iSpindels

[gingerneil]

Hi Nicky. Just replied to your email. It sounds like it needs charging. You should get a red then blue charging light. Have you checked the charger/cable?

 

[nixhaz]

Ok thanks to @gingerneil the problem is solved... Turns out a macbook charger was the issue, they are 'smart' chargers and won't work for the ispindel battery. Got a cheap charger from the garage and now it's charging up happily.

 

[gingerneil]

Yeh!

 

[nixhaz]

I'm sorry, I've just deleted this message as I was confused about the formula on the Ispindel but figured it out with a bit of trial and error!

 

[gingerneil]

Afternoon all. Hope this is ok admins - just a little bump if anyone is interested... still building, more or less to order, for those who are keen. I tend to get them out pretty much same day.
A couple of small changes - I use USB C now as the charging boards are MUCH better; and I'm only using the genuine Lolin control boards as the clones from Ali Express are awful ! (careful if you're looking elsewhere - the clones are cheaper so people use them, but they cause no end of issues!)

 

[Thatscold]

Sent you a PM

 

[BlackRegent]

Both of mine still working fine after several brews

 

[Brew_DD2]

I can attest to the quality. Bought one last week and it's working great. I appreciated and was surprised by the inclusion of the USB-C port.

 

[Elliott75]

Ubidots or GF app to track it? Just got my bday present out the bag.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

I use brewspy, free works well, and if you subscribe it will text you notifications of temp, gravity, highs and lows.
Well supported, other option is subscribed Brewfather.
I'd not bother with Ubidots.

 

[Wobbly13]

Ubidots or GF app to track it? Just got my bday present out the bag.

I used Ubidots for one brew, seemed to work ok. Then got a Nautilus iSpindel relay and just took one reading a day and plotted in Excel. Attached are examples. The iSpindel is a great tool for monitoring your brews.

 

[Agentgonzo]

Mine just arrived today (thanks @gingerneil - bought on eBay).

Unfortunately I can't brew for a few weeks as we are going in holiday tomorrow!

A quick question having read the above. Is the power switch on the top a physical off switch? I've left it configured to send updates every 15s, and having just read this I don't want to come back to a flat battery. If I need to reset it before going in holiday then I have time, but it's packed away now so if the off switch will stop it draining it's battery, I'll leave it be

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Yes.turn it off. No harm will really come if battery goes flat. In reality ispindel turns itself off at around 3.2v ( from memory). The battery won't truly go flat this way. Also it's a lion battery so not the memory problems of nicd.

 

[Baldbrewer]

Received mine this week and it is happily sat measuring away and I am learning how to user brewfather with it.
thanks Neil!

 

[gingerneil]

@Baldbrewer Excellent - great to hear. You'll need to resist checking it every 5 mins!
@Agentgonzo Already answered by someone else - but yes, the switch physically kills the power connection to the control board.

And for anyone else reading this - I continue to build them pretty much to order - so should up if you would like one (or more!). They're now £35 delivered, and come calibrated!

 

[Agentgonzo]

Could someone offer me a bit of advice here. I've just spent a while calibrating the iSpindel. Whilst doing it, I also measured the SG with both the hydrometer, and refractometer, as well as calculating the theoretical SG using this calculator (I measured out all sugar and water using accurate scales).

Here are my readings

Sugar (g)	Water (g)	Tilt	SG (Hydrometer)	SG (Refractometer)	SG (Theoretical)
220	1000	59	1.077	1.081	1.084
220	1400	48.5	1.058	1.060	1.060
220	1700	41.4	1.048	1.050	1.050
220	2100	35.9	1.040	1.041	1.040
220	2800	30.6	1.030	1.032	1.030
220	4200	25.8	1.020	1.021	1.020
25	975	21.3	1.011	1.010	1.010
0	1000	17.8	1.001	1.000	1.000

I was a bit dubious about the initial high gravity reading. Firstly, the hydrometer, refractometer and theoretical SG are all way out (whereas the others are about as consistent as I would expect from my equipment and experimental error).

Secondly, if I omit the first result, then the calibration tool gives me a fairly good cubic line through all the points:

However, if I include the first measurement (~1.080 SG), then it seems to be way off the cubic line if using the theoretical value:

It's better with the hydrometer-measured value, but still not a good fit:

Any suggestions as to what to do? I don't really want to go through the process again if I can help it. Should I just omit that high SG point and use the curve from the remainder of the data (that at least seems consistent)?

 

[gingerneil]

Are you likely to be brewing up to 1.08? If not, then dont worry about it and use the 2nd degree polynomial.
You always have to keep in mind that you'll only every get an approximate result unless you directly measure the SG. The iSpindel can be very accurate, and is great for monitoring the general trend, but chasing exact numbers will have you going nuts!

 

[Nottsbeer]

Could someone offer me a bit of advice here. I've just spent a while calibrating the iSpindel. Whilst doing it, I also measured the SG with both the hydrometer, and refractometer, as well as calculating the theoretical SG using this calculator (I measured out all sugar and water using accurate scales).

Here are my readings

Sugar (g)	Water (g)	Tilt	SG (Hydrometer)	SG (Refractometer)	SG (Theoretical)
220	1000	59	1.077	1.081	1.084
220	1400	48.5	1.058	1.060	1.060
220	1700	41.4	1.048	1.050	1.050
220	2100	35.9	1.040	1.041	1.040
220	2800	30.6	1.030	1.032	1.030
220	4200	25.8	1.020	1.021	1.020
25	975	21.3	1.011	1.010	1.010
0	1000	17.8	1.001	1.000	1.000

I was a bit dubious about the initial high gravity reading. Firstly, the hydrometer, refractometer and theoretical SG are all way out (whereas the others are about as consistent as I would expect from my equipment and experimental error).

Secondly, if I omit the first result, then the calibration tool gives me a fairly good cubic line through all the points:
View attachment 72254

However, if I include the first measurement (~1.080 SG), then it seems to be way off the cubic line if using the theoretical value:
View attachment 72255
It's better with the hydrometer-measured value, but still not a good fit:
View attachment 72256

Any suggestions as to what to do? I don't really want to go through the process again if I can help it. Should I just omit that high SG point and use the curve from the remainder of the data (that at least seems consistent)?

Personally I'd omit the top value. However,

Are you likely to be brewing up to 1.08? If not, then dont worry about it and use the 2nd degree polynomial.
You always have to keep in mind that you'll only every get an approximate result unless you directly measure the SG. The iSpindel can be very accurate, and is great for monitoring the general trend, but chasing exact numbers will have you going nuts!

Yes, fully agree. Once the device gets a bit of crud on it the values can be slightly out anyway. I went OTT calibrating initially, but am now happy that I get a nice indication of progress. OG and FG values are fairly close I have found, with FG usually a few points higher due to the crud.

 

[Agentgonzo]

Are you likely to be brewing up to 1.08? If not, then dont worry about it and use the 2nd degree polynomial.
You always have to keep in mind that you'll only every get an approximate result unless you directly measure the SG. The iSpindel can be very accurate, and is great for monitoring the general trend, but chasing exact numbers will have you going nuts!

Most of the time, I don't brew up to that strength, so it probably won't worry me too much. But the next brew I am going to do (the first with the iSpindel) will be a N'Ice Chouffe clone, at about 10% ABV, which will probably start in the region of 1.080-1.090.

 

[Agentgonzo]

I suppose my big questions are:
* Do hydrometers get less accurate as you get a higher SG (ie, is my hydrometer reading way off for the 1.077 (measured) vs 1.085 (calculated) value? - ie, which is likely to be 'correct'?
* is the increased gradient after the 1.060 point (on my graphs) expected with tilt angle vs SG, or is this a sign that my measurements are off?
Thanks for the above. For most of my brews, it probably wont' matter as they all start around the 1.050 region.

Anyway, I included the hydrometer reading for now. I'll see what it does when it goes into the wort in a few weeks. After that, I may just generate a new formula without the high SG point and re-use that until the next time I need a high gravity reading.