iSpindle - DIY Electronic Hydrometer

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I just finished my spindel build. I am a Apple Computer user and don't know how to flash the board. Can anyone offer some advice about using this with a MAC? I would appreciate any help. Thanks.
 
If you are asking about the battery connection, it's just .1" pitch connector. I use a 2 position molex connector with a .1" pitch. But I have a molex crimper....

What you linked to should work, provided the pins will fit. I'm not sure if you'll have room for the vertical connector. You might need a 90° pcb connector. I'll measure mine when I get home.

skyblaster said:
Since I can't find it mentioned anywhere, what model of JST fits the @Mikmonken PCB best? Is it JST XH?
All I know is that the spacing is 2.54mm.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10-...54mm-With-24AWG-Wires-Cables/32840385771.html
Click to expand...
 
You can see what I did here, but I was out of 2 position headers, so I used a 3 position...
I'm concerned about the total height of the connector you are looking at. I'm not sure it will fit in the PETling.

2018-04-17 13.50.40.jpg
 
skyblaster said:
Since I can't find it mentioned anywhere, what model of JST fits the @Mikmonken PCB best? Is it JST XH?
All I know is that the spacing is 2.54mm.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10-...54mm-With-24AWG-Wires-Cables/32840385771.html
Click to expand...

I just used a couple of jumper cables and snipped the other end off. The female end fits perfectly over the 90 degree connector attached to the board.

The 90degree connector I used is the one that’s shipped with one of the components can’t remember which though sorry.
 
banjo-guy said:
I just finished my spindel build. I am a Apple Computer user and don't know how to flash the board. Can anyone offer some advice about using this with a MAC? I would appreciate any help. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Google “platformio”.
You should find some information.
 
Mikmonken said:
I just used a couple of jumper cables and snipped the other end off. The female end fits perfectly over the 90 degree connector attached to the board.

The 90degree connector I used is the one that’s shipped with one of the components can’t remember which though sorry.
Click to expand...

The Gyro should have come with a 90° Pin Header.
 
I've assembled my new wemos and accelerometer. I removed the LED from the wemos as instructed and left the one on the accelerometer. The LED on the accelerometer is red when the device is turned on and there is 3.1V on the VCC pin.

The original problem still exists though - I can't get a console connection to the wemos (i.e. nothing happens in the linux logs - no sign of any console connection at all).

Should the LED be red, or another colour? Any suggestions on what to try next?

Thanks,
 
gromitdj said:
Try using the multimeter to see if you get the necessary voltage at the Wemos with the battery turned on and not plugged into any USB. It does sound like a power issue to me.
Click to expand...

When the USB is plugged in I'm getting about 3.1V on the VCC pin on the wemos/accelerometer. With the USB unplugged and just the battery plugged in I'm getting about 1.2V. The battery is about 3.6V when unplugged.
 
Have you got the Lipo charger hooked up to? I think once you remove that part from the Wemos it needs to draw power from the battery (or other power) there just isn’t enough power to flash the device otherwise (I found anyway)
 
Mikmonken said:
Have you got the Lipo charger hooked up to? I think once you remove that part from the Wemos it needs to draw power from the battery (or other power) there just isn’t enough power to flash the device otherwise (I found anyway)
Click to expand...

Sorry, I don't quite follow. Are you saying that USB can't supply enough power to charge the battery and flash at the same time?

I've tried it with two different computer USB supplies and a supply that I use for a RPi with external hard drive (supplies 2A), the voltages on the pins are the same and there's no console connection.

Thanks,

BTW, I'm from the Manchester Home Brew group and am hoping to present the iSpindle at our next meet. If I can ever get it working.
 
Nevryn said:
When the USB is plugged in I'm getting about 3.1V on the VCC pin on the wemos/accelerometer. With the USB unplugged and just the battery plugged in I'm getting about 1.2V. The battery is about 3.6V when unplugged.
Click to expand...

That is definitely a problem. You should be getting approx. the same voltage as when it is plugged in. Remove the wemos from the shield and see what you get at the pins of the shield. It could be a soldering issue.

Edit: With the Wemos removed I get 3.61v at the 5v pin. You won't get a voltage at the 3v3 pin because it is not connected without the Wemos. With the Wemos plugged into the shield, I get 3.61v at the 5v pin on the Wemos and 3.29v at the 3v3 pin. The battery is providing 3.61v
 
Last edited:
skyblaster said:
Since I can't find it mentioned anywhere, what model of JST fits the @Mikmonken PCB best? Is it JST XH?
All I know is that the spacing is 2.54mm.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10-...54mm-With-24AWG-Wires-Cables/32840385771.html
Click to expand...

gromitdj said:
I'm not sure if you'll have room for the vertical connector. You might need a 90° pcb connector. I'll measure mine when I get home.
Click to expand...

I measured the clearance on mine and that JST connector "should" work.
 
Nevryn said:
Sorry, I don't quite follow. Are you saying that USB can't supply enough power to charge the battery and flash at the same time?

I've tried it with two different computer USB supplies and a supply that I use for a RPi with external hard drive (supplies 2A), the voltages on the pins are the same and there's no console connection.

Thanks,

BTW, I'm from the Manchester Home Brew group and am hoping to present the iSpindle at our next meet. If I can ever get it working.
Click to expand...

Sorry what I mean is that to flash my wemos I had to have a USB cable attached to the wemos and a second attached to the lipo to power it.

Then to charge the iSpindel I use the connector on the Lipo rather Wemos.

Edit - I just checked I can’t actually charge the battery by connecting the usb mini to the Wemos, it has to be connected to the Lipo charger.

That said the battery should be powerful enough to flash, so maybe check your USB cables are data cables and not just power only.
 
Last edited:
The battery needs to be well charged in order to flash the Wemos.
Since the diode on the Wemos has to be removed, it is then no longer getting power from its USB port.
Future Firmware updates can then be done over the air (via WLAN).

I got into the habit of flashing the firmware to the Wemos before I remove the diode and solder it to the board.

Also, there are some Wemos on the market with faulty UARTs. Bad luck in that case.
 
Guys, did any of you had issues reading tilt angles from ispindel ? PCB kit ordered from 3dmechanics, assembled by instructions
and connected to Ubidots account.

Battery voltage and temperature readings are good and received on regular basis but no tilt data at all.

When I connect to Wemos for maintenance and configuration it does not read tilt values at all. Also, when I enter calibration mode, it just sits there for hours, blue led constantly lit, not finishing calibration at all.

I have checked soldering and everything looks good. No soldering error or short, LED on MPU6050 board is steady green (did not remove it yet).

Is there a way to check if MPU6050 board is sending data to wemos ?
 
Built up a few of these, I have to say it's been a fun project. the graphs in the pic were from uncalibrated builds and in varying positions as the devices were moved around a lot. The PCBs have been dropped to the very bottom of the tubes at this point of course, when they sat too high the tilt was way off even with the ballasts adding weight. Cool stuff!
31064464_10156338124594136_1164258130914181120_o.jpg
 
Well the tilt fits I believe, but that's too expensive for me, and I no longer use carboys so it's all good. :)
 
Hi again,

To answer a few of the suggestions above.

1. I always have power to the Lipo charger when I'm doing the tests with the Spindle.
2. I'm not sure if the battery is charging or not. It's at about 3.6V. The lights on the charger: Blue one on continuously. Orange one on continuously when wemos turned on, orange one flashes quickly when Wemos turned off. Is this an indication that the battery is charged, or something else?
3. With the Wemos board and battery removed, and a 2A USB power supply connected I get 4.15V on the 5V pin on the Lipo charger. If I disconnect the USB and plug in the battery I get 2.55V on the 5V pin.
4. With the Wemos board connected I get approx 3.2V on the 5V pin and 2.7V on the 3.3V pin with the 2A supply into the Lipo charger. I get 1.2V on the 5V pin and 1.1V on the 3.3V pin with the battery connected.

And I can't connect (or even see a USB reference in the logs) to the Wemos console at any point.

I'm thinking, in an uninformed way, that the problem is with the charger/custom PCB. Does this sound reasonable? I have new ones on order and, hopefully, should turn up this week.

Questions:
There are various lights on the devices. Two (blue and orange on the Lipo charger), one (blue) on the Wemos and one (red) on the accelerometer. What do these lights indicate and which colour means what?

Thanks,
 
Hi,

the battery should be at >4.1V when fully charged.
I guess there is something wrong with your charger module.
I am not familiar with the model you are using, mine have only one LED which changes color (orange/red when charging and blue or green when fully charged).
Looks to me like your Wemos is not getting enough power.

The blue LED on the Wemos indicates it is switched on and flashes during activity (blinking regularly when in config mode).

The one on the accelerometer is constantly on while being used (when the Wemos is not in sleep mode).
It unneccessarily consumes power, which is why it (or the resistor in line with it) should be removed (soldered out).
 
Got it all together today - those pads are tiny for my 53yo eyes... I re-flashed it and all came up as it's supposed to. I'm trying to connect it to Fermentrack, looking at the logs, it's connecting to me home network just fine but gets a 404 error when trying to connect to the pi I have Fermentrack on. I think its more of a Fermentrack problem though. I should try and hook it up to ubidots (Or whatever its called) and make sure its working there.
 
Hey guys, this is going to sound like a crazy question to start out my first post on this forum. But i'm super interested in building on of these devices. However, I would not be using this for crafting beer, although I just might start ;) Rather, I am looking to test specific gravity around 1.250-1.285 for use in a Float Tank (Sensory Deprivation) I assume with some modification of the build and a few tweaks of the source code this would be a peace of cake to accomplish. Any feedback is so very helpful :)
 
Jonathan Roug said:
Hey guys, this is going to sound like a crazy question to start out my first post on this forum. But i'm super interested in building on of these devices. However, I would not be using this for crafting beer, although I just might start ;) Rather, I am looking to test specific gravity around 1.250-1.285 for use in a Float Tank (Sensory Deprivation) I assume with some modification of the build and a few tweaks of the source code this would be a peace of cake to accomplish. Any feedback is so very helpful :)
Click to expand...
I believe that in a first attempt you could use the same parts and considering this high gravity you should add a lot weight to the sled.
 
atoughram said:
Got it all together today - those pads are tiny for my 53yo eyes... I re-flashed it and all came up as it's supposed to. I'm trying to connect it to Fermentrack, looking at the logs, it's connecting to me home network just fine but gets a 404 error when trying to connect to the pi I have Fermentrack on. I think its more of a Fermentrack problem though. I should try and hook it up to ubidots (Or whatever its called) and make sure its working there.
Click to expand...

What exactly is the URL you have it trying to connect to?

It should be something like:
http://192.168.1.199/ispindel/

Make sure you have the IP, spelling, and capitalization correct - The iSpindel device can’t use the mDNS name unfortunately.
 
Paiakan said:
I believe that in a first attempt you could use the same parts and considering this high gravity you should add a lot weight to the sled.
Click to expand...
Right on friend, well that gets me motivated and in the right direction! Thanks for the feedback.
 
Thanks for answering my questions on the other thread Thorrak! First brew day for the iSpindel will be June 23rd.
 
jangevaa said:
I've been considering iSpindel for awhile now, but the largest hang up for me is the containers. With Fermentrack now supporting iSpindel, I am revisiting.

Has anybody looked into and found anything better to house the hardware? Ideally something stainless, or glass with internally threaded end cap.

I've come across a number of interesting products on alibaba. This one is perhaps the most interesting. Looks about the same size as a bottle pre-form, but borosilicate, with internal threading on the end...

https://boglass.en.alibaba.com/prod...m=a2700.icbuShop.prewdfa4cf.43.2c5f7744MNatEJ
Click to expand...

Bum Fudge said:
I just finished building my first iSpindel and am calibrating it now. Looking at it I can understand your reluctance to use plastic due to potential scratches and cleaning issues. It's fairly large so ironically I can only use it in a plastic bucket or my Fermentasaurus plastic fermenter.

It seems to me that a container made from SS would suffer from very poor wifi performance acting as a faraday shield.

The borosilicate glass idea may have more potential but without testing I could only speculate on some issues.
1) - The one posted seems much slimmer than the XXL Pelting (40mm x 122mm inside). Wemos D1 or the Esp-Wroom-02 WeMos D1 are both about 26mm wide. So it needs to be at least that large ID and would require a redesigned sled.
2) - The extra weight of the glass may affect the balance or tilt
3) - The threads seem external on the one you suggested, however you would need a cap that perhaps had a o-ring or gasket to insure a watertight seal as glass threads can usually be less than precise.
4) - The price is attractive but that is a min 500 piece order. You may be able to obtain a sample or two though from the manufacturer.

Good luck and I hope you try it out and report back. Keep innovating!
Click to expand...

Anyone find a container more like tilt's, or at least US suppliers for the XXL?
Found these on amazon 140x35mm, but with aluminum caps : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MYRB6VW/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I've ordered some 100ml pp centrifuge tubes 128x34mm from Alibaba. £1 each. But smaller than Petling.

Will design the sled once I get these.
 
Also - anyone have a spare PCB I could buy? I ordered 4 (min quantity), but have enough parts for a 5th :)
 
I'm wanting to try to make one of these bad boys. Going through this thread there has been a lot of discussion and changes made to the first parts list posted and I've having a difficult time piecing together the most recent and updated version. Does anyone have an updated master list with the most recent revision of parts that everyone is using?
 
 

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