iSpindels

[Agentgonzo]

Note to future self (and anyone else).

Even if you configure the iSpindel to post every 15s, the grainfather integration website will ignore any updates more frequently than every 15 minutes

 

[parpot]

@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!

Will they work through SS Fermenters in an outside Garage?

 

[gingerneil]

Depends on how strong your wifi is - but if that's OK, then yes. Mine is in a fridge at the end of my garage - but I don't use ss.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Couple of things, higher concentration sugar mixes are more difficult to get evenly mixed. So you can get stratification occurring ie different densities in the mix. This could account for your variances with prediction, hydrometer and refractometer.
Temperature needs to be consistent as well in each sample.
Regarding WiFi and as fermenters, fridges distance, check signal strength the ispindel sees. -50 is a good signal, -90 is going to be flaky and use more battery.
Sending can occur every 15 seconds and although only seen every 15 minutes battery life will be shorter.
I have an ispindel sending every 20 minutes still going after 3 months.
If signal is poor make a simple repeater using a d1 mini +- external antenna. Pretty sure I mentioned this earlier in the thread search Martin ger repeater.
I would wipe the ispindel down between assessment in solutions during calibration as well.

 

[Baldbrewer]

Will they work through SS Fermenters in an outside Garage?

Mine is in a SS fermenter inside a fermentation fridge , I use a wifi extender plug and have no problems at all.
see current trend below :

 

[Davy6Mac]

Surely this conversation should be moved on to the correct section of the forum ie "Homebrew Equipment"

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Thread was started as so

Selling some iSpindel devices that I've built while trying to fend off the boredom of lockdown and home working!


More details on iSpindel - DIY electronic Hydrometer,

Maybe a merge or moderator opinion?

 

[Braumeister]

Will they work through SS Fermenters in an outside Garage?

Mine doesn’t go through SS fermenter in a fridge. Probably Wi-Fi is not strong enough out there in the garage, even though I have extender. I just got the nautilus relay and that makes it work. It misses the odd 15min update but that’s fine.

 

[MrJay83]

Hi,
I'd like one of these please.
Can you DM please? I’m not sure if I can do it.
Cheers

What app are using with it. I'm using BrewSpy and it only plots temperature & gravity.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Would suggest relay I mention above in the fridge or just outside if you have issues and then nautilus or another relay positioned between there and your WiFi hub in house.
Fitting external antenna to the relays really improves performance.

 

[Agentgonzo]

What app are using with it. I'm using BrewSpy and it only plots temperature & gravity.

I have an influx/Grafana setup anyway, so have plugged it into that. But I'll likely use the grainfather app when I next ferment

 

[Baldbrewer]

What app are using with it. I'm using BrewSpy and it only plots temperature & gravity.

I use Brewfather and the plot shown in my earlier post is what you see in Brewfather. Have to say I'm impressed with Brewfather.

 

[Agentgonzo]

I use Brewfather and the plot shown in my earlier post is what you see in Brewfather. Have to say I'm impressed with Brewfather.

I keep thinking about using brewfather, but the grainfather app works well for me and inertia keeps me on it. I do wonder if I'm missing anything useful though from brewfather.

 

[Baldbrewer]

I keep thinking about using brewfather, but the grainfather app works well for me and inertia keeps me on it. I do wonder if I'm missing anything useful though from brewfather.

I used to use Brewsmith but being away from the scene for a couple of years I only discovered Brewfather recently and really like the platform.

 

[gingerneil]

Just a heads up.. I'm planning on doing the ispindel relays shortly. Just a limited few to start, and to gauge interest. But drop me a line if you're interested and I can start a list.

 

[Agentgonzo]

Just a heads up.. I'm planning on doing the ispindel relays shortly. Just a limited few to start, and to gauge interest. But drop me a line if you're interested and I can start a list.

Tell me more . I probably don't need one, but use a SS fermenter, so the signal strength is low, and I expect battery life to suffer

 

[gingerneil]

These are the nautilis relays. They act as a display and WiFi relay for the ispindel and can be placed right near your brew location. I'll be building the larger hi res screen ones with usb c power sockets. Prob available in the next 7-10 days when all the bits have landed!

 

[RoomWithABrew]

@Agentgonzo

Buy d1 mini or lolin esp8266 attach usb cable and load software
No display but there's no display on your WiFi router I'd wager.
https://github.com/martin-ger/esp_wifi_repeater
If you want to get soldering iron out and add external antenna, then do this

https://www.instructables.com/External-Antenna-for-ESP8266/If you want a display see this thread
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/thread...aters-bridges-hubs.693125/page-7#post-9281874

 

[Agentgonzo]

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.

Well I brewed the La Chouffe clone this morning (I love the auto-start timers on the grainfather... I milled the grain and set it up yesterday, and awoke this morning to hot liquor ready to mash. Brewday done by 1pm... but I digress).
I think I ignored my final high gravity reading from the calibration. iSpindel is reading 1.076, and my hydrometer is reading 1.078 and the refractometer read 1.079, so that's plenty good enough to be brewing with!

Very happy with that.