How To: BrewPi LCD Add-On

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BIG Thanks foe your answers!!!! now its full working!!! lets test with the refrigerator!!

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Going to give this a shot, but need a bit of help ordering the boards from DirtyPCB... the order form is a more than a bit Greek to me... anyone care to give me a hand filling it in!

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The standard shipping doesn't include tracking. I've been waiting for 7 weeks since I received the shipping notice email. I'd definitely go for upgraded shipping.
 
PapaFoxtrot said:
The standard shipping doesn't include tracking. I've been waiting for 7 weeks since I received the shipping notice email. I'd definitely go for upgraded shipping.
Click to expand...
7 weeks seems like a long time to wait for the boards. I have ordered five sets of boards from them and they all arrived with in a month. Have you tried to contact them ?
 
Mine took just under 5 weeks. The estimated range is one to eight weeks.

Next time I will pay for faster shipping. The manufacturing time was pretty short- less than a week.
 
As an aside (just now getting around to starting mine that the mighty @Bigdaddyale sorted) I would just like to say, likely on behalf of many others:

*clears throat*

SOLDERING PFETS CAN KISS MY HAIRY IRISH @#$#@!!!!
 
heh heh...at least you have an actual footprint to work with ;)

Tin the three pads on the board, tin the three legs on the pfet, use tweezers to position it and reflow one leg.
And one of these helps a ton for the far-sighted...
hgoptics$150651239(s).jpg


Cheers!
 
ubermick said:
As an aside (just now getting around to starting mine that the mighty @Bigdaddyale sorted) I would just like to say, likely on behalf of many others:

*clears throat*

SOLDERING PFETS CAN KISS MY HAIRY IRISH @#$#@!!!!
Click to expand...


day_trippr said:
heh heh...at least you have an actual footprint to work with ;)

Tin the three pads on the board, tin the three legs on the pfet, use tweezers to position it and reflow one leg.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

I just pre-tinned one pad. Usually the one by itself. Then held the p-fet down with the tweezers while I reflowed that leg. Then I soldered the legs on the opposite side. I think liquid solder flux helps a lot too. It did take some effort to hold the p-fet down in the correct position while soldering.
 
Yeah, I got the three of 'em in (I hope!) but yikes, that was a fiddly job. The tweezers I had weren't the greatest, and the little bugger would squirm around on there at the lightest touch. Got there in the end, though.

Then I ran out of flux, so back on hold for a little bit... yeesh.
 
I used XG-Z40 solder paste. I had to mod the tip of my soldering iron by grinding it to a fine point.worked out well using my 4X magnifying glasses and one of the tools from my solder assist kit
 
Bigdaddyale said:
7 weeks seems like a long time to wait for the boards. I have ordered five sets of boards from them and they all arrived with in a month. Have you tried to contact them ?
Click to expand...

I opened a support ticket with them. I recently had a relay module go to Istanbul from China before eventually showing up at my door, so I'm pretty patient with China Post...
 
Welp, poop.

So got two of the three boards @Cadibrewer boards soldered and one of them is working away, the other is giving me nada. Tried swapping the LCD screens (with the one from the working board) but no dice. Thankfully I ASSUMED I'd screw one up, and have a backup (just need to snag some more capacitors and a pair of diodes) but before I delve into the autopsy, have there been any instances of bad boards, per chance?

Also, another question now that I have the one soldered up, since I'm used to the DIY one from @day_trippr (sans PFET, haha!) - I assume the rotary encoder just goes into the relevant pins go to digital 7,8,9, and ground on the stackable headers, using the relevant resistors? (Also have some of the ready-made ones @ame mentioned that I might try)
 
PapaFoxtrot said:
The standard shipping doesn't include tracking. I've been waiting for 7 weeks since I received the shipping notice email. I'd definitely go for upgraded shipping.
Click to expand...

I received a response from DirtyPCBs and their advice is the same as mine:

Thank you for ordering and we are very sorry for the inconvenience. HK Post takes 1-8 weeks as delivery time. Kindly monitor your delivery until next week and let me know if you have not received it still by then. HK Post does not have a tracking number so I also suggest that next time,you use DHL as courier so there would be a tracking number assigned. I will try to investigate further and see if we got any notification involving your delivery.
Click to expand...
 
ubermick said:
Welp, poop.

So got two of the three boards @Cadibrewer boards soldered and one of them is working away, the other is giving me nada. Tried swapping the LCD screens (with the one from the working board) but no dice. Thankfully I ASSUMED I'd screw one up, and have a backup (just need to snag some more capacitors and a pair of diodes) but before I delve into the autopsy, have there been any instances of bad boards, per chance?

Also, another question now that I have the one soldered up, since I'm used to the DIY one from @day_trippr (sans PFET, haha!) - I assume the rotary encoder just goes into the relevant pins go to digital 7,8,9, and ground on the stackable headers, using the relevant resistors? (Also have some of the ready-made ones @ame mentioned that I might try)
Click to expand...

I have not heard of any bad boards this far. Check one of day_trippr's posts about a week ago for places to start troubleshooting your soldering. Basically you want to look at the power and data pins on the IC, and then look at your LCD header pins.

Yes, the rotary encoder just goes to the stackable header pins and ground as you've described.
 
Went through my solder joints, and did notice that some of them around the IC socket weren't 100%, so redid them. Lo and behold, I have LCD activity now - just no backlight (yes, I immediately adjusted the trim pot!). Can't find any other issues, so my thoughts turned to the PFET. That said, the PFET should only be an issue after 10 minutes of inactivity, so even if it were in there wrong (it does look ok) then it would just mean the backlight would remain on?
 
ubermick said:
Went through my solder joints, and did notice that some of them around the IC socket weren't 100%, so redid them. Lo and behold, I have LCD activity now - just no backlight (yes, I immediately adjusted the trim pot!). Can't find any other issues, so my thoughts turned to the PFET. That said, the PFET should only be an issue after 10 minutes of inactivity, so even if it were in there wrong (it does look ok) then it would just mean the backlight would remain on?
Click to expand...

Pins 15 and 16 on the LCD deal with the backlight. Pin 16 is ground for the cathode. Assuming that your solder on the header is good, you shouldn't have any problems there. Pin 15 is for the anode. The path flows from pin 2 on the shift register IC, through the p-fet, through the two diodes, through the larger 1/2W resistor, to pin 15 on the LCD. Check that entire path to make sure the solders are all solid. If that all looks good, you may have a bad LCD screen. Though I'm sure you checked into that first by hooking up your known good LCD screen.

Hope this helps.
 
Ohh, baby. 'twas the sneaky Pete P-FET.

I SAID THEY COULD KISS MY HAIRY IRISH @#$#!!!! :ban:
 
day_trippr said:
Hahahahah! Very entertaining :D

How about the other board?
Click to expand...

Two seem to be working fine, and the third is the backup in case I screwed it up (which I did my utmost to do!). Now the joys of wrasslin' with the dual chamber install on the RPi3B which I've already nuked and started from scratch on again...

On the flip side, while I suck at this, I do make REALLY good beer! :)
 
day_trippr said:
Well, that's something, anyway :D
Probably want to debug that third build now while your inner technician is all warmed up...

Cheers! ;)
Click to expand...

If your plan is to distract me and keep me out of the main brewpi thread with server-side inane questions, it won't work. I'll be there soon enough, and I'm laser focused - nothing will cause me to... OOH SOMETHING SHINY! ;)
 
ubermick said:
If your plan is to distract me and keep me out of the main brewpi thread with server-side inane questions, it won't work. I'll be there soon enough, and I'm laser focused - nothing will cause me to... OOH SOMETHING SHINY! ;)
Click to expand...


I started building my multichamber system a couple years back… then I needed one 3d printed part, so I bought a small 3d printer so I could build a larger 3d printer so I could print the parts I need…

I'll get back to you when I finally start brewing again
 
Received the boards from OSH Park today - Very nice quality

Made in USA too.

13 Days from order to receive - but the postal service took four days from Portland to my house 135 miles way...

DSCN0101.JPG
 
wbarber69 said:
I started building my multichamber system a couple years back… then I needed one 3d printed part, so I bought a small 3d printer so I could build a larger 3d printer so I could print the parts I need…

I'll get back to you when I finally start brewing again
Click to expand...

I know the feeling. I'm doing my absolute best to not realize that for the money I've spent on various Arduinos and components, I could have likely bought 3-4 BrewPi Sparks at this point.:D
 
ubermick said:
I know the feeling. I'm doing my absolute best to not realize that for the money I've spent on various Arduinos and components, I could have likely bought 3-4 BrewPi Sparks at this point.:D
Click to expand...


Haha yeah I'm the same could have bought a full fat Brewpi with the amount of spent!!
 
You guys got me thinking how much I have invested per minion. I bet it's less than $40 bucks.
I buy the cheap Uno R3 for 3 bucks, I bought a couple of RPI0 for .99 cents when they went on sale, I think the biggest expense was the sensors and enclosure.
 
ubermick said:
[...]I'm doing my absolute best to not realize that for the money I've spent on various Arduinos and components, I could have likely bought 3-4 BrewPi Sparks at this point.:D
Click to expand...

Otoh, if you've noticed the three threads in the Software forum regarding BrewPi Spark, you'd likely be joining at least two folks on a very exclusive - and sad - island.

Seriously, that version looks FUBAR at this point...

Cheers!
 
I haven't been following its thread - is the STC1000+ web enabled now?
If not, it's the outlier, and between you and me, I would never go back to control devices I can't wiggle from afar :)

Cheers!
 
day_trippr said:
I haven't been following its thread - is the STC1000+ web enabled now?
If not, it's the outlier, and between you and me, I would never go back to control devices I can't wiggle from afar :)

Cheers!
Click to expand...
I know they were playing around with hooking it up to an esp8266 but not sure if they got it working. Once BrewPi gained momentum I think progress slowed down. I still have a few kicking around and they work great for Sous Vide.I built a few units for the guys in my brew club and they still use them for fermentation control. The game changer to the BrewPi was the $ 5.00 RPI0 and the $3.00 UNOR3
 
Yeah - the thing about the BrewPi is that it's as cheap as you want it to be, really. Easily built from Chinese clone boards, and at this point most people even have a spare PC lying around to act as the web server if they don't want to plop the money on an RPi. The LCD and rotary stuff is really more for show, although I personally like being able to physically look in on it, and drives the cost up accordingly.

Oddly, the one area in the build where you CAN'T skimp seems to be the USB cable. I've got a total of five different ones here, and only ONE (a new one with double ferrite chokes) works. With both Arduinos hooked up to my RPi, the web interface only recognizes the one with that cable. (Even then it's shaky... methinks I need a hub, or at least provide power to the Arduinos externally rather than through the USB, even though I have a 10A power supply on the RPi)
 
ubermick said:
Oddly, the one area in the build where you CAN'T skimp seems to be the USB cable. I've got a total of five different ones here, and only ONE (a new one with double ferrite chokes) works. With both Arduinos hooked up to my RPi, the web interface only recognizes the one with that cable. (Even then it's shaky... methinks I need a hub, or at least provide power to the Arduinos externally rather than through the USB, even though I have a 10A power supply on the RPi)
Click to expand...

I was running a similar configuration with 3 Arduinos and kept losing communication with one of them. Unacceptable. SO i added a powered USB hub as many here have and no more problems. It's definitely the way to go if you have more than 1 Arduino. Only 1 cable has ferrite chokes.
 
SUCCESS with a V1.1 Board!

I'm removing the pesky FET and short the source to the drain, I'd rather have the display on full time and I'm not planning on putting an encoder on this one.

DSCN0102.JPG
 
atoughram said:
Received the boards from OSH Park today - Very nice quality

Made in USA too.

13 Days from order to receive - but the postal service took four days from Portland to my house 135 miles way...
Click to expand...

hi where i can find this pcb?? could you please provide me link?
 

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