This hacklet consists of a couple of images from my time playing with Fritzing to design the next iteration of the Brew Temperature Switch.

So, here is BrewSwitch Mk2 (breadboard version):

and here is the PCB:

The next hacklet is getting arduino and raspberry pi working together.

First up, I found that my Atmega chip was unflashed, so I needed to burn the bootloader this tutorial made it very easy!

Then I used this tutorial for setting up the software and then using a combination of this breadboard arduino tutorial, and the photo from the follow up from the initial tutorial.

However, the bit that neither tutorial mentioned, but in retrospect should have been obvious was connecting power to the logic-level converter.

So, here’s what I ended up with:

A couple of months ago, I tried my hand at home-brewing for the first time; and while the result was drinkable, it was fairly weak. As far as I can tell, the primary issue is that the first fermentation process needs to happen at a constant warm temperature (in the 21 - 27°C range) - my kitchen however, is more like 17-19°C.

I found a a neat product called a brew belt designed for exactly such a scenario. Depending on the outside temperature, you place the belt on your fermentation vessel at different heights to ensure it warms it the right amount. Trouble is, that my kitchen isn’t always a certain temperature … and I didn’t really want to keep checking the temperature and moving the belt. If only there was a way of switching the belt on and off depending on the actual temperature of the brew…

Inspired by the (vastly more elaborate) brewpi project, I’ve rigged up an arduino, connected to a wired thermometer which can (safely) swich the brew belt on or off depending on the temperature of the brew.

Building on Hacklet #12, adding a waterproofed version of the DS18B20 one wire thermometer using this handy tutorial and connecting a cheap Maplins remote controlled mains switch and a tutorial for hacking that, I now have myself an automatic brew temperature switch.

Using the RC switch means that the mains power is completely isolated from the arduino etc.

So, all that remains is to test out how well it works!

Read on for the arduino code …

A very quick update to Robobear MkII, just because the last code example for the bear was so horrible; here’s an OOP version.

Based on this tutorial for getting a rotary encoder working with arduino, and this old LCD library, we now have a method for adjusting numerical data up/down using the rotary encoder, and displaying that data on the LCD screen.

Hmmm, I wonder what we could use that for…?!

I combined this tutorial and this one, to create a simple arduino based sensor which reports the temperature to a bluetooth 4.0 enabled mobile phone (in this case iPhone 5).

In this iteration, RoboBear has had the Arduino microcontroller replaced with Raspberry Pi and an Adafruit 16-Channel 12-bit PWM/Servo Driver. There are several advantages to this setup; not least, is that I can control the bear using bluetooth or wifi (via SSH or HTTP), and therefore can hook him up to web services! For now though, he’s just running a simple loop.