Beaglebone Black as brewcontroller

[Hutch1001]

I just purchased:
Adafruit Beagle Bone Black Starter Pack ( 1)
Micro HDMI to HDMI Cable - 2 meter ( 1)
Waterproof DS18B20 Digital temperature sensor + extras ( 4)
Adafruit Perma-Proto Half-sized Breadboard PCB - Single ( 1)

My plan is to have it run a eHERMs single tier. I am currently researching a touch screen as the interface and I must be crazy because I have no electronics or programming knowledge. I plan on using (2) 5500w elements in the HLT and BK. I will be doing 5-10 gal batches. I currently have 1 chugger pump and 1 propane burner which I have been working with for years.

Any wiring schematics and or thoughts that you feel would help, please discuss. I am not interested in automation of valves or pumps. I like doing that part and just want to touch screen to turn pumps on and off. This should make the programming side easier. I just want to build a touch screen Kal clone for now with automation maybe later.

I was following the "senior build" on this forum but he has not posted in a while.
I plan on posting all the steps as the build progresses, and I have a few friends in various professions that are going to be helping along the way.
I currently have a keggle for BK which I am mounting a quick disconnect immersion chiller inside of. A 10 gallon igloo MT, and a ss pot for HLT. BK & HLT are silver soldered 1/2" couplings and currently work great. New larger ss pot will be added when controller is built. (possibly adding inline pH if anyone has seen that used?)

Thanks in advance for all the good advice and info.

 

[hightechlofi]

I am using the beaglebone black for almost exactly what you are doing. I will be controlling my pumps and rims tube, and later plan to control fermentation temps via heat jackets. The bonescript library makes it pretty easy to setup via node.js. I am using an express.js front end to allow me to control everything from a web interface on my computer or tablet. Here is my interface mockup. (Using DS18B20 temp probes too)




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[day_trippr]

Is there a PID library that you can pull into whatever language you're actually using to run the wee beastie? I bet that would come in handy with all the electric heaters in your future (though not the pump, obviously)...

Cheers!

 

[hightechlofi]

I ported the arduino pid library to javascript as a node.js module. In the near future I plan to do the same with the autotune library. I actually am using the pid with my (12vdc) pumps to be able to set a desired flow rate and let the pid adjust the pump output to maintain it.


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[day_trippr]

Very cool. I didn't even think about DC pumps. You can do a lot with all that!

Cheers!

 

[Hutch1001]

Thanks for the responses. UPS said my beaglebone will be here later today. I plan to play a bit tonight and at least get it up and start researching wiring. Has anyone tried pH monitoring, say for the mash output?


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[hightechlofi]

http://m.ebay.com/itm/251457815300?nav=SEARCH

These are the 12v pumps I use, perfect for transfers and recirc. I have three, for the hlt, the mlt, and my rims tube. I still use a 120v march 809 pump for my bk to whirlpool and chill. It has a flowmeter attached, so I can track transfer volumes.


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[RutherfordBrave]

Are you planning on documenting your setup, hitechlofi? Would love to start with your code base so I don't have to reinvent my own when my setup arrives!

 

[hightechlofi]

Yes, once I have it cleaned up and better documented I plan on opensourcing it through GitHub so that (hopefully) people will enhance and build on it. I will also start a thread on homebrewtalk to document my system and how I have it all connected to the BBB so hopefully others can leverage the little I know into their setup. The BBB is a great platform and I think if those who are interested can work from the same base, we could come up with some pretty cool stuff!


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[mattd2]

http://m.ebay.com/itm/251457815300?nav=SEARCH

These are the 12v pumps I use, perfect for transfers and recirc. I have three, for the hlt, the mlt, and my rims tube. I still use a 120v march 809 pump for my bk to whirlpool and chill. It has a flowmeter attached, so I can track transfer volumes.


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What flowmeters are you using Hightech?

 

[hightechlofi]

I got them from adafruit. I have three of the plastic ones and one of the brass ones.


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[mattd2]

I got them from adafruit. I have three of the plastic ones and one of the brass ones.


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Sounds like similar to the ones I have got (1/2" bsp?)
I am looking at PWM a 240VAC pump using a non-zero crossing SSR. So far I have the flowmeter hooked up and running, and a manual SCR on the pump which can reduce the flow of a 1/10 HP pump (twice as big as the normal March/Chugger pumps) down from 12 litres / minute to 5 L/min. Any slower than that I am expecting cooling issues with the motor as it is not spinning very fast.I am keen to try it out on a smaller pump but have a few different directions I am thinking of going with my gear - possibly selling it all and start from scratch.
I have recorded what I have (slowly) been doing with an Arduino over the last year over on the Arduino forums - http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=150909.15

 

[Hutch1001]

Finally getting started. Have some programming to do. Have not done that since elementary school BASICA. New toys arrived. And another sankey keg on the way next week to replace current HLT. I'll keep ya updated.


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[Gron]

I just bought a BeagleBone Black as well to control an E-HERMS system I'm putting together - very loosely based on this: [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtRK8vQVcfM[/ame]

Have any of you started writing code yet? I'm going to start soon and will post it to github. Maybe something collaborative would be useful?

 

[hightechlofi]

I have some basic coding done, but still needs a lot of work. I will try to post it this week. I like the idea of collaborating because we should be able to put together something (hopefully) robust, and a lot faster than I could do on my own. FYI, I am using Hall effect flowmeters from adafruit on my pumps for volume measurement and ds18b20 temp probes.


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[Gron]

I have some basic coding done, but still needs a lot of work. I will try to post it this week. I like the idea of collaborating because we should be able to put together something (hopefully) robust, and a lot faster than I could do on my own. FYI, I am using Hall effect flowmeters from adafruit on my pumps for volume measurement and ds18b20 temp probes.

I checked those out. I would guess they're not food-grade plastic though (I'm anal that way). Could you find any info about that? Also rated to just 80C (176F) which is ok, but on the brink of being not capable of sparge water temps (some people use 180+F).

I'll have my BeagleBone Black next Monday it looks like. I'm ordering some temp sensors and stuff this week to start playing with. My (programming) background is in front end web design development, so I know Javascript (incl. Node.js) pretty well - was just starting to look at BoneScript. I also know a bit of Python too. But I know there are much better coders than I.

 

[mattd2]

I checked those out. I would guess they're not food-grade plastic though (I'm anal that way). Could you find any info about that? Also rated to just 80C (176F) which is ok, but on the brink of being not capable of sparge water temps (some people use 180+F).

I'll have my BeagleBone Black next Monday it looks like. I'm ordering some temp sensors and stuff this week to start playing with. My (programming) background is in front end web design development, so I know Javascript (incl. Node.js) pretty well - was just starting to look at BoneScript. I also know a bit of Python too. But I know there are much better coders than I.

From my checking it is made out of 6,6 nylon, acetal, stainless steel. I'll have to break mine apart again to check but as far as I know according to DuPont all the materials list can be approved food contact (whether they have all the certs, etc. to actually be certified for food contact is a different story). I have run a test with near boiling water through the flow meter for >60 minutes and can not detect any taste. They are usually rated to be used at 0-80°C but the fluid temp can be up to 120°C (i.e. don't use it in ambient temps over 80°C). But as with anything each to their own

 

[Gron]

Found this project that is compatible with BeagleBone Black. Not sure what state it's in. Will check out in the next couple of days.

https://github.com/jsproull/kriek

 

[jangevaa]

Check out this thread. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/new-strangebrew-elsinore-thread-475456/

The creator, Doug, is constantly adding new features. It's been in development for a couple years now I think. Really nice software for Raspberry pi or beaglebone black

 

[Hutch1001]

Check out this thread. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/new-strangebrew-elsinore-thread-475456/

The creator, Doug, is constantly adding new features. It's been in development for a couple years now I think. Really nice software for Raspberry pi or beaglebone black

Thanks. I have abandoned this thread as I have decided to do a Kal-ish clone. I actually have been following the strangebrew thread. I may do it for my next build. Here is where I am with my current build though.
Three keggle a bottom drain MLT & HLT. HERMS 50 Amp. Single tier. Just gotta do the wiring. I am hoping to water test and tune PIDs in a week to brew on Friday or Saturday.


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[Gron]

Check out this thread. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/new-strangebrew-elsinore-thread-475456/

The creator, Doug, is constantly adding new features. It's been in development for a couple years now I think. Really nice software for Raspberry pi or beaglebone black

Thanks. That looks interesting. In Java though - means I can't help out. My BBB arrives on Tuesday so I'll install StrangeBrew it and check it out.

Also, can't use analog temp probes with his software, which I have a couple of from a friend already. Still...definitely worth checking out.

 

[Gron]

After looking at the couple of other BBB compatible brewery projects out there, I think I'm still going to chart out and do my own (for various reasons which are probably pointless to elaborate on).

Right now it's looking like: the BBB, Node.js, BoneScript, Socket.io, and possibly ReactJS for the web-based front-end.

I'm trying out some test projects for the BBB right now to get the hang of the hardware, e.g. https://github.com/lgxlogic/BoneScript-SocketIO

I'll start a repo on github shortly and post here...so if anyone's interested in collaborating, let me know.

 

[Wacki]

How is this going?? I'm interested too see what you have done!!

 

[Gron]

Finally getting started after some (life happens type) setbacks. I got my RIMS tube but am still awaiting my temp sensor.

I'll be posting code at:

And getting some blog posts going on this project shortly (showing both hardware and software aspects).

Also, there are now a couple BBB projects going out there now. The guy who does this posts here:
http://www.bonebrews.com/
He's not using PT100 RTDs for temp sensors though.

 

[stever1000]

Any recent updates?