Matho's controller

[bigbanko]

Does anyone know the dimension of the malt pipe and vessel of the original 20 liter braumiester. e.g.. diameter and height.

 

[matho]

Hey Steve,

Well I tried giving it some time, but still no good. No LED. Not really sure which bits I should measure to find the fault. I checked voltage on the LED at the board and it reads only around 1volt no matter what I do with the heater button.

Any ideas? Not quite sure what to test first to figure this out. should I measure the voltage across the heater screw in terminals?

Cheers
Rob

Ok, so how the circuit works is when the program wants the heater on pin 9 goes high (5V) , this then runs about 6mA through the LED, resistor and then to the base of the transistor (middle pin), this then allows the transistor to start conducting (turn on) and then 12v should appear across the heater outputs.

first thing to check would be if the heater button is working, if you can enter auto mode by pressing it for one second then it works OK.
Next would be that you are getting 5V at pin 9 when the heater is meant to be on. Next would be if you have the 5V but no LED then check the resistance between the - leg of the LED and the base pin (middle pin) of the transistor, it should be 470 ohms. if you are getting that then it could be the LED or the transistor.
the voltage across a forward conducting LED should be somewhere between 1.2v to 1.8v and the voltage across the base and the emitter (the middle pin and ground) should be 0.6V when the transistor is turned on. The voltage across the collector and the emitter ( the two pins on either side) should be low when the transistor is on (somewhere around 0.3V to 1.0v) and should be the full 12v when off.
don't try and fault find with the 240v on get a low voltage supply and just measure the voltages on the board.

cheers steve

 

[Davethebrewer]

Does anyone know the dimension of the malt pipe and vessel of the original 20 liter braumiester. e.g.. diameter and height.

Hey Bigbanko
Been trying to gather this info myself, as I understand it the main vessel overall is:
660mm tall x 406mm dia, this includes the bottom feet.
The mash pipe is 365mm tall x 270mm dia.
The indentation for the false bottom on the 50l malt pipe is 90mm up from the bottom, not sureIf the 20l is the same..
Hopefully someone can ratify these measurements, don't want to give you false info.
CheersDave

 

[MastersBrewery]

I did a braumeister search a while ago, and Mark from MHB gave full specification of both in a couple of his posts, have a search and trawl through; the info has been posted before.

 

[Liquidarts]

Hi all,

I'm new to the home brewing but not controller applications. After meeting with a client at home regarding his LED Lighting system we cracked open one of his home brewed Pumpkin Ales. I was very impressed. I thought everything to brew would be to hard to get a hang of. But after reading this thread and another by Steve I figured i'd start next year and give it a try. But any ways...on the subject of Steve's Shield. How would an all-in-one unit sound that comes pre-programmed with the firmware? Using an FTDI cable to upload new sketches. I've worked mostly with aquarium and hydroponics clients but figured what the heck if on of my controllers can be modified to work with Steve's coding then why not. For those of you familiar with the Typhon LED controller i've taken DWMZ's design a bit further and updated it to include 2 inputs for temp sensors and an output for I2C communications via 3 USB-Mini connectors. Have attached the updated typhon pic. But for those of you still looking how's it sound? It'd be a 50mmx100mm footprint, 4-buttons, and 16x2 LCD with the outputs/inputs from Steve's Shield.

 

[Liquidarts]

So I managed to throw something together real quick in the 2.0 Version....have a look.

 

[bigbanko]

Hi all,

I'm new to the home brewing but not controller applications. After meeting with a client at home regarding his LED Lighting system we cracked open one of his home brewed Pumpkin Ales. I was very impressed. I thought everything to brew would be to hard to get a hang of. But after reading this thread and another by Steve I figured i'd start next year and give it a try. But any ways...on the subject of Steve's Shield. How would an all-in-one unit sound that comes pre-programmed with the firmware? Using an FTDI cable to upload new sketches. I've worked mostly with aquarium and hydroponics clients but figured what the heck if on of my controllers can be modified to work with Steve's coding then why not. For those of you familiar with the Typhon LED controller i've taken DWMZ's design a bit further and updated it to include 2 inputs for temp sensors and an output for I2C communications via 3 USB-Mini connectors. Have attached the updated typhon pic. But for those of you still looking how's it sound? It'd be a 50mmx100mm footprint, 4-buttons, and 16x2 LCD with the outputs/inputs from Steve's Shield.

Always good to have more knowledge on the forum and when heads are joined great things can happen.

Welcome to the forum

 

[bonj]

Hi all,

I'm new to the home brewing but not controller applications. After meeting with a client at home regarding his LED Lighting system we cracked open one of his home brewed Pumpkin Ales. I was very impressed. I thought everything to brew would be to hard to get a hang of. But after reading this thread and another by Steve I figured i'd start next year and give it a try. But any ways...on the subject of Steve's Shield. How would an all-in-one unit sound that comes pre-programmed with the firmware? Using an FTDI cable to upload new sketches. I've worked mostly with aquarium and hydroponics clients but figured what the heck if on of my controllers can be modified to work with Steve's coding then why not. For those of you familiar with the Typhon LED controller i've taken DWMZ's design a bit further and updated it to include 2 inputs for temp sensors and an output for I2C communications via 3 USB-Mini connectors. Have attached the updated typhon pic. But for those of you still looking how's it sound? It'd be a 50mmx100mm footprint, 4-buttons, and 16x2 LCD with the outputs/inputs from Steve's Shield.

I can see your all-in-one board being popular, especially if it's pre-assembled, as there is a gap in the existing market for an "easier" solution. If your board is arduino compatible, I'd like to see any of your changes filtering back to the main code base so we can get a great active development community going! This is all about sharing, and I really want that to continue. Not trying to rubbish your idea, or rain on your parade or anything (to the contrary, I think there is room in the market), just thought I'd explain our rationale for going with a shield design:

The shield design is a standardised form factor that many hobbyists are familiar with. It makes use of a wide range of possible arduino compatible boards (making programming the microcontrollers easier for those new to them, and removing the necessity for programming blank chips, which is a bit of a barrier to entry even to those that are experienced kit assemblers). Arduino was specifically chosen because of the ease of use and easy access to both the programming environment and the libraries. Matho's original braumiser board was pic based, but we wanted to encourage the active development and involvement of the community. The existing shield design allows anyone to have a batch of shields printed and an of the shelf arduino attached. We wanted a community to pop up and start making boards and sharing out the cost etc. It has started happening, which is great. In addition to matho's large initial batch, 2 more batches of 10 boards have since been made by others!

 

[matho]

So I managed to throw something together real quick in the 2.0 Version....have a look.

From the looks of it the push buttons have pull down resistors on them, my design has pull up resistors so the code would need to be changed to reflect that.

 

[Liquidarts]

From the looks of it the push buttons have pull down resistors on them, my design has pull up resistors so the code would need to be changed to reflect that.

That's correct Steve. And I also changed the pinouts. Right now with this basic design there are a few free pins left. Maybe at a later date/revision i'll use an I2C chip for the LCD and the buttons to open up all the pins for other inputs/outputs. The possibilities are endless too....BT or Wifi notifications. Pressure sensor for the fermentation part....lol....can't stop thinking...

 

[luke_j]

Ok controller, here's the deal: I'm going to go to the pub and drink beer, and while I'm gone you're going to put yourself together, ok? Ok.

Good talk.

 

[matho]

Hey Steve,

Well I tried giving it some time, but still no good. No LED. Not really sure which bits I should measure to find the fault. I checked voltage on the LED at the board and it reads only around 1volt no matter what I do with the heater button.

Any ideas? Not quite sure what to test first to figure this out. should I measure the voltage across the heater screw in terminals?

Cheers
Rob

Any luck with it mate?

 

[bonj]

That's correct Steve. And I also changed the pinouts. Right now with this basic design there are a few free pins left. Maybe at a later date/revision i'll use an I2C chip for the LCD and the buttons to open up all the pins for other inputs/outputs. The possibilities are endless too....BT or Wifi notifications. Pressure sensor for the fermentation part....lol....can't stop thinking...

I love your enthusiasm, Liquidarts, but it seems counter-productive to me, to change the pinouts when there are already 60 existing boards in circulation, with another batch of 10 on the way and an unknown sized batch being fabbed by a user in the USA. It just sounds like an unnecessary fork of the code.

 

[Liquidarts]

I love your enthusiasm, Liquidarts, but it seems counter-productive to me, to change the pinouts when there are already 60 existing boards in circulation, with another batch of 10 on the way and an unknown sized batch being fabbed by a user in the USA. It just sounds like an unnecessary fork of the code.

Hi Bonj,

I see what your saying. I'll go back and take a look at the original pinout and see if I can change it back. I believe the reason I did so in the first place was because the pins from the chip actually crossed over one another for the LCD and Buttons with a limited amount of space for top and bottom vias. My original plan was to do a 100 pcb's as the cost would be cheaper per board than say 10 or even 50. The company I have a steady relationship with can do all 100 for under $50. I get that discount because i've had them fully populate the boards of my other designs as well as just the PCB fab.

Martin

 

[bigbanko]

Thanks Rob

I placed an order for 10 boards last night so I may have a few spares now.

Cheers.

PS. Can you tell me where is the best place to obtain the LCD panel and needed components.

Well boards have now been posted and should be here in a few more days.

I will have 6 or 7 spares if anyone is interested let me know.

I now have most parts for the build and have just finished milling out the cutouts in the housing with my milling machine, which makes for a very neat finish.

 

[Liquidarts]

I use Mouser or Digikey for almost all my part orders......but for bulk I get everything on flea-bay from China...especially all my SMD components.

 

[bonj]

Hi Bonj,

I see what your saying. I'll go back and take a look at the original pinout and see if I can change it back. I believe the reason I did so in the first place was because the pins from the chip actually crossed over one another for the LCD and Buttons with a limited amount of space for top and bottom vias. My original plan was to do a 100 pcb's as the cost would be cheaper per board than say 10 or even 50. The company I have a steady relationship with can do all 100 for under $50. I get that discount because i've had them fully populate the boards of my other designs as well as just the PCB fab.

Martin

Yeah, I think an all in one would be great, and even better if you can panelise them onto a single panel and get them cheap. If you find you can't use the same pinout, how about adding some compiler preprocessor #ifdef directives to differentiate the boards but keep a single codebase?

 

[Liquidarts]

Yeah, I think an all in one would be great, and even better if you can panelise them onto a single panel and get them cheap. If you find you can't use the same pinout, how about adding some compiler preprocessor #ifdef directives to differentiate the boards but keep a single codebase?

That's actually not a bad idea...

 

[bonj]

I use Mouser or Digikey for almost all my part orders......but for bulk I get everything on flea-bay from China...especially all my SMD components.

I mostly user element14 (when I'm ordering enough to qualify for their free postage) and rs components... depending on where the parts are cheaper etc. Even then, some parts are cheaper to order from hobbyist parts suppliers in the USA, even with shipping.

 

[bonj]

That's actually not a bad idea...

Hmmm

It seems that the arduino IDE is broken with respect to the above mentioned pre-processor directives... It can be worked around by not using the IDE, but that isn't really viable for us, where it should be usable by people without a computer science degree.

I guess we can do a similar thing by commenting certain code out with clear instructions... not as user friendly as a single #define ALLINONE