Zizzle's Brewbot

[Zizzle]

I hadn't drawn a circuit diagram yet... it's all been designed in my head so far.

So I've chucked togther a quickie for the relay and sensor setup. It's dead easy. Just a voltage divider on the ADC pin so that it doesn't go above the 5V VCC of the micro.

 

[InCider]

Gonna have to come up with a wicked name for your maiden brew.

"A fair maidens maiden brew"

Great work Zizzle - SolderTFU!

InCider.

 

[Pumpy]

Jeese Zizzle ,

I thought this would be a long term project but you are really getting going , I like the way you use bits of cars and handy with a welder too.

Leeeeedge !!!!


pumpy

 

[browndog]

"A fair maidens maiden brew"

Great work Zizzle - SolderTFU!

InCider.

I reckon it should be named the Frankenstein Brewery and the first brew "Bride of Frankenstein Ale"

cheers

Browndog

 

[boingk]

Very, VERY awesome setup...this thing is going to be awesome! I'm kit/extract, but if I go AG is pretty much how I'd love to do it.

I'd opt for the "Bride of Frankenstein Ale/Lager", or maybe "Tron Ale/Lager" for that retro 'inside the computer' touch

 

[ArnieW]

The console will be mounted on a post at about waist height on that corner.

Shocking job lining up that buttons...

Hey Zizzle, nice work. What are those 4 buttons going to do, and what brain have you got lined up?

cheers, Arnie

 

[bugwan]

I'm interested to see what this LCD is capable of displaying Zizzle. Temps? Countdown timer? Time? Should be a great watch! Keep the updates coming!

 

[Zizzle]

The LCD is 240x64 pixels, so I was going to dedicate the right hand 64x64 pixels to drawing graphs of temps, and vessel levels.

The micro is an AVR Atmega128. This is the board: http://www.futurlec.com/ATMEGA_Controller.shtml

Nice board to work with. gcc-avr & libc-avr under linux for the code. ponyprog2000 for downloading the code to it. Much nicer than the PIC stuff I have worked with, and pretty cheap too.

I have most of the I/O code written and a little test program that uses all the hardware. It also presents a serial console, so I can plug the laptop into it and see status and run commands. It also fetches the temp from one of the DS1820s and plots it on the LCD.

I need to decide on how I want to do the UI. I could go with a menuing system. So the four buttons could be up/down & left/right. Or number the buttons 1,2,3,4 and present the user with 4-way or less choice each time.

 

[Dunkel_Boy]

Very very cool. Haven't read the thread in detail, so apologies if this has been repeated.

I've used a couple of Dallas i-button/1-wire things with a work project, and they are brilliant.

In terms of overflow/boiler stuff (just throwing ideas around), can you hook a float or overflow to a two-stage system: first stage (After a couple of cm) turns the burner on, and second stage turns the input flow off. Well, you could make it a multi-stage thing (perhaps a probe/float/weight system down the middle of the boiler) for your sparges, hooked up to microswitches. Just an idea, if you haven't already thought of it...

 

[ant]

A quick question for Zizzle and others using the Dallas DS1820s... (and excuse my electronics ignorance here), but what are you housing them in for use in a HLT or HERMS, etc? In a probe (aka the s/s chopstick - nice one BTW) or a dedicated thermowell?

And to *really* show my ignorance - what are the advantages of a DS1820s over a PT100? My suspicions are that if you want to use the sensor to interface with a PLC/PC then the Dallas is a good (and cheap!) way to go, however if you were using dedicated PID's/process controllers, then you would need to use a PT100 (or thermistor, etc).

Beers,
Ant

 

[Zwickel]

A quick question for Zizzle and others using the Dallas DS1820s... (and excuse my electronics ignorance here), but what are you housing them in for use in a HLT or HERMS, etc? In a probe (aka the s/s chopstick - nice one BTW) or a dedicated thermowell?

I made another sensor this way, just drill a hole into an 8mm SS screw:

... what are the advantages of a DS1820s over a PT100? My suspicions are that if you want to use the sensor to interface with a PLC/PC then the Dallas is a good (and cheap!) way to go, however if you were using dedicated PID's/process controllers, then you would need to use a PT100 (or thermistor, etc).

The DS18x20 gives you directly a digital output, you may use in any software, independently how long the wire/kabel is.
The PT100 is just a resistor, for that you need a convertor to change the resitance value into an analog voltage value and then an AD-Changer to get a digital value. Also the resistance of the wire/kabel falsifies the output.
Thats most complicated.
If youre going to use a ready made Unit, like a PID, then all the mentioned parts are already inbuild, but the most of them can manage only one certain temperature.

If youre going to control the whole brewing process, then youll need a software that can manage many different temperatures in many steps.
For that the DS18x20 is first choice.
just my 2cnt.

Cheers

 

[Screwtop]

Amazing stuff Zizzle, you are getting this thing together really quick. Gonna have to come up with a wicked name for your maiden brew.

cheers

Browndog

Brainiac Bitter

Anyone remember the pre solid state valve monster of that name?

 

[ArnieW]

A quick question for Zizzle and others using the Dallas DS1820s... (and excuse my electronics ignorance here), but what are you housing them in for use in a HLT or HERMS, etc? In a probe (aka the s/s chopstick - nice one BTW) or a dedicated thermowell?

And to *really* show my ignorance - what are the advantages of a DS1820s over a PT100? My suspicions are that if you want to use the sensor to interface with a PLC/PC then the Dallas is a good (and cheap!) way to go, however if you were using dedicated PID's/process controllers, then you would need to use a PT100 (or thermistor, etc).

Beers,
Ant

Hi Ant,

I like what zwickel has built and I guess there are many ways to do it. Below is a photo of how I've inserted a DS18B20 into a copper pipe. This pipe is on the outlet side of my heat chamber, after the pump. I used epoxy to seal the pipe and hold the probe in position. The probe head is directly exposed to wort. It seems to work ok, but I guess it may need some long term testing to be sure.

 

[Zizzle]

For the thermowell I got a keg dip tube off Ross and cut it into thirds, crimped the end and used Selley's Knead-It to glue it into a brass fitting.

I didn't think of doing it Zwickel's until after I had the dip tube.

For the boiler, I don't really need to known an accurate temp, just approximately when it has reached the boil, so I might just glue a DS1820 to the outside of the kettle.

 

[ant]

Once again, the collective nous of the AHB'ers comes through with solid advice; onya gents - the more I look at this, the more it confuses me... I know what I'd like to achieve, but my lack of elec/programming experience coupled with my awe of all things metal (holy crap... Zwickel drilled through a screw?) automatically leads me to look at "plug and play" options (ie industrial PT100 to a cheap ebay PID).

But functionality needs to win the day, so I guess I'll just get some 4-6" thermowells to go into the 1/2" fittings I've got welded in to the HLT, HERMS, MLT and buy some Dallas DS units, with the intent of asking a million questions about where to from there... am thinking of a PLC (cos I think I stand a fair chance with ladder logic) to control all the temps through some elec actuated ball valves (picked up a beautiful 3-way one on ebay the other week). At this point, I just want to get the heating in the HLT and mash automated so I can cut the brew day down a bit (note I use the word "just", although this seems like an insurmountable task at this point)...

Sooo, next question #1 - which DS1820? There are a bunch of them :blink:

Apologies for thread hijack Zizzle - will start another to avoid this in future

 

[Zizzle]

How software friendly are you ant? Ever programmed in any computer language?

Something like Python is probably no harder than ladder logic to learn (although I've never used the later).

It all depends on how much time you have and how much you enjoy doing this stuff yourself.

I've posted a link earlier on a simple cicruit to build to talk to a DS1820 from the serial port of a PC. Next you can buy relay card for a PC parallel port, this will allow you to switch mains voltages (probably not cheap if it has to handle 20amps or more in the US).

You can pick up and old laptop PC pretty cheaply these days. It doesn't need to be very powerful, and old Pentium should be fine. People literally throw them away. Get it running a copy linux. Mainly because it is much more stable than Windows, can be stripped down to run on old hardware, and comes with all the software tools you need.

http://www.linuxnetmag.com/en/issue8/m8temperature1.html

As for which DS1820, I think I've got the DS18S20, but just log into the Dallas semi website and see which ones they are willing to give you as free samples.

 

[winkle]

Brainiac Bitter

Anyone remember the pre solid state valve monster of that name?

Poindexter Porter? Impressive project happening quickly away :super:

 

[browndog]

Brainiac Bitter

Anyone remember the pre solid state valve monster of that name?

ENIAC English Bitter

 

[sqyre]

Lookin Good Zizzle.. :super:

How about Vegan Vienna??

or

HTFU Hefeweizen???



Sqyre...

 

[browndog]

Lookin Good Zizzle.. :super:

How about Vegan Vienna??

or

HTFU Hefeweizen???



Sqyre...

Rastafarian Rauchbier.....

appologies to the eggheads trying to have a serious thread here

cheers

Browndog