iSpindel - digital WiFi hydrometer

[Hanglow]

Ubidots has now changed my graph, for no reason, to 2 decimal places for gravity. So it reads 1.04 then 1.03 etc. Even though i have set set it to 3. Which is really annoying and also useless to me. It is also ******* up the dots out again, I checked the gravity once yesterday and checked the usage and it was at 30k for that day.

 

[lupinehorror]

Ubidots has now changed my graph, for no reason, to 2 decimal places for gravity. So it reads 1.04 then 1.03 etc. Even though i have set set it to 3. Which is really annoying and also useless to me. It is also ******* up the dots out again, I checked the gravity once yesterday and checked the usage and it was at 30k for that day.

i've fully converted to fermentrack but found brewspy very good also. left ubidots after my first brew with the ispindel

 

[pottsworth]

Maybe give Brewfather a try?

It’s not free, but it’s a really nice “all in one” software

 

[Hanglow]

I have downloaded brewspy, I'll try that next time I think!

 

[Cheyne_brewer]

iSpindel noob question - I've calibrated down from 1080 to 1010 and 1000, input in the calibration spreadsheet and got my polynomial equations. What do I now do with these? Any suggestions of a biologically awkward nature will be ignored ;-)

At the moment I have it linked into Ubidots & trying to get Brewspy to run in an Android container on my Linux laptop.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

iSpindel noob question - I've calibrated down from 1080 to 1010 and 1000, input in the calibration spreadsheet and got my polynomial equations. What do I now do with these?

You copy and paste the equation into the iSpindle Polynomial line, on the configuration page, when the iSpindel is in Acees Point mode. I understand, you could alternatively enter it into BrewSpy, but I never have delved into doing this.

 

[Cheyne_brewer]

Thanks Harry - there are so many articles on the iSpindel to wade through, some very learned indeed. Maths was never my favourite subject. How the heck anyone came up with the wizardry behind it all I don't know! I've worked in IT for well over 30 years but never on the coding side. Thank goodness for peer support :-D

 

[Cheyne_brewer]

so - the config page in the iSpindel gives a single polynomial : -0.00031*tilt^2+0.557*tilt-14.054

and my calibration curve gives the following :

Degree 1: 0.95486621027101 + 0.0016897049251946381 *tilt
Degree 2: 0.969551631407424 + 0.0010366004275347348 *tilt + 0.0000065902094028382476 *tilt*tilt
Degree 3: 0.8984517760982478 + 0.0058751729418038195 *tilt-0.00009715117326945046 *tilt*tilt + 7.050717243120776e-7 *tilt*tilt*tilt

So what value to I use to over-write the calibration value in the iSpindel? Sorry if I come across as a numpty

 

[kelper]

Just use the degree three one as it will be more accurate.

0.8984517760982478 + 0.0058751729418038195 *tilt-0.00009715117326945046 *tilt*tilt + 7.050717243120776e-7 *tilt*tilt*tilt

 

[Cheyne_brewer]

Just use the degree three one as it will be more accurate.

0.8984517760982478 + 0.0058751729418038195 *tilt-0.00009715117326945046 *tilt*tilt + 7.050717243120776e-7 *tilt*tilt*tilt

Thanks Kelper. I'll go through all this and find the wifi doesn't work in my garage...

 

[Bendy]

Hi all

so new to the iSpindle thing and so far ok but I’m having trouble getting the pure water 25 degree reading. Done the maintenance calibration ok. Pure water at 20c but my reading is 27.7

any thoughts pointers please

ta

 

[Ronnie23]

Hi all

so new to the iSpindle thing and so far ok but I’m having trouble getting the pure water 25 degree reading. Done the maintenance calibration ok. Pure water at 20c but my reading is 27.7

any thoughts pointers please

ta

For mine it doesn't have to be. 27.7 is fine. Crack on and calibrate

 

[Bendy]

For mine it doesn't have to be. 27.7 is fine. Crack on and calibrate

ah ok Ronnie I will get the sugar and thermometer out.

 

[ChrisT]

Over on the iSpindel GitHub pages there WAS a discusion about adding Automatic Temperature Compensation to the firmware. However, as there wasn't any real traction for this wonderful feature and so it's been dropped, which makes me sad. Sadder as I didn't spot it early enough to add my voice or to make sure it was noticed in a wider audience.

So... I'm hoping that by bringing it to the attention of a wider audience we can see if there is indeed any interest? Who'd like their iSpindel to give them a SG that compensated for temperature?

 

[LeeH]

Yes!

 

[lupinehorror]

another
Yes!
and i seldom use exclamation marks or capital letters.

 

[UKSkydiver]

Who'd like their iSpindel to give them a SG that compensated for temperature?

At the risk of sounding a bit thick or naive - normal ferm temps are approximate to those you would use a 20c thydrometer at.

I don't use ispindel as gospel - just as an indicator whether ferm is still going and / or completed.

Unless you're using kveik at strange temps, is it really going to make that much difference?

Especially since crud and bubbles are likely to have more of an adverse effect than temperature might.

 

[ChrisT]

@UKSkydiver Not thick or naive, you correctly say iSpindels are affected by all sorts of things and therefore your data is affected. Having said that and as you say it gives and idea of what is going on inside your fermenter. So if you run your fermentation at one temperature through the whole cycle then you can just use it to say when the fermentation is going and when it's stopped, but not rely on it to tell you the actual SG.

However, if you vary the temperature during your fermentaion you cannot rely on the raw numbers coming from your device. Having the device make adjustments for temperature I think IS an improvement. I personally don't rely on the actual numbers from my iSpindels but I would just like to see a graph (from Fermentrack) that wasn't skewed by changing environment.

I now have my iSpindels well calibrated at high and low SG but less so in the middle as that's where there is quite a lot of variation in "performance" due to the crud and bubbles. As an example at the begining of my current brew, a +4C change gave a +5 point change in SG before adding yeast. So I can remember that difference and apply it next time, but at my age I'll probably subtract rather than add and I'll then panic thinking my fermentation has stopped.

 

[JT_Brews]

It's the sort of feature that would be pretty easy to add I would have thought, with most of the work actually being exposing it to the config UI. If someone puts in a pull request they may well accept it so I wouldn't give up hope, some coder might want it themselves.

Like others I don't really see the point though, the iSpindle is already so inaccurate that it would make no difference.

 

[LeeH]

It may be of interest FLOAT have this feature in beta and they have offered to let me try it.