Spark core release date
I am getting a lot of inquiries about the release date of the new BrewPi Spark. I am very happy about that of course, it seems to have sparked a lot of interested (sorry for the pun ;)).
The enclosures are still in production, but I expect them to be ready soon. It took a bit longer due to the Christmas holiday. I approved the final prototype yesterday.
I expect to receive them in about a week. My goal is to open the shop for orders around January 15.
New web shop
I am also still sorting out the shipping options for a new web shop and filling it with products. We will start selling a lot of stainless parts as well: camlock fittings, silicone tubing, HERMS coils, inlets, outlets, ball valves, threaded temperature sensors and more. These will be available together with the BrewPi Spark.
Pumps, motorized ball vales and their controllers will come in about 6 weeks.
Software development
We are also still porting the Arduino software to the Spark platform. This will happen in a few stages:
First we will port the existing functionality for fermentation control: 1 beer sensor, 1 fridge sensor, 1 ambient temperature sensor. When this is done, the BrewPi Spark will have the same functionality as the previous Arduino version and can be connected to the existing python script and web interface.
Next we will start replacing pieces of the software with new implementations to increase the flexibility and modularity:
The communication protocol will be updated to not have hard coded things like āfridge tempā and ābeer tempā. We need to be able to address multiple sensors and multiple actuators in a flexible way.
We need to update the control scheme to be able to create multiple control loops. The current tempcontrol.cpp is a monolith and needs to be split into separate components.
We need a new system to store configurations and attach sensors and actuators to controllers.
The data logging scheme will be replaced by a flexible database. We are looking at influxdb for temperature data logging. Help in getting it to run on the Raspberry Pi and logging data into it from Python is very welcome.
We need to update the web interface (read: completely replace it) with a new implementation that has the same modularity: a widgetized dashboard. Grafana might be a nice option to create flexible graph dashboards.
As you can seen there is still a lot of software development to be done. I will start shipping BrewPi Sparks before all of this is ready, because I would like the community to help out. There are a lot of software devs in the BrewPi Community.
If you think you can contribute towards our goal to create the best modular and flexible brewery control software, just reply here and state your interests and skills. Weāll get in touch about where you can help and how to contribute.
I wonder if, to make your HERMs system even more automated like having a ball valve on your water source coming in, and it is hooked up to the BrewPi Spark. It is turned on and off based on the level of water that is added or removed from the HLT. A contact of some sort would have to be mounted in the HLT to send the signal to the BrewPi Spark. So the idea that I was thinking was when its time to brew, on your brew spark all you have to do is push start. the only thing you have to do is add grain to the MLT. that if your system is all control by the BrewPi Spark āie: ball valvesā.
So I was looking at YouTube and come across this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6PrxakgYV0. The person created this in Java. The layout is awesome and I wondering if something like this could be integrated with the BrewPi Spark code?
The plan is to build a widgetized dashboard where you can add our own modules for the hardware you have and want to control. If we add the option to have multiple dashboards, it will be very similar to that.
Okay cool. This is going to be so awesome, I have to say that I cant wait to get your products to test out. I am hoping you still have a few arduino shields left. So I can play around with it too.
Do you have any more information on the valve controllers or are you going to make a generic 1-wire controller board? I have mostly valves with CR3 02 (3 wire with switch on grd) and 1 with CR3 03 (3 wire switch on 12V).
I am very interested in helping out with the web UI redesign and new widget interface. I have over 10 years in UI/graphic design and programming/development experience with a number of production websites. I program mostly in PHP/jQUery but I am flexible and open to using alternate languages and frameworks.
Also, Iāve been brewing beer for 14 years and have a lot of experience with fermentation control, including building my own fermentation controller and chamber. Please let me know if you still need help with this part of the project and would like to speak further. Keep up the great work!!
After digging back into some PHP programming I have discovered that I am quite rusty and slow. I still have great skills at debugging and resolving however. I would be very willing to work on bug checking and error resolving. Problem solving tends to be my strong point in this area or small tasks. I am excited to get the new spark and to be involved in this project. If there is any help I can provide on the US distribution side I am also happy to do this.
If you need help with some native mobile development (Android and iOS), Iāll be happy to pitch in. Iāve got about 4 years experience in this field now.
I donāt have a BrewPi yet, but Iām eagerly awaiting the opening of the shop so I can order the BrewPi Spark and build a fermentation chamber
I still do not have the enclosures!
My suppliers are letting me down in terms of delivery time!
I am adding all the products to our new web store right now. It will be a lot more than just the BrewPi Spark, youāll be surprised by the stainless steel products we developed.
I will need at least the weekend to get things in order.
