You need to either study or stop putting your foot in your mouth.
Just because you are a process designer does not qualify you to design a fully automated brewing system. You need to have some idea of the processes involved in brewing.
I am sure at work you have some kind of guide to let you know what the requirements are for any project you work on. This project sounds like you are flying by the seat of your pants. That may be saying to much as that requires skill and knowledge.
You are working away at a design and to be blunt you have no idea what you are up against. You have simple brewing processes to keep track of that you have shown you do not understand. You then complicate the contraption with dust from milling and humidity from heating water. You want this to be easier to use then a bread machine.
I am not saying it can not be done but you need to get educated on the process and all the dirty parts. Unless you do this you are going to end up with an encrusted pile of stuff not even worth much as scrap because of all the cleaning needed to scrap it.
One more potential trouble to detect. Boilover! That alone will ruin the 'brew bot' in 30 seconds.
Believe it or not I support you on this project. I think it can be done but still question why. It will make a nice conversation piece but I do not see a market for such an expensive system. This entire project reminds me of some films with the inventor that designs and automatic egg fryer. It starts with the chicken and always ends up in a mess. All because he can never see past the idea of the invention. So I return to my suggestion that you look past the idea and learn about the process and all that can go wrong. Then you can take your knowledge of process control and come up with something that may work.
This is a good post actually, the comments that follow are intended to be read as calm and happy -
Hey, I am not afraid of asking a stupid question - if I didnt know the answer, then I will ask - nothing wrong with that. At the various places I have worked over the years, there have been terms flying around all over the place, if I didnt know what they meant I would ask - there werent many times that anybody knew, they were just pretending to know. Quite a few people did look like quite the fool because they were pretending to know - I dont do that. We really do need a glossary wiki on this forumn.
Oh, I am not a process designer, I am a structural steel detailer at the moment, I have been a structural designer - Lead structural steel designer actually. I have drafted / design ie. layed out the mechanical equipment for a couple of sand mining process plants
that are more complex than this. I was also the only navisworks checker at the samd mining place, and would fly around the massive mineral sand processing plants checking for anything that was wrong - no formal qualifications though, so I could not get a job to do this sort of thing professionally, but this is a hobby, not a job, so I wasnt aware that I needed any formal qualifications to do this
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Quote: "You are working away at a design and to be blunt you have no idea what you are up against. You have simple brewing processes to keep track of that you have shown you do not understand. You then complicate the contraption with dust from milling and humidity from heating water. You want this to be easier to use then a bread machine."
Boilovers will be dealt with by using a much larger kettle than required, and the whole machine will be mounted above a sink type thing (cant think of the name of it atm
It is no where as complex as the buildings that I draft on a day to day basis - some of them have had upwards of 100,000 bolts holding everything together - while is it a bit complex, it not all that hard! I suppose I would rate it just under the adelaide oval southern stand that I detailed.
Hmmm, bread machine hey? I have been looking for something like it, could it work? I have seen to many inventor stories where a budding inventor spends 20 years inventing something only to find out it has no commercial value and as such jsut wasted all that time - if a bread machine or similar can do it, then Ill use it.
Quote: "Believe it or not I support you on this project. I think it can be done but still question why."
Was wondering when someone was going to ask this question. The answer is: because there isnt enough hours in the day and not enough days in the week. I love my automatic washing machine, dishwasher and robotic vacuum cleaner - couldnt live without them - well, I only just found the powersupply for the robotic vaccum cleaner last weekend, and so like a fool I have been sweeping my floors with a broom, well, a massive broom to reduce the tme it takes, but still like a fool.
Lastly, today I asked my boss if he knew of a valve that was like my 'geared motor crushed valve design'.He said it was called a knife gate, then when I explained the purpose he said I needed a needle valve. Then he said I should just send the design to the process engineering company we work with - not sure if it would cost anything, and I would like to get the pfd and p&id worked out first, but I am thinking I will send it to them for initial review and then again for final checking, although my boss will also be of great help.
I did make this thread so that all youz could help me. I know and fully admit that I cant do it all on my own - yes I need your help, I dont have enough experience to do this myself. What I do bring to the table is the design process - its the same design process that is used to design every process plant on the planet. The only reason why this project would fail is if the proper design process was not used.
Furthermore, I do think that I have been a bit harsh on some just because I have read their replys as negatively based, I do apploigise for that, but the only other reason why this project will not go to completion is that I loose motivation to continue to spend every spare minute working on it (as wall as working full time plus overtime).
Bandito,
Dont know it off the top of my head but I have it in a book at work, its not the same as water as wort contains sugars that make it much more dense, will have a look for you tonight when I'm at work.
Cheers
Brett
Sweet! Use of books are acceptable.
Slightly off topic, but what would be sweet is if you could build an automated cooking and cleaning machine that incorporates a fridge, freezer, pantry, oven, stove, grill, BBQ & dishwasher and is all controlled by a computer.
So you could log into it from work, the program gives you a list of dishes it could prepare out of the ingredients you have in your inventory, you pick one and it's ready by the time you get home. Then it washes up after itself...
Kind of like a robotic housewife that doesnt nag or leave the kitchen. This would also free up your human wife for other, far more enjoyable activities!
Was just thinking of this yeaterday! Why today, I had to come home early to defrost a leg of lamb! Might be the next project.
Pretty sure it would become self-aware, then it would be two against one
Yea, that is a major concern with my system too. It will be controlled by an overclocked, very fast pc. If it were to become self aware and learn at a geometric rate, there is not telling what it may brew!
I would also like to reiterate my first reply in this thread where I said that this will be completely open source - as in, everything will be made available. At the end, one should be able to take the design and detail fabrication drawings for a specific section or the whole lot to a fabricator and have then make it. Software settings and program alogarythms will also be provided openly.
Now, back to building the grain hopper prototype.....