Using A Mac For Process Automation?

[Nibbo]

Sorry if this has been brought up many times before but i'm after info/feedback if anyone uses or has tried to use a mac to run temp monitors and controllers? I have an older laptop (2005...ish) and was hoping to utilise this in the brewery. Was thinking maybe trying a K190 kit from ozitronics. Just need the matching software to run it.

I'm sure if i researched hard enough, i'd come up with something i could write myself but not sure if i have the time and patients to start something like that just yet...if it gets down to it then it may be my last resort. I have used the search button on the site button i'm mainly getting brew calc programs for Macs and not automation type software.

My main objective really is to get trends of temps on my equipment and possible control to even those trends out.

If anyone has some constructive advice, i'd appreciate to hear from you.

P.S...not looking to put windows on the laptop as it would defeat the purpose of owning a mac...i have a pc with windows vista if theres no luck with the mac.

Cheers

 

[justsomeguy]

Nibbo,

Off the top of my head I'd look at using an Arduino for the temp sensing and have it send the results to the USB port. Your Mac picks up that and does whatever it wants with the data. There are lots of samples around that use an Ardiuno to get temperature readings. You then use the serial library for the Arduino to send the data to the Mac. You would then need to write something for the Mac to read the data and display it.

This gives you a really simple interface to work with between the Mac and the hardware. If you are familiar with MacOS development you should be able to come up with something in a day or so.

The other option is to hook up a 2 line LCD to the Arduino and display the temp data there and not bother sending the data to the Mac at all.

Regards,
garyd

 

[wynnum1]

If you use a mac and its dies you will have to get another mac to keep it running there are a lot of old windows computers maybe Linux home automation suite

 

[DJR]

One-wire File System (OWFS) works fine on my Mac and will be used to do some automation. Just using 1-wire devices connected via phone line cable to a DS9490R USB device. Support seemed OK for MacOS, I think i just needed to have Macports installed and that had an owfs port. I might have followed these instructions http://owfs.org/index.php?page=macintosh

The other alternative is to dual boot Linux on your mac.

Unfortunately past that you're much on your own, it's pretty much a programming exercise rather than something point&click. My automation will be written in Ruby with a Rails web interface for display of status etc, and a simple PID control mechanism for switching on and off a HLT element via SSR, with input from DS18S20 temperature sensors. Eventually I may look at starting/stopping a March pump and actuating servo-actuated ball valves, but for the moment just HLT control which I could just do with a STC1000.

 

[stux]

Mac OS X is Unix

If you write a cmd line app for OSX it would be simple to port to Linux in the future if you wanted

 

[Zizzle]

DS1820 based board like the K190 are the way to go.

But it doesn't look like the K190 is rated to switch mains voltages, so you couldn't use it to control your fridge. Also you would need a USB to serial adapter to use it.

DigitTemp is a pretty simple command line program to get the temps from DS1820 and it runs on OS X.

http://freecode.com/projects/digitemp

It can log the values to a text file.

From there you can put them in a spreadsheet and graph them, or use some other visualization program. For example there are now some online services that let you stream your sensor data to them and they produce pretty graphs.

You could also pretty easily write a bit of python to switch some relays based on the temps.

I'm not sure exactly what it does, but it looks like maxim has some free software that might let you read temperature data from DS1820s.

http://www.maxim-ic.com/products/ibutton/s...ire/wirekit.cfm

You may want to look at their iButton range hardware wise:

http://www.maxim-ic.com/products/ibutton/p...ts/ibuttons.cfm

And then get a separate relay board than is mains rated and go from there.


You may be able to get one of these to work:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-PC-Laptop-USB-...=item2a1341115c

Alternatively, you could install Linux on the Mac.

Either way, you probably need to write some code to get it to do what you want.

 

[seemax]

Arduino is the simplest, cheapest way. Software available for Max, Win and Linux.

$50-60 for a Uno (or similar), breadboard + bits, LCD, DS18b20 stainless weldless probe

The code is freely available, there is a one wire library too.

PM if you want the links to buy the bits...

 

[Nibbo]

Cheers for the replys people...will give me several things to stew over.

 

[pk.sax]

http://www.t-tec.com.au/thermochron-data-loggers/

These guys might be able to help with getting temp sensing parts compatible with the one-wire file system referred above from maxim... Best prices in oz for that stuff.

no affiliation, just a happy customer.

 

[Nibbo]

Cool mate...will check them out...is anyone using their laptop/pc to trend temps and have you found it usefull?

 

[Zizzle]

I played around with it a few years ago, you can see a graph in the post:

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=10518

Novelty value for a while.

But really temp graphs are pretty boring.

I need to do a write up, but my current controller is a MSP430 with DS1820, relay, and bluetooth module. It sends the temperature every second over bluetooth and the target temperature can be set too. So nice low power (unlike a PC) and can be hidden away behind the fridge.

Even with wireless control I don't bother to graph any ferments anymore. I know how it will look.

 

[Superoo]

I'm using a bs2p24 basic stamp which reads one wire protocol directly into it.
Uses an lcd and switches a ssr to run my urn for mashing.
It also runs PID code for mashing, which I'm fine tuning now.
I have it programmed so that if your mash temp is say 66, then it will preheat the water 2 deg higher, then beep 10 times and alert you, then it reverts back to 66, and PID control from there.

When boiling, it als beeps and alerts if the temp drops back below 100 after it has reached boiling.

Also have an sd card for data logging temps etc.

You can buy basic stamp development gear and displays etc at RTN in Melbourne.

I am happy to provide some snippets of code for temp sensor reading and lcd commands etc.

I also have available ( we are testing these on some commercial products at the moment ) some combined lcd, sd card, keypad scanning modules. The whole lot mounts to the rear of a 4 x 20 lcd. These are expensive though.

Using a microcontroller gives you the most flexibility, and its great fun learning them.
Plenty of information and resources for basic stamps at www.parallax.com

 

[hsb]

I use one of these with a Mac to control HERMS
http://www.embeddedcc.com/index.php/produc...rol-system.html

Probably more than you want to spend and the Mac thing is irrelevant since the BCS is platform independent (runs on web interface.)

Just a more simple option than arduino etc. and maybe once you add up all the bits and bobs, not so much more in cost.

But much much less fun to tinker with to set up and no programming required (though you can work in touch screens and LCD displays, customise the interface etc...)