iSpindel Digital Hydrometer

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@nathanvonbeerenstein they should all come flashed with the latest version unless this is the previous gen where it could have done with a firmware upgrade. What happens when you connect it to USB power and use something like Termite to monitor the device's COM port on start up (this is probably the most important things to do)? There should be an error message of some type usually. It may be worth running an erase and re-flash? What settings do you have in the Advanced tab?
 
bee2gee said:
@nathanvonbeerenstein they should all come flashed with the latest version unless this is the previous gen where it could have done with a firmware upgrade. What happens when you connect it to USB power and use something like Termite to monitor the device's COM port on start up (this is probably the most important things to do)? There should be an error message of some type usually. It may be worth running an erase and re-flash? What settings do you have in the Advanced tab?
Click to expand...

Not entirely sure what happened, but i can verify it definitely did arrive with the firmware on it and is a top notch product, i most likely fudged it myself during setup.
When i monitor it with Termite, it goes bonkers after i plug it in with a bunch of (what seems to programming illiterate me) mumbo-jumbo. ill copy it out below.

how exactly do I do an erase? I've tried installing what i think is an empty bin to it but no dice, still just reads as above and disconnects/connects every other second.

in the advanced tab:
bitrate: 230400
flash size: 16mb and have also tried 4mb
flash speed: 40mhz
SPI mode: DIO

im only writing to the first line too, at 0x00000.
no errors in the log, that i know of.

Appreciate any help you could offer, i feel like an erase and clear might help but unsure if im successfully doing it myself.
 
nathanvonbeerenstein said:
Not entirely sure what happened, but i can verify it definitely did arrive with the firmware on it and is a top notch product, i most likely fudged it myself during setup.
When i monitor it with Termite, it goes bonkers after i plug it in with a bunch of (what seems to programming illiterate me) mumbo-jumbo. ill copy it out below.

how exactly do I do an erase? I've tried installing what i think is an empty bin to it but no dice, still just reads as above and disconnects/connects every other second.

in the advanced tab:
bitrate: 230400
flash size: 16mb and have also tried 4mb
flash speed: 40mhz
SPI mode: DIO

im only writing to the first line too, at 0x00000.
no errors in the log, that i know of.

Appreciate any help you could offer, i feel like an erase and clear might help but unsure if im successfully doing it myself.
Click to expand...

Update: bridged one of the terminals to ground and was able to reflash successfully. All is go now! And even better, was BANG ON 27 degrees after mounting with the suggested size battery and pushing to very bottom of the unit.
Thanks for the fine device :)
 
lespaul said:
Sorry for OT, its just the most active "electronics" thread.
I want to complete a Brewpi project that can integrate into iSpindel. Hopefully complete this first to wrap my head around this stuff.
Is this the project that I'm looking for? https://github.com/vitotai/BrewPiLess / https://www.homebrewtalk.com.br/thr...fermentação-via-wi-fi-e-interface-web.410517/
Thanks in advance, sorry again for OT
Click to expand...
That is for Brewpiless, which is different to Brewpi (which uses an RPi & Arduino(s) so is more feature rich than Brewpiless). If you are talking full Brewpi, check out this instead: https://github.com/NFBrewingTech/BrewPi-iSpindel

Cheers,

Kal
 
nathanvonbeerenstein said:
Update: bridged one of the terminals to ground and was able to reflash successfully. All is go now! And even better, was BANG ON 27 degrees after mounting with the suggested size battery and pushing to very bottom of the unit.
Thanks for the fine device :)
Click to expand...

Awesome! Sometimes after a few flash attempts the wemos can get a bit mad, I've had to short D3 (I think) and GND before, subsequent flashes has been totally fine. Really good to hear things are working well, you had me worried there!
 
Hi all,
I've calibrated and have been using my iSpindel on a current brew, all going pretty well. I log my data to the brewing software Brewfather and it's looking good. However, after three days of pretty reliable updates the readings/updates have stopped. I'd have to then sanitise some tongs and pull it out and after putting it in operational mode and generally just restarting it a few times and so on (no real logic to getting it to work) it seemed to reconnect and start updating again, a few hours later it stopped again. When it stops and I take it out the fermenter, I leave it there for a while next to my modem but it still doesn't update and checking my RSSI strength it's decent so can't be that. Not sure what it is. Having to physically reset the WEMOS is a major shortcoming and a pain.
The firmware is 6.0.2, thinking I might 'downgrade' to 5 something and see how that goes.
Any thoughts on the above?

I was also thinking of hooking up the USB and seeing what spits out via Putty or Termite. I've tried this and just wanted to confirm what I'm doing here is correct/incorrect?

Do I switch the device off, hook up the cable then switch it on and I should see some stuff?
What I find is that I don't see anything until when it transmits the data and what I see is just complete nonsense (attached screenshot). Am I doing something wrong?
Thanks.
 

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@chesl73 they shouldn't need a reset every 3 days. That sounds like the firmware or something is crashing after 3 days or there's an issue with sending. If you wanted to go back a version, I would say try 6.0.0 or even re-flash 6.0.2.

I know this sounds boring, but, when there are issues, if you sit there and watch it for 15 mins, you should see it wake and the blue wemos activity light flash a few times before it goes off.

With Termite, you'll want to be using a baud of 115200 if they're in run mode, which yours should be when it's on, lower baud for boot issues. It would be interesting to know if it's waking up, if it is, what the message in Termite says when it is waking up and not able to send event data.
 
Thanks for the info. I'll try re doing the firmware first and see how that goes.
 
Hi @bee2gee did you ever get the website running that you were gong to sell the iSpindel on, or can you please let me know how I can go about buying one from you?
 
@chesl73 how'd you get on?

Brewey said:
Hi @bee2gee did you ever get the website running that you were gong to sell the iSpindel on, or can you please let me know how I can go about buying one from you?
Click to expand...
Still considering the website! You can reach out via email, the address is on my profile wall/comments :)
 
Hi. I've been away the last two weeks with the family to Merimbula so haven't had a chance! Back at the weekend so will redo the firmware then. I won't be able to fully test it until my next brew but will let you know. Thanks
 
Alright, so finally getting around to actually getting a WiFi extender into my shed, and things seem to be working finally. These iSpindels seem very temperamental if they miss getting WiFi access one time. I keep getting "Rescue WiFi credentials" messages when the WiFi drops out once. This was even inside with my primary WiFi network.

It's out in the ferment fridge and seems to be submitting readings to my website now, so fingers crossed. If it works out, I will be using it in a ferment this weekend. I've also written a CraftBeerPi plugin which uses PT100 temp probes to submit readings to my website. I'll still be using the iSpindel for gravity readings, but the CraftBeerPi will submit temp readings.

The cool thing is that you can define a ferment schedule in the website based on gravity readings. My website receives the gravity readings, checks the ferment schedule, and if the gravity has passed into the next ferment step, it updates the current ferment temperature.

The CraftBeerPi reads the current ferment temp from the website and updates it's fermentor control temperature to match.

So a completely automated gravity reading controlled fermentation system. :cool:
 
And it timed out at 1AM (about 2 hours after I put it in there) and got the old "Rescue Wifi Credentials" problem.

A reset booted it into config mode where it complained about ROM CRC not being valid and no OneWire temp sensor

Can someone run through their flashing process? It seems very flaky and I wonder if I am flashing correctly
 
I reflashed mine with NodeMCU flasher, and used following advanced settings:
Baud rate:74880 bps; Flash size: 4MB; Flash Speed: 40MHz; SPI Mode: DIO

Hasn't skipped a beat since through over half a dozen ferments paired with BrewPiLess.
 
A warning to all.
My first Ispindel drowned, the cap leaked and was full of wort and unrecoverable.
Lucky I bought 2.

I didnt water test it before I placed in in the fermenter, so make sure you do.
I'm thinking of a bit of teflon tape will help.
 
Haven't seen it mentioned in the thread. Latest firmware(6.x) was giving me odd tilt values. reverting to older firmware (5.8.6) and the tilt value is correct.

hint 1 - flash the WEMOS before you assemble the board - not much fun troubleshooting/rebuilding once all soldered up.
hint 2 - the admin web page/ access point is harder to get into than you'd expect. Looks like you need to hit the reset button before boot and reading to website. Suspect looking for failed boot to get into config mode.
 

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