WiFi monitoring of existing digital temperature controllers

[kgranger]

I have two Spike CF 15 conicals, each with Spike's TC-100 temperature control accessories.

This bundle includes two digital temperature controllers with their own temp probes. Cold outlet turns on a pump in chilled water, hot outlet turns on wrapped heater.

I would love to be able to monitor and possibly adjust the set temperature remotely for greater control over the fermentation. I have been looking into BrewPi, and wondering if this could be a solution. However, I would like to keep the existing temp controllers that the Spike system provided, to avoid additional costs of hardware.

Is there a way to integrate something like BrewPi or similar with these temp controllers I already have?

If possible, are there any good guides on building all of this? I had trouble searching for this particular situation.

Note: This is my first venture into automation and controllers and such, so I apologize if I have no idea what anyone is talking about. I'm trying!

 

[Soulshine2]

Brewer: "Alexa...whats my gravity reading this morning??"

 

[kgranger]

Ha! Alexa integration would be next level

 

[Soulshine2]

Give someone the chance, it'll happen. Next thing you know Alexa will be arguing dry yeast vs liquid, BIAB vs extract, LODO vs....don't get her started...lol.

 

[day_trippr]

So the controller sold with the Spike cooling kit looks like a re-badged Inkbird 300-series unit. Afaik they have no user accessible communication ports so connectivity is highly unlikely. And even if there was, say, a USB port hidden inside the case there's zero chance it would communicate with the terse protocol that BrewPi uses, so there'd either have to be a device specific translation package added to BrewPi or the Inkbird would need custom code installed to act like a BrewPi UNO.

On a more positive note, a BrewPi kit for a pair of conicals would be fairly cheap to implement. Say $50 for an RPi 3B+, 16GB SD card and a 5VDC 2.5A wall wart, then a pair of UNO clones for $5 each and a pair of 9VDC 1A wall warts for them, and a pair of USB cables sized to reach.

But I don't know for a fact that anyone has actually used BrewPi to control liquid cooling. Might have happened, just don't know. Definitely worth some investigation...

Cheers!

 

[AF1HomeBrew]

There are some guys on the BCS forum website that have setup their BCS to work with Alexa.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Remote monitoring = webcam
Remote adjustment = robot arm

 

[kgranger]

So the controller sold with the Spike cooling kit looks like a re-badged Inkbird 300-series unit. Afaik they have no user accessible communication ports so connectivity is highly unlikely. And even if there was, say, a USB port hidden inside the case there's zero chance it would communicate with the terse protocol that BrewPi uses, so there'd either have to be a device specific translation package added to BrewPi or the Inkbird would need custom code installed to act like a BrewPi UNO.

On a more positive note, a BrewPi kit for a pair of conicals would be fairly cheap to implement. Say $50 for an RPi 3B+, 16GB SD card and a 5VDC 2.5A wall wart, then a pair of UNO clones for $5 each and a pair of 9VDC 1A wall warts for them, and a pair of USB cables sized to reach.

But I don't know for a fact that anyone has actually used BrewPi to control liquid cooling. Might have happened, just don't know. Definitely worth some investigation...

Cheers!

I found this article on setting up multiple fermentation chambers with BrewPi. Does this look like a good walkthrough of roughly what you are suggesting? Seems promising to me.

 

[day_trippr]

Looked through it and with one exception the author did a good job of the multi-chamber installation.
The one exception is the way he sets up the symlinks - the better way is to use the actual Arduino serial numbers so the right node comes up at the expected address every time regardless of how many Arduinos are actually connected or which ports they're plugged into...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/...roller-for-cheap.466106/page-143#post-7598995

Cheers!

 

[mwayne112]

Check out WiFerm, might be what you're looking for.