Arduino Development Thread

[Ducatiboy stu]

Thats HEAPS....

You could almost run Vista on it... :lol:

 

[bonj]

Bonj... that set is looking awesome, love the display readout.

Has anyone built a brewery with a full-sized LCD yet? I can just imagine how crazy that would look with temperature graphs on display, etc. You could mount it on LCD arm hanging off the side. Panels are so cheap these days too. Of course, then you'd need to drive the display somehow.... which would lead to an embedded platform of some sort. Beer OS.

Thanks, Trev

There are some guys using laptops. It's a bit overkill though, really. Check out Zizzle's Brewbot... automated brewery on a simple microcontroller... it's a work of art.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

. Of course, then you'd need to drive the display somehow.... which would lead to an embedded platform of some sort. Beer OS.

You would need rather STOUT kernell I would imagine :lol:

 

[randyrob]

Well after much screwing about with the LCD board I have corrected all my soldering stuff ups and put the correct resistors in and I am away. All very basic for now but once I get some SSRs and time the brewery will be going electronic for better or worse

Out of interest I got 10 DS18B20's of ebay from a seller in hong kong for a couple of bucks each with only $5 shipping to the US (http://stores.ebay.com/Hyperfine-Store).

View attachment 21012

h34r:

Hey Jason,

glad to hear you finally sussed out your problems with the lcd, i'm a little bit confused by your wiring on the breadboard?
but seems you've got it reading temp ok!

i've been going absolutely hammer and tongs this week dedicating alot of time to this project and had a mate help out with
the code (best of all he works for fresh wort kit's so life is good!)





all the steps have been tested are working great, the times and readouts etc also got it to display a report at the end of the process.

it is now at the stage where i'm ready to give it a trial run in the real world, just gotto get my mash turn sorted!

too bad i'm stuck bloody gardening today

Rob.

 

[Simon W]

I'm a little bit confused by your wiring on the breadboard?
but seems you've got it reading temp ok!

Looks like it's hooked up with a voltage divider for power thru the data pin, with Vdd tied to ground?

 

[JasonY]

Pretty much the pic is blury. Pretty basic, 2 x 10k resistors in parallel connected to the data line for the pull up resistor and the other lines to ground. Have to decide if I want more than one temp senor on the line or not and play bout with multiple sensors ....

Sure it won't be in production for some time.

 

[kirem]

Found this in an elektor email.

Parallax: MLX90614 infrared thermometer module


The MLX90614 Infrared Thermometer Module from Parallax is an intelligent non-contact temperature sensor with a single pin serial interface for connection to most microcontrollers. The MLX90614 sensor is designed for non-contact temperature measurements of objects placed within the sensor's cone of detection. The sensor is comprised of an...

 

[kirem]

and an ultrasonic sensor.

http://www.parallax.com/Store/Sensors/Obje...e%2cProductName

 

[bonj]

Be careful guys. It's all good fun until your brewery becomes self-aware. Lets just hope nobody wakes up in their kettle one morning, tied up with sensors inserted in to every orifice.

I, for one, will be sticking to analogue brewing. <_<

Hahaha! I'm not sure how self aware they'll be on only 1K of RAM and 16K of program space though

 

[randyrob]

Haven't you seen Bonj, you can now get 2K of RAM and 32K of flash on arduino

ATmega328

My Sketch for HABS is currently up to 9K, so i'm not to concerned at this stage!

 

[leiothrix]

Lets just hope nobody wakes up in their kettle one morning, tied up with sensors inserted in to every orifice.

The next time someone asks what size pots they should be buying they should be pointed to this thread and told to get the biggest pot they possibly can.

Not that I'd really like to be stuffed into a 120L pot, but it's got to be better than a little 10L jobby.

Rob.

 

[bonj]

Haven't you seen Bonj, you can now get 2K of RAM and 32K of flash on arduino

ATmega328

My Sketch for HABS is currently up to 9K, so i'm not to concerned at this stage!

Ooh and pin compatible with the mega168 too... nice.

I'm sure you can optimise your code a little too. Avoid all floating point maths wherever possible.

 

[randyrob]

hehe...u guys are a crack up :lol:

yep no floating point maths here and i've been thru the code and corrected my frivolous use of intergers and changed them to bytes which has saved a bit of space and made some libraries so i don't have to repeat code over and over.

have you also noticed Arduino 12 fixes the millis problem it now overflows after 49 days instead of 9 hours!

the only code i'm strugglig with at this stage is Fibonacci hop additions and Triple Decoction mashes.

 

[kram]

Hey Bonj, looks like a local ebay supplier for the DS18B20's here. $4 each with $2 capped postage.

 

[randyrob]

a thought about automating a stir plate for yeast starters crossed my mind today so i started knocking up some code for it, this is what i have so far:

/*

 * HASP (Halfluck Automated Stir Plate)

 * An open-source Stir plate for Arduino. 

 * 

 * (cc) by Rob Hart

 *

 * http://www.halfluck.com/automation

 * http://creativecommons.org/license/cc-gpl

 * 

 * v 0.1 

 */



int PinStirplateMotor = 13;	  



byte totalsteps = 2; 



byte stirplateontime = 10;	 //how long in minutes to run stir plate for

byte stirplateofftime = 50;	//how long in minutes to wait before running the stir plate again



unsigned long previous_millis_value = 0;	  



int step = 1;			// start at step 1



unsigned long cumulativeSeconds = 0;



unsigned long startstep = 0;  // placeholder for the starting of step time

unsigned long stopstep = 0;  // placeholder for the stop of step time

unsigned long steptime = 0; // time in milliseconds required for this step

int timercalculated = 0; // has the timer for a timed step been set (initially = false)



void setup()					// run once, when the sketch starts

{

  pinMode(PinStirplateMotor, OUTPUT);	  // sets the digital pin as output



}



void loop()					 // start of actual sketch, run over and over again

{

  //while (step<=totalsteps)	   // this will stop the code from restarting from here on in!

  {  

	switch (step) 

	{

	  case 1: 

		digitalWrite(PinStirplateMotor, HIGH);	

		if (!timercalculated) {

		  startstep = millis(); // start step clock, reads milliseconds from this moment

		  steptime = (unsigned long)stirplateontime*60*1000; // calculate the end of step from the configuired time "stirplateontime"

		  stopstep = startstep + steptime; // calculate the end of step from the configuired time "stirplateontime"

		  timercalculated = 1; // don't do again whilst in this step

		}

		if (millis()>=stopstep) { // time has finished

		  digitalWrite(PinStirplateMotor, LOW);	// turn stir plate motor off

		  step++;

		  timercalculated=0; // next step's timer not yet calculated

		}

	   

		break;

			 case 2: 

		if (!timercalculated) {

		  startstep = millis(); // start step clock, reads milliseconds from this moment

		  steptime = (unsigned long)stirplateofftime*60*1000; // calculate the end of step from the configuired time "stirplateofftime"

		  stopstep = startstep + steptime; // calculate the end of step from the configuired time "stirplateofftime"

		  timercalculated = 1; // don't do again whilst in this step

		}

		if (millis()>=stopstep) { // time has finished

		  step++;

		  timercalculated=0; // next step's timer not yet calculated

		}

	   break;	   

			 

	  }

	

	  while(millis() - previous_millis_value >= 1000)

	  {

		cumulativeSeconds++;

		previous_millis_value += 1000;

	  }



	} 

}

so far it will switch the stirrer motor on for 10 minutes and off for 50 minutes and repeat... so enough to rouse the yeast back into suspension

just curious as to what schedules everyone uses for yeast starters? i could build up some uber cool code to get the job done sat

starting the motor at full speed to build up cells then slow down over time, since this is something i've never really played with just looking for ideas.

cheers Rob.

 

[mika]

Stir plates are about vortex creation to allow the exchange of oxygen into the fluid aren't they ? I've wondered about a stirplate that spins for so long in one direction then stops and spins up in the other direction with an adjustable lag in between. Industrial mixers generally have baffle plates in the mixing vessel to stop the fluid spinning in the tank at the same speed of the agitator creating poor mixing. Perhaps a stirplate doesn't have these kind of issues, but I've always thought it would be fun to experiment.

Rob- Seems like a lot of code for what I'm sure you could achieve with a couple of 555 timer chips.

 

[Simon W]

...
I've wondered about a stirplate that spins for so long in one direction then stops and spins up in the other direction with an adjustable lag in between.
...

Nice idea, would need a different motor than the single-phase computer fans that are so common tho.

Edit: How about a pancake motor?
No moving part's(except for the stirbar) and should be pretty easy for the Arduino, would use 6 I/O tho.

 

[randyrob]

thanks for that guys, i dont know what i was thinking at that time just bored at work i guess.

neway not a great deal of progress on this end except i've scored a new house for habs of a mate for free!

and it's got plenty of room for future upgrades!!






how is everyone elses projects going?

Rob.

 

[bonj]

no progress on mine... too busy dealing with other things at the moment. Love the fisher price wall wart

 

[randyrob]

9V 100mA $2 from good sammies!

i've found them a great place to get the exact power / amperage ac/dc plug packs for projects like this for dirt cheap

i saw them in dick smith's for like $27 or something pfft..