The Brauduino (Matho’s Controller) Build/Advice/Question Thread

[Meddo]

OK, thanks for the answers @malt junkie and @zwitter, makes sense. My conceptual system design is to have temp sensors at four points - vessel/system temp (also effectively CFC wort in), CFC wort out, CFC water in, and CFC water out - the latter two just for information purposes. Ideally I'd be displaying all four readouts in a dedicated box with four of those little eBay displays, and also have the two wort sensors being available to the Matho's controller for automation purposes (normally the vessel sensor but just unplug and switch between the two if required). Unfortunately the tri-clamp mounts I'm using for those two don't really have room to install duplicate secondary sensors.

Sounds like I may be shitouttaluck with that design going on your explanations of the data bus so I may just need to have the dedicated temp box displaying three of the four with the other one going into the controller.

As an alternative perhaps, is there any (simple) way that the controller can replicate the sensor data on an output port to feed an external display module? I don't even know if the board has any outputs ports available, sorry about my lack of expertise regarding these jiggers and thanks for your patience with helping out.

 

[zwitter]

Hi Meddo

Outputs yes there are many possibilities. But none are simple or easy.

If you want to make software changes then you could have an external display and send as much data as you like. There are some nice oled displays around now and very cheap.

There is the onewire bus on the Arduino and can get these displays with onewire interfaces. There is also wifi as an option

There is the synchronous data bus as well.

There is one option built in to the Arduino sketch tool where it creates a virtual display on your PC attached to the Arduino via the USB port. But you would need to have extra commands added to the software.

There are various people modifying the code on github. Even a guy who rewrote the lot and I think his code supported multiple control of temp in pots and extra sensors. This was described here some time back.

Maybe you could consider some other options like the BCS control box.

When we improved on the Matho box we had to choose some options that suited a lot of people, which we did. But there are others pushing on with more options and more capabilities.

Stay tuned.

James
Zwitter


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[ramu_gupta]

Can anyone suggest which component might be failing in my situation?

When the wort temperature is just past 98 C - the heater gets switched off for some reason. It doesn't matter whether I set the unit to manual mode or automatic mode - once this has happened - even when I turn the brauduino on and off - I cannot get the heater to turn on again once the temperature is greater than 98. The heater LED is still lit though.

Would this be SSR?

 

[Meddo]

What's your boil temp set at? Might be a bit low.

 

[ramu_gupta]

Boil temp is 100.

The unit wont control the heater at all now - pump works though.

Going to open up the unit tonight and have a look.
Will check for switching voltage on SSR, look for any loose wires.

 

[ramu_gupta]

All sorted now. Pulled the unit apart and all devices were doing their thing.

Then I pulled the powercon plugs apart and one of them had a loose wire. Simply re-tightened.

Need to keep an eye on that - must've come loose pulling the plugs out of and into the brauduino over a few hundred times.
Might leave them connected now.

 

[checkers]

Hey guys,

I've got a question about the temp probe.. I was looking to buy one of these from nev at online brewing supplies but was worried the temp probe wouldn't work with it.. anyone know if it does or if a probe I can buy that will??

 

[malt junkie]

You can get DS18b20 probes to suit (quick ebay search will sort you) that setup you will need to wire the appropriate plug to suit or alternatively wire straight from the board.
One point to make is to make sure you don't get parasite sensors.

ED: If you had your location up I'd offer you one of my spares. And Nev's kit is a quality bit of gear!

 

[checkers]

I'm in Perth.. what is a parasite sensor?? Sorry I'm a chippy and electronics goes straight over my head!

 

[checkers]

You can get DS18b20 probes to suit (quick ebay search will sort you) that setup you will need to wire the appropriate plug to suit or alternatively wire straight from the board.
One point to make is to make sure you don't get parasite sensors.

ED: If you had your location up I'd offer you one of my spares. And Nev's kit is a quality bit of gear!

I'm in Perth.. what is a parasite sensor?? Sorry I'm a chippy and electronics goes straight over my head!

 

[malt junkie]

I'm in Perth.. what is a parasite sensor?? Sorry I'm a chippy and electronics goes straight over my head!

Last time I was in Perth I worked as a hammer hand for a mate of mine; sadly he passed away a few years back. Parasite sensors can essentially run off just 2 wires, this makes them incompatible with the standard implementation (though they still have 3). Unfortunately some ebay sellers don't specify which they are selling. There is a sketch you can run to check if a sensor is running in parasite mode, let me know if/ when you get some probes in and I'll link the sketch.

 

[checkers]

Last time I was in Perth I worked as a hammer hand for a mate of mine; sadly he passed away a few years back. Parasite sensors can essentially run off just 2 wires, this makes them incompatible with the standard implementation (though they still have 3). Unfortunately some ebay sellers don't specify which they are selling. There is a sketch you can run to check if a sensor is running in parasite mode, let me know if/ when you get some probes in and I'll link the sketch.

Sorry to hear..
I'll have a chat to nev as he sells the probes you are talking about.. once I get one I will buy a headphone jack and see if anyone on here knows how to wire it up!!

 

[Bruer]

Hey All,

I'm looking to put together a 3 V RIMs system. The system will have 2 pumps, the RIMs, and two heating elements (HLT and BK; only the HLT needs temp control). From what I understand of the unit, it can control the temp of 1 item, a pump and an auxiliary.

I was thinking of the following set up:

Controller 1:
*Temp - HLT temp control
*Pump 1 - for recycling the HLT (to avoid stratification) and pumping over to the MT
*Auxiliary - nothing

Controller 2
*Temp - RIMs temp control
*Pump 2 - pump through RIMs and sparge arm
*Auxiliary - BK Element

Is this the sort of thing the the Brauduino can deal with? Will i need to run the two units off of separate house circuits (I'm renting and on standard 10A fuses)? Will I need another SSR for the Auxiliary BK Element on Controller 2?

 

[lael]

Hey All,

I'm looking to put together a 3 V RIMs system. The system will have 2 pumps, the RIMs, and two heating elements (HLT and BK; only the HLT needs temp control). From what I understand of the unit, it can control the temp of 1 item, a pump and an auxiliary.

I was thinking of the following set up:

Controller 1:
*Temp - HLT temp control
*Pump 1 - for recycling the HLT (to avoid stratification) and pumping over to the MT
*Auxiliary - nothing

Controller 2
*Temp - RIMs temp control
*Pump 2 - pump through RIMs and sparge arm
*Auxiliary - BK Element

Is this the sort of thing the the Brauduino can deal with? Will i need to run the two units off of separate house circuits (I'm renting and on standard 10A fuses)? Will I need another SSR for the Auxiliary BK Element on Controller 2?

View attachment 108643

Yes, easily. For Controller 1 you would want to run the unit on manual and have your pump and heat element on. You can do this on 1 circuit.

For controller 2 - you can run programmed stepped mashing routines. The controller comes with the capacity to run 2x 240V 10A heating circuits (with SSR provided to run 2 circuits). You will need another 2 10A circuits for this, or a circuit with 20A rated lines and fuses/RCDs. Check with an electrician if unsure what you have.

 

[bigmacthepunker]

I will add it here too.Does anybody know how to fix my delay timer issue. I can only set it to a max 2.40 hours. I even bought another mega board and reloaded the software and still at 2.40 hours. If I could make the delay for seven hours, I could setup at 10pm then mash in at 5.am on Sunday morning. My Aldi timer didn't work last Saturday night. Up at 5.30am last Sunday mashed in at 7.30. Not happy Jan. help is much needed

 

[eresh666]

I finally put mine together, need to run a full test tomorrow but already found one problem.

The dog thinks the buzzer is the smoke alarm going off and freaks out might have to see if I can find something else.

 

[Neolithic]

Hi guys, finally got round to building my second Lael controller last week.

None of the 240v is wired so basically a layout build with buttons temp sensor.

When I power up off a usb cable it boots into ardbir the after a few seconds the screen contrast goes and the screen goes off as do the lights on the mega.

Tested the mega in my other box and it’s fine. Any ideas?

Have written to Lael but think he’s off as I know he’s a busy guy.

Cheers

Matt

 

[malt junkie]

Hi guys, finally got round to building my second Lael controller last week.

None of the 240v is wired so basically a layout build with buttons temp sensor.

When I power up off a usb cable it boots into ardbir the after a few seconds the screen contrast goes and the screen goes off as do the lights on the mega.

Tested the mega in my other box and it’s fine. Any ideas?

Have written to Lael but think he’s off as I know he’s a busy guy.

Cheers

Matt

If you have a working box try switching out the mega's
If it still fails then you have a problem and the mega will need replacing.

 

[Neolithic]

I have swapped the Mega’s over between my good box and both work normally in the good box. I think I must have a duff shield / screen.

Matt

 

[malt junkie]

not necessarily, usb could be flakey you'd need to power via the 12v supply to be certain.