole on the other side to route the hdmi, usb and power thru but it made a nice little box.

 

[icebob]

Was trying to find a reason to buy an intel nuc... just got it, will move my pi being my computer/tv server in the kitchen to the keezer and setup the nuc in the kitchen! one question tho, what case to buy if using with flow meters?

 

[VikeMan]

For 4 taps on a high-res monitor in landscape, it won't be a problem. Keep in mind you have a few options, like monitor resolution and text size that can be used to fit more content onto the screen.

I haven't started my build yet, but have read the documentation. I don't recall anything about adjusting text size. Where is that done? TIA!

 

[day_trippr]

I haven't started my build yet, but have read the documentation. I don't recall anything about adjusting text size. Where is that done? TIA!

/var/www/style.css in concert with /var/www/index.php.

There are folks that have done a hella lot more than I have, but I've added a header style and changed all of the text styles to show up better on my chosen background. It's not hard, you just have to match the style appearance with the type, but if you're a novice it pays to make backup copies before editing

Cheers!

 

[Almfamily]

It is essentially creating that log.

It doesn't do anything at the moment when a kick message is sent (no log to the db) but it would be simple to have it dump those to another table...

On another note, I have an rfid reader working with the rpints setup and actual user tracking now for pours (when people remember to use the rfid) so next will come reporting.

I just have to make it easier to add users and rfid tags...

Ooooooohhhh - now that is functionality I would love to see!

 

[day_trippr]

I came across this picture of the SF800 meter instructions (something I didn't have before) and noted something that might be important.

From the Rs specification, it appears that the IR LED has no current limiting built in (not uncommon with LEDs).
Which means we really don't want to be running these directly connected to 5VDC - and there should be a ~250 ohm series resistor in each meter power feed, to maximize the life span of the LED.

Just putting it out there. I'm digging through my inventory for 240-250 ohm resistors and will be revising my breakout board...

Cheers!

 

[raysmithtx]

Does anyone know if the current version on github contains the changes to the flow_monitor.py so it loads properly? There hasn't been a hot fix release and I would like to make the changes.


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[day_trippr]

Yes, the "Version 2" branch has the four updated files (tap.php under admin, flow_monitor.py and flowmon under python, and index.php).

The included instructions.txt has not been revised for the change to run the flow_monitor script as a service; those instructions can be found in this thread...

Cheers!

 

[HOPtuary]

I got my new lines and flow meters installed last night. Im running 12' Bev Flex line and the meters are 2.5' from the kegs. So far everything is pouring great. Now I need to wire things up tomorrow night and hopefully everything goes smoothly.

 

[VikeMan]

Oh great... I am setting up my system (w/o meters) and finished step 5 (package configuration). The last part of step 5 is a reboot, which I did.

Step 6 is RPints installation, which is supposed to start with downloading code from github. BUT - after the step 5 reboot, I have a white, almost blank screen that says "web server software is running but no content has been added, yet." How do I break out of this? TIA!

 

[billybryson54]

Completely normal. Just push alt+F4 to close the window and pick up where you left off

 

[JaimeTheLimey]

after the step 5 reboot, I have a white, almost blank screen that says "web server software is running but no content has been added, yet." How do I break out of this? TIA!

This is essentially your display once you've finished setting up Pints and building your tap list. You can ALT+F11 to take the window out of maximized, or ALT+F4 to kill the window altogether. Alternatively you can CTRL+ALT+Right Arrow to switch to Desktop 2 (arrow left to go back).
Once you finished setting up pints and reboot, you'll see your tap list instead of that blank window.