3V upgrade to 50L on gas

[a1149913]

Hey seehuusen, any updates? Would love to see how the setup is progressing. Unfortunately the picture links seem to be broken.

 

[seehuusen]

Hey seehuusen, any updates? Would love to see how the setup is progressing. Unfortunately the picture links seem to be broken.

Hey mate,

I've been really busy with work lately, and I haven't progressed with the project.
I do hope I can get a few hours of dev in soon though.

As for the pictures, yep, my bad, they're on my web server, which just had a burnt out PSU... I'm either going to source a new one, or just bite the bullet and purchase a server in the amazon cloud...

On a side note, I've now put 4 or 5 brews through the setup, and I'm very happy with its performance. Efficiency is up too, about 80% I think on the last brew day.

Cheers
Martin

 

[hapitan]

You can get a server on DigitalOcean for $5. Or a Sydney server with Vultr for $5. (Per month).

Both are great in my experience.

 

[seehuusen]

Thanks for the links, $60/year is a great price!

 

[seehuusen]

images are back up
I will be starting to code some more now that work has calmed down a bit and I actually have a bit of brain power left over at the end of the day (at least until I get into my 8% Baltic Porter haha)

Also, I brewed up a lager yesterday. I wanted to have a middy that'd be OK to drink several of over the chrissy period.
80% Pilsner and 20% Pale malt, with POR as bittering (15IBU) and Sterling for flavour (8.5IBU at 15mins).
I was only supposed to get a 3.4% beer, but ended up having nearly 80% efficiency, so I just diluted it a bit in the fermenter It'll now be about 3.7% abv, which is still OK for a sessionable beer.

With the HERMS, that efficiency will probably increase a bit more, so I'm keen to get rolling on the Arduino project.
At least my manual single infusion mashes seem to be getting better and better efficiency wise, happy with that!

Cheers
Martin

 

[seehuusen]

I've now gotten the temp sensor wired in, and will start the process of setting up the LCD screen.
Then it's not far away from getting the PID logic and permanently solder it all together for a test run.
I still need to make the HERMs unit, and I'm still toying with ideas for what container to use to hold the water.

The missus is even getting excited about this, as we can use my mashtun as a Sous Vide nom nom nom haha

 

[TidalPete]

I still need to make the HERMs unit, and I'm still toying with ideas for what container to use to hold the water.

Probably only thin stainless but there's always insulation. Not a bad price though. ------ http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/281110660066?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

 

[Yob]

I recently found a $40 5lt birko urn I've converted, working well, it's only single walled but have insulated it.. Very pleased indeed.

 

[seehuusen]

thanks for the ideas fellas, I'm leaning towards the bain marie solution, but would prefer a square container with a lid, as it'd provide a better mounting surface for the element I bought...
I guess I could just mount it in the bottom and mount the HERM on the side of my brewery stand too.

 

[seehuusen]

I got stuck at the electronic side of things. I require a specific chip, which I've ordered. Unfortunately, that order comes from the UK and who knows when that'll arrive in Oz during the silly season...

Pissed off that I couldn't get moving on the PID build, I decided to put the plan on the side and just hook the Arduino up to a .NET application and run it all from there.
I'd heard a lot about this being difficult, and initially I did look into things like Firmata. There's even a port over to VB.NET, which is what I prefer to use. Honestly, I couldn't get it to work, I didn't know what the fella had done, but the Arduino didn't react to any of the code transmitted to it from the application. I could see it arriving, but nothing would happen.

So what do you do? You code something up from scratch, that's what
My Arduino now has some simple code in place that accepts commands coming in via the serial port, which is then able to turn on and off things like LEDs and elements.
Outgoing communications are also possible, again via the serial port.

This is what it looks like at the moment, infant stages, but the basics are there to control an element.

I have wired up a temperature probe (DS18S20) and two LEDs.
If the temp is higher than 33.00C then the green LED will go on, good fun sitting in an office at those temps...
Ahhh QLD how I love thee, but also beer, delicious cold beer :chug:

So next is to and in the complete PID algorithm along with entry points for Kp, Ki and Kd values. Also somewhere to enter the mash steps' temp values,
I've looked at creating a gauge for the temps, ala Keg Kings one that goes on the physical mash tun... We'll see how keen I get... I do want to keep a graph logging the temps though.

Cheers
Martin