Raspberry Pi for fermentation control

[RyanSweeney]

Hey everybody. I've been out of the brewing game for a good 3 years...just now starting to get my gear back together. I used to use a Raspberry Pi running BrewPi, an Arduino Uno and a PowerSwitch Tail (power cord with a relay built-in) for fermentation temperature control and monitoring, but it seems BrewPi now pushes their Spark controller and doesn't have the BrewPi software available.

What's everyone using these days for fermentation temperature control?

 

[user 40839]

Heya Ryan - same boat here, was out for three years having just built a brewpi. I switched my fermentation setup to a pair of SS Brewtech Chronicals and was going to just go their Fss setup (or whatever it's called) but thankfully @Thorrak is keeping the brewpi very much alive on our end.

http://fermentrack.com

 

[GoeHaarden]

There is also a lot of other renditions available these days

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/

 

[RyanSweeney]

Heya Ryan - same boat here, was out for three years having just built a brewpi. I switched my fermentation setup to a pair of SS Brewtech Chronicals and was going to just go their Fss setup (or whatever it's called) but thankfully @Thorrak is keeping the brewpi very much alive on our end.

http://fermentrack.com

So are you using Fermentrack? If so, are you using it with an Arduino or ESP8266?

 

[user 40839]

So are you using Fermentrack? If so, are you using it with an Arduino or ESP8266?

I'm using a pair of Arduino Uno's using a community sponsored shield that @Bigdaddyale sorted to run the LCD because I detested BrewPi's web interface. However the updated web interface that Thorrak has made for Fermentrack is great, and find myself using that all the time.

Fermentrack is now entirely seamless as well, you'll get an alert on your browser if there's an update, one click and it takes care of it all - no more having to fire up the SSH for sporadic updating, and hoping to @#$@# that it works.

One click installation too, and support for Tilt hydrometers (one of which is on the way!). I can't say enough about it, to be honest.

 

[frodus17]

I use a software called Mycodo on a RPi along with some DS18B20 sensors, and the Craftbeerpi/Terragedy board and some SSRs and a RPI LCD. It controls my kegerator:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/my-kegerator-temp-chamber-project.634784/

Simple to set up, actively being developed and does very well with temperature control. Can have Fan on one SSR, Compressor on another, heater on another, etc. Kyle is awesome, and it's a really nice software.

Can do ramp/soak profiles, schedules so you can lager or diacetyl rest. Also email alarms, and some other features I don't use. I wanted flexibility to eventually do environmental control. He has support for lots of sensors like light, temperature, humidity, CO2, etc.

 

[RyanSweeney]

I'm using a pair of Arduino Uno's using a community sponsored shield that @Bigdaddyale sorted to run the LCD because I detested BrewPi's web interface. However the updated web interface that Thorrak has made for Fermentrack is great, and find myself using that all the time.

Fermentrack is now entirely seamless as well, you'll get an alert on your browser if there's an update, one click and it takes care of it all - no more having to fire up the SSH for sporadic updating, and hoping to @#$@# that it works.

One click installation too, and support for Tilt hydrometers (one of which is on the way!). I can't say enough about it, to be honest.

So I'm trying to get Fermentrack to install. I'm using the single command 'curl -L install.fermentrack.com | sudo bash' and it gets to the end where it's trying to start the circus process and says "Starting Fermentrack supervisor: circus: /home/fermentrack/fermentrack/utils/updateCronCircus.sh: line 37: /home/fermentrack/venv/bin/curcusd: No such file or directory".

It's a fresh install of Raspbian, and I've expanded the file system. Did you run into this problem when you set yours up?

 

[RyanSweeney]

Got Fermentrack up and running! Had some difficulty with the "run this one command and it'll work" thing though. I was able to use RevC firmware to work with the way I had things wired up when I used straight up BrewPi in the past.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I use an Inkbird for my control but to monitor I have my own esp8266 script
http://monitor.ozarksmountainbrew.com/d/KR-TixOmz/ozarks-fermentation-session?refresh=10s&orgId=1

I also have a friend developing this which can control anything with a yun
http://brew.ozarksmountainbrew.com

https://www.amazon.com/Temperature-...ocphy=9023812&hvtargid=pla-395718471013&psc=1

 

[Stand]

+1 Fermentrack. Really great build.

 

[WestMichBrewer]

I should try this out...