Wow thanks for the interest and feedback guys! Sorry to hear if there are any issues with the topic responses. Any feedback (short, long, positive, negative) is welcome in my book. Comes with the territory of building something unique IMO.
Depends on how sexy the wiring job is... He did say there was a temp and pressure sensor in there as well, so I was mostly curious how it was all working in that box on only 4 pins. Could be an ESP type board in the box, but with I2C I guess they could all be on the same 4 with logic in the external display box.
Although now that's got me thinking. Depending on the ToF power draw, you could hook this up with a D1 mini and a couple AA batteries and perhaps skip drilling the lid.
@rsquared the sensor is an I2C device, but the WiFi controller is in the external display. This was done to be able to view the display when walking by the kegerator (and not having to open the door), I could plug a USB cable into the external display without drilling or running another cable into the kegerator, and making sure the antenna didn't have any issues connecting to my home WiFi. I had thought that a rechargeable battery powered solution would be cool, but to get the frequency of updates I wanted, this wouldn't really be acceptable. I feel that I'd be charging this all the time, and it would turn into a hassle. This is really nice to be able to just walk by and take a peek at the values.
I'm sincerely interested in seeing how this works longer-term & under pressure. I really wish load cells would work long term as they seem like they would be awesome, but yeah - with the drift it just isn't fit for purpose. Flow sensors are great for measuring pours, but the idea of being able to take a direct keg measurement just feels like the holy grail if it works.
This is an awesome project
@UncleD . How long has this been in place? Have you noticed any leaks of CO2?
@Thorrak thanks for the feedback, it's definitely a fun project. I've been enjoying following your TiltBridge project as well! As far has how long it's been in place, about 2-3 months now. I've done 3 different batches, and I've been really happy with it. Turned out better than I ever thought it would be. No CO2 leaks, the epoxy creates an excellent seal. I actually added the PSI sensor because I accidentally overcarbonated a batch of beer after kegging. I adjusted my pressure regulator and went out of town and I accidentally adjusted it way too high (like 50 PSI), what a PITA to get back to normal after that. So yeah. the PSI sensor is definitely a parameter worth monitoring, especially if you aren't able to check on it at home easily.
I am testing out a mobile app I developed to provide push notifications if any of the values get above or below a user-defined threshold. Reminds me of another story where I was out of town and the person watching my house accidentally unplugged my kegerator to plug in something and didn't realize it. Would have been nice to get a notification that the temp was high, lol.
fwiw, I would totally expect some jitter in this type of sensing, it's the nature of the beast. A flow meter only has to respond when fluid is moving, but a level sensor is constantly pinging.
Anyway, I can accept a paradigm that isn't strictly pour-related (at least wrt recording). While it's not my thing, if all one seeks is knowing where a keg is at a random point in time, this solution could be as apt as any I'm aware of...
Cheers!
@day_trippr you are correct, this sensor will bounce up and down about 0.1 GAL, because it's regularly checking the distance to the top of the level of beer in the keg. It's certainly a different paradigm than the flow sensor. The flow sensor is assuming a beginning volume and removing from that volume based on the flow out of the keg. This is continually monitoring the level, temperature, and pressure. I have the display updating every 10 seconds, and I have it set to log readings to by cloud DB every 1 hour. These can be modified, but I have found that's often enough for me. Interesting idea by
@Dexlor to modify the cloud update frequency based on ROC (rate of change). My thought process was that if I was having a party, I'm already standing in front of the display. The cloud update is more to allow me to see where levels are at when I'm not home, and more importantly, notify me if something happens.
It's great to see other brewers interested in this. I'm going to keep testing sensor stability, durability, and cloud/mobile integration. If I put together a "beta testing group buy", would there be any takers?
