[Version 2 Release] RaspberryPints - Digital Taplist Solution

[esdill]

In answer to my question: yes, Motion Detection can be not enabled allowing an alternate scheme to be used.
So I have that path available if needed, which is good

One thing that seems weird: where did that "RFID" thing go? All I did was turn off the Motion Detection (and add an entry to the LXDE startup file for the classic pir_run.py).

Unless "RFID Primary PIR Trigger" really was the name for the PIR?

View attachment 724779



Otherwise...right now I think the only thing still sticking out unresolved are those three system control buttons...

Cheers!

I do not use RFID, but I do use motion detection, here's what mine looks like:

It appears the Hardware I/O display shows "RFID" [device name] "Trigger"

 

[garzlok]

It appears the Hardware I/O display shows "RFID" [device name] "Trigger"

That’s a nice catch, since I’m sure it should read PIR porch Trigger.

 

[RandR+]

I've attached it, just in case. And I went ahead and changed my file:

463 def spawnWebSocketServer(self):
464 args = ["-p", "8081", "-d", PYTHON_WSH_DIR]

and restarted to see what happens: still doesn't react to any "button" clicks, but something definitely changed.

i have pending changes in my version i forgot about the line numbers are going to be different but yes that is the correct location

[2021-04-05 18:16:53,591] [CRITICAL] mod_pywebsocket.standalone.WebSocketServer: No sockets activated. Use info log level to see the reason.

let me look into this some more, its a new error after the change you made.

Unless "RFID Primary PIR Trigger" really was the name for the PIR?

I found an issue with the view that is used to populate the IO Pins, it used RFID for the Motion Detectors instead of PIR, i have a change pending for it.

My eventually intention is to link this to a network command to a turn on a smart switch for the brew space lights.
I'm sure the same functions could be added to R'Pints if there was a call for either/both...

it wouldnt be hard for me to include the led and sound into RPints, I had that on a list to do just never got around to it, also want to add it for individual taps as i know some people have that already

 

[day_trippr]

^Thanks!^ for the feedback, @RandR+! I'll await your progress on those issues then

I have a feature request that I'll leave here in case you're working on that part of your kit: I bring my keezer compressor state into the temperature logger via a GPIO pin so its state gets loaded into the database with the corresponding sensor readings. The result looks like this:

Code details are in the attached python file...

Cheers!

 

[RandR+]

Code details are in the attached python file...

thanks, I got rough coding done, but will need to move it to my test system and work out the bugs which will take some time with everything else going on but i think this is a good idea.

 

[RandR+]

464 args = ["-p", "8081", "-d", PYTHON_WSH_DIR]

do you have a different software running on port 8081? I think you said you are running BrewPi

If so that would explain this and, the easiest thing to do to to fix it is change admin/scripts/ws.js (line 3) and python/PintDispatch.py to use a different port

 

[day_trippr]

Yes, I have been building this desktop mule to look like the Wheezy system that runs the entire cold side of my brewery including tap list, keezer, three brewery fridges (so, four instances of BPR right there, thanks to the patience of @LBussy ), temperature logger and a couple of camera streams. But all of the http stuff is running on port 80 using qualified urls. The only ports open (I just did a scan are 22, 25 and 80.

Does RaspberryPints need a dedicated port then?

Cheers!

 

[RandR+]

Does RaspberryPints need a dedicated port then?

Besides apache2 RPints spins up its own listener on port 8081
This was something i took from someone else its a way for the taplist to connect to the python and listen for changes as well as the admin page to send data directly to the python.

As you said port 8081 isnt open, I need to figure out where mod-pywebsocket logs out to, that should contain why it didnt use port 8081 and it might be from that change we made earlier, i need to do more testing

 

[day_trippr]

Ok, if there is anything I can do to help please feel free to ask.
My ports are your ports if it would help

Cheers!

 

[RandR+]

Ok, if there is anything I can do to help please feel free to ask.
My ports are your ports if it would help

Could you add
options.log_level = "Fine"

to PintDispatch.py ~line 472

then restart Rpints, the log should then contain more information about why port 8081 didnt work

also could you trying going to http://localhost/admin/trigger.php and see if that works.
if not then could you look at the apache log to see what error you got?

 

[day_trippr]

Ok, I have to apologize, as I finally realized the camera streaming service had been assigned 8080 for camera control and ports 8081 and 8082 for the two camera streams. That service auto-starts on boot, and for now I had a cron command shut it down.
Dumb because it had already blocked R'Pints by then
Sorry about that.

SO...I first changed the camera server to use ports 8180 through 8182, then just in case I went ahead and made the requested change to PintDispatch.py, then restarted the system. Attached is the rpints.log - which looks better but maybe just one tiny bit left to do?

Does R'Pints want more than just access via 80 and control of 8081?

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

On the other request:

also could you trying going to http://localhost/admin/trigger.php and see if that works.
if not then could you look at the apache log to see what error you got?

My R'Pints installation is rooted at /var/www/html/rpints, so I'm pretty sure ^that's^ not going to find the way to trigger.php.
If I open http://localhost/rpints/admin/trigger.php on a browser running on my RPi - or open http://<ip_addr>/rpints/admin/index.php from my PC - I get the R'Pints login page.

Cheers!

 

[RandR+]

Attached is the rpints.log - which looks better but maybe just one tiny bit left to do?

Does R'Pints want more than just access via 80 and control of 8081?

that looks like my test log so i think its working (not sure why its trying to bind to 2 ports but if it failed we would see the critical error)

I think those are the 2 ports RPints uses.

so I'm pretty sure ^that's^ not going to find the way to trigger.php.

You are correct and that is the issue.
In admin/admin.php RPints assumes that the base URL is just the server name and that is why the 3 buttons dont work.

you can update the 3 lines ( 5, 9, 13) in admin.php to add rpints/ in front of /admin to get the buttons working.

I will have to do something to get that to register the current URL per installation

 

[day_trippr]

Muy bueno! With those changes the three magic buttons are functional! Cheers!
I probably should have explicitly mentioned my non-standard root location, and not assumed it was noticed along the way.
Sorry about that!

I have a completely new question: What is the intent of the Fan Control and how is it actually "controlled"?
fwiw, on my RPI fleet I have a small chunk of code that sources the RPi SOC temp diode and provides a binary fan control with hysteresis for keeping the RPi chill. Is this something along the same lines or something very different?

Cheers!

 

[RandR+]

What is the intent of the Fan Control and how is it actually "controlled"?

Fan controller is for the Keezer. it turns on the fan every x minutes for y minutes then repeats.
There is an option to have it restart after a pour

 

[LBussy]

on to have it restart after a pour

Why worry about turning fans on and off? It takes hours for pressures, temperatures, and CO2 dissolution to complete. Seems like people would want the fans on all the time. I know I keep mine running.

Just curious if I'm missing something.

 

[RandR+]

Why worry about turning fans on and off?

You can set the fan to continuously run by setting the Interval to 0, RPints wont lower the pin

 

[garzlok]

You can set the fan to continuously run by setting the Interval to 0, RPints wont lower the pin

So, this is just me being a nub. I don’t utilize fan control, but I do use RFID.

Is fan control married to Pin 17 (3V3)? I know currently, Pin 17 is powering my RFID Reader. Pin 1 powers my Temp Probes. If I ”wanted“ to let RPints control the fan, would I have to power my temp probes and RFID off of Pin 1 and leave Pin 17 open for the fan? Could I say to my fan “I have faith in you little buddy” and use either of the 5V pins to power/control the fan through RPints?

 

[RandR+]

Is fan control married to Pin 17 (3V3)?

RPints allows you to set the Fan to any pin that can power it.
If you dont want to turn it on and off you can just hook it into the power pins and let it run, otherwise i believe any GPIO pin is 3v3

 

[LBussy]

You can set the fan to continuously run by setting the Interval to 0, RPints wont lower the pin

I understand the potential and the configuration. I’m more wondering why it’s even a “thing.” Do people worry about a few pennies of electricity? I’m just trying to understand the why, not the what. Maybe there’s a benefit I don’t know about.

 

[RandR+]

understand the why, not the what. Maybe there’s a benefit I don’t know about.

I'm not sure myself, I just coded it up that way for flexibility (I actually don't use a fan). The only thing reason I can think of limiting run time is to reduce wear and tear on the fan, even then Fans are not that expensive and are made to run long times

 

[day_trippr]

Thanks for the reply - I was thinking perhaps there was some underlying intent to eventually have R'Pints actually do full keezer control
I do run my big stirring fan 24/7 - as well as my tower cooler and the pair of Eva Dry desiccators...

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

Two more kegs bite the dust even closer to prediction...

Gonna try to kick #5 before we head down to NJ for the weekend. I think I can do it!
Have replacements for everything on tap, but we're off and running in the morning so I'll wait 'til Monday to swap everything around and clean a bunch of kegs...

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

So #5 persisted...had to kill it after we returned from NJ - and it kicked really close to its predicted demise...

Reloaded four kegs this afternoon. We're back in bidness!

Cheers! ("Party Time!" )

 

[day_trippr]

Pinging @RandR+
How are things going wrt the updates you had mentioned earlier?

Cheers!

 

[RandR+]

How are things going wrt the updates you had mentioned earlier?

I have most; if not all done, but I have a much large update Im was in the middle of that I didnt shelve before i started them so they are all intermingled right now.

i havent taken the time to seperate them out, i figured i can just get them all in at once

 

[day_trippr]

Fantastic! Vaya con Dios!
I'm all-in and a willing test subject if it would help - I have all my off-line test gear spread out and available

Been slowly rolling out a new SD card image with the latest/greatest Buster stuff to my RPi fleet. The last two systems will be the machine that runs my brewery cold-side and its clone - shown behind the beer. Those will wait for a replacement for "RaspberryPints 2.0.1 w/flowmeters"

Cheers!

 

[Roadrune]

I still get crazy ghostpours. One 19l keg are now showing -18.8l with at least 15l left in it...

So i was thinking; could flowmeters and loadcells be combined? Whenever the flowmeter logs a pour it doublecheck with the loadcell, if the loadcell has no change the pour dont get recorded and vice versa, if that make sense?

 

[LBussy]

I still get crazy ghostpours. One 19l keg are now showing -18.8l with at least 15l left in it...

So i was thinking; could flowmeters and loadcells be combined? Whenever the flowmeter logs a pour it doublecheck with the loadcell, if the loadcell has no change the pour dont get recorded and vice versa, if that make sense?

Anything could be done. Are you going to talk someone into coding that? Unlikely.

Are your flowmeters horizontal or vertical? Placing them horizontally seems to help with this.

 

[Roadrune]

Anything could be done. Are you going to talk someone into coding that? Unlikely.

Are your flowmeters horizontal or vertical? Placing them horizontally seems to help with this.

Well, i am definetly not doing it as i have no idea how to, but i had a hope it was someone who can and want to do it, a lot of people actually like a challenge you know.

I have never thought about the placement og flowmeters, so as a result 1 is horizontal, one is about 30° and the last about 45°. The one being most tilted is by far the worst, so maybe you are on to something. However i need more beerline to correct it, so i wont get to test all horizontal before i get some more tubing.

 

[Jeffmyers5266]

Hi everyone - first of all thank you to everyone who has put so much work into this. I tried my best to not have to ask for help, but I think I’m out of options at this point. I’ve installed the R&R+ version, and all is well, except the flowmeters. The temperature probe does indeed work, but the flowmeters don’t register any pours, but occasionally register ghost pours. I’ve tried everything I can think of, including replacing the raspberry pi and alamode themselves. I’ve reinstalled the software a few times. I have a raspberry pi endorsed power cord and sd card. I have 6 flowmeters, all Swiss flow SF800. They are wired to a breadboard, with the center as the data line, and side with the wire painted (I have two separate kinds, some are black and some are red), as the ground. The breadboard power goes to the 5v0 in the alamode. I’ve tested it via multimeter and it’s pretty close to 5V (I think it was 4.7. The data lines go to the power with a 2k2 resistor between on the breadboard. The flowmeters are on the collar of the keezer with the cords going through the collar out to the breadboard then pi.

Any ideas? Is this more likely software or hardware connections? Is there a log or way of testing this?

Thank you so much to any

 

[RandR+]

Is this more likely software or hardware connections?

I would say the software is most likely isnt the issue, but i wouldnt rule it out completely.

If you are familiar with Arduino you could try a basic sketch designed for counting pulses to verify its not the software.

I would also check /var/log/rpints.log to see what it says, you can also enable more debugging through the python/Config.py file
specifically change
config['flowmon.debug' ] = False#True
to
config['flowmon.debug' ] = True

then restart the flowmon service.

Also make sure the flow through the meters is going in the correct direction

 

[LBussy]

I tried my best to not have to ask for help, but I think I’m out of options at this point.

A picture of your wiring may help us determine if you've crossed something up there.

 

[Jeffmyers5266]

Thank you both. 6 months of trying to get this setup together- I finally give in and ask for help and the next day it starts working. It seems like it had to be something wiring-wise because I again took it apart and put it together again but I didn’t change the setup, so who knows. I’ll post some pictures when I get the actual monitor up but every pour seems to be registering just perfect suddenly. Temperature too. This software is incredible and hopefully now I’ll never have an empty tap. Thanks again to everyone who has supported it!

 

[day_trippr]

Oh my. Thoughts and prayers?

Assuming you are running on a Raspberry Pi, this would be an awesome time to use the SD Card Copier Utility, create a live copy of your awesome running card, then do an orderly shutdown, remove power, swap the SD card to boot off the clone, reconnect power and reboot.

My philosophy is an untested backup is not a backup at all. Admittedly that was born of the tape backup era, but still

Cheers!

 

[Dellboy78]

I started my keezer build last summer and in anticipation bought myself a raspberry pi and a screen and installed raspberry pints, which seemed to work fine on its test run. Roll on to now and the keezer is finally working, but my raspberry pints doesn’t seem to be playing ball now I actually want to use it! I was hoping for some advice from those on here who are much more knowledgeable than me.
It loads up fine and looks good but then after a while the screen goes black (I think the pi reboots or something), the little raspberry icon shows at the top but not much more happens. The screen goes black and occasionally flickers white but the only thing that temporarily resolves it is to pull the power and reconnect. Any ideas? Should I get a new sd card and do a fresh install? Thanks

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Is the screen saver blanking the screen?

 

[day_trippr]

That wouldn't explain "the little raspberry icon shows at the top" thing. Sounds to me like whatever the cause it's crashing the 'Pi.
I'm assuming from the questions the OP never cloned the once working card, so this would be a good time to do a fresh installation and then back it up...

Cheers!

 

[Dellboy78]

Is the screen saver blanking the screen?

I don’t think so. At first I thought my screen was faulty as it was black and occasionally flashing white. I’ve not seen a screensaver as such come up.

 

[Dellboy78]

That wouldn't explain "the little raspberry icon shows at the top" thing. Sounds to me like whatever the cause it's crashing the 'Pi.
I'm assuming from the questions the OP never cloned the once working card, so this would be a good time to do a fresh installation and then back it up...

Cheers!

Yes, I think I will have to start over. Just need to remember how I did it the first time now! Thanks.