Using an SSR expansion board as input?

Hardware
1

Hi,
I was wondering if it was possible to use an SSR expansion board as an input? Say for the fridge door?
I know that the DS2413 chips have this functionality, but I was wondering if this was set up in the brewpi software, and if the expansion board could be wired up to achieve this.

Cheers.

2

I’m really keen for this. For my situation I’m still using an arduino setup. There is a issue with the legacy code that means it can’t be done and doesn’t look like the issue will be fixed for legacy code unfortunately. As far as I’m aware it should be ok for Spark code (@Elco)?

3

For Arduino:
If you get the source code for 0.2.11 here:

And in Config.h, add:

#define BREWPI_DS2413 1
#define DS2413_SUPPORT_SENSE 1

You can recompile the code and can assign a DS2413 as door sensor, if I remember correctly.

For the Spark:

I didn’t add the door switch in the Spark code, because:

  • I don’t recommend using the fridge light as heater now. In my own tests it was not sufficient when it was cold outside.
  • I would not stop the actuators when the door is open.
  • If you just want to control a light when the door opens, I would just use the switch to toggle the light directly. Why get the software involved?

The only reason for a door switch that I can think of is alarms.

4

Alarms were one of the reasons I started thinking about this. Also for the sake of complete data logging. It would be good to be able to trace any fluctuations in chamber temp to door events.

1 Like
5

This doesn’t work for Arduino due to a bug. I raised an issue for this a while ago in the old AVR code:

https://github.com/BrewPi/brewpi-avr/issues/55

I belive you re-wrote this whole unit in the new firmware but this bug will still exist for arduino.