New brewery controller

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chris246810

New brewery controller

Post by chris246810 » Fri Jan 12, 2018 10:54 am

Theres a new brewery controller on the market, based on the use of an arduino mega and windows 10 pc for the interface.

Looks like it is very versatile and can be used for manual control or fully automated control.

I have tested it out by reflashing one of my old brewpiless controllers and it all works well for fermentation control over wifi.
I have a mega and all the other bits and bobs on order to hook it up to my brew system so i can control all my brewing processes from one screen.

Cost £113 ($149) for the software license, the hardware required is all pretty cheap, easily available items.

http://brucontrol.com

chefgage
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Re: New brewery controller

Post by chefgage » Fri Jan 12, 2018 11:45 am

The price for the licence seems a bit steep especially when you look at the graphic interface. Looks very basic, ie just a load of square blocks with pump, mash tun etc. Unless i am missing something?????

dbambrick996
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Re: New brewery controller

Post by dbambrick996 » Fri Jan 12, 2018 12:16 pm

Some alternatives
Craftbeerpi can do all that for free
Brewmaniac is another
Smartpid for a built system
Open Ardbir

chris246810

Re: New brewery controller

Post by chris246810 » Fri Jan 12, 2018 12:17 pm

Its only v1, visual improvements to come in next version so im told.
Main selling point for me was the simplified scripting for process automation, making it much easier to get various i/o devices to interact exactly how you want them to.
I agree the license fee is a little steep, but i do see this software has an awful lot of potential and the developer has been really helpful with any questions ive asked.

chris246810

Re: New brewery controller

Post by chris246810 » Fri Jan 12, 2018 12:19 pm

I have tried all those alternatives, my current brew controller is a smartpid which is made by the same guy who did arbir.

chris246810

Re: New brewery controller

Post by chris246810 » Fri Jan 12, 2018 12:46 pm

Plus it can control as many microcontrollers as you wish, over usb/ethernet or wifi

Fil
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Re: New brewery controller

Post by Fil » Fri Jan 12, 2018 2:59 pm

Software is often priced as a loss leader to sell hardware or in the case of mobile phones and tablets as an avenue to collect micro payments which hides its true cost of production and support from the end user. for a s/w package that works and has actual developer support and a small pool of potential customers £100 isnt a huge price to pay. Would i pay it tho?? If i were brewing commercially almost definitely. However i like to tinker and have my own plans for 'THE brew-troller' hehe.. and they are plans simply because of the few 100 hours of work needed to make progress ...

I have only had a quick browse of the site linked to and many of the links i tried to follow from the main menu were blind allies but it appears to be fully featured, Blocky gui?? what would you prefer?? email your suggestions to the developer or post them on the product forum.. Thats the sort of feedback when combined with a constructive alternative suggestion that developers value, and can lead to an improved V2 ;)..

Something worth keeping an eye on for sure..
ist update for months n months..
Fermnting: not a lot..
Conditioning: nowt
Maturing: Challenger smash, and a kit lager
Drinking: dry one minikeg left in the store
Coming Soon Lots planned for the near future nowt for the immediate :(

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Kev888
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Re: New brewery controller

Post by Kev888 » Fri Jan 12, 2018 3:11 pm

Looks interesting. At least it hasn't tried to do everything via tiny/mobile devices or bluetooth, and seems pretty usable even by non-programmers. Not sure if there'd still be a steep learning curve for people not familiar with Arduinos (etc).

The price is quite high, especially as micro-controllers are needed in addition. Which isn't to say that isn't justified (people can spend loads on controllers and panels too) but it depends on how good it is.

I'd need to be very convinced of its robustness and reliability, for leaving on all the time and controlling potentially dangerous equipment. For all their website dismisses individual dedicated controllers, these have actually set the bar quite high; most of us have probably experienced far more glitches, bugs and problems with complex and/or low-volume software.

It would seem more attractive if it did something more. Ideally one would be able to 'easily' set/save/load different process sequences, as (for example) can be done with braumeister controllers and others. But it sounds like one may need to start coding to do that - by default does it only duplicate what manually operated controllers can do?
Kev

chris246810

Re: New brewery controller

Post by chris246810 » Fri Jan 12, 2018 3:38 pm

Flashing the firmware onto the controller was a piece of cake thru the software, no arduino ide or any changing code required.
For a basic manual control panel type setup its very easy, simply add device, tell it what port the device is on and what type of device it is( analog input,digital output etc) then its good to go.
For automation theres a script editor which uses a simplified script language, the scripts can use variables, making it even easier to change the automation eg. Mash time variable/mash temp variable
Unlike the alternatives suggested it can work with multiple controllers simultaneously which gives added benefits, for example as well as using it to control my brewery/fermentation fridges and serving fridges, i could use it for home automation tasks too.

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Kev888
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Re: New brewery controller

Post by Kev888 » Fri Jan 12, 2018 8:18 pm

Thats useful to hear, thanks!

In the future, I'm intending to build a 3v control panel - timers, PIDs, thermostats etc. I've already got most of the parts (probably like many people who've been brewing for a while), and replacing them isn't necessary or particularly desirable. But if this software can not only replace them all but also (reasonably easily) add a degree of automation then it would certainly be worth investigating further.
Kev

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