iSpindel - digital WiFi hydrometer

[The Cat]

I love watching the fermentation slow down. you can see that it is still dropping when the SG drops 1 point a day or less, can go on for an extra week.

It's burst into life again every 15 minutes today without fail! Now thinking of getting a second one as I plan to have 2 on the go regularly over the winter.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I fancy trying Brewspy with my iSpindel, but it only works with an Android phone, not ios. I wonder if anyone has managed to get it to work with a Win10 PC, under Bluestacks Android emulator?

 

[jayk34]

If anyone is interested there are pre-built ispindles in ebay for £42 as there is a £5 off voucher today until 5th October. Considering this myself link here

 

[kelper]

If anyone is interested there are pre-built ispindles in ebay for £42 as there is a £5 off voucher today until 5th October. Considering this myself link here

He is a forum member. He's a very neat solderer! I'm very pleased with mine.

 

[Henders]

Yeah I just set mine off and had from that chap. Very good! Spent an evening calibrating it and now enjoying watching the gravity creep down :).

 

[UKSkydiver]

Decided to add to this thread, rather than create another one....

Just put the iSpindel (first time outing) in a new brew and it's appears not to be recording the correct OG.

I have already successfully calibrated it;

It was reset on a flat surface. It's been calibrated using this process, from 1080 down to 1000 at 20c. I input the polynomial values and it accepted them as valid. It's fully charged and connects to my wifi and back to BrewFather successfully.

I tested it this morning before I pitched and it was sat at 24.7 degrees in ambient water, I forget the exact SG reading, but something like 997. (It may have been 16c temp but nothing too far of the 20c for calibration)

When it's in the wort, it records an SG of 1012 and it should be reading in the region of 1058. The wort itself is at about 13c at present and there are a few bubbles on top from the aeration. Maybe that's it?

When I take the ispindel out and put it in 20c water, it again measures 1001 at an angle of 25.25

What are other's experience of ispindel in fresh wort? Does it change / correct over time?

Thanks

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

What are other's experience of ispindel in fresh wort? Does it change / correct over time?

You will get minor variations as bubbles collect on the iSpindel, but nothing too drastic. One thing I disagree with in the video, is his method of getting the 25 degree balance. Using tape and pushing it in and out of the tube, means that each time you charge it, it will be inclined to move and need the 25 degree calibration to be rechecked. I made mine sit at 25 by sticking lead on the PCB, with heavy duty double sided tape, along with sticking the battery so nothing on the PCB could move and upset the calibration. both battery and lead stuck as low down the PCB as possible. I also adjusted my weights either side of the battery, so it made the iSpindel float with the PCB level and battery down.

Rather than attempt make the PCB a tight fit, it can move about very slightly inside the PET, but it always rests at the bottom of the PET and I always find it provides an accurate 25 degrees in water when tested. I checked it around six times, taking it out of the water, drying it, going through the motions of charging it and putting it back - it always came in at 25 +/- 0.24. I give it a gentle tap before lowering it into my brew, to ensure it settles into its same position at the base of the PET.

I did my calibration from 1.000 in a measured quantity of water, by adding very carefully weighed and stirred in amounts of sugar in stages to get SG's of 1.010, 1020, and so on all the way to 1090, which I then fed into the spreadsheet. I used scales which gave the measurements to 0.01 of a gram. I doubled checked against an hydrometer, just out of interest, but didn't use it other than that. I found the sugar addition calculation on line somewhere, where I cannot now remember.

My results using the iSpindel have been great, much more accurate than I could possibly get with an hydrometer and no need to disturb my brews to check them. I can keep an eye on progress, in my armchair, using an Andoid tablet + Brewspy. My present 40 pints of Scottish Export, put on three days ago at 1.083, is showing at present 1.013. I certainly could not read that last digit with an hydrometer. I have done five or six brews using it since I built it and if its not obvious, I am delighted with it.

 

[UKSkydiver]

I've just looked at my readings from the calibration process. Whilst the current OG reading isn't correct - it looks like the angle is about right.

Any ideas?

Tilt    SG
24.15   1.000
30.2    1.010
34.6    1.019
41.5    1.030
46.4    1.040
52.6    1.050
58.7    1.060
64.25   1.070
69.15   1.082

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I've just looked at my readings from the calibration process. Whilst the current OG reading isn't correct - it looks like the angle is about right.

It has to be your calibration formulae which is in error.

 

[UKSkydiver]

I was just thinking that. May have to try that again. Thanks.

 

[UKSkydiver]

I think it's either wrong - or it's changing the string that I put in to something else and it's interpreting it as gibberish.

I can see I need to find a correct 'syntax' that stays when it's input.

This will be a tomorrow job as I'm off down the pub now

Cheers :)

 

[kelper]

What is your formula for tilt to sg? It should be a third-order polynomial.

Remember that adding sugar to water does increase volume and you need to take this into account. 20g IN a litre is not the same SG as 20g AND a litre.

 

[The Cat]

I am still finding the sending of data very hit and miss. The latest attempt worked great for over 7 days but nothing then for 6. I had bought a wifi extender, the battery reading was fine. I've tried 2 of them now on both ubidots and brewspy but they both keep cutting out for days - sometimes never to send again until they've been reset.

I've made sure they have the latest firmware and am on the point of selling now due to frustration with the thing. The brews are all turning out fine so maybe I'll just stick to the older methods.

 

[kelper]

I am still finding the sending of data very hit and miss. The latest attempt worked great for over 7 days but nothing then for 6. I had bought a wifi extender, the battery reading was fine. I've tried 2 of them now on both ubidots and brewspy but they both keep cutting out for days - sometimes never to send again until they've been reset.

I've made sure they have the latest firmware and am on the point of selling now due to frustration with the thing. The brews are all turning out fine so maybe I'll just stick to the older methods.

I bought the iSpindel out of curiosity. It's not as good as the Tilt. The Tilt is just a well-sorted product and the iSpindel a poor man's version, a bit of a ford escort.

 

[robfor]

I am still finding the sending of data very hit and miss. The latest attempt worked great for over 7 days but nothing then for 6. I had bought a wifi extender, the battery reading was fine. I've tried 2 of them now on both ubidots and brewspy but they both keep cutting out for days - sometimes never to send again until they've been reset.

I've made sure they have the latest firmware and am on the point of selling now due to frustration with the thing. The brews are all turning out fine so maybe I'll just stick to the older methods.

I had issues with mine, I changed the wifi network i connect it too and suddenly started working again - I have google home which it was connected to but not working and reconnected it to the main virgin one and it started again. This was after reading someone else tried connecting it to a mobile phone hotspot to test if you can't do this

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I bought the iSpindel out of curiosity. It's not as good as the Tilt. The Tilt is just a well-sorted product and the iSpindel a poor man's version, a bit of a ford escort.

That is a bit unfair on the iSpindel. The tilt is a professionally built unit, the iSpindel build quality is quite variable, depending on the skill of builders some of whom have never built something like it before. Aside from that, it can sometimes need a bit of skill in wifi networking too and then there are the problems of deciding which server to use to accept the data so you can view it. Lots of stages in which to fall down, but the result once you get there, is as good as the Tilt.

The Tilt is just a turnkey solution, no skill necessary, just turn it on and download an app to your phone.

 

[kelper]

That is a bit unfair on the iSpindel. The tilt is a professionally built unit, the iSpindel build quality is quite variable, depending on the skill of builders some of whom have never built something like it before. Aside from that, it can sometimes need a bit of skill in wifi networking too and then there are the problems of deciding which server to use to accept the data so you can view it. Lots of stages in which to fall down, but the result once you get there, is as good as the Tilt.

The Tilt is just a turnkey solution, no skill necessary, just turn it on and download an app to your phone.

My iSpindel was built by a true pro and is as close to perfect as it could be. But the ecosystem for it is sadly lacking,

 

[uDicko]

My iSpindel was built by a true pro and is as close to perfect as it could be. But the ecosystem for it is sadly lacking,

Curious about your ecosystem statement.

Technically ispindel has a huge and growing variety of connectivity options allowing a tinkerer to get some fantastic results with a breadth of bespoke custom options.

As @Harry Bloomfield said tilt is a turnkey solution which as you would expect should just work out of the box.

I don't know much about the tilt but can you elaborate on the ecosystem? What am I missing between the two

 

[kelper]

I use Ubidots. I tried BrewSpy but did not like it. Tilt is so much more straight forward. I started a poll to find out which is the best software to use with iSpindel but only a few software programs are mentioned; six said "other"; I wonder what they used? All the answers to my poll are already integrated with the iSpindel and are listed in its config.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I think we are all agreed that the Tilt is much more of a straight forward solution, but then if we want an easy life we can buy our beer and wine ready made in a bottle.

I have only tried two data display solutions, Ubidots and Brewspy. I liked Ubidots graphs, the fact that it displayed the values exactly, but the major problem was that it blocked all display of data if you checked it too often (its dots per day limit). It seemed check it more than once or twice per day and you were blocked until next day on a free account. I cannot justify paying for an account, with the little use I would make of it.

Brewspy has no such tight data restrictions, but in my opinion I think it rounds the data far too much for its graph displays, though it is not a deal breaker - It can also list all the data it has received, absolutely every bit of data sent by the iSpindel. Another issue, but it might be my having not found it yet - I cannot find a means to refresh the displayed data, other than shutting Brewspy down and restarting it. It also only works on Andoid.