New Grainfather Connect Controller (Pre-Orders)

[paulyman]

Is the new controller just a plug and play. Can it be fitted to all of the previous grain fathers.
thanks

Yes and yes. It's an easy 2 minute change over if that.

Edited to add the quote.

 

[HBHB]

sorry I missed this....yep & thanks paulyman.

Got a few dozen left over that were pre-ordered, but still unpaid for.

These now go out to whoever wants them.

 

[peteru]

Is the new controller just a plug and play. Can it be fitted to all of the previous grain fathers.
thanks

It is just plug and play and it can be fitted to previous models. However, be aware that the new controller does not fit into the cradle as well as the old controller. The bottom part will not fit inside the metal bracket. It sort of half rests on top and ends up being lopsided and unstable.

The Android app is still not ready to go. What really sucks is that there is an Android beta release, but Grainfather people won't open up the beta to the public. There are bugs in the controller. Hopefully they will release a firmware upgrade in the future.

The Connect controller has been rushed to the market. It's a good idea, but it needed more polish.

 

[HBHB]

The Connect controller has been rushed to the market. It's a good idea, but it needed more polish.

I'd probably not describe it as rushed, knowing how many people got the unit and brewed with it over a period of months during beta phase. We're talking several hundred beers brewed on it over a period of many months. Once again though, it's a new product to market.

Understand the Android users are pissed about it not being ready yet. Kind of a buggered if you do and buggered if you don't thing. They've released it to dozens by arrangement so they can get more time identifying any issues while the Android app is being worked out and developed further. Guys who jumped up and down bitching because they wanted the beta, then got it and prompty started bitching in public forums because it's glitchy - FFS it's a Beta not a finished product. Hopefully when it's ready it'll be a decent product. For now i'm happy to be enjoying mine for what it is.

Have heard of a few cases where the new controller has glitched. Personally we haven't experienced any problems with ours yet, but it only gets brewed with about 6-7 times a week. Pretty sure if it can be stuffed up i'll manage to find a way.
Once we've clocked up another 20 or so brews and explored it thoroughly, we'll do a full review, worts, glitches, bugs and teething problems included as people would expect from us.

 

[Coodgee]

I've done two brews with the new controller now and I love it. It saves me so much time. Firstly, having the water in the grainfather ready to go the night before and waking up at 6:30am with the system ready to mash in is great. Then being sable to send the recipe from beersmith via email to the controller is awesome. Everything is done in the most efficient way possible. And standardising and automating mash steps has got to result in greater consistency of the finished product. Then during the boil, being prompted for each hop/boil addition is excellent. No more forgetting to add the whirlfloc or getting the times mixed up. And just as a personal thing, it helps to get my brew day done much quicker, because I find myself second guessing whether I started the mash at quarter past or half past and then deciding "better to give it another 15 to be sure" etc. It just standardises the whole process nicely.

 

[peteru]

Yes, beta releases can be a pain, but they are manageable. As are alpha releases. I used to run closed beta releases and in the end they are more work than open betas. These days I even run open alpha releases for new firmware versions. It has worked well. The tester community actually sorts itself out fairly well and many times you get very smart and active people appearing out of nowhere. You do need to provide a forum to engage with the tester community and allow the participants to have a discussion. Facebook is the most inappropriate avenue I can think of. Forums, such as this one, are a much better choice.

So far, most of the issues I have had with the Grainfather are just minor annoyances, but there is one issue that is serious. I've now had two instances where the controller stopped updating the temperature and the indicator was stuck while the heater was going. For example, I set the target temp to 65C. The read out started at 22C, but then it remained on 29C for a long time. I checked the temp with another thermometer and it was already up to 48C. Turning the controller off and on fixed the issue and the readout then correctly showed 48C. This has the potential to ruin a brew pretty quickly. I can't reproduce this reliably and Grainfather support say they haven't seen it.

I am very happy to hear that you have had many more brews without any issues. It'll be great to see a review that is both critical and informative.

 

[Marcus]

Is there any other difference with the new ordered grainfathers besides the control box?

Would it be worth buying an older stock grainfather and the new connect box separately to have a spare controller/other purposed box?

 

[peteru]

I had exactly the same question so rang NZ. The tech support person put me on hold an went to check. When she came back she told me that there is only one difference. The switch on the base of the GF is now and ON/OFF switch instead of HI/LO switch.

Based on that, I bought an older stock GF + Connect controller. It was the same price as a new model GF Connect, but in the process I ended up with a controller that I can use for the HLT. The window of opportunity for that might be closing. Once all the existing stock of old controller GF units is gone, the only option will be GF Connect.

 

[Batz]

I've done two brews with the new controller now and I love it. It saves me so much time. Firstly, having the water in the grainfather ready to go the night before and waking up at 6:30am with the system ready to mash in is great. Then being sable to send the recipe from beersmith via email to the controller is awesome. Everything is done in the most efficient way possible. And standardising and automating mash steps has got to result in greater consistency of the finished product. Then during the boil, being prompted for each hop/boil addition is excellent. No more forgetting to add the whirlfloc or getting the times mixed up. And just as a personal thing, it helps to get my brew day done much quicker, because I find myself second guessing whether I started the mash at quarter past or half past and then deciding "better to give it another 15 to be sure" etc. It just standardises the whole process nicely.

So can you mash overnight? Wake up ready to sparge?

 

[Coodgee]

So can you mash overnight? Wake up ready to sparge?

well yes you can do that, but it's not what I meant. I meant the mash water is at 67 degrees or whatever ready for mashing in. Some guys have set a mash schedule so they mash in at say 9pm, rest it at 50 degrees for 180 minutes, do a 2 hour mash and then give it another 180 minute mash out and then up in the morning ready to sparge.

 

[Batz]

well yes you can do that, but it's not what I meant. I meant the mash water is at 67 degrees or whatever ready for mashing in. Some guys have set a mash schedule so they mash in at say 9pm, rest it at 50 degrees for 180 minutes, do a 2 hour mash and then give it another 180 minute mash out and then up in the morning ready to sparge.

Ok, and yes that's what I was on about. My old 3V could have water ready for mash-in at a set time in the morning.

 

[peteru]

The Connect controller on it's own has no real time clock. You can set a delay and target temperature to heat up the water for mash in.

In my case, I set the temp to 95C and delay for 9 hours the night before. On the brew day, the sparging plus about 1/2 of the required mash in water was pre-heated to 95C when I was ready to start. The first thing I did was to pump the 95C sparge water into a spare vessel. I then added cold water to the remaining 95C water. That got me to a start temperature only a couple of degrees short of mash in. I set the mash temperature to 65C and I was ready to go in only a couple of minutes.

I suppose if you have the app working in tandem with the controller, it can take input in wall clock time and calculate the delay as required. I can't report on that, because I have no access to the Android app and no iOS devices.

 

[Marcus]

I had exactly the same question so rang NZ. The tech support person put me on hold an went to check. When she came back she told me that there is only one difference. The switch on the base of the GF is now and ON/OFF switch instead of HI/LO switch.

Based on that, I bought an older stock GF + Connect controller. It was the same price as a new model GF Connect, but in the process I ended up with a controller that I can use for the HLT. The window of opportunity for that might be closing. Once all the existing stock of old controller GF units is gone, the only option will be GF Connect.

Awesome investigative work! Cheers.

 

[HBHB]

One of the mods might like to bump this last bit across to the grainfather discussion thread so it's not interfering with sponsors posts