Help making a event counter for beer fermentation

[chilly_charly]

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@Ben wrote:


...It sounds like you have this working, so I may be late in entering this discusion. If you need some on-site support, let me know.

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Hey 3mix
If you need some real help, you can rely on Ben. However, Carefull with the on-site support : I don't make any garantee about his ethanol tolerance or his beer capacity. See this proof of beer addiction.

[trimixdiver]

Wow!

You could fit my whole brew volume (5 gallons) in one of those!

Paul, I might take you up on that. I have to find out how much 5 gallons sent to France is though! 

[trimixdiver]

Hey Chilly,

Any luck with the ABV? Also The burps per hour. Id would like to get a rate to predict.

[chilly_charly]

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trimixdiver wrote:...Any luck with the ABV? Also The burps per hour. Id would like to get a rate to predict.

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Hi 3mix !
Remember this post ?

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I must apologize : the calculation of the alcohol content from the CO2 efflux was right, but the calculation of the SG was wrong !
The 0.13 figure that you use is probably not so bad (and even good ). I'll come back with a better estimate.
Meanwhile, the Convert Burps.vi has been corrected. Use it instead of the previous versions.

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Have you tested the last version of the vi ?

[trimixdiver]

Chilly,

Sorry yes I did. I added a graph for measuring Kilowatt hours on my chest freezer. Could you take a look. Im going to reuse your vi and take a digital input measure and graph the time and do the math for KWH.

Thanks again

[chilly_charly]

Hey 3mix !

You didn't tell me if the abv/SG  looks right now.

You can add new inputs but you can't duplicate the event loop ! This would give you unpredictable results.

What I understand is that your freezer works from time to time, just to maintain a constant temperature, and you want to know the overall energy consumed. You calculation is OK, but will give you only the instant power consumption. Then you need to integrate over time, to take into account the periods where the freezer is not working.

Measuring volts and intensity should not be a problem. I guess you are skilled enough not to connect your hardware directly to the main ! :D. Just put the acquisition step into the upper loop, and connect the outputs to the U and I indicators. Do not include the power calculation into the event loop. Instead, build a separate vi to handle the power calculation, and keep it into the upper loop. We will improve that later.

Have fun !

[trimixdiver]

Hey Chilly

I ran the new vi and it looks great! I was trying to do what you said about the freezer input but again...Im stumped.. If you could help? Oh ya here is a link to the web page of the vi you made, so you can see it work.

http://www.buckley1.com/new_page_1.htm

Let me know if it doesnt show up.

Thanks

[chilly_charly]

Hey 3mix !

That's look great ! At least, everybody knows now that LabVIEW can be used to do really usefull things ! 😄

The evolution of the burps shows small undulations. I suppose that this is due to variations of the beer temperature. I think that monitoring the temperature could be a good idea, may be better than monitoring the power consumption.

While I'm working on the power issue, could you think about a way to measure the beer temperature ? I mean not the freezer temperature (yet that could be a good idea also...) but the temperature of the fermenting beer. Any chance that you could drop a sensor there ? Then the next step would be to modify your system to control accurately the temperature. That could be used to apply temperature profiles (high temperature to start the fermentation, low temperature to finish it, as soon as the yeast population level is correct). That could give you the opportunity to improve your beer, since the aroma is developped along the second phase of the fermentation.

Any comment ?

And I would really appreciate some input/comments from other enthusiasts as well, since I'm sure that there are some eyes around (avoiding to fall into JPD paranoia mode...)

[trimixdiver]

Chilly

I am using a Watlow 935 tempature controller. I have a thermocoupple in the middle of the 5 gallons. It is in proportional deveation mode so it will go off and on several times a minute. The band is 5 deg so if the deveation is 2.5 deg it puts out 50% power 1.25 is 25% and so on. my temp never excedes 1 degree. Before I had it set up as an on off controller and changed it to the propprtional deveation.

So to make a long story short, the watlows dont have an output so I could monitor them. I would have to get an addional DAQ card for that.

Here is a link on the Watlow controllers I put together:

http://www.buckley1.com/future_ideas.htm

Thanks

[tst]

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chilly charly wrote:

And I would really appreciate some input/comments from other enthusiasts as well, since I'm sure that there are some eyes around (avoiding to fall into JPD paranoia mode...)

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Well, I would help, but I don't drink beer (hic...):smileysurprised: