BrewBlox control chains

Troubleshooting
1

Good day to all.

I am currently building my brewing controller.

I have flashed my BrewPi to the BrewBlox firmware as I need multi chamber control.(brew fridge and Keezer). Everything went fine.

My question is, when setting up the control blocks using the wizard and following the guide on the website, is there any particular order in which to create the control blocks. I have had a couple of attempts but when I view the layout it does not look anything like the layout on the website.

Any guidance would be greatly received

Stuart

2

Some arrows point in a different way in the block relations diagram. This makes it look different compared to the documentation.

We’re improving the diagram layout in the next release. Meanwhile: start at the sensors, and follow the lines to check whether the relations match.

If they don’t, feel free to make a screenshot and post it here so we can take a look at it.

3

Bob,

Many thanks for the quick response. I am getting to grips with it. I am trying to create the system detailed in the brewblox control chains documentation as this is what I want to achieve. My system is still on the bench so therefore I can play around without doing any damage to my brew. I can affect the beer temp by using cool water, but i can not seem to get it to go in heat mode, and conversely when I raise the temp it does not seem to want to go in cooling mode.

I have attached a screen grab of the relationships

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image.png1021Ă—714 34.7 KB

4

If you disable the cool/heat PWM, and manually trigger your pins, do they activate the correct element?

The PID has a filter duration, and will not kick in immediately. Do you see it setting output values?

Edit: to play with the system you can also create mock temp sensors, and set those as input. These allow setting sensor value manually.

5

Many thank once again. I am slowly getting to grips with it. I think I am expecting things to ripple through quickly when I alter the mock sensor input, but as you hightlighted there is a delay.
Another question if I may, the docs say set a negative value for the cooling PID, where about is this done?

Thanks

6

If you edit the cool PID settings (cogwheel), you’ll see the “calculation” of the PID output. The wizard-generated PID is already configured: you’ll see the relevant negative values there.

7

Hi,

I want to use the dynamic fridge configuration only but have the widgets from the fermentation wizardry install. Is it best to start from scratch and replicate the documentation on the site or to run the install and then modify?

8

I’d run the installer, and then modify. The settings for most blocks generated by the wizard don’t have to be changed.

Do note that we made a direct control chain the default because with the improvements in the firmware, it’s pretty accurate already.

1 Like
9

Thanks for the swift reply bob. Is there any benefit with me doing the dynamic fridge setup then or should I just proceed with the default?

10

If you have a straightforward fermenter (container in fridge or jacketed container, heater, cooler) I’d go with the default. It’s much simpler, and works well.