I have a brewpi photon with version 0.2.11 I bought back in August and am just now getting around to setting it up. If I don’t want data logging and just want a basic temp controller do I need the raspberry pi? Also how would I go about setting up the Brewpi without a raspberry pi? when I plug in the brewpi I get the test screen, I push the setup button but it does nothing. -thanks.
-Nick
Hi Nick,
Without the Raspberry Pi you won’t be able to set up the devices (temperature sensors and actuators) so you will need one even if it is only for initial setup.
Thank You very much Dan
Well, technically, you don’t need to spent money on a raspberry pi, but Dan is right, you need something. I installed the latest version of Ubuntu linux (free) on and old laptop. I went through the manual online setup instructions but it’s possible the auto script will work too (wish I would have tried that just to see if it would work). Anyway, that’s one “free” was around the raspberry pi.
Thank you so much, I actually have ubuntu installed on a computer. Going through the manual installation instructions now. FYI: I tried to do the auto script but the webpage it linked to was invalid.
I am following the setup instructions laid out here:
http://docs.brewpi.com/manual-brewpi-install/manual-brewpi-install.html
Thank You again
-Nick
Yup, those are the instructions I followed. I recall there being one issue with the instructions where something didn’t follow but I figured it out. A lot of commands to type but for the most part it went pretty smoothly and finished it in an evening.
Good luck and let us know how it goes!
I have ran into a problem setting up the users and permissions. I wonder if it was the same issue you ran into.
when i enter sudo usermod -a -G www-data pi
it says user ‘pi’ does not exist
Yup, that was it. The user “pi” doesn’t exist at that point (as far as I can tell) so you get that error. I used the commands at the top of that page (where you add the user brewpi) and basically did the same commands except replaced “pi” where it says “brewpi”.
Honestly, I don’t know if it was necessary or not to have a user “pi” but that’s what I did.
Awesome! thank you so much. I was thinking of doing that but I would I hate to screw something up.
Thank you again.
-Nick
When I go to /home/pi (the pi user location) there are no files in there, so, again, not sure what purpose it has. I’m really new at this too so hopefully someday I’ll understand all this a little more.
Hope the rest of the way goes well!
the user pi is the default raspberry pi user account. what you want to do there is replace “pi” with whatever account you use normally on your non-pi Linux system.
Bringing up an old thread… Is the Raspberry (or other linux server) only needed for configuration with the current software version? Will I be able to control the BrewPi remotely from the web gui without a linux server of some sort?
Without a server, there is no web GUI. The device itself does not run a web interface.
You will need a server to run the user interface for configuration.
The temperature control can continue in case the connection is lost to the server, but the product is not meant to be used this way.
