[Version 2 Release] RaspberryPints - Digital Taplist Solution
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Well I went back through the CLI command list and checked all the lines for the above item against the instruction list and they matched. For grins I ran them again and got the same results. I ran the compile check and it ran with no errors, but no change in the ghosted serial port item in the tools menu. There is a tab with code called serial that loads with the *.ino file also but that isn't the problem.
Nice try day_trippr, thanks for the time.
Mike
When you're in the Arduino IDE, did you select AlaMode from the device list?
Cheers!
Cheers!
Yes, but I will check again tonight once I get home from work just to triple check. Man I am sooo close and I am really looking forward to finish getting this on-line. I have all my graphics loaded too. Once all is complete I'll start working on the overscan/black boarders as I am not sure if that was the cause of some of my earlier problems (overscan on in s/w & h/w).
Update: I just ran across the post on motion detector write up you did in 2011 and have ordered the HC SR501, which I will install after I get all the system fully functional and my unit in a project box. Very nice setup!
I have all the parts to upgrade from V1 to v2.01 with flow meters but just havent had a chance to start working on it. It looks like I can work on this next weekend so I hope to be up and running on v2.01 soon. I have been watching the thread and know that some special instructions were identified in a couple places in the thread, I am using day_trippr's motion sensor add-on as well. Before I get going on this I just wanted to verify if the v2.01 had all the changes needed and to see if I need to augment the v2.01 install directions because of using day_trippr's motion sensor, I thought I saw a post by day_trippr with a specific set of install instructions when using his sensor but couldnt find the post. Any guidance would be appreciated. Thanks.
day_trippr, I shut it down last night and when I got home to reboot it the serial port selection worked. I finished that part, compile load, but now the instructions on line are significantly different from the ones I printed earlier this month so I need to check to see what has changed so I don't miss something else. The whole section on enabling the python flow scripts has changed.
Ah well Thanks for the earlier support and I will keep pinging at it until I get it.
Mike
Hang in there, you're getting closer
Best as I recall, the only change was indeed changing how flow_monitor.py is executed. It used to be set to run when the LXDE loaded but it's now being run as a service (much better solution). So if you can get through "Step 9" you should be in good shape...
Cheers!
My motion sensor stuff really doesn't get involved with R'Pints directly - there aren't any coded links between them so you shouldn't have any issues there. The sensor code just tickles the xscreensaver.
My temperature logger originally only linked to R'Pints by virtue of an optional hot-spotted icon on the tap list page. I've recently added a "scrolling" temperature display next to that icon via an external php file linked to the R'Pints index.php file. That's also rather benign by design as it's just a single line inserted into index.php, so any time that latter file gets changed it's pretty trivial to re-insert the link.
So I'd say go for the update and fix whatever breaks - if anything...
Cheers!
billybryson54
Well-Known Member
For those of you who have a stout tap/nitro setup, what is your current configuration? When I began the flowmeter side of the project, I poured a quick one to make sure my meter would register. Since then my stout tap has pretty much been untouched. Well just tonight I tried to pour myself one, and wound up with a 22 ounce glass of pure foam, which was never an issue before metering. I'm using 11 foot lines with the meter about a foot off my keg, and about 25 psi of beer gas pushed through a standard stout tap. Any advice?
Hang in there, you're getting closer
Best as I recall, the only change was indeed changing how flow_monitor.py is executed. It used to be set to run when the LXDE loaded but it's now being run as a service (much better solution). So if you can get through "Step 9" you should be in good shape...
Cheers!
Will I have not gotten the script to start;
sudo /etc/init.d/flowmon start $ ps aux | grep flow_monitor.py
But pretty sure I got the rest right. In the flowmon there are 3 lines I am concerned whether I got it right or not:
# Change the next 3 lines to suit where you install your script and what you wa$
DIR=/etc/init.d
DAEMON=/var/www/python/flow_monitor.py
DAEMON_NAME=RPFlowMon
In the DIR line I have tried what is there as well as /var/www I am not sure what it should be.
In the DAEMON line that is where the file is actually located.
In the DAEMON_NAME= line I have not modified it but the leading RP looks strange to me.
If I can get past this item I think I will have it running very soon!
Thanks again to all who have helped me getting this up and running.
Mike
I've had zero problems with my nitro stout, a pleasant surprise given the meters use IR light. The metering has always appeared accurate and the pours are lovely.
Then again, I pour a short one just before bedtime nearly every night - I doubt it ever goes more than two days between pours.
Though I'm not sure that really should make a difference.
I'm running 12 footers on all my faucets - which is probably counter-productive for the stout faucet, but I wanted the flexibility.
I run the stout at 35psi, and this is the typical pour. It's addictive
Cheers!
Then again, I pour a short one just before bedtime nearly every night - I doubt it ever goes more than two days between pours.
Though I'm not sure that really should make a difference.
I'm running 12 footers on all my faucets - which is probably counter-productive for the stout faucet, but I wanted the flexibility.
I run the stout at 35psi, and this is the typical pour. It's addictive
Cheers!
billybryson54
Well-Known Member
Very nice! So it's do-able. Unfortunately, here's mine...
After 5 minutes of settling and "cascading"...ugh. I thought I had these foaming problems beat! And for the record, I cleaned and inspected the tap itself. There's no kinks or restrictions in the line that I can find. Well I'm gonna go have a glass of foam and go back to the drawing board. lol
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After 5 minutes of settling and "cascading"...ugh. I thought I had these foaming problems beat! And for the record, I cleaned and inspected the tap itself. There's no kinks or restrictions in the line that I can find. Well I'm gonna go have a glass of foam and go back to the drawing board. lol
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Interesting, Negra Modelo is one of my favs. When I was in Ajijic Mexico 5 years ago I was paying $1..25 a bottle at the bar!
Anyway I have been running my beer gas at 20 psia but may kick it up based on your pressure. I have been force carbonating at 40 psia. Running an oatmeal stout right now. I also have a black IPA that I aged in a 15 gallon whiskey barrel for 6 weeks in the garage. Very tasty!
Anyway I have been running my beer gas at 20 psia but may kick it up based on your pressure. I have been force carbonating at 40 psia. Running an oatmeal stout right now. I also have a black IPA that I aged in a 15 gallon whiskey barrel for 6 weeks in the garage. Very tasty!
You guys play rough... ;-)
billybryson54
Well-Known Member
Are you using a flow meter in your setup?
It's hard work, but someone's gotta do it
fwiw, I carb my stout using straight CO2 to around 2.2 volumes at my 36°F dispensing temperature, which requires fairly low pressure - like ~8 psi. With the 75/25 beer gas at 35 psi the theoretical partial pressure for the CO2 is around 8.75 psi, so the carbonation creeps up a little bit over time, but it ends up looking like my picture, every time.
It seems to violate the consensus opinion that the stout should be carbed really low to successfully dispense at high pressure, but there I am.
So seeing "I have been force carbonating at 40 psia." caught my eye.
Is that using beer gas to carb the beer, or CO2? And at what temperature?
Cheers!
fwiw, I carb my stout using straight CO2 to around 2.2 volumes at my 36°F dispensing temperature, which requires fairly low pressure - like ~8 psi. With the 75/25 beer gas at 35 psi the theoretical partial pressure for the CO2 is around 8.75 psi, so the carbonation creeps up a little bit over time, but it ends up looking like my picture, every time.
It seems to violate the consensus opinion that the stout should be carbed really low to successfully dispense at high pressure, but there I am.
So seeing "I have been force carbonating at 40 psia." caught my eye.
Is that using beer gas to carb the beer, or CO2? And at what temperature?
Cheers!
It's hard work, but someone's gotta do it
So seeing "I have been force carbonating at 40 psia." caught my eye.
Is that using beer gas to carb the beer, or CO2? And at what temperature?
Cheers!
I am using 70/30 beer gas, but have been debating the 75/25 mix with a fellow brewer. I force carbonate in my keezer, 25 cf 8 tap setup, at 38F, which is also my serving temperature. Life is full of compromises.....
Update: I have 3 gas lines going into my keezer. CO2 has a double regulator and I have 10 psia for serving (distribution system in keezer), and a second line at 40 psia with a "T" so I can force carbonate CO2 to 2 kegs (I brew in 10 gallon batches). My beer gas line is 40 psia going to a secondary regulator in the keezer that I currently have set at 20 psia for serving and the straight line goes to 2 lines for force carbonation at 40 psia. If I get some extra money in the future I might go to all secondary regulators for my CO2 so I can set each taps pressure individually rather than averaging. My kolsh likes lower pressure but my IPA likes it a little higher.
I have the 8 flow meters in and am trying to finish the software setup. I had 10' beer lines and basically added 4' more so I can keep the flow meters out of harms way, as much as possible, and I hoped that 4' would be enough to let things settle down. Worse case I could reverse the beer lines so there would be 10' between the meter and the tap; as the meter inserts can be pulled out to change the flow direction. Once I get the system fully functional and the RPi unit/wiring in a project box I will probably use some tie wraps to restrain the meters in a manner that makes sense to me probably near the back end of the shanks. In a 25 CF keezer you can get around 16 5 gallon kegs in and the beer lines can get tangled with the in's & out's of empty/full exchanges.
ratsathome
Well-Known Member
Today was the first day since the start of V1 that I made a successful backup of my system.None of the normal stuff wanted to work for me. Even tried on an old XP PC.
Came across this http://sysmatt.blogspot.ie/2014/08/backup-restore-customize-and-clone-your.html.
Followed the tutorial and it worked for me.
Hope this might help someone with similar problems
Thanks for that - it's definitely going to come in handy soon.
The problem with using something like Win32DiskImager is it's dumb as a stump and blindly copies block-for-block from the first to last blocks on the source. So if you have an "8GB" card with say a thousand bad blocks and you want to clone it to another "8GB" card with say two thousand bad blocks, the operation will fail because the destination card is smaller than the source card. Even though around 75% of the source card was unused.
The linked process actually builds the needed partitions on the destination card and then copies actual files and folders to it; unused space on the source isn't replicated. A big win...
Cheers!
The problem with using something like Win32DiskImager is it's dumb as a stump and blindly copies block-for-block from the first to last blocks on the source. So if you have an "8GB" card with say a thousand bad blocks and you want to clone it to another "8GB" card with say two thousand bad blocks, the operation will fail because the destination card is smaller than the source card. Even though around 75% of the source card was unused.
The linked process actually builds the needed partitions on the destination card and then copies actual files and folders to it; unused space on the source isn't replicated. A big win...
Cheers!
billybryson54
Well-Known Member
I think I may have discovered my problem. My keg was partly frozen. Somehow or another my temp probe dislodged itself from where I normally keep it attached. I pulled out my keg of stout and heard a strange sound when I was moving it. When I opened it, I had about 5 pints remaining in there of slushy beer. after replacing it with another stout keg that I had on deck, it's pouring exactly the way it's supposed to. I swear, I'm my own worst enemy sometimes....anyway, thanks guys!
I love happy endings...
Cheers!
Cheers!
I ended up getting some thin wall brass tubing from the local hobby shop that my temp. probe slipped into (good fit), cut a section off, crimped one end slightly, then JB Weld epoxy to a quart glass jar filled with water and a lid on it. Placed it in the corner of my keezer on the bottom and it has been real stable on the cycle times too.
The above is from flowmon and if I can get some help on what I have wrong in the above 3 lines (maybe only the first one needs correction), I think I can get my install completed. Sorry about being a noob, but we all have to start somewhere...
This is from step 9 of the install instructions.
Mike
Interesting point once I got home this evening. I went and looked at my RPiPints display and it showed beer dispensed yesterday. So it looks like the flowmon script is running in the background, but the feedback CLI did not tell me that all was good. So I dispensed some from each tap to clear lines and to do a flow check and only a keg that ran dry did not show flow,except for the empty tap. So knowing this should I skip portions of the section 9 and complete section 10? Ihave already had enough headaches with partially implemented sections that I do not want to go there again. Starting over is a PITA!
Later
Mke
Later
Mke
DIR is the folder that holds flow_monitor.py
DAEMON points to flow_monitor_py inside of DIR
DAEMON_NAME is just a name. You could name it Godzilla
My flow_monitor.py script is located in the /var/www/python folder.
So here are the entries from my /var/www/python/flowmon file:
DIR=/var/www/python
DAEMON=$DIR/flow_monitor.py
DAEMON_NAME=RPFlowMon
Cheers!
Fwiw, this command will tell you if flowmon is running:
Code:
$ sudo /etc/init.d/flowmon statusThis command stop flowmon:
Code:
$ sudo /etc/init.d/flowmon stopAnd this command will start flowmon:
Code:
$ sudo /etc/init.d/flowmon startThere's a typo in Step 9: the command to start flowmon is sharing a line with the command to check its process state. It should have been broken into two lines, as below:
$ sudo /etc/init.d/flowmon start
$ ps aux | grep flow_monitor.py
That's dinged a few folks already.
In any case, $ sudo /etc/init.d/flowmon status is a handier command to check the service process state.
Anyway...it sure seems like you're done with Step 9 and most of Step 10.
Time to create a backup of your SD card!
btw, I don't quite get what "and only a keg that ran dry did not show flow,except for the empty tap." means, but I gather whatever it is, it's not a bad thing...
Cheers!
day_tripr, you are an ace. Thank you for all of your extra time and support! I just figured out tonight about the typo, Newbie trap that needs to be corrected. I have one tap with no beer on-line yet, and two taps/flow meters are not reporting, debug later. However it looks like I have FINALLY gotten to the end of the initial install using 2.0.1. Thank you many times for the outstanding support I got from the members here.
There seems to be additional recipe items that do not come up in the new beer menu. Is this a future update item or did I not activate in the admin section?
Now to have some fun with my new toyz...
Again Thanks to all who helped me!
Mike
Just to review, the PIN setting for each TAP has to match your Arduino sketch (raspberrypints.ino) setting for number of taps and the pins used for each, which in turn has to match your wiring between Arduino and meters.
If you find you set the PIN wrong you have to kick the keg, change its status to Conditioning, then tap it again and with the proper PIN setting. The first few times I tapped a keg I kept forgetting to set the PIN or set the wrong number. I think I've finally gotten that part down
fwiw, I can recommend pins 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 for your first six meters - 3 & 4 won't work. mcangeli has used some of the upper pins - I believe he's used 8 through 11. Arduino Pin 13 is used as a "pour indicator" driving the "blink" LED on the AlaMode: if the Arduino "sees" a pour it will blink that light for a few seconds. If someone really needed that pin for a meter it's a minor edit to the ino file to free up that pin
Those parameters have been there all along, but they aren't hooked up with the management gui yet.
Cheers! And enjoy the new toy!
If you find you set the PIN wrong you have to kick the keg, change its status to Conditioning, then tap it again and with the proper PIN setting. The first few times I tapped a keg I kept forgetting to set the PIN or set the wrong number. I think I've finally gotten that part down
fwiw, I can recommend pins 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 for your first six meters - 3 & 4 won't work. mcangeli has used some of the upper pins - I believe he's used 8 through 11. Arduino Pin 13 is used as a "pour indicator" driving the "blink" LED on the AlaMode: if the Arduino "sees" a pour it will blink that light for a few seconds. If someone really needed that pin for a meter it's a minor edit to the ino file to free up that pin
Cheers! And enjoy the new toy!
Again great inputs! Especially on the pins 3 & 4, I will fix that tonight. Yeah I will probably have to re-assign most of my taps/pins after I update the .ino file and compile/upload. Yes it was tap 3, pin 4, I was having the most trouble with, and I don't remember tap 2, pin 3 as an issue, but will take care of it anyway. It would be nice if the tap/pin assignment was sticky so you don't have to put it in every time, but editable would also be good. I need to start looking around for some durable tags to put my keg number on them, or just get some stencils plus some self etching primer (more permanent).
However I am glad this portion of the build/configure is over!
OK I got the pins moved, updated the .ino file, and saved. It compiles fine but it is not uploading. It says programmer not responding. I have changed nothing else so I am confused again. It still has AlaMode selected and the Serial is still selected. Any recommendations?
Mike
Mike
You have to stop the flowmon service when you want to reprogram the Arduino, as it ties up the serial port so the IDE gets all pissy.
Cheers!
Code:
$ sudo /etc/init.d/flowmon stopCheers!
AH!! I knew I should have bought the Cliffs Notes...
Thank you again and I will take care of that tonight.
OK, still have some issues, and did not have a lot of time this weekend. I added a tap/keg for carbonated water for drinking and testing but it is not registering plus another. So my question is in the ~pints.ino file on the line for declaring the pins used should there be a space after the separation comma or not (2,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 or 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)? The instructions I saw seemed to not have a space.
Thanks in advance.
Mike
Thanks in advance.
Mike
mcangeli
Well-Known Member
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The space shouldn't matter.
Which pin is the one that the water is on?
I've started working on the code to add the centipede shield which would enable more pins but I haven't sat down and worked on it in depth in a while.
Which pin is the one that the water is on?
I've started working on the code to add the centipede shield which would enable more pins but I haven't sat down and worked on it in depth in a while.
chiefairwrench
Junior Member
Well first let me thank all you people. I read the whole thread and I got a raspberry as a gift for Christmas now i am hooked. I finish V2.0.1 Taplist now I ready to make the leap to the flow meters. So here it goes first is the 800 still the best flow meters to use and if so where do I get them I look at the main site 60 bucks each. Also which is easier uno or alamode. I have a 4 tap keezer if that helps. Thanks again for your help. Oh and I am not a programmer just a good mechanic that can install electronics.
The project was built on/around the alamode. You could probably make it work with the uno, but it would probably require some code modification.
The Swiss flow 800 is also the meter that this was built around. I think the eBay seller has them new from $40 each? He was out of the refurbished ones last I heard. You could also try the meters on the adafruit site though you would have to calibrate your system around them.
The Swiss flow 800 is also the meter that this was built around. I think the eBay seller has them new from $40 each? He was out of the refurbished ones last I heard. You could also try the meters on the adafruit site though you would have to calibrate your system around them.
chiefairwrench
Junior Member
40 is good for the flow-meter but i cant find them on eBay does anyone have a link?
but i cant find them on eBay does anyone have a link?
billybryson54
Well-Known Member
I have a question for those of you tapping partial Kegs; how are you determining your remaining keg volume? By weight? I've got two partials that I'm ready to tap. One cream ale, one smoked porter, plus I need to correct a keg that phantom poured on me last night. Obviously I would like these numbers to be somewhat accurate, so how are you guys doing it? Correct me if I'm wrong but it would seem to me that bigger beers like stouts with a bit higher FG would weigh more per gallon than something like a cream ale would. Is there a math equation out there to determine this that I may have missed? It doesn't seem to me that taking the standard weight of water and subtracting the weight of the keg would be too accurate...Then again I've been wrong on this thread more often than I've been correct. Lol. Thanks you guys.
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Personally, I have been guessing. Otherwise you can do a little math.
Weight of keg with beer - Weight of empty keg = FG of beer * weight of volume as water
so
(Weight of keg with beer - Weight of empty keg)/FG of beer = (Gallons of beer in keg / 8.34)
since 1 gallon of water is 8.34 pounds
Should work pretty well.
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