iSpindel - digital WiFi hydrometer

[Wynne]

I paid $12 for 5 boards. I bought the v3.1 boards as the v4 were untested at the time. Still haven’t got around to assembling them yet. I plan to use them with the Brewfather app. Good luck!

 

[Adean]

I'm also keen to make a kit so am happy to contribute towards a bulk order of parts if it helps

 

[pottsworth]

I'm also keen to make a kit so am happy to contribute towards a bulk order of parts if it helps

The brewfather integration is brilliant. I did the 3 week trial and instantly signed up for paid membership. I was using BeerSmith but won’t renew that membership when it expires.



I was quoted $60 for 20 boards, of which about half was postage.

You can buy the v1 pcb kits with the sleds from Mechatronics.
The latest one I built was the v4 pcb which doesn’t require a sled or any ballast, fits in a smaller petling tube, and is generally just a much neater solution.

I’ve taken a load of photos of the build, and will get around to writing a build guide for the v4 at some point as there are a couple of small knacks, and not much online about the process.

 

[Ronnie23]

Include me for a bulk buy. Been wanting to make one of these for a while

 

[private4587]

The brewfather integration is brilliant. I did the 3 week trial and instantly signed up for paid membership. I was using BeerSmith but won’t renew that membership when it expires.



I was quoted $60 for 20 boards, of which about half was postage.

You can buy the v1 pcb kits with the sleds from Mechatronics.
The latest one I built was the v4 pcb which doesn’t require a sled or any ballast, fits in a smaller petling tube, and is generally just a much neater solution.

I’ve taken a load of photos of the build, and will get around to writing a build guide for the v4 at some point as there are a couple of small knacks, and not much online about the process.

I like the look of this but wonder if my setup is too simple for the likes of this. I have a brew fridge where the heat and cooling is controlled via a STC -1000, at the moment the probe is against the fermenter which is fine. When I eventually build my ispindel this would show both beer temp and gravity. Then if the temp probe was free air in fridge how could I display all temps in this programme and also could it be ran from rasp pi

 

[pottsworth]

I like the look of this but wonder if my setup is too simple for the likes of this. I have a brew fridge where the heat and cooling is controlled via a STC -1000, at the moment the probe is against the fermenter which is fine. When I eventually build my ispindel this would show both beer temp and gravity. Then if the temp probe was free air in fridge how could I display all temps in this programme and also could it be ran from rasp pi

That screen shot was from brewfather which is web based.

I believe fermentrack can track both beer and ambient / chamber temperature, and can use the ispindel as an input for switching heating / cooling with as part of a brew pi setup, which does run on raspberry pi.

I would like to build a fermentrack setup, but am currently building one with an stc1000+ and peltier cooler, so the pi will probably be a future upgrade.

 

[HxPaul]

That screen shot was from brewfather which is web based.

I believe fermentrack can track both beer and ambient / chamber temperature, and can use the ispindel as an input for switching heating / cooling with as part of a brew pi setup, which does run on raspberry pi.

I would like to build a fermentrack setup, but am currently building one with an stc1000+ and peltier cooler, so the pi will probably be a future upgrade.

I have considered building a peltier cooler. Have you got it up and running yet? Planning on posting your progress? I'd be curious to see how efficient it would be.

 

[pottsworth]

This is the furthest I’ve got so far - cooled 8l of water to 4 degrees below ambient after an hour or so.

I haven’t decided yet if I want to modify my fast ferment lid, or wait until I get a brew bucket with a cooling coil.

 

[HxPaul]

This is the furthest I’ve got so far - cooled 8l of water to 4 degrees below ambient after an hour or so.

I haven’t decided yet if I want to modify my fast ferment lid, or wait until I get a brew bucket with a cooling coil.

Ah nice! I wondered about running the chilled coolant through a radiator with fan to chill a ferm chamber.

Have you measured the energy consumption to achieve that 4 degree drop?

 

[HxPaul]

So I'm struggling to get mine to connect to my router. Have entered my router details into the ispindel config but that's as far as itl go. Anyone else had this issue?

I've ordered up some more components hoping I've just got a faulty pcb.

 

[Ronnie23]

So I'm struggling to get mine to connect to my router. Have entered my router details into the ispindel config but that's as far as itl go. Anyone else had this issue?

I've ordered up some more components hoping I've just got a faulty pcb.

What's the best place to get them from mate?

 

[HxPaul]

I ordered the ispindel v4.0 pcbs from PCBway website. Took an age to arrive from china! The components I ordered from ebay.

 

[pottsworth]

Ah nice! I wondered about running the chilled coolant through a radiator with fan to chill a ferm chamber.

Have you measured the energy consumption to achieve that 4 degree drop?

Haven’t measured energy usage, but I dont think they’re the most efficient.

I saw a couple of builds on Pinterest that had one computer cooling radiator / fan attached to the hot side of the peltier outside a cooler box, and a second radiator / fan attached to the cold side inside the cooler.

 

[pottsworth]

What's the best place to get them from mate?

One tip I found - try and get a v3 or later d1 wemos. The v2 has a big chip on top which makes it difficult to get into the petling, and the connector is also on the wrong side to plug into once the d1 is soldered to the pcb.

 

[pottsworth]

So I'm struggling to get mine to connect to my router. Have entered my router details into the ispindel config but that's as far as itl go. Anyone else had this issue?

I've ordered up some more components hoping I've just got a faulty pcb.

How do you know it’s not connecting to your router?

Have you set up a ubidots account or similar?

 

[HxPaul]

How do you know it’s not connecting to your router?

Have you set up a ubidots account or similar?

The config page displays my router name but status indicated not connected.

I have the free ubidots account and an assigned token to use.

I have just removed the tilt sensor as I had a feeling something wasn't right with it. I can now connect to router but not to ubidots or brewfather. Could be that theres no data to send so doesn't show on either site?

I've ordered to spare parts so I'l replace the sensor and report back, incase this helps anyone else.

 

[pottsworth]

When you connect to the ispindel, one of the other pages shows the temperature and tilt values, so that should tell you if the tilt and temp are reading correctly.

whenever I’ve set them up I‘be our router details in and clicked save, then it had reset and no longer been visible, so didn’t show and confirmation that it had connected.

 

[HxPaul]

When you connect to the ispindel, one of the other pages shows the temperature and tilt values, so that should tell you if the tilt and temp are reading correctly.

whenever I’ve set them up I‘be our router details in and clicked save, then it had reset and no longer been visible, so didn’t show and confirmation that it had connected.

Yes I can see the info page. Temp is displayed, tilt is rrgistering as 0 and does not change. Hence my concerns with the sensor. All solders have continuity so I'm blaming the chip. Plus it was getting hot. Now that its removed it will now connect to the router. Can see that on my list of connected devices.

Still not visible on brewfather.

 

[Matt_W]

Hi folks,

I've just managed to build one of these without too much issue or skill. I got a D in electronics GCSE 20 years ago and this was probably only the second time I've used a soldering iron since.

The only real issue I had was that after I flashed the device appeared to be in a reset loop. This turned out to be a poor joint on one of the resistors. Tidied that up and boom, iSpindel config page.

I did a small order of the v4.0 boards from PCBway and took about 2 weeks to come. Their "build" apparently took just over a day but then it didn't get despatched for over a week then DHL only took a couple of days.

I've got 15 PCB going if anyone is interested, I'm not after making a profit just want to cover my costs.

 

[Aaron Rennie]

How much are you looking for them and are these pre build or do they require building? I could be convince my wife of an early Xmas present.