iSpindels

[jimbo1982]

@gingerneil mine arrived today. Postman delivered to the wrong street but thankfully they guy knocked round with it. Just got to get to grips with it now before my next brew. Cheers pal

 

[gingerneil]

Great news - have fun!

 

[EVVO]

Mine arrived today. Looks very well made and fast delivery. Now the fun begins as I look into setting it up and getting the readings out of it.

 

[gingerneil]

Great news - sounds like RM are behaving again after dropping the ball a little (understandably) on parcels for a while. Have fun, and shout up if you need any help. :)

 

[Dilettante Brewing]

Mine has also arrived safely I’m pleased to report. Does anyone have any experience of connecting them to the Grainfather app? I’ve read the Grainfather instructions but what’s puzzling me is I can’t see anything that links my account on the app to a specific iSpindel. All the details you input to the iSpindel seem to be generic. I must be missing something. Also, is there anything stopping me connecting the iSpindel to my guest wifi network (as generally recommended for IoT devices) rather than the main one?

 

[Dilettante Brewing]

Mine has also arrived safely I’m pleased to report. Does anyone have any experience of connecting them to the Grainfather app? I’ve read the Grainfather instructions but what’s puzzling me is I can’t see anything that links my account on the app to a specific iSpindel. All the details you input to the iSpindel seem to be generic. I must be missing something. Also, is there anything stopping me connecting the iSpindel to my guest wifi network (as generally recommended for IoT devices) rather than the main one?

I eventually completed the calibration and I needn’t have worried. Connecting it to the GF app was pretty straightforward - after I’d managed to enter all the details in the iSpindel and save them before it timed out that is! (This took about 3 goes.) But once I’d done that it all just sprung to life. I even managed to connect it to my guest network with no problems. It’s now happily monitoring it’s first brew, which probably means I will keg it a week before I otherwise would. All good.

 

[gingerneil]

Great news! Still building, if anyone else is interested...

 

[RoomWithABrew]

One of mine sank when the pressure went on in my last brew. So it'll be a double dry hopped NEIPA with spindel.
Guess I'll be getting the soldering iron out.

 

[Braindead]

Hi there.
Just wondering how long should the battery last as it died mid 1st brew ...
also what charger should I use for charging it.
Thx

 

[jimbo1982]

Hi there.
Just wondering how long should the battery last as it died mid 1st brew ...
also what charger should I use for charging it.
Thx

If you want to remove it to charge the nitecore q4 is a quality charger for 18650 batterys. Or pretty much anything by xtar.

 

[dalecek]

Hi there.
Just wondering how long should the battery last as it died mid 1st brew ...
also what charger should I use for charging it.
Thx

It should last couple of months for sure. Just checked mine and battery has only dropped by 16% after 2 weeks in the fermenter

 

[Dilettante Brewing]

Just leave the battery in situ and charge through the top micro USB port using any micro USB lead.

 

[nixhaz]

Is there a light on these that comes on when charging? Nothing lights up on mine and I'm wondering if perhaps it's not charging up....

 

[Dilettante Brewing]

I think it’s a solid red light when charging, which turns blue when finished.

 

[nixhaz]

Thanks mate. Pretty sure it's never charged up.

 

[Dilettante Brewing]

When you login to the iSpindel via its wifi to calibrate it what’s the voltage reading? If charged it should be comfortably >4V.

 

[nixhaz]

Yeah thanks, I can't log in, it's completely dead
It was never more than 3.51 I didn't think to check that it was charging up.

 

[Dilettante Brewing]

That doesn’t sound good. I think that’s beyond my limited iSpindel knowledge! I’m not sure whether you could get away with replacing the battery or whether it’s something else.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

@nixhaz
Make sure that you are charging through the correct USB port. The data port will not put any charge in the battery.
Should be about 4.16 V when fully charged at least. Slow decline of charge in use . But rapid decline if you haven't reset it to say 900 seconds ( every 15 minutes) . Mine went flat in a few days when I left it on every 5 seconds by mistake when configuring it.

 

[nixhaz]

Thanks, I'm pretty sure it is the correct one, as it is the one at the top of the unit by the on/off switch.
I had it set to 900 seconds. Then it started reporting only every hour (I hadn't changed any settings), then only reporting gravity not temperature, then it stopped. Is that what happens when the battery runs out?