could it be an idea to team up with; http://brewfactory.org/
Every month or so I check back on these forums hoping to see things progressing and some new releases etc but my heart sinks when I see it hasn’t. Its such a shame 
It seems the well meaning desire for complicated brewery control has completely halted developments with fermentation control - which really is your USP.
Without the features I brought the unit hoping for (last Christmas) - wireless functionality, PWM and multiple chambers my BrewPi just sits on the shelf becoming ever more obsolete.
(I am sticking with a regular STC as with current functionality it just isn’t worth it).
Is there really no chance of getting a developer to finish things off?
I have to agree with Dean. My spark is just sitting there collecting dust. My older arduino based pi still runs my conical just fine. I was hoping for some progress by now on mash/brewery control. Decided to move ahead with the BCS controller I already have.
The frustration is real for a good number of the user base. The spark was sold as mash control and remains unsuitable for purpose for the user base. While we understand the focus on selling hardware and growing the business, the core software that was bought into is unfit for purpose with no fixed eta on delivery.
From a pure business perspective, these forums and others will continue to fill with comments like these until the software is delivered. It has to be made a primary focus of the business if it is to survive. Other ventures will always be viewed as a distraction to the user base and will just not encourage further sales of your good products.
Same here. I was sure a release usable for mashing would come up after Elco’s vacations so I purchased the unit right away in hope to start brewing on my new setup at his return.
Not my shiniest decision…
Cool. Crossing fingers.
I do the same thing every single day, come here and check ift there is an update. I am in urgent need of the multi-champber-feature. I haven’t been waiting as long as other and I will be very happy if I get to see the required feature within this year 
I suppose the issue for me is that I feel it is such a shame/missed opportunity.That being said, I wasn’t too involved before the spark and so maybe development has always progressed like this?
The non-spark hardware in the shop seems absolutely top notch but the BrewPi’s whole raison d’etre is the fact that it is THE all singing, all dancing, market leading fermentation controller. PWM is a much needed feature but that alone doesn’t justify the delay/ current outlay.
There might be a gap in the market for another good brewery controller but I’m not sure BrewPi is the right form factor. Don’t forget that things like this already exist…
I also feel the community/forum vibe here has really struggled with no software updates etc.
How much does BrewPi currently benefit from (commendably) being open source?
Dean.
i am wondering if the BrewFactory software can run on the spark. Unfortunately, I don’t have the skills to try it out myself.
Dean, multichamber was nearly impossible on the old codebase. PWM support is not distracting me from doing multichamber. I am doing a full rewrite that makes both possible. The biggest thing I am doing right now, is making the software more modular.
The reason there has not been a release, is because this is a huge rewrite. If you want to look at the changes between the new code and the current master:
https://github.com/BrewPi/firmware/compare/feature/pid-class?expand=1
In the old code, tempControl.cpp was a huge monolith. It did a PID calculation directly to set a fridge setpoint based on the beer temperature. Then there was a state machine to determine cooling/heating/idling (with peak detection) and then the outputs were set based on the state. Because everything was interwoven with everything else, this was very hard to expand to multiple PIDs and it was very hard for potential contributors to help with.
What I have been doing for the past few months, is splitting the code into small maintainable classes, so that instead of heaving just one PID, we can have multiple. Each PID has an input sensor and an output actuator and can update independently.
If you want to see how this is used, look here.
Even a driver for a single output pin is split into small modules:
- The top actuator drives the PWM
- The actuator below makes sure that 2 actuators are not active at the same time (mutex), for example a heater and a cooler or 2 mashing elements.
- The actuator below that ensures a fridge compressor is protected by time limits (minimum on/off time).
- The bottom actuator is the digital pin (directly or over OneWire!).
All these modules are tested independently.
The only thing the control loop has to do is call update() on all classes. So by creating a structure of sensors, setpoints, pids and actuators and then just updating it, many setups are possible. Including multichamber and mashing. The biggest challenge there is to created the framework for communication and storing settings (which @mdma has been working on) and the UI (which suddenly has multiple charts, flexible dashboards, etc).
The new release will bring PWM support with still just one heater and one cooler, because the script and web UI are written for that. But that does not mean that there has been no progress towards multichamber. A whole lot has changed under the hood.
If you take a closer look at BrewFactory, it is really simple under the hood.
For example, there is no filtering on inputs, there is no integrator anti-windup. Derivative is ‘current sample - previous sample’. I can’t really compare it to BrewPi. I have never really looked at BrewBoss.
I do think there is a good market for an integrated controller. Mashing and fermenting controlled by a single unit. And I think we can do better than all other mashing systems on the market right now.
One killer feature for example would be: you can run two 16A elements on a single 16A socket, at the same time. As long as they together consume under 100%, the PWM cycles can overlap/alternate and you can keep both your HLT and your boil kettle at temperature.
I know there has not been a release for too long. But the stuff that is coming is good and we have not stood still. A lot of code has been written, just a lot of that code was not compatible with the old release and stuff piled up.
Once we get this big rewrite out, releases will come a lot quicker.
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Thanks for replying Elco. It is frustrating not to see releases, but it does help to take a look at the commits on Github and know there’s forward work being done. I thankfully have an operational setup using brewtroller, but I’d like more out of it.
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Keep up the Good work @Elco! I have to say that when I got the new controller in I was very impressed and I am looking forward to seeing this thing grow into what it should be “Small box controller” that Packs a big punch when it comes to controlling all parts of brewing. I am very interested in what the UI is going to look like.
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Thank you for the update on the current progress @Elco! Keep up the Good work!
I agree that there is a market, I did some extended research after realising that my BrewBit will be going down since the company is closing. My main interest is in cooling, not mashing. Even though I knew the BrewPi is not yet finished completly I decided for this controller. Some of the reasons:
- It offers a complete package. Webinterface, Logging, Remote Control, Profiles, heating, Colling and so on. On every single controller I found there was something missing.
- The expandability once the multichamper-support is published is unmet by any of the other controllers. They always require to spend another few hundred bucks just to get another controller.
- The project has been arround for quite some time. I was afraid to invest in any of the new controllers since BrewBit ignores their customers and they have just been arround for two years and are shutting down.
- Server is running at home on a raspberry.
- When reading technical information from you it seems highly professional.
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Thanks for the update! Looking forward to the new releases.
@elco or anyone else who may know…
Will the next release after all of this re-writing allow a safe way of boiling wort?
I’m comfortable with mashing BIAB style at the moment, but for my personal needs I need boil capability!
Next release, probably not in a pretty way.
But if you disable the integrator for the heater and work with just proportional gain, you can ‘manually’ set the PWM output by setting temperature to a temperature slightly above 100 degrees. Say 101, with a proportional gain of 10, sets the output to 10%.
Today’s test with the rice cooker again looks promising:
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Thanks for the replies @Elco and PWM performance looks good! How are things looking with the wireless capability or have I missed something in a release?
My main question would be that is seems like most of your attention is on the firmware at present but most of the features users are desperate for require some significant work to the web and LCD interface, the web server too etc… Probably more minor changes for multiple chambers but quite substantial redesigns to do fermentation AND brewing concurrently.
How are things shaping up in that department? Do you have an idea of timescales?
All the best and thanks,
Dean.
What is your plan for handling boiling in the future? It would be really useful to be able to adjust the PWM output during boil to control how vigorous the boil is.
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How is the work on the web interface? any news here? I suspect there must be a completely new set of screens for mashing control?
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