iSpindel - digital WiFi hydrometer

[Harry Bloomfield]

Anyone know where I could pick up a PCB without having to buy 5 from the USA ?

It would be handy, if someone in the UK could offer proper a kit of parts complete with PCB. Parts are so much cheaper if ordered in multiples, especially from the Chinese sources and some parts, like the PCB are only available as multiples.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Always best to have too much, nothing worse than having to wait for more bits to arrive! I'm waiting on a PSU to arrive from China, expected 4 weeks ago, but 3 weeks until I can query!

Are you building a Cherryphilip PCB?

I'm building a V4, once the parts arrive - all due this or next week.

I've bought lots of stuff from China over the years, the wait can be frustrating. I am waiting for a couple none urgent items at the moment, one a switch mode IC to repair my bench variable PSU - which blew up yesterday evening whilst charging some 18650 batteries, ready for the Ispindel.

 

[ChrisT]

Biggest help I found when assembling any of the iSpindle PCBs is using a breadboard to hold the pins straight and square. More difficult on the charger module, I tacked those in place on the PCB, soldered the module on and then soldered the PCB side. Everything else I found straightforward regarding assembly.

Also regarding batteries, I've only used 18650s for a torch and iSpindle. From reading lots of posts on various forums, look for batteries that are 40-45g. There are apparently lots of clones that are very light and don't have the run time. I've had two running continously since 22/4 on 900 second cycle, one is down to 3.9 the other 4.2.


Chris

 

[Wezzle]

Odd that this topic only resurfaced for me today, I have a bunch of older style PCB's by "MrTeel" if anyones interested.
I believe they fit the "XL" geocaching container.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I may have hit a problem..

Most of the parts needed to get my Ispindel have now arrived, the latest to arrive early this morning was the Wemos, so I thought plug that into the USB and install the firmware. I downloaded the ESP8266FLASHER and the firmware.bin, selected the firmware file in the flasher and plugged the Wemos into the usb - nothing.

It (Win10) didn't bing bong as I plugged it in, nor when I unplugged it and it doesn't show up as a port in the flasher. If I press the reset button on the Wemos it gives a quick single flash of its blue LED. The Wemos gets slightly warm.

I have an Arduino PCB which I bought for a project which I never progressed, from years ago. When I plug that in, it bing, bongs and shows up in the flasher as COM3.

Can I assume the Wemos is faulty?

 

[gingerneil]

@Wezzle
Are these the v4 boards ? I could be interested...

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Nope, it is just the processor pcb, the little beastie to which you have to install the Ispindel firmware.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I may have hit a problem..

-see above post.

Can I assume the Wemos is faulty?

I have been in touch with the seller, who has agreed to send a replacement out, with Ispindel firmware installed. He installed it, but was unable to get the wifi access point to appear, despite pressing the reset button four times.

Anyone know if this failure to open the access point, might be because it is just a bare WeMos pcb, lacking the gyro and temperature sensors?

 

[gingerneil]

yes - I had something similar! The firmware looks for the components during boot and fails if its not all installed. You can run something like Putty to view the terminal output from the WeMos and confirm any logging output. It wont work until properly constructed - so get that soldering iron out!
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/ispindle-diy-electronic-hydrometer.598187/post-8665491(no sure if the cross post is allowed - so please delete if not!!)

 

[ChrisT]

I may have hit a problem..

Most of the parts needed to get my Ispindel have now arrived, the latest to arrive early this morning was the Wemos, so I thought plug that into the USB and install the firmware. I downloaded the ESP8266FLASHER and the firmware.bin, selected the firmware file in the flasher and plugged the Wemos into the usb - nothing.

It (Win10) didn't bing bong as I plugged it in, nor when I unplugged it and it doesn't show up as a port in the flasher. If I press the reset button on the Wemos it gives a quick single flash of its blue LED. The Wemos gets slightly warm.

I have an Arduino PCB which I bought for a project which I never progressed, from years ago. When I plug that in, it bing, bongs and shows up in the flasher as COM3.

Can I assume the Wemos is faulty?

I've never thought of that but I've just done a quick test on a spare D1 mini. I flashed the latest iSpindle firmware (using BrewFlasher) and then hooked up the serial port to Arduino Serial Monitor. Yes, it throws errors: Looks for OneWire connected devices, then looks for WiFi credentials and halts. So it never appears to get to the initial configuration.

My thoughts on this quick test:- You could probably flash the firmware before assembly but it won't work until all the devices are connected.


Chris

 

[Wezzle]

@Wezzle
Are these the v4 boards ? I could be interested...

Sorry no it's a v2.2 board from 2018

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

If anyone else, like me, is struggling with PUTTY to connect to a serial (usb) device..
Go into Windows Device Manager, plug and unplug your usb device, which should cause a Port to appear and disappear, click on that device, which should suggest to you the com port number [1].

Right click on it, select Properties in the drop down, Port Settings tab - make sure that has a baud setting of 115200, 8, None, 1, None, then finally click OK to save the settings.

In PUTTY, select 'serial', change the COM1 to the port number [1], baud changed from 9600 to 115200 for the Ispindel.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I'm still waiting for a few items to turn up, before I can start assembling, but in the meantime I have been studying all the Ispindel discussion on this and other forums, plus Github - there is a tremendous amount.

Despite all my reading, I remain confused by the formulae and how to make use of it. Has anyone found a good clear explanation (idiots guide) of how to use the formula? I have seen and downloaded the Excel spreadsheet calculator. I am especially confused by 'tilt', which seems to be a part of the formula - are the 'tilt' intended to be replaced with a single variable?

EDIT - This is the default formula in the spreadsheet, exactly as downloaded....

-0.050364959*tilt^2 + 6.868698667*tilt - 185.8498673

Am I supposed to enter my own figures in the sheet, from my calibration tests at each SG reference point, then replace 'tilt' in the above with my initial calibration figure of the Ispindel angle in plain water?

 

[ChrisT]

"tilt" is the angle from the accelerometer. The numbers in the formula are calculated from your calibration.

The formula looks a little complicated only because it's the simplest best fit to the shape of the graph, that is the relationship between Specific Gravity and angle of tilt is a curve and not a straight line. If you put your angle of tilt into your equation you get the Specific Gravity.

Does that help?

 

[pottsworth]

I'm still waiting for a few items to turn up, before I can start assembling, but in the meantime I have been studying all the Ispindel discussion on this and other forums, plus Github - there is a tremendous amount.

Despite all my reading, I remain confused by the formulae and how to make use of it. Has anyone found a good clear explanation (idiots guide) of how to use the formula? I have seen and downloaded the Excel spreadsheet calculator. I am especially confused by 'tilt', which seems to be a part of the formula - are the 'tilt' intended to be replaced with a single variable?

EDIT - This is the default formula in the spreadsheet, exactly as downloaded....

-0.050364959*tilt^2 + 6.868698667*tilt - 185.8498673

Am I supposed to enter my own figures in the sheet, from my calibration tests at each SG reference point, then replace 'tilt' in the above with my initial calibration figure of the Ispindel angle in plain water?

The word tilt is just the variabls, in the same way you’d often see a formulae expresses as 123x^2 + 456x + 789.

When I calibrated my ones, I found the online tool better than the excel one (it also gives SG instead of Plato.

http://www.ispindel.de/tools/calibration/calibration.htm
From memory it may give the formulae with x as the variable - if it does you just need to change each “x” to the word “tilt” when you copy it into the iSpindel config.

In terms of a procedure for calibrating, I used the one from GitHub which worked fine. You don’t need to be that accurate with the sugar as long as you have something like a refractometer to measure each step.

https://github.com/universam1/iSpindel/blob/master/docs/Calibration_en.md

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

From memory it may give the formulae with x as the variable - if it does you just need to change each “x” to the word “tilt” when you copy it into the iSpindel config.

In terms of a procedure for calibrating, I used the one from GitHub which worked fine. You don’t need to be that accurate with the sugar as long as you have something like a refractometer to measure each step.

https://github.com/universam1/iSpindel/blob/master/docs/Calibration_en.md

I have both refractometer and hydrometer to compare against. Thanks for the link to that online formula, I have not come across that one before.

I'm quite familiar with variables in formulae, despite leaving school a very long time ago.

Can you confirm I have this right - I simply paste the formula it produces, into the Ispindel's configuration, leaving the word 'tilt' in place as a part of the formula? In other words, the Ispindles firmware understands the word 'tilt'?

 

[pottsworth]

I have both refractometer and hydrometer to compare against. Thanks for the link to that online formula, I have not come across that one before.

I'm quite familiar with variables in formulae, despite leaving school a very long time ago.

Can you confirm I have this right - I simply paste the formula it produces, into the Ispindel's configuration, leaving the word 'tilt' in place as a part of the formula? In other words, the Ispindles firmware understands the word 'tilt'?

Correct - apologies if the last response sounded patronising.

I have a vague memory about the online tool adding spaces, or removing them - something like it produced #### * tilt ^ 2, but the default formula on the config page was ###*tilt^2. Can’t remember exact details but just make sure the format matches what’s already on the config page.

 

[Wezzle]

Yep "*tilt" remains in the formula.
If using the spreadsheet the outcome formula can be pasted directly to the iSpindel

I had a headache using the online tool as I eventually found it would replace *tilt with ^2, and I needed to change it back

 

[SteveB.]

OK so what formula have people calculated for use with their iSpindel?
Mine came out as : 0.00000154*tilt^3-0.0002083*tilt^2+0.0112925*tilt+0.8125704
using the sugar calibration method with a refractometer.
I used the Excel trend line set to 8 decimal places (very necessary set to 8) and the cubic law.
The curve generated by the formula matches the test values against the refractometer to 0.001 SG.
Also works well in the wort as fermentation progresses but can be effected by a vigorous fermentation.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Correct - apologies if the last response sounded patronising.

No problem, it can often be impossible to get handle on person asking questions experience in a subject. I was just struggling to pull a mass of advice and information together, then understand it enough to get this project working.

Thanks for the help!