ArdBir (formally BrewPi Spark) Herms Build

[Shanna]

They screw into a standard 1/2" bsp T-piece at any point I need a temperature reading. They are in-line with the flow in and out of the herms currently, with another on the hlt out if I need to monitor that temperature.

Check out the pics on this thread and you'll see them on the extra long connections to some if the pots.

I got a few of these at the start along with wire probes for the fermentation control and never looked back. Checked against a thermapen recently and all were within the bounds of error on the calibration sheet.

The look great & I love the flexibility of being able to remove when not in use but they ate pricey I wonder if one could fashion a cheap and cheerful version via a screw in nipple and some waterproof sealant. Suspect it would leak eventually. What is at the other end of the cable in terms of you plugging in the RJ11? Have you wired a telephone socket in to the arduino board? It's not clear from the photos? Ideally thinking of how to a setup with a small raspberry pi 7" screen to.run the craftbeer pi software to be able to do herms as well.as.monitoring fermentation over time. I understand the stability of the pi is an issue. Just not sure how to address that? The arduino site you bought from has stopped doing the boards.

Shanna

Shanna

[molc]

...What is at the other end of the cable in terms of you plugging in the RJ11? Have you wired a telephone socket in to the arduino board?...

Exactly that. I have the pin outs written down somewhere, which I worked out by looking at the connector and the phone socket pins REALLY closely
I need to document my pin connections for that and the controller cable anyway and save it somewhere, as it's currently in a notebook at home. Poke me to send it to you if I forget.
For fermentation control, I'd just get a BrewPi and not mess around. It cost me ~€100 and has never let me down. I hope to use it for many years to come.

[pob]

(For fermentation)

Or if you have the Raspberry Pi already, pick up a couple of cheap Chinese Arduinos (1 for redundancy) & build a headless BrewPi.





With s/steel thermowell through top for temp probe. You could still use RJ11 or DIN/GX16 plug/sockets on box for storage.

[pob]

(For mash/brewing)
I tried loading the CraftBeerPi on a spare Raspberry Pi.

Eh, a bit flaky; think it's more the RasPi than the software.

Didn't like that the temp doesn't update automatically on screen while changing; you need to hit refresh (BrewPi auto refreshes every sec or so). I didn't add any SSRs just a couple of One Wire temp probes.

Don't think I'd fancy relying on my phone/tablet if it crapped out mid mash - would also need a stable wifi link to brewing corner/area.

Will stick with ArdBir until I find the next good thing

The ArdBir with a web interface would be good but needs to keep Arduino stability.

[darren996]

(For mash/brewing)
I tried loading the CraftBeerPi on a spare Raspberry Pi.

Eh, a bit flaky; think it's more the RasPi than the software.

Didn't like that the temp doesn't update automatically on screen while changing; you need to hit refresh (BrewPi auto refreshes every sec or so). I didn't add any SSRs just a couple of One Wire temp probes.

Don't think I'd fancy relying on my phone/tablet if it crapped out mid mash - would also need a stable wifi link to brewing corner/area.

Will stick with ArdBir until I find the next good thing

The ArdBir with a web interface would be good but needs to keep Arduino stability.

What version of craftbeerpi are you using? I have a basic setup with one on a pi zero running rasbian and temp changes are instant on screen.

You can also setup an adhoc network on the pi as a fallback and connect when you can't get a stable wifi link.
The ardbir is very stable and I use this as my primary unit, the lcd panel and buttons are very handy.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[pob]

I was using an older Raspberry Pi B with Rasbian, it was connected by Ethernet cable , no WiFi.

Plugged temp probes directly onto GPIO pins (using a breadboard for resister), they took a while to register even being connected.

When up & running the PC display needed to be refreshed to update the temp values (I'd hold them to get temp changes to test).

I didn't test it with the phone, maybe that responds better.

[darren996]

I will fire mine up later and see.  Did you update cbpi 2.1 lately?

Still waiting on a few bits so I can do a brewday test.

[pob]

Only set it up & tried it last week. I'd like to see it working alright, in the meantime I'll stick with ArdBir & LCD display, easier to manage in shed on brewday.

The relying on a good wifi connection to shed for CraftBeerPi doesn't instill confidence, what happens mid brew when you drop link & it starts the next process as you're trying to reconnect tablet/phone to it.

Maybe a 7"/9" screen (touch?) might be a way to do it, would allow on the spot control & remote access to monitor?

[darren996]

Yeah,  the wifi link is a major gripe for me but the adhoc network would get around this.

You can pick up a small touch screen panel fairly cheap,  the setup in the pic looks the business. Stop showing me things like that.

[pob]

Case only £15



Screen might by £55 though , sure you could get cheaper on Ali?

[pob]

Oh look, €30

[darren996]

Oh look, €30

Nice!

[Shanna]

...What is at the other end of the cable in terms of you plugging in the RJ11? Have you wired a telephone socket in to the arduino board?...

Exactly that. I have the pin outs written down somewhere, which I worked out by looking at the connector and the phone socket pins REALLY closely
I need to document my pin connections for that and the controller cable anyway and save it somewhere, as it's currently in a notebook at home. Poke me to send it to you if I forget.
For fermentation control, I'd just get a BrewPi and not mess around. It cost me ~€100 and has never let me down. I hope to use it for many years to come.

Having a bit of a head scratcher trying to understand the deal with the brewpi. Understand that it can take multiple temperature sensors and that its recommended to use two one for the beer temperature (say in a thermowell in the fermenter) and a second for the ambient temperature inside the fridge. What I am not 100% sure is how the brewpi uses this when you have say a pair of electrical sockets one for the fridge and the other for a tube heater.

The following shows a specialised relay controller that looks like it can switch from one ssr to the other. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2798684/BrewPi-Schematic.png

I have a pair of 3-12 V DC- 30 - 400 AC SSRs, the Raspberry PI, the DS18B20, the power supply and associated wiring. In theory I would only need to buy an Arduino to complete a DIY build. I understand that I can buy the BrewPi with the newer spark processor but even with that I am not entirely clear how to wire up the two SSRs to allow switching between the power for the fridge and the tube heaters. Then I found this http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.ie/forum/index.php?topic=9506.0 & read your remark about it not being well documented

Any chance you could redraw your diagram on a bigger scale with some different colors so that my semi frazzled state can process more easily !!!

Shanna

[Shanna]

...What is at the other end of the cable in terms of you plugging in the RJ11? Have you wired a telephone socket in to the arduino board?...

Exactly that. I have the pin outs written down somewhere, which I worked out by looking at the connector and the phone socket pins REALLY closely
I need to document my pin connections for that and the controller cable anyway and save it somewhere, as it's currently in a notebook at home. Poke me to send it to you if I forget.
For fermentation control, I'd just get a BrewPi and not mess around. It cost me ~€100 and has never let me down. I hope to use it for many years to come.

Found the following wiring diagram for the RJ-11 for the one wire dallas probes - http://www.homenetworkenabled.com/content.php?179-Making-your-own-Temp-1Wire-Temperature-sensor-with-RJ11-interface  As I have loads of the DS18B20 going to give it a try to see if I can get them crimped and working rather than paying the brewpi prices for something that I already have.

Shannna

[Shanna]

...What is at the other end of the cable in terms of you plugging in the RJ11? Have you wired a telephone socket in to the arduino board?...

Exactly that. I have the pin outs written down somewhere, which I worked out by looking at the connector and the phone socket pins REALLY closely
I need to document my pin connections for that and the controller cable anyway and save it somewhere, as it's currently in a notebook at home. Poke me to send it to you if I forget.
For fermentation control, I'd just get a BrewPi and not mess around. It cost me ~€100 and has never let me down. I hope to use it for many years to come.

Having a bit of a head scratcher trying to understand the deal with the brewpi. Understand that it can take multiple temperature sensors and that its recommended to use two one for the beer temperature (say in a thermowell in the fermenter) and a second for the ambient temperature inside the fridge. What I am not 100% sure is how the brewpi uses this when you have say a pair of electrical sockets one for the fridge and the other for a tube heater.

The following shows a specialised relay controller that looks like it can switch from one ssr to the other. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2798684/BrewPi-Schematic.png

I have a pair of 3-12 V DC- 30 - 400 AC SSRs, the Raspberry PI, the DS18B20, the power supply and associated wiring. In theory I would only need to buy an Arduino to complete a DIY build. I understand that I can buy the BrewPi with the newer spark processor but even with that I am not entirely clear how to wire up the two SSRs to allow switching between the power for the fridge and the tube heaters. Then I found this http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.ie/forum/index.php?topic=9506.0 & read your remark about it not being well documented

Any chance you could redraw your diagram on a bigger scale with some different colors so that my semi frazzled state can process more easily !!!

Shanna

Having looked at your wiring diagram a half a dozen more times (tired from last night ) I think you might have an error with your neutral and earth lines. Both show a single line feeding a splitter but the two outputs from the neutral splitter go to the socket for the fridge and the two outputs from the earth splitter go the socket for the heater. I would expect that as its a single input source that one neutral output and earth output would go to wire each socket.

For the DC side of the brewpi that feeds the DC power to the SSR how did you connect this up to the brew pi. I assume that ths yere is some cabling that includes a ground and 5V DC? Any photos you could provide would be appreciated. I promise I am sold on the BrewPi now after reading the different reviews but I would still like to understand how it works.

Shanna