Matho's controller

[bigbanko]

Hi Matho


Can you indicate what part of the program changes the run time before a pump rest and the duration of the pump rest itself.

Had a good brew day today. The new pump worked a treat and gained 82% efficiency on a wheat beer.



Cheers

Paul

 

[matho]

hey Paul,

its in the pump rest function


void pump_rest (int stage)
{
if (stage==9){
pumpRest = false;
if (Temp_c<94.0) digitalWrite(Pump,HIGH);
else digitalWrite(Pump,LOW);
if (Temp_c >= 95)tempReached = true;
}
else{
pumptempError = stageTemp-Temp_c;
if (pumptempError <= 0)tempReached = true;
if ((pumpTime < 10)){ // starts pumps and heat
digitalWrite(Pump,HIGH);
pumpRest =false;
}
if ((pumpTime >= 10)){ // pump rest
digitalWrite(Pump,LOW);
digitalWrite(Heat,LOW);
pumpRest = true;
if(pumpTime>=12 || (pumptempError > 1.0))pumpTime = 0;
}
}
}

where is says If ((pumpTime>=10)){ the 10 should make the pump rest happen every 10 minutes unless the temp error is greater than 1 deg and where it says if pumpTime>=12 that should make the pump rest last for 2 minutes unless the temp error is greater than 1

good to hear you had a good brewday

cheers steve

 

[bigbanko]

Thamks Steve

Your work and support on this project has been invaluable. I sure do appreciate the assistance,

Cheers
Paul

 

[breakbeer]

Finally got her up n running! Time for a test run



Yeah, yeah I know, the lcd screen isn't straight, the buttons are in a different position & there are 3 red & one black instead of the other way around. Bit of a shoddy job at putting it together but I'm pretty stoked that it's finished.

Massive Thanks to Matho & Bonj for all their work on this & also to Edak for putting the boards together for me. I owe you all a beer

 

[bigbanko]

Yeah, yeah I know, the lcd screen isn't straight, the buttons are in a different position & there are 3 red & one black instead of the other way around. Bit of a shoddy job at putting it together but I'm pretty stoked that it's finished.

Some like form over function others like function over form. So long as it works is what makes the beer,

Cheers

 

[breakbeer]

Too true, as long as she works I'm happy.

Running a test with it right now. Looks like I've fudged the pump wiring somewhere along the line, it's not working at all & the LED is not on. I'll re-read the instructions again

A couple of questions:

What have others got their window size set to? Mine is at 500, but I think that might be too low. It's holding temp perfectly, but the Red LED is blinking at a rate of about 2 per second. Just wondering if that's putting stress on the element?

At the Mash In stage it beeped & told me to Add Malt but way before the set temp was reached.
From the instructions:

the first step is always the MashIn stage, after the set temperature has been reached the timer will start to count down. At the end of the MashIn stage the unit will prompt for the malt to be added and will wait for a confirm or a quit.

I had the Mash In temp set at 68, but it had only reached approx' 35 degress when it prompted me to add the malt. Is this an error or should I have waited for the strike water to reach temp before starting the program?

 

[matho]

that is not right, either it was a glich with the ds18b20 probe read or there is something I'm missing in the code. I might give it a go on my unit to see what I get, could you give me your stage temps and times and I'll fire up my unit and see. As for the window size you can extend it if you want but it shouldn't do any damage to the element pulsing that quickly but it might heat up the SSR a little bit more. Has anyone else experienced a problem with the add malt alert happening before the temp is reached?

cheers steve

 

[breakbeer]

Thanks Steve

Mashin was set @ 68 for 5
Stage 1 @ 65 for 60
Stage 2 @ 78 for 10


I've also installed a PC fan in the side next to the SSR, so hopefully there shouldn't be a problem with over heating

 

[bigbanko]

I have my window set at 7500 and happy with it

 

[bigbanko]

Matho

Why does the mash in have an adjustable timer and not just prompt you for the malt when the temp has been reached.

Cheers

 

[PeteQ]

Breakbeer - did you have mash in time set to 0. I noticed that if it is at 0 as soon as you start the auto operation it prompts water added then straight after you hit OK it prompts to add malt.

Hopefully this solves that issue?

My window size I kept at default - 2000. I've found the PID settings seem to be a lot more important to avoid overshoot and to hold the temps nicely took me quite a bit of playing around. No stress on the element at 500, a resistive load should be able to handle it no problems.

 

[breakbeer]

Breakbeer - did you have mash in time set to 0. I noticed that if it is at 0 as soon as you start the auto operation it prompts water added then straight after you hit OK it prompts to add malt.

Nah, I had it set to 5mins

 

[matho]

Matho

Why does the mash in have an adjustable timer and not just prompt you for the malt when the temp has been reached.

Cheers

yeah I suppose I could have made it do that but it was easier just to treat it as a stage, gives you one more thing to play with

cheers steve

 

[Edak]

Hey Glenn,

If you ever come back this way again (Burwood) on a brew-day I can show you how my system works. I don't have the same code as Matho but it is a comparable system.
I am looking to get my wireless logging system up and running tomorrow so I will get immediate email notifications if anything goes wrong or when I need to do something. Will be interesting to try out,

 

[breakbeer]

Might have to take you up on that offer, I reckon I've figured it out but it wouldn't hurt to get some input

When is your likely next brew day? I'll be brewing a Fat Yak style tomorrow

 

[breakbeer]

Update:
I decided to go ahead & brew with the Brauduino today. Instaed of starting with cold water & waiting for it to get to temp I started with hot tap water which was 55c so it didn't have far to go to reach my desired mash in temp of 68.

Once it reached 68c the mash in timer started to count down! After the set time of 5 minutes it prompted to Add Malt.

So there must be a problem somewhere with the ramp time setting, if it takes too long to reach the set temp coz you started with 20c water then it gets confused (that's my technical jargon)

Really not sure how to fix it but at least there's a way around it

Will let ya know how the brew day goes

 

[PeteQ]

Nice one Breakbeer!

Good luck with the brew day. My advice - take notes!!

Cheers

 

[breakbeer]

Just had to unplug it

Everything was going perfectly, until the end of the last stage.

I had a mashout @ 78c for 10mins & at the end of the countdown it just displayed Pump Rest. I thought it would last 2mins like the other rests but after 20mins of staring at the LCD waiting for it to change and seeing no rise in temp on the Brewmometer I unplugged it & have plugged the elements in directly to get it to boil

Edak, I have a feeling I'm gonna need you're coding expertise again

 

[PeteQ]

I'm pretty sure Matho fixed this previously in this thread but a quick fix is to turn it off, turn it back on and resume in auto mode.

Out of 20 or so brews it's only happened to me once...

 

[breakbeer]

Cheers Pete, I'll try that next time.