Kegland Rapt Pill floating hydrometer temperature monitor

[pocketmon]

After my third iSpindel died because of beer went into it, I decide to try Pill, which seems to have a better housing design. I managed to make BrewPiLess to work with Pill in Bluetooth mode because I like to manage data in my own way. Here is my short review, mostly compared to iSpindel, which I've used for years.

- Good or better housing design, although the housing seems a little thin. The tubes that most DIY iSpindels use have opens on top, where Krausen ring gathers. Having the opening in the middle makes it easier to clean.
- Bluetooth/BLE mode works well for me. Inside a stainless fermenter inside a fridge, I have no issue receiving the signal. Currently I am using 1 minute reporting period for testing. The battery is around 65% after two weeks. (BTW, I couldn't always turn it off by laying it flat.)
- The variation of tilt angles or gravities is larger than my iSpindels. It might due to the smaller and lighter body or the performance of the sensor.

Overall, I am satisfied with Pill.

 

[beren]

Is anyone as mad as I am that the web dev broke the pill app/ui on older iOS versions with that big “upgrade” last fall? It mostly works on iOS 15, if you call no graph display at all mostly working. On my ios14 iPad I can’t even log in. I opened a bug and I’ve been told to write my own client app. Wtf @KegLand nice support. I use my old devices as smart home controllers, so buying a new phone isn’t an option. Can we please not break working things like that? Not sure why it broke, as it should be using the api itself. Apples dev rules don’t allow an app to just open a webpage…

 

[pocketmon]

Changing the report period to 5 minutes, the battery seems to last longer than I have expected. Well, I don't know how long it will be, but it is 71% now after two months. At least 4 to 6 months can be expected.

One issue I have when brewing lager is tilt angle drift caused by (maybe) the temperature when I found the gravity drops while temperature drops. We all knows that the "density" of water is higher when the temperature is lower( but is greater than 4 degree C). Therefore, temperature correction is necessary for hydrometers. Given the fact that Pill shares the same physical theory with floating hydrometers, it should measure "higher" gravity in colder temperature. However, my Pill reports lower tilt angle( translated to lower gravity) as the temperature goes down.

I put my Pill in water, placed it in a fridge, and record the tilt angles and temperatures. @KegLand, is it something related to gyro drifting on temperature or other problems?

 

[hotbeer]

Considering that the widest variance at any of the temperatures is less than 0.2°C apart, don't you think that is more than accurate enough for beer? If that temp is Fahrenheit, then it's even way less.

Or is temp the other axis.

 

[pocketmon]

Considering that the widest variance at any of the temperatures is less than 0.2°C apart, don't you think that is more than accurate enough for beer? If that temp is Fahrenheit, then it's even way less.

Or is temp the other axis.

X axis is temperature in Celsius.

At around 20°C, the tilt angle is around 25.4°, while it is 25.1° at 8°C. For my Pill, that difference is translated to almost 1 point(0.001). It is even worse if "temperature correction for hydrometer" is applied.

The temperature is getting hotter, and my ground water is too warm to chill my wort to my desired pitching temperature. I was shocked when seeing the gravity dropped before pitching. Therefore, I conducted the test to confirm this issue.

 

[hotbeer]

I consider being within 3 points accurate enough for any SG related to beer. And you seem to have shown that the precision is well within that.