Does anyone have a Beerbug ?

[roscoe]

unconvinced on price or need,.... compared to...

? taking a sample or just looking at a healthy krausen

? if you wanted remote wotsit, then add a webcam and temperature logging/control

ba-humbug, until future U turn (under $50 ??)

[LeeH]

I'm convinced I don't need one...but it's a brew toy and I'm a sucker for brew toys and all things shiny.

[Fil]

a nice toy with a single USP the ability to read gravity electronically,
if thats worth $250 + a monthly fee to you go for it..

the tech to transmit and recieve via wifi/web isnt exactly ground breaking and can be found in $10 devices, and a foodsafe float that can be safely and easily sanitised isnt much of a design challenge either.

in fact the price and monthly charge would make me feel very foolish if i were to buy into it, would they want to send some one round to F*** u in the A** every month too?

[Brad.BeerBug]

setmash
Yes they have got it all wrong on that one, they should not charge a monthly fee to change sample rate etc. Also $250....i work in the electronics business there is no way this should cost $250. They know this and Im sure they will bring the costs down, lets face it if it did work it would be a brilliant device.

Brad why dont you ship a sample to Barneey or another member for test and review ?
_________

I'll look into this! Email taylor@parasitx.com if you're interested in a unit for review!


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chris2012
The review of the beerbug here seems a little disconcerting http://mynerdlyendeavours.com/category/ ... ng/page/2/ (the review at the bottom)
in terms of accuracy, but it looks like it has been improved since then.

You can see it works through a load cell, making the $250 seem rather expensive to me.
_________

It is worth noting that this was the original design (2nd or 3rd prototype version if I remember properly) and we have since moved to a completely different sensor that we developed for this application. We no longer use load cells, although I think we have a box of them still somewhere.


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Fil
a nice toy with a single USP the ability to read gravity electronically,
if thats worth $250 + a monthly fee to you go for it..

the tech to transmit and recieve via wifi/web isnt exactly ground breaking and can be found in $10 devices, and a foodsafe float that can be safely and easily sanitised isnt much of a design challenge either.

in fact the price and monthly charge would make me feel very foolish if i were to buy into it, would they want to send some one round to F*** u in the A** every month too?
_________

We do understand that the price isn't the cheapest of gadgets, and we hope for it to drop as we our production quantity continues to grow.

To the subscription concerns/criticisms: not having an "advanced" account doesn't gimp the device, or the user experience. For the most part, it simply opens up more detailed control in regards to saving the data in raw .xml format or displaying ALL of the points (some longer brews can contain millions which takes some time to display). The upload rate, dictates the rate at which the BeerBug wakes from sleep to send the data it has been collecting the past 5,10, or 20 (etc) minutes to the server.

We hope to include even more features into this tier in the future, which will hopefully give it merit to those who have the same position as you hold currently.

What would you like to see in this subscription that would justify it's cost ($2.50/month)?
How could we improve it?

We genuinely appreciate any kind of criticism as it helps us improve to be the best we can be, and allows us to see what the homebrew market really wants.

Thanks!

(quotes weren't working, sorry for the poor formatting!)

[bobsbeer]

My concern with using load cells is their longevity, before drift starts to creep in. Maybe I'm wrong, but this method is keeping the load cell under strain for long periods, unlike scales which may be under load for minutes or perhaps hours, not weeks. That strain is eventually going to show up as creep eventually.

I'm convinced the way forward on gravity monitoring is to use another method totally different to a hydrometer. After all we want to know progression to attenuation, not necessarily the gravity for gravity's sake. Specific gravity is just one way of measuring fermentation.

[Fil]

Firstly Brad, thanks for the polite response to my mini rant..

ive revisited your site for a read up on whats what,
and i still think the price is high, but i am a cheap bastard so i tend to think everything is overpriced..

though i just do not like the idea that my data isnt my data and i cant control what and how frequently is recorded or have full access to my data for analysis without paying even just a few dollars to access. Its MY data isnt it? without me and my purchase and input it just would not exist?

it seems similar to buying a car only to find the 4th and 5th gears have been locked behind a micropay latch.

data volume isnt an issue even with a 64byte record (64 characters) recorded every 2 secs thats only 3mb a day..
so a 40 day lagering could generate 120mb of raw data?? not exactly gonna stretch any server is it?

imho you should provide full control and access via a browser or ftp client to the raw data and provide emial alerts when user set tests are trigered, ie too hot, or too cold.. all gratis no charge, and perhaps some basic analytical tools like the graphs on the app dispaly

if you need to generate a micropay income stream, charge for the app perhaps the 2nd or 3rd and following app lookups each day could carry a micropay charge. Check once or twice a day for monitoring for free but if overusing the app service charge for that after all thats the vanity product, its not as if any usefull analysis of a 120mb csv is gonna get done on a device with a screen 3"-7" anyway

[setmash]

Brad thanks for getting back to us. Good to see a manufacturer engaging with customers.

You have made a rod for your own back by charging people to download their own data. The device, by design, doesnt have local storage thus reducing manufacturing cost - which is why you use the cloud. Cloud storage is way cheaper than local on device non volatile memory. A very smart idea. However it does look bad when you then charge people to download their own data because you designed out local storage to save cost. The same goes for the sample rate.

All of us want this device to be a success and to work as it would bring a new interesting dynamic to our brewing. However, understanding your market is key to product success and unfortunately we brewers are very price sensitive.

[chris2012]

I agree entirely with setmash, I think you should probably make the cloud services
free, as an incentive to buyers, as the device itself is rather dear.

[alexe]

I was interested and was considering buying one, but having to pay a subscription to download my own data??? Forget it!