# BrewBit on Kickstarter



## brendo (19/7/13)

Hey guys,

Stumbled across this a few days ago on Kickstarter and they have now opened the project up to non-US resdients.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brewbit/brewbit-model-t-wireless-temperature-controller


Looks like an interesting alternative to BrewPi/Ardunio projects - especially for those of us who are not confident with electronics and/or programming requirements.

Bascially a dual output temperature controller which is capable of data logging your fermentations. You can also program it to dial in a desired fermentation schedule without the need to modify the setpoint manually - useful for fermentation routines where you may want to perform rests at different steps along the way.

All in all, I thought it was worth sharing - will be watching the project to see how it progresses.

Cheers,

Brendo


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## Parks (19/7/13)

That looks like about the best of this kind of thing I have seen.

Sticks to the outside of the fermenter, plug in the heat/cool things and wammo!

I don't like that they said "our beers ranged from ok to downright bad but when we got temp control they were all outstanding!"

Anyway, they are trying to sell something which looks pretty good.


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## djar007 (19/7/13)

Pity the plug types are not compatible. I would pledge otherwise.


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## brendo (19/7/13)

djar007 said:


> Pity the plug types are not compatible. I would pledge otherwise.


Yeah I emailed them about that... wouldn't be hard to rewire to a local size plug I would think.


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## Parks (19/7/13)

brendo said:


> Yeah I emailed them about that... wouldn't be hard to rewire to a local size plug I would think.


Still need 110v-220v (or whatever) converter.


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## Mardoo (19/7/13)

djar007 said:


> Pity the plug types are not compatible. I would pledge otherwise.


Be a good question to ask them since they are planning on selling outside the US. How do they plan on dealing with plugs and voltage?


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## CamM (19/7/13)

Mardoo said:


> Be a good question to ask them since they are planning on selling outside the US. How do they plan on dealing with plugs and voltage?


This is from their FAQ:



> Will you support my region's plug type?
> 
> We do not think it will be feasible cost-wise to have different versions of the plugs for each region unfortunately. In light of this, we are currently considering two options: using IEC outlets or using US style NEMA 5-15 outlets. We are leaning toward the latter since it would eliminate the need for adapters for our American customers. It would require adapters for international users still, but so would IEC connectors.


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## Edak (19/7/13)

Given that the device will basically have relays inside that switch on the heat and cool circuits, the village will almost certainly be compatible with our voltage. ie. Voltage in equals voltage out.


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## Edak (19/7/13)

Personally I would totally build a brewpi instead. I love that thing. Will build myself one just as an upgrade, even though I already have most of the features.


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## brendo (20/7/13)

Confirmed with the project owners - unit is compatible with 240v, so it is just the plugs on the outputs that you need to worry about in order to localize it.


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## brewbit (20/7/13)

Hey Guys,

I'm Brian, from BrewBit. I just stumbled across your post here and wanted to say hi. If you have any questions please let me know. 

I saw some mention of the BrewPi and we actually did a comparison with them that you can find here: http://brewbit.com/blog/55716064034/brewbit-model-t-brewpi-comparison

The Model-T is very modular and easy to take apart and hack. We are releasing all the source code and schematics so it will be very simple to swap out our NEMA 5-15 plugs for your AS/NZS 3112 plugs. 

We hope that you will all support us. Happy brewing!
http://kck.st/13kN3yG


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## MastersBrewery (20/7/13)

Edak said:


> Personally I would totally build a brewpi instead. I love that thing. Will build myself one just as an upgrade, even though I already have most of the features.


was poking around the net last night saw this: https://www.sparkdevices.com/ and thought it could fill the gap nicely wifi and all


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## sgtpinky (20/7/13)

This looks pretty cool.

It would be a good DIY project for when you upgrade your Android phone since it already has Wifi and so on.


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## Edak (21/7/13)

Sgt, what are you referring to? Maybe something didn't show up on my phone. 

I have a couple of spare android phones, perhaps that might be worth investigating. 

MB I have seen those devices on seeedstudio for preorder and am very much considering it to experiment with in my brewery.


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## Lance2 (21/7/13)

Hi Brian,

I'm a c/c++ programmer and was working on a touchscreen fermentation controller also (but using this and this), and was also thinking dreaming about selling a mold to mount a touchscreen/microcontroller combination. You are living my dream!

Anyway I have some geek questions for you from the POV of view of someone who wants to hack it:
- I can see a stm32f205 in photos and the video, how much flash and ram will the particular part have?
- What programming connectors are available, or can we only download over WiFi?
- Does download over WiFi allow full chip rewrite (other than the bootloader of course)?
- Will you be putting unused I/O pins on a connector so that we can make our own expansion boards?
- Does/can it have a real-time clock? If not can you leave a footprint on the PCB for a 32kHz crystal and maybe even a clock battery?


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## sgtpinky (21/7/13)

Edak said:


> Sgt, what are you referring to? Maybe something didn't show up on my phone.
> 
> I have a couple of spare android phones, perhaps that might be worth investigating.
> 
> MB I have seen those devices on seeedstudio for preorder and am very much considering it to experiment with in my brewery.


I'm trying to get back an HTC Wildfire I gave away now!

I was thinking you could pretty easily put together an Android phone, connected via micro USB (cheap - you could do bluetooth or other for more) to a Arduino. Then use the Arduino to control say a solid-state relay connect to an element and a temperature sensor (e.g., http://littlebirdelectronics.com/products/waterproof-ds18b20-temperature-sensor ) in a proportional-integral-derivative type controller.

Of course you could do all that with the Arduino alone - but the Android aspect would allow you to make a nice GUI with an easy-to-use interface for setting different ferm (or mash/heat exchange herms) profiles.

It would take one person (the first person) to program the basic Android GUI which would be fairly recyclable - then anyone could customise, add different sensors, etc.

It would cost a lot less than $160 if you already have the Android phone.

Arduino Uno ( http://littlebirdelectronics.com/products/arduino-uno-r3 ) $36
Temp sensor ( http://littlebirdelectronics.com/products/waterproof-ds18b20-temperature-sensor ) $10
SSR ( http://littlebirdelectronics.com/products/solid-state-relay-332vdc-input-240vac-40a-switching ) $53 - I reckon you can find more suitable than this. 10-15A would be fine for a 2400W element.

So for <$100 you could sort it out and have a custom system. The main advantage is that once you add the phone into the mix you already have Wifi available, so you can work with that, have an HTTP server or whatever to present your system controls (i.e., do away with the need for an Android GUI).


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## hebnern (26/7/13)

Lance2 said:


> Hi Brian,
> 
> I'm a c/c++ programmer and was working on a touchscreen fermentation controller also (but using this and this), and was also thinking dreaming about selling a mold to mount a touchscreen/microcontroller combination. You are living my dream!
> 
> ...


Hi Lance,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.
- We are using the STM32F205RE which has 512K Flash and 128K RAM.
- You can program it over JTAG in addition to OTA upgrade, so if you really mess it up with an OTA upgrade, it can still be recovered.
- Yes, WiFi downloads can overwrite the whole chip other than the bootloader.
- Yes, unused I/Os will be broken out. You can also use the onewire busses (the probe connectors) to communicate with other devices to expand your capabilities as well.
- It does not have an RTC, but it will support NTP so that it doesn't drift too far.


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## syl (11/3/14)

Bump for you all! I am waiting on my pre-ordered one, but they have launched their store and have models available for purchase: http://brewbit.com/


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## Lance2 (15/3/14)

I also pre-ordered (the international version (using IEC sockets) with two probes). Their case mold looks really good too although the size of the power connectors cause everything to be so boxy. 

As an electronics nerd I want to see the design files(schematics and source). They use quite a few recent parts including the Texas Instrument WiFi module which is sort of the cheapest and most accessible module for hobby electronics atm. The design is a 'killer app' imo because they've combined:
- touchscreen LCD
- a microcontroller powerful enough to drive the touchscreen but not a Linux running monstrosity a-la raspberry pi or bbb
- an expansion port
- mains voltage support (a universal voltage power supply and some relays already wired to sockets in a professionally made case)
- the box and PCB design has safety and FCC approvals (yes I know they are voided by changing it but...)
- it's open source so we can hack it! 
Who is not excited? Are you not excited?!


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## stoutmatt (9/5/14)

Hi Guys

Was wondering whether anyone who had ordered had received yet and if so how it was all going.

Looking at buying one to control a Herms Coil Kit from Onlinebrewingsupplies.com

cheers


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## Black n Tan (9/5/14)

I ordered one a few months ago, post kickstarter, but haven't received it yet. Website is now saying August delivery, but hopefully I am not waiting that long.


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## stoutmatt (9/5/14)

Hmmm - Saw that - maybe I will wait and see what happens. Can you post back when it arrives?? It sure looks the goods and great price.


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## Black n Tan (9/5/14)

Sure


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## Lance2 (6/7/14)

Just got mine (international version) about 1wk ago. Their forum is pretty active, might be the best place to ask about alternative uses.


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## Black n Tan (6/7/14)

Yes I got mine a couple of weeks ago and am currently using it for a lager brew and love the ability to ramp temperature and set profiles. The concept is great but this thing is really only a beta test unit and is full of bugs. I love the web interface, but I find I have to program some aspects on the unit itself and others through the web interface, and then sometimes it does odd thinks and resets my hysteresis value or something like that. So I need to check it constantly to make sure it is operating as intended. There were a few issues with using it in celcius mode with it setting the unit to crazy temps, but that seems to have been fixed, at least partially. I have used it in PID and on/off mode with the probe in a thermowell and both perform similarly in my chest freezer fermentation chamber with heat pad,keeping it in a 0.5C range of target. It tends to overcool constantly and I was hoping in PID mode that it would learn and adjust this, but no such luck yet. It seems to constantly cycle between heating and cooling which is not ideal. I will post some profiles etc when I get some time during the week. I think this has the potential to be great, but personally I would wait a few months until the bugs are ironed out.


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## Exile (10/7/15)

Looks like they are closing shop

http://discourse.brewbit.com/t/you-are-shutting-down/499


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