keg meter

[cspencer]

thanks for the info. keep us updated on how your trial goes.

 

[mischa62]

any update on how the cheap flow meters worked out mate?

 

[MastersBrewery]

No update on the flow meters, too many other projects half done I need to finish, and like everyone; life can sometimes slow things up a bit, should have something in a few weeks. When I do, I'll post up a decent write up with pics. I'm not so great on the software side and I'm going to try and bluetooth this like has been done with Brewpi, so I'm expecting a few hiccups along the way. I'll be sure to document what I've done. I currently have the tap list w/o flow meters on a 32" TV above my taps ATM and it really looks the part.

 

[mischa62]

One more question for you Mr MastersBrewery what board have you used as the alamode board as i can only find from usa the alamode board (at near $120 not paying that), is there any alternative board i can use that will do the same thing thats available in melbourne? or can any arduino board do the same job?

 

[MastersBrewery]

The alamode attaches directly to the Raspberry and communicates over serial, so any arduino connected over serial(eg USB or even blue tooth will work) with a few small changes to the code on the raspberry side of things.



Note: Mike is taking heavy pain meds and head is not 100% up to speed, but the above is accurate just not as in depth as it could be :blink:

 

[mischa6262]

Any updates on the flow meters? im in the process of getting all the bits n pieces together and will start my building soon just gotta find someone with good eyes to do the soldering for me lol

 

[Feldon]

Just piss in a bucket.

For every 19 litre keg of beer you drink you will urinate about 30 litres.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/02/28/3441707.htm

So when you've pissed about 28 litres you know the keg is near gone.

 

[mischa62]

Going to be trying a http://www.ebay.com/itm/TURBINE-FLOW-RATE-SENSOR-FT-110-173936-c-GEMS-LOW-FLOW-0-5-5Litres-p-min-/181506975975?hash=item2a42a8a8e7&vxp=mtr for flow meter, hope its going to do the job

 

[real_beer]

If the beer is mainly for yourself and you have a regular drinking pattern which for this example we'll say is 3 imperial pints a day, or 1.70478 Litres.

The day you tap your keg put a little sticker on it with the date and you'll know that in about 29 days it should be about run out (50lt divided by 1.70478 = 29.329). If you drink a little bit more on the weekend just take a few days off and it should be close enough.

1 imperial pint = 0.568261 of a litre just calculate to suit your own drinking habit as required. If you drink 88 pints a day your keg will be ............... EMPTY in one day! :lol:

 

[Grott]

I use an A5 size magnetic white board pad on the fridge by the tap. I know how many pints I get out of the kegs and mark off with a marker as I go. Simple, cheap and the marker sits on the drip tray so I don't forget.
Cheers

Including the set of white board markers, under $10. Works every time.
Cheers

 

[Grott]

For every 19 litre keg of beer you drink you will urinate about 30 litres.

This has got me thinking. What a bloody great diet- drink 2 kegs and drop 22 kilo (base on 1 litre of water weighs 1 kilo). I knew there was another great reason to drink

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

https://www.aldi.com.au/en/special-buys/special-buys-sat-26-sep/saturday-detail-wk39/ps/p/magnetic-gas-tank-gauge-1/

I think that's worth a crack?! Place toward bottom of keg and at least you get warning it's half way/nearing the end?

 

[Kev R]

I just sit my keg on a $9 set of bathroom scales from kmart. 19lt is about 19kg

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

Bit hard with 4 kegs jammed next to each other in a kegerator though...

 

[Moad]

Well my obsession with all things arduino and Rpi has led me down the rabbit hole to Raspberry Pints and Kegbot. I got both running last night, kegbot I didn't particularly like the interface so got RPints running. It feels limited compared to Kegbot. I've ordered some cheap flow meters through ebay that are the same as they link to on the adafruit store.

Kegbot you need an arduino board for each two taps whereas RPints you can get away with one arduino for as many taps as you have pins available. Someone also has arduino logging over bluetooth for RPints which could be cool.

Does anyone have experience with both systems, what did you prefer?

 

[Lionman]

These look like a simple solution.

A magnet float on the inside and a magnetic ball on the outside. The ball on the outside rolls down the keg as the beer level drops.

http://www.brewmart.com.au/brewmart-shop/catalogue/?detail&ItemID=2756&SZIDX=0&CCODE=16432&QOH=2&CATID=246&CLN=1&keywords=magnet

 

[malt junkie]

Well my obsession with all things arduino and Rpi has led me down the rabbit hole to Raspberry Pints and Kegbot. I got both running last night, kegbot I didn't particularly like the interface so got RPints running. It feels limited compared to Kegbot. I've ordered some cheap flow meters through ebay that are the same as they link to on the adafruit store.

Kegbot you need an arduino board for each two taps whereas RPints you can get away with one arduino for as many taps as you have pins available. Someone also has arduino logging over bluetooth for RPints which could be cool.

Does anyone have experience with both systems, what did you prefer?

I've only played with pints but if you read through the HBT V2.0 release thread ( yes it's huge) one of the guys did a full rebuild allowing for flow meter calibration and metric as well as graphical changes from an easy to use setup page. I'd link but on the phone on a train.

 

[Moad]

Yeah I rolled out v2.0 and wasn't impressed. I'm going to go back to kegbot but the challenge is working out the pin change interrupt code changes required to add more sensors in the default sketch.

I'm not a coder but do enjoy a challenge. Either way I'll have something functional once the JG fittings arrive to screw onto the flow meters I scored at jay at today (last stock).

 

[malt junkie]

jay? Jaycar?....

 

[Moad]

That's the one!