Raspberry Pi and Tilt hydrometer

[kelper]

I'll be starting a kit brew today with my new Raspberry PI, logging the Tilt, as this is cheaper than buying another phone.

The Pi is tiny. In its protective case it's a third the size of a pack of cards. The Pi was £9.10, the case £5.99 and an SDHC 8Gb card £6 for a total of £23.40 including delivery.

There were a few steps to getting it all up and running. Download the image file and uncompress it with a trial version of WinZip. Download a program to write the image to the SD Card (Etcher). Open a URL on the SDHC which lets you enter the wi-fi SSID and password. Then pop the card into the Pi and fit the case. Then you just plug in a micro-usb lead/charger. It takes about two minutes to boot and then you can access the Pi on your laptop or desktop via tiltpi.local:1880/ui in your browser. In the GUI you can set the time zone and that's it. The interface is a bit basic but will display up to eight Tilts at once.

Has anyone else used this setup yet? I'm not sure if unzipping the downloaded file was really necessary as it wasn't mentioned in the skimpy instructions?

IMG_20190326_080851050

• kelper
• Mar 26, 2019

Raaspberry Pi compared to a clothes peg

 

[dad_of_jon]

7-zip is good and free, I've not used winzip for yonks

 

[kelper]

7-zip is good and free, I've not used winzip for yonks

Does it do *.gz files?

 

[kelper]

Odd how the SG has steadily risen. I assume this is due to bubbles adhering to the Tilt

Tilt

• kelper
• Mar 26, 2019

Tilt chart. Pitched at 12:30

 

[kelper]

The blip in SG is due to bubbles attaching to the Tilt. My OG with hydrometer was 1052. It dropped over two-and-a-half hours to that after peaking at 1076. It's dropped twenty points in twenty-four hours! As my target FG is 1014, it could be finished fermenting tomorrow. But as per all the advice on here, it will stay where it is for at least two weeks.

Tilt Admiral's Reserve

• kelper
• Mar 27, 2019

and here is a live view of my graph!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...J--yImCiZLx/pubhtml?gid=189348009&single=true

 

[kelper]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...J--yImCiZLx/pubhtml?gid=189348009&single=true

On day three, my brew is already below the target FG of 1014. I wonder if it will drop more?

 

[Victor2112]

I'll be starting a kit brew today with my new Raspberry PI, logging the Tilt, as this is cheaper than buying another phone.

The Pi is tiny. In its protective case it's a third the size of a pack of cards. The Pi was £9.10, the case £5.99 and an SDHC 8Gb card £6 for a total of £23.40 including delivery.

There were a few steps to getting it all up and running. Download the image file and uncompress it with a trial version of WinZip. Download a program to write the image to the SD Card (Etcher). Open a URL on the SDHC which lets you enter the wi-fi SSID and password. Then pop the card into the Pi and fit the case. Then you just plug in a micro-usb lead/charger. It takes about two minutes to boot and then you can access the Pi on your laptop or desktop via tiltpi.local:1880/ui in your browser. In the GUI you can set the time zone and that's it. The interface is a bit basic but will display up to eight Tilts at once.

Has anyone else used this setup yet? I'm not sure if unzipping the downloaded file was really necessary as it wasn't mentioned in the skimpy instructions?

IMG_20190326_080851050

• kelper
• Mar 26, 2019

Raaspberry Pi compared to a clothes peg

I bought a tilt in the beer hawk sale a couple of weeks ago, and have just bought a Pi W and case to do this too. I've a tablet logging to brewers' friend at the moment, and it seems a bit of a waste of electricity. It really is amazing how quickly my first brew with the tilt in reached what seems like its final gravity!

 

[kelper]

So, how many hours from pitching to FG? And will you leave it for two weeks anyway, as I intend to? I think something is still going on when the SG levels off.

 

[Victor2112]

So, how many hours from pitching to FG? And will you leave it for two weeks anyway, as I intend to? I think something is still going on when the SG levels off.

42 hours-ish to get to with 0.002 of where it is now. I'm following the brulosophy method (http://brulosophy.com/methods/fermentation-schedules/) - you'll see the step up in temperature. I'll take a sample tonight and test with a hydrometer. If it tastes ok (no off flavours) I'll bottle it on Sunday. If not I'll leave a few more days to clear up.

 

[kelper]

Mine has plateaued at 1.011, but airlock still bubbling every three minutes. Kit instructions say target FG is 1.014. As it started at 1.054 (temp corrected) I'm chuffed! I think it might drop one more point.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...J--yImCiZLx/pubhtml?gid=189348009&single=true

 

[itry]

Did you have any problems installing the pi image?
I have the pi with the 7" screen. It fires up then stops at tiltpi login: when i log in it dosnt do any thing

 

[kelper]

No problems installing the image, using 'Etcher". Etcher will even decompress the image file so WinZip is unnecessary.

I don't use a screen. I just use Chrome browser on my laptop. Pi quite often refuses a connection but then I press CTRL + F5 repeatedly until it connects. The web address is tiltpi.local:1880/ui

Did you download the image from tilthydrometer? With the SD card in a computer, did you open setup.html in a browser and enter the wifi SSID and password?

 

[matt76]

Major thread bump!

Hey @kelper , a little update on this...

We were discussing recently in another thread about Tilt vs. Spindle...

Well I have it on good authority Santa is bringing me a Tilt

My plan is to hook it up to a Raspberry Pi similar to what you have described in your OP above...

I had a rummage today and found a spare (unused!) Raspberry Pi Zero W same as yours - knew I had one somewhere. Anyway I've got that set up and running in the garage now where it's connecting to the WiFi no problem.

Can you elaborate on your setup please? I'm pretty familiar already with tinkering with Linux and Raspberry Pi's so I'm sure I can figure out the details, I just need a steer in the right direction.

It's not totally clear from your OP - are you running a standard version of Raspbian/Raspberry Pi OS or is there a special OS designed to work with the tilt?

TIA

Matt

 

[kelper]

On the Tilthydrometer.com website is an image you can download of a customised OS for the Pi. There is a link to Etcher, a program to burn the image to a memory card.

https://tilthydrometer.com/products/tilt-pi-v2-buster-feb20-raspberry-pi-sd-card-image-download
feel free to PM me with any problems.