As well as dealing with my Blog being compromised and repairing the damage and securing it a bit more , This week I’ve been busy with my take on the Brewpi Spark !
I enjoy practical Electronics and that creative process. I have laid out a PCB using Cadsoft Eagle CAD and decided to get a couple of prototypes made rather than relying on the facilities at work !

I expect that I’ll have to try and modify and compile the code to reflect some changes , I was hoping that the code would work straight off but it doesn’t quite, It’s getting stuck not responding to the Touch with a ‘touch the cross with a stylus’ message… at first I thought I’d got my wires crossed…literally , but then realised I’d bought a screen without the touch driver , Doh…I wondered why it was 50P cheaper.. luckily only £2.50 from China so I bought another from a  UK Supplier but it’s still not playing ball….

I am still waiting on some connectors from Farnell but I have built it up and started testing.

As mentioned in my previous post it has initially been laid out to be home produceable without PTH’s and using DIP devices where possible, it is intended to be built up into and old equipment box to replace one of my arduino Brewpi boxes which already has a stable 5v switch mode PSU and uses SSR’s so no diode on the outputs, although you could use one of the many Arduino relay boards as most have protection built in.. .. as far as it being in a metal box… a duck antenna and  new photon are on the way and If  I use my works Laser cutter to do a nice Black perspex front panel I may not even need the Duck.. quack quack …

Lets have another try at learning C++ or at least being a bit more conversant with it…

V2 Board layout with no go zone…

Tuesday evenings Visit to @IlkleyBrewery for the first  Olicanabrew meeting looked like it was a roaring success lots of friendly people and very well supported by the brewery staff, thanks for making it a free event. I bought my Ticket for the next one before I left and I also have to thank Mary for being taxi driver and joining in with the Brewing conversations, I’ll have to investigate the train timetable from Guiseley for the next one .

I started late on the planned #brewday as a trip to Abbey Homebrew in Kirkstall was needed to top up my grains as the BrewUK parcel didn’t arrive until late afternoon (I also needed two new tyres before the white stuff appears on our roads !)

This is the second of the brews that I am doing for the Christmas period . I decided to do one that everyone seems to like and is easy drinking,  Dana’s Delight  a SMaSH Using Dana Hops, just spotted an error the Irish Moss should really be 1 tablespoon not a teaspoon as shown.. !

the other Christmas Brew done the previous saturday is still in the brew fridge, following a profile

Here’s the recipe based from Beersmith repository suitably scaled for my equipement.

Very sucessfull #BrewDay yesterday, A couple of firsts !, First brew using @Beersmith mobile on my iPad and started the fitment with the new 0.3 version of @BrewPi.

Chinook IPA  OG 1.058 came in on the nose according to the recipe , Its the second time with this recipe but the first time I used it I substituted some of the Chinook for Galena. Lets Hope it’s as good as before 

On Sunday   just before I Dry hopped the Citra brew I recompiled the BrewPi binaries for my Leonardo rev A and C shields to take into account the profile bug I came across. I also took the opportunity to shorten the fridge on /off delays a little , I think it’s helped in reducing the yoyo-ing a little. I am also using a thermowell (thermopocket) in the Black IPA  FV for the first  time 

BlackPi doing a profile to ferment Black IPA

GreepPi hitting it’s 20c target to dry hop the Citra

I have a REV A BrewPi shield system up and running which has performed really well and upgrading to the latest dynaconfig Build went like a breeze. After getting another fridge/freezer I took the plunge and ordered a REV C shield to upgrade the DIY /Dev system ( and at the same time saw a cheap Mega 2650 on ebay  so I could still mess around with the planned I2C displays as the 2nd Leonardo would be permanently installed in the new REV C  system)

Nice Rev C Board

Once built, I pressed the Rev C system known as GreenPi to Bastogne Beer conditioning tasks and Initially set it to Beer contant mode, Beer probe duly placed on the Corny Keg under  a bit of foam and off it went, until on the 2nd of July  I came home to find the display blank. After restarting  I also put the second corny with the newly brewed out wheat beer in the fridge.

Wheat beer and Bastogne side by side

It wasn’t until a few days or later that I twigged the fridge temperature was now higher than the beer temperature. after a quick twitter conversation with Elco I switched to fridge contant mode but things didn’t settle down and I again came home to the display acting strangely.

[videojs mp4=”https://purpleogre.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/IMG_4147.mov” width=”480″]

After  more advice and suggestions from Elco,  I  stripped the the GreenPi system down checked connections and reflashed the Leonardo with a freshly downloaded precompiled Hex. This has Improved things but there are still oddities. Temperature probes disconnecting etc….  So after lots of probe swapping and resetting device slots, to try and keep things simple… The  probes are still acting up ……
here’s a sample of the log…

Fridges next to each other

The BrewPi systems

Rough pin definitions

Testing the Probes against each other

PS ..It’s been a warm day in the shed today just look at the temp chart !
it’s also just occurred to me that with both cornies in there in effect blocking and absorbing the cold it’ll probably need a fan to move the air past the refrigeration panel .

ouch it’s a scorcher even with roof insulation

 

 

Bastogne Ale Brewed using the @BrewPi Just entering the rise phase…

Bastogne fermenting with REVA BrewPi Shield and master Code Branch

After a bit of a delay This evening I’ll be picking up my New-Old Fridge.
It’ll have to be transported on it’s side in the back of my Estate car  so after getting to the Brew Shed will have to be left to settle for a day or two as  I don’t want the compressor oil up it’s cooling tubes…
Over those settling days I’ll start to convert it to a second BrewPi Fermentation Setup and then put it into use as a conditioning fridge!
Hopefully I’ll remember to take piccies of the conversion along the way !

******update 8th Jun*****

After picking up and defrosting the freezer with a hose and letting it settle overnight It’s now being used as a conditioning fridge with the STC1000  the @BrewPi is a bit too much overKill  Plus I’ve not currently got the coding Skills to get my dev system up and running …

Before and after shot of the freezer defrost

The fridge part nicely takes  a couple of corny kegs and there’s a convenient entry point for the CO2 and NTC thermister  at the back  

termostat housing	convenient entry for Probe and CO2 line	2 kegs holding at 10.5 c