Zizzle's Brewbot

[Zizzle]

Haven't had much time to spend on the brewbot recently, but have been anyway

It's nearly done, except for the hop dropper.

Brew bot can automatically fill it's HLT from the mains water, heat that to mash temp, pump 15lts from the HLT to the mash tun, mash for 60mins, heat water for mash out, pump 7ltrs of that to the mash tun, refill HLT and heat 23ltrs of sparge water.

The code for all steps is written, the above is all I've had time to test so far. The has been a few bugs and glitches, but overall I'm happy with how it is working.

Pics tomorrow when I figure out why my camera has stop talking to my laptop.

 

[ArnieW]

Haven't had much time to spend on the brewbot recently, but have been anyway

It's nearly done, except for the hop dropper.

Brew bot can automatically fill it's HLT from the mains water, heat that to mash temp, pump 15lts from the HLT to the mash tun, mash for 60mins, heat water for mash out, pump 7ltrs of that to the mash tun, refill HLT and heat 23ltrs of sparge water.

The code for all steps is written, the above is all I've had time to test so far. The has been a few bugs and glitches, but overall I'm happy with how it is working.

Pics tomorrow when I figure out why my camera has stop talking to my laptop.

Cool ... I'm impressed Z. Have you tried out that circuit yet?

Keep up the good work.

PS. I'm close to getting some pic based control gear working - just debugging at the moment.

 

[Zizzle]

I actually just went with connecting the ADC ports on the AVR directly to the sensor rods in the vessel. Plus a pull up resistor of about 600k.

I also played around with ultrasonic transducers for a while. To the point where I could see the echos on the CRO, but it was all breadboarded so soldering it up and writing the code to measure the echo time would have taken me more time that just mounting some conducting rods. So I just hacked up a bit of timber and mounted some aluminium strips that can be adjusted to set the water level, much like your setup.

Three in the HLT, and I'm thinking I'll add one to the boiler just so I don't even end up turning on the heating elements when they aren't covered.

One misshap was me forgetting to add the protection diodes for the solenoid and it's relay. So I managed to end up with a pin on the microcontroller that no longer works. Still plenty of unused pins, but I'm lucky I didn't kill the whole thing.

Arnie, are you writing PIC assembly?

 

[Zizzle]

It's alive! I need to strip it and paint the frame, tidy the wiring etc when I'm happy it will all work.

HLT filling:

HLT heating:

Actuated valves:

Brainz:

 

[ant]

Holy smokes that is some serious wiring - but then again, this is a serious step up in homebrewing technology.

Zizzle, it is half science, half work of art - I love it. :super:

 

[bonj]

Awesome work Zizzle!

 

[ArnieW]

I actually just went with connecting the ADC ports on the AVR directly to the sensor rods in the vessel. Plus a pull up resistor of about 600k.

I also played around with ultrasonic transducers for a while. To the point where I could see the echos on the CRO, but it was all breadboarded so soldering it up and writing the code to measure the echo time would have taken me more time that just mounting some conducting rods. So I just hacked up a bit of timber and mounted some aluminium strips that can be adjusted to set the water level, much like your setup.

Three in the HLT, and I'm thinking I'll add one to the boiler just so I don't even end up turning on the heating elements when they aren't covered.

One misshap was me forgetting to add the protection diodes for the solenoid and it's relay. So I managed to end up with a pin on the microcontroller that no longer works. Still plenty of unused pins, but I'm lucky I didn't kill the whole thing.

Arnie, are you writing PIC assembly?

Hi Zizzle,

no I'm using the picaxe micros which have a basic interpreter overlaid on the pic. It makes it very easy to program. You mentioned ultrasonics and how much code to work out the echos - the picaxe has a single command line to give a value in mm back. The downside is that processing speed is slow, and often you need to work out clever workarounds to get it to perform some complex functions.

But they are really cheap, software is free, manual includes lots of interfacing info etc.

 

[Ross]

Zizzle,

Hope i get an invite to your 1st brewday - Switch on, sit around drinking, telling yarns.... & switch off when it's all over... It'll be a tough day, but i don't mind lending a hand with the button press if needed

Looks awesome mate :super:

Cheers Ross

 

[Zizzle]

Yep Ross, exactly what I have been thinking :beer:

Brew day at my place, coming soon. :beerbang:

Not having to worry about hop additions affords you room to have an extra couple of beers.

 

[devo]

ya know your screwed when that thing becomes self aware and starts killing humans.

 

[Andyd]

If it does become self aware and it's got half an ounce of intelligence it'll stay put and scoff all the beer it's brewing

 

[Zizzle]

Yep, you're on the money... it will evolve into bender.

 

[bonj]

Bite.... My.... Shiny.... Metal.... HLT!

Edit: "I felt it ferment!"

 

[Zizzle]

Maiden brew was yesterday, a simple APA.

It didn't go off without a hitch... but that was expected.

This was a trial brew to dial in some of the settings and see where the kinks are.

Mash was bit low, 62 which is easily corrected for next time (and fixed with a couple of litres of boiling water yesterday).

Everything up to the sparge worked well and could be left unattended.

The pump doesn't seem to prime reliably when fed from the mash tun even when testing with only water, but does when fed from the HLT. So more investigation needed there.

Also my threshold for detecting when the pump has begun to run dry was setup using test runs of water. But wort seems to conduct electricity much better, so more more tweaking needed there.

But the sparge didn't get stuck and pumped out nicely once the pump was primed.

The automated boil went off with out a hitch. No hop dropper yet, so I just had the controller give me a beep when each hop addition was due.

Efficiency was about 78% into the cube (no chill).

Next up: build up the hop dropper, get the pump priming sorted, insulate the HLT and adjust the level sensors so the lid will go back on.

 

[Steve]

This thread has amazed me. Ive got no idea half of what you are talking about, the pics are good though :blink: Zizzle, next you'll be able to go over seas for a month and remotely do a brew a week whilst you're away...from cracking the grain to syphoning it into a keg. Farking amazing.
Cheers :beerbang:
Steve

 

[randyrob]

Maiden brew was yesterday, a simple APA.

nice work zizzle, been following this one with great anticipation.

hmm.. AAPA (automated american pale ale) eh, hope she's nice and tasty :beer:

Rob.

 

[ArnieW]

Well done Zizzle. The beer will taste like nectar from the gods when it's done :beer:

I think your machine is officially more hands-free than mine at the moment. Mind you I brewed again today and it continues to purr along with little mods between brews.

Cheers, Arnie

 

[Zizzle]

Work on the hop dropper has started. Got some cheap plastics from one of the Chinese crap stores. Doing my bit to screw the environment and grow the chinese economy.

MDF would be easier to work with, but would probably swell from the steam of the boil.

I was going to use a microwave turntable motor, but discovered it randomly choses a directing to turn when power is applied. Gotta love AC motors.

So I got this from jaycar:

.

It can be setup to got down to the low rpms that I want, but the quality isn't impressive. After putting it togther I discovered that one of the shafts is bent, meaning the gears are only just meshing sometimes. I think I have some tool grade 3mm rod somewhere at home, so should be able to get it reliable.

 

[sqyre]

MDF would be easier to work with, but would probably swell from the steam of the boil.

Yes it does... :blink: even with 5 coats of clear... just takes one scratch..

learn't my lesson on that one...

sqyre...

 

[Doogiechap]

Hey Zizzle,
If you get sick of reviving the Jaycar Assembly then this one from Oatley might be a better option
Only $18
Cheers
Doug