Can't Flash the Firmware

Troubleshooting
1

Just setup my first 3rd generation BrewPi Spark (Brewblox) a month ago with only minor issues wading through the Setup Instructions. It is currently tuned and in service without problems. Unfortunately, I’m running into issues setting up my second 3rd generation BrewPi Spark using puTTY. All appears to go well until until I try to Flash the Firmware…brewblox-ctl flash…which hangs up at various random points in the process. Not sure where to go from here. If you can help me I would appreciate it.

The first Brewblox installation was accomplished using Windows Terminal or Power Shell on my Windows 10, Microsoft machine. When we tried to ssh to the RPi with either Power Shell or Terminal we got a strange sort of "3rd party, someone may be spying on you “error” "

2

We just released a new system layer. If your Pi does not have Wifi, you’ll need to run brewblox-ctl bootloader.

Could you please copy/screenshot the errors?

we got a strange sort of "3rd party, someone may be spying on you “error” "

That happens if you re-install your Pi - it detects that the fingerprint has changed for that address.
To fix:

ssh-keygen -R [PI_ADDRESS]
3

Bob -

Thanks for the quick response!!! It WAS hanging up at various points during the software load. The BPi Spark was also beeping (rebooting??).

I changed out power supplies and completed the FLASH!!! I am powering the BPi Spark via the USB port since I am “driving” only “one wire” outputs. Without thinking, I was using an old (low wattage) iPhone charger.

So…no more issues at the moment. I do want to learn a lot more about your Blocks and Widgets…control architecture. A video of something like adding high and low temperature alarms would be immensely helpful.

4

If you’re using Brewblox to control a fermentation, you can run a quick start wizard (admin page, or the big “get started” button).

We normally suggest https://brewblox.netlify.app/user/control_chains.html for getting started with how blocks are combined to be useful, and https://brewblox.netlify.app/user/ferment_guide.html if you used the fermentation quick start.

5

Always use a charger meant for charging the Raspberry Pi, which can deliver at least 2A at 5V. Phone chargers are NOT a good power supply and will cause instability and/or data loss.

6

Now using the 3 amp RPi charger, and learned that the hard way. Should have known better…

Another quick question from a non-programmer. I’m going to move the RPi and BPi/Spark together to another location. Now that the RPi is “headless”, can you walk me through the steps to establish a static IP address on the RPi. This is an RPi 4, if it’s the same directories/files as on an RPi 3, I already have the information.

Is there a huge advantage to configuring the RPi without the desktop support?

7

Using the sudo raspi-config menu, you can set a host name for your Pi. If you set it to something unique, you can access it with [HOSTNAME].local.

Both Brewblox and the desktop use quite a lot of RAM.

9

Some general advice on static IP addresses: don’t use them.

It is much better to configure your router to always give the device the same IP address. This is called a static DHCP lease, based on the MAC address of the device.

Why is this better? If you move your pi to a new location with a new router, it might have a different subnet or the IP address could be already in use. The static IP of the pi will not work and you cannot change the settings without a monitor and keyboard. So leave the pi at automatic IP from DHCP, and make it static in the router.

10

Perfect! Checked out “sudo raspi-config” and now know the easy way to change the WiFi credentials when we move the fridge to my son-in-laws house. Thanks Bob.