Best app to use with iSpindel

[Harry Bloomfield]

I am presently testing Brewspy out, on my Win10 64bit laptop, using an Android emulator called Bluestacks.

I have found a solution, to using Brewspy.....
I have had an old Nook HD+ sat around gathering dust for some years. Whilst it ran a version of Android, it was a none standard B&N version and would not load Brewspy from Googleplay. So I went searching for some way of rooting it and installing a standard version of Android. Most of the links I found for doing it, were dead ends, except one, which covers both HD and HD+

Installing Android 7 on a Nook HD+ for free

The method described is easy, just needs a 4Gb+ sdcard plus the files downloaded from the site.

 

[The Cat]

As it stands I am still undecided. Still having outages of data on ubidots despite being nowhere near the allowance limit.

Still playing with it.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

As it stands I am still undecided. Still having outages of data on ubidots despite being nowhere near the allowance limit.

Still playing with it.

I haven't had data outages, but have had the data simply stop completely. I made an assumption that the iSpindel simply lost its temporary allocated IP by my router. I have now changed my router config, to give all the items on my LAN, static IP's.

If you really meant, that Ubidots suddenly stopped displaying all of your graphs until the following day, that was the very same issue I was struggling with. Toting up the dot count, they should not have exceeded Ubidots free account data limits.

 

[the_quick]

I use BrewFather, but it either reads data wrong or sale person on ebay has not calibrated it at all. It is stuck on 1.004 gravity since day of fermentation - to be honest I'm to lazy to check what is current gravity after 5 days.
I guess I will have to calibrate it my self with lots of sugar - unless there is a better way?

 

[The Cat]

I'm using BrewSpy for now - seems more reliable but I'm convinced my issue is the wifi signal so am still playing with the wifi extender.

I have at least learned I don't need iSpindels but they are a bit of fun to see what is going on. Worst case is I'll sell the pair of them they work just fine.

 

[kelper]

It's worth joining the Ubidots community and posting on there.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I use BrewFather, but it either reads data wrong or sale person on ebay has not calibrated it at all. It is stuck on 1.004 gravity since day of fermentation - to be honest I'm to lazy to check what is current gravity after 5 days.
I guess I will have to calibrate it my self with lots of sugar - unless there is a better way?

The sugar calibration is by far the more accurate method, more accurate than comparing to an actual glass hydrometer and the way I did it. You don't need lots of sugar just enough to alter the SG of a 2L of tap water, in a suitable plastic jug. Start with an accurate measure of 2L of water, at 20C, to calibrate the iSpindle to a 25 deg tilt. Then just accurately weigh in the sugar and mix in the water to increase the SG by a series of steps. I used very accurate 1Kg digital postal letter scales and derived I think 5 or 6 calibration points to feed into the formula.

 

[kelper]

But adding sugar will increase the volume and confuse the calculation? I started with the highest density I'm likely to use and diluted in stages to get SG's 10 points apart. I used a glass hydrometer to measure and kept the temp very close to 20. Then I plotted all the figures in Google Sheets and added a second order polynomial trendline which gave me the formula for calculating SG from tilt angle. The trendline smooths out ant errors in my measurements.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10FCWwj4ZidkdduUekYgbUPmpic9x7QbgDb_Lxbws6cE/edit?usp=sharing

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

But adding sugar will increase the volume and confuse the calculation? I started with the highest density I'm likely to use and diluted in stages to get SG's 10 points apart. I used a glass hydrometer to measure and kept the temp very close to 20.

There, I will have to disagree with you, because hydrometers can be very difficult to read with any accuracy. By contrast the iSpindel is capable of producing much better accuracy, so why try to calibrate using a much less accurate standard like the hydrometer?

Tap water, at 20C we can be sure has an SG of 1.000, We know exactly how the SG of the water will be affected by adding a calibrated amounts of sugar, to a calibrated amount of water, so the only possible inaccuracies are in your weighing the sugar and measuring the water volume.

 

[kelper]

OK. If you add X grams of sugar to Y litres of water you don't get the same concentration as X grams of sugar IN Y litres of water. How do you know the concentration as you add sugar when the volume increases a bit? I fill a trial jar with the hydrometer in it until it overflows. I find I can read it at eye level, very accurately. I understand your method but it wouldn't hurt to cross check.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Adding sugar (or salt) does not increase the volume, once it is dissolved - the sugar fills the spaces between the water molecules, so only the SG changes. I have cross-checked my iSpindel against my hydrometer and it coincides perfectly with it, as near as I can read the hydrometer.

To be honest, I have been surprised at just how accurate the iSpindel has proven to be and how stable my build has been. I check it in water at 20C, every time before a brew and immediately after. It always reads 0.999 or 0.998.

 

[kelper]

It always reads 0.999 or 0.998.

so it needs calibrating!

But sugar molecules are massive compared to water molecules. I'm trying to find a definitive answer to this. I know that adding common salt to water REDUCES its volume. I did find this article which you could refute if you can make such accurate SG measurements.

"The general rule is that if you add a solute to water, the volume will increase. But by how much in the case of sugar dissolved in water? I have done some research on this for you and I have made some calculations. We will consider the following solutions: that is mass of sugar dissolved in 100cm³ of water.

Solution No1: 17.64g sugar dissolved in 100cm³ water: data is at 25°C ( for calculation: 1cm³ water taken as 1g)
Total mass = 117.64g
Density = 1.0581g/cm³
Volume = mass/ density = 111.2cm³

Solution 2: 42.86g sugar dissolved in 100cm³ water
Total mass = 142.86g
Density = 1.1268g/cm³
Volume = mass/density = 126.8 cm³

In all cases the final volume is greater than the initial volume of water.

NB These are not my words, this is a quote.

 

[kelper]

I have my own solution (no pun intended)

20% m/m of sucrose in water has a density of 1.0381 see tables HERE

If there is no change in volume when you add 20g of glucose to 100 g of water the final volume would be 100ml

BUT 120g of this solution has a volume of 120/1.0381 which equals 115.6ml

So the volume has increased by 15%!

Natch!

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

so it needs calibrating!

But sugar molecules are massive compared to water molecules. I'm trying to find a definitive answer to this. I know that adding common salt to water REDUCES its volume. I did find this article which you could refute if you can make such accurate SG measurements.

Can you read your hydrometer to that level of accuracy, I certainly think not?

If you add an excessive amount of sugar, then yes the volume will certainly increase, but not the amounts of sugar needed for calibration of the iSpindel. The point being, the iSpindel once calibrated using dissolved sugar in water, is a much more accurate means of calibrating than comparing it against an hydrometer.

 

[kelper]

updated below

 

[kelper]

If you add an excessive amount of sugar, then yes the volume will certainly increase, but not the amounts of sugar needed for calibration of the iSpindel

I have shown above that adding sugar to water can give an error of 15% but only if you measure the volume of water first and then bung in the sugar. And 15% is for an SG of 1.038. That would make a weak beer. Surely you must have calibrated over a wider range?

But I agree that I can't read my hydrometer to an accuracy of one point. But whatever accuracy I get it definitely better than a 15% error! If you assume adding sugar to water does not affect its volume you could get an error of much more than 15%

 

[lupinehorror]

coincidently i just bought one of these this afternoon. thought it was going to make things simpler for me...now i fear that may not be the case

 

[kelper]

coincidently i just bought one of these this afternoon. thought it was going to make things simpler for me...now i fear that may not be the case

We will always be here to help you set it up. It just takes determination and a little patience.

 

[lupinehorror]

We will always be here to help you set it up. It just takes determination and a little patience.

i have plenty of the former...working on the latter. cheers. a (separate) thread may well appear.

 

[kelper]

i have plenty of the former...working on the latter. cheers. a (separate) thread may well appear.

former..latter?????