Brewometer kickstarter thoughts - digital bluetooth hydrometer

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Hey guys, sorry, I'm not a fluid scientist, nor do I really have a horse in this race.

I've gone around and around with the developers over email on this and other topics related to how the units function, and I was just stating what they have listed in their FAQ and what they've told me via email.

Brew on! :mug:
 
drgonzo2k2 said:
Hey guys, sorry, I'm not a fluid scientist, nor do I really have a horse in this race.

I've gone around and around with the developers over email on this and other topics related to how the units function, and I was just stating what they have listed in their FAQ and what they've told me via email.

Brew on! :mug:
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I certainly don't dismiss what their Q&A said, or what you learned in conversations with the developers, but it does lend it self to more questions. They know this stuff inside and out, I'd just like to know all their little secrets. :mug:
 
thekraken said:
I certainly don't dismiss what their Q&A said, or what you learned in conversations with the developers, but it does lend it self to more questions. They know this stuff inside and out, I'd just like to know all their little secrets. :mug:
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They seem super friendly, I'd just reach out to them. They told me they purposely used off-the-shelf hardware etc. to make it as easy as possible for people to hack/modify as they see fit. When I pointed them to this thread they were delighted.
 
jimmayhugh said:
All of the "number crunching" and hypotheticals doesn't invalidate the real-word results. Just for grits and shins, I'm gradually lowering the temp of the water jug to 38 degrees today and will continue to monitor and post the results.
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Well, looky here:

Brewometer3.png


It appears that the readings are going in the wrong direction according to the "number crunching" and hypotheticals yet again.

What's with the quotation marks? That sort of comes of as dismissively condescending. You know we're right, right?
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I know your numbers are correct as far as they go based on "assuming a hydrometer calibrated at 60F, measuring only water". I'm not using a hydrometer, I'm using an electrical device that is being used to deliver readings of some sort in water.

My "number crunching" clearly shows that your real-world results are invalid and that your initial hypothesis that the issue was simply temperature related can't be the whole story. The error you showed can't be dismissed that easily. There is something wrong with either your code, your brewometer, or your physical setup.
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My real world results are what they are. They are neither "invalid" nor an "error". Who's being condescending now?

You are more than welcome to look at the code I posted, get your own brewometer, and give it a whirl, and show me a different set of results.

I'm assuming the brewometer uses a gyroscope to detect the level of tilt?
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I'm not assuming anything. I'm providing the empirical results of a simple test.

Is this just your unit, or is this every unit?
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Good question, would you like to send me several more units for additional testing?
 
jimmayhugh said:
Well, looky here:
I know your numbers are correct as far as they go based on "assuming a hydrometer calibrated at 60F, measuring only water". I'm not using a hydrometer, I'm using an electrical device that is being used to deliver readings of some sort in water.
Click to expand...

It is measuring the tilt readings of the accelerometer of the device floating in the liquid.

I know there was some pushback when I said it before, but I was told that these units don't take measurements the same way that a standard hydrometer does, and that's why the temperature does not have the same impact on them that it does a hydrometer.

Again, that's just what I was told.
 
drgonzo2k2 said:
It is measuring the tilt readings of the accelerometer of the device floating in the liquid.

I know there was some pushback when I said it before, but I was told that these units don't take measurements the same way that a standard hydrometer does, and that's why the temperature does not have the same impact on them that it does a hydrometer.

Again, that's just what I was told.
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Exactly.

I'm writing a nice e-mail to the developers now, we'll see what they say... :p
 
Let's take a step back. jimmayhugh, nothing I have said was in anyway meant to put you on the defensive. If it has then I apologize.

I'm interested in purchasing the product, and because of that I am curious as to why you have gotten, and are continuing to get, bad results.
 
thekraken said:
Let's take a step back. Jimmay, nothing I have said was in anyway meant to put you on the defensive. If it has then I apologize.

I'm interested in purchasing the product, and because of that I am curious as to why you're getting bad results.
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I'm not getting "bad results". I'm getting data with which YOU don't agree.
You could have avoided this entire thing by simply using the IOS or Android app.

And, just for the record, the use of quotation marks is not, in and of itself, "condescending." Sometimes, it's simply used to show that you're quoting someone else. It was your inference that made it "condescending."
 
jimmayhugh said:
I mean that it appears that you don't have any problem with the results shown from the IOS or Android apps, so simply direct your attention there.

I'm done with this exchange...
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I don't have a problem, Jim! According to your data you do! If you stick a digital thermometer into a pot of boiling water and the thermometer reads 145F, what's the temperature of the water?

I sincerely wish you good luck with your project, I like the looks of what you've done so far. :mug:
 
thekraken said:
I don't have a problem, Jim! According to your data you do! If you stick a digital thermometer into a pot of boiling water and the thermometer reads 145F, what's the temperature of the water?

I sincerely wish you good luck with your project, I like the looks of what you've done so far. :mug:
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Depends on the altitude, doesn't it???
Sorry, couldn't resist that one!! :mug:

As I mentioned, I don't think I (or you) have all the facts, ergo the nice e-mail to the developers.
 
I brewed ten gallons of my "Otterly Mosaic" IPA, and it's in my sanke fermenter with the Brewmometer inside. After a few fitful starts, I got it running and recording. :rockin:

I'll post an update after a day or two.

Update:
Well, after several hours, I've had a couple of occasions where the Brewometer/Tilt/Whatever (hereinafter "BTW") simply stopped communicating:confused:.

I found that gently swirling the keg, it seems to "wake up" the BTW. This is not something I plan to do on a regular basis :(.

We'll see how it goes.

2nd Update:
Got it working again :rockin:
Placed the RPi directly on top of the sanke keg, seems to be working better.
We'll see...
 
CaptnDelta said:
I got my brewpi running for a few days now with the brewpi+ brewometer integration by sbowler, and after his averaging fixes and with some tweaking on the graphing I think I now like how this looks...

There are also updated instructions on his github page.
Cheers,
-Th
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How does one handle the re-calibration when using an rpi/bt dongle setup? Calibration data is entered and stored in the mobile app, right?
 
Fabrizio said:
Jim, did you post a link to your full code for the mysql logging and graphing too, or just the basic php script in post #531? I'd like to try a similar setup.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I'm writing a how-to page at my website, and I'll post the code at my github site when I've tested it a little more.

I'm also corresponding withe the Tilt folks, and it looks like they are taking a slightly different approach that is supposedly more power-friendly. I've never done anything with bluetooth or BLE before, so this is all new territory for me.
 
jimmayhugh said:
I'm writing a how-to page at my website, and I'll post the code at my github site when I've tested it a little more.

I'm also corresponding withe the Tilt folks, and it looks like they are taking a slightly different approach that is supposedly more power-friendly. I've never done anything with bluetooth or BLE before, so this is all new territory for me.
Click to expand...
Okay. Good to know. Looking forward to giving it a try.
Also going to try the integration with my brewpi.
options...
 
I got one of these for Father's Day. I used it for the first time on Friday. It seemed to be working fine but it stopped transmitting last evening. I'm thinking it's the battery and I'll just order new ones. Any other possibilities?

Thanks.
 
Spartan1979 said:
I got one of these for Father's Day. I used it for the first time on Friday. It seemed to be working fine but it stopped transmitting last evening. I'm thinking it's the battery and I'll just order new ones. Any other possibilities?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
I believe they will continue to transmit and drain the battery unless they are stored in the upright/vertical position.
 
Spartan1979 said:
I got one of these for Father's Day. I used it for the first time on Friday. It seemed to be working fine but it stopped transmitting last evening. I'm thinking it's the battery and I'll just order new ones. Any other possibilities?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
are you using android or iOS? on android I had to exit the app, turn bluetooth off, back on and reload the app regain a connection. everytime. I now have a stupid iPad mini that "just works" :smack:
 
boat_eggs said:
are you using android or iOS? on android I had to exit the app, turn bluetooth off, back on and reload the app regain a connection. everytime. I now have a stupid iPad mini that "just works" :smack:
Click to expand...

I also have this problem with my android app. I will notice after awhile the screen will be blank white, or the app has not updated in awhile. I have to reset my bluetooth and it works fine after that. So far that is my only issue.
 
Seems to me like @jimmayhugh and the brewpi integration guys have the right idea with a cheap dedicated raspberry pi (or similar) server. Anyone heard of the Tilt guys working on their own rpi app or anything like that? (I'm just thinking in regard to "officially" supported/maintained)

A dedicated mobile device just doesn't feel right.
 
boat_eggs said:
are you using android or iOS? on android I had to exit the app, turn bluetooth off, back on and reload the app regain a connection. everytime. I now have a stupid iPad mini that "just works" :smack:
Click to expand...

Android. I'm using an old Galaxy S4. I restarted the phone and no luck. I ordered 6 batteries from Amazon.
 
Just got a reply back from Marcus @ Tilt.

I recommended they might link to this forum from their site considering the wealth of positive feedback about their support folks and good advise for prospective customers (y'all convinced me to give it at try). Marcus said he thought that was a great idea and will consider it.

I also asked him about the prospect of an improved temp sensor to shorten the lag during calibration and heating/cooling changes during fermentation, possibly using IR, as it's been mentioned on this forum (can't find specific post right now). He did say:
Regarding the IR temp sensor, we are no where near a revision on our current circuit board as it would push the cost up for our constumers (which we don't want to do at all). Additionally, we've had good success with the temp sensor so far, so we may end up keeping it. The unit as-is is likely to stay mostly unchanged in function and useability.
Click to expand...

To my query about timing/plans for an API or linux integration, he either missed it or ignored it. No acknowledgement or response in any way.
 
akthor said:
Why Tilt? What a horrible name. Brewometer was perfect.
Click to expand...

When I Google "brewometer" I got a lot of results for Blichmann Brewmometer and something else that was actually called Brewometer that predates our Brewometer. Maybe they're avoiding conflict and confusion?
 

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