Here is the Brewers space heater installed to the side wall of the cooler. It has an adhesive back to it.
So I just ordered the BrewPi. Once it arrives, I will start my testing. I have my Raspberry 2 up and ready. Just finished it last night. I thinking I am going to do some testing on the web interface to change the background color to black. I feel that the line colors for Beer, Fridge, Room temp will show up more.
Thanks @Elco I am showing the BrewPi is shipped and will arrive on the 29th! I cant wait to get it and start my testing. I will upload some pics once in hand…
Update: The brewPi will be here today!!! Man that was fast… Also Since I don’t have a dedicated monitor/keyboard/mouse for my Pi, I looked into remote options for the Pi. I know that we can SSH into it but I wanted to see the GUI and work from there. So what I have used is VNC for Raspberry Pi: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/remote-access/vnc/
I have it setup so that when the pi boots, it will start VNC and I can work on it while I am sitting in the living room or etc. If any of you would like to do this, its not hard to do and I kinda like it better.
So I got the brew Pi in. Man does this thing look sweet. So I already had a photon. I plugged it in and connected to my RP. It popped up with a white screen. I am just wondering if this is normal having my own photon to put in it? Now I am trying to figure out how to program the photon from scratch. Any help would be great. Thank you
Edit: I got fixed!!! I think I need to fix my wiring on my sensors. When I plugged the cable in it would turn my screen white. I might have a wrong connection. Once I get it complete I will post some more pictures of the build!
I did this just a couple weeks ago because I ordered a photon to replace my core. You have to put your photon in DFU mode first which is explained here:
https://docs.particle.io/guide/getting-started/modes/core/
Attach by USB to your Raspberry Pi. With BrewPi firmware being up to date on your Pi run:
sudo python /home/brewpi/utils/flashDfu.py
It’s in this forum but just not too easily found.
I feel like I’m missing something but hope this helps.
Thanks @Jesse, I found that post and got it to work. Last night I was having issue on my temp sensors not picking up and then would turn the screen white. Long story short I have a spliter that runs one wire from the controller down to the bottom of the fridge then split right there. I found out the my splitter was the issue. The wires inside the housing were crossed and had to fix it. Now I am able to read temp for both beer and fridge.
Sorry for not posting in a while on my build! I have been working and trying to get the rest of my brew equipment ready for my next brew day. I have been doing some maintenance on everything to ensure its all good to go. But I also want to post a picture of some work I have done to my BrewPi web interface. I changed a few colors to more of my liking and getting it ready to upload my Own Brew Logo into the header with BrewPi next to it.
It took me a little to figure out the code. But I got it. Man, @Elco props up to you on all the work you and some other have put into coding. I could only imagine all the other coding you are writing right now. I went with the colors you see due to how my logo is going to look. Once I get my logo done and loaded I will place another pic to show the results. Also I changed the line colors so that it will show up more on the graph. I made them darker so I can see them better. I have a hard time seeing haha. I would also like to change the colors of the buttons at the top to black with white lettering and but I have to figure that out I am not sure were they are in the code.
Looks awesome. You should let us in on your secret.
@Jesse I will provide feedback in a bit on what I did. Keep in mind that the only thing that is changed is the colors used and adding the .png file for the banner. I am still learning the code but I just wanted to add a little visual look I found the button colors too. Off the top of my head, there are two code files used to change the colors. I wouldn’t mind changing the width of the outer lines to make it look more bold. I am trying to find that out. Everything that I am doing is just cosmetic. I know that @Elco is working very hard on the new code and new web GUI and I am looking forward to seeing it.
Edit:
Okay, @Jesse so the files that I used are in the
www/css folder
www/css/Redmond folder
www/css/Redmond/images folder
" You have to add your new created .png file in images. make sure to make the picture size 500x100 px"
www/js folder
Within each folder are the code files such as beer-chart.js that has a couple of colors to change. Make sure you change one thing at a time and then pull the interface to ensure the change is correct.
Here is the .png file that I created.
This is in the css / redmond / jquery-ui-1.10.3.custom.css. the ui-bg_gloss-wave_55_5c9ccc_500x100.png is the file that you will replace with the new png file you create. just make sure you place it in the image folder
It’s looking great, I like it.
So I am still doing some testing and I keep noticing when I turn off the Pi and restart, the beer temp always starts off in the 100’s then comes down to what the actual temp is. I am not sure why it does this. the fridge temp doesn’t do that. Any Ideas???
As I am testing my fridge and brewpi one thing that I am so confused on is the control algorithms section in the control panel. I have no idea what I need to change if any changes need to be made, How it supposed to work. Is there an in depth section on this and if not can anyone help me to understand it and make sure my system runs correct.
Here is a pic of what my cooling looks like… It seems to over shoot by 5 degrees and then rise just over the set point. What do I need to do to stop it from over shooting so much. If I’m running in beer con. or profile will this fix itself?
It is overshooting because of the minimum cool time. The PID settings are not active in fridge constant mode.
In the next release, the minimum cool time will be configurable and PID+PWM will be used for cooling, so overshoot will be a lot less.
Once you place something in the fridge, you won’t overshoot this much.
Thanks @Elco for the information. I will be testing it with some water in my Fermenter soon in Beer constant. Right now the fermenter is in the fridge but nothing in it lol. It is awesome seeing this thing run. I have to were my fan is always running and I can turn on and off the lights with the switch that came in it. I am planning my next brew day towards the end of Dec. I know that’s a long time but I am still getting some things together and will have the time then.
Re: the sensor reading over 100f;
I had a similar issue on my system, but not sure if it’s helpful. I had a situation where the +5V and the bus line was connected, but the GND was disconnected. There seemed to be some current leak through the 5V to the bus line, making the sensor hot. I have 3 sensors, and this only happened with one of them. When I turned it back on, it was at around 42c which is 107f, around the same.
`PS - awesome build, I love the lights in that fridge…
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Hey @James_Young thank you for providing that information. I am going to make up another sensor and check that. It only does it when I turn it off and on. This past time it didn’t do it. I keep checking it. Thanks, I love the fridge I have to say that the size its perfect. It will fit the 14 gal SS brewtech Ferm. just fine. I have the 7 Gal and it nice in there. The fan at the top move the air perfect. the air is pulled from the bottom scoop and then blown out at the top keeping it in constant motion. I have it set up so when I plug the power cord in the fan stays on like it should and I can turn the lights off and on if need as it should. The only thing that is controlled is the compressor. I will post some more pics soon I am still getting things ready on it and doing testing.
@Elco In the Beer-to-Fridge derivative time constant (Td) section below, when it talks about disabling the derivative gain by setting it to zero; is it talking about taking the 1200 in there right now and setting it two zero?? The only thing that I am using my brewpi for right now is just fermenting. Do I need to set all of the sections that talk about setting to Zero? Can you please help.
Thanks
Actually, that recommendation is outdated. With 0.4.2 I would not recommend completely disabling it.
If you are seeing big temperature swings in your fridge setpoint, check the control algorithm tab to see if it is the derivative that is causing them. (under beer2fridgePid -> d).
Only lower it when this is the case.