DS18B20 Digital Temperature Sensor to the Pi

Was able to download and configure this temperature sensor on the raspberry pi. I incorporated it into my current data logging program to write the value to the file and I also exported it into excel. It was really easy to hookup and had accurate readings. I got it from Adafruit and it has a good walkthrough on it. Now that I have the temperature sensor setup. I am going to use that to control a small fan and Peltier device in a fermentation chamber I am going to build. I started to design it but have to figure out some more stuff. Below is the sensor hooked up and a graph of the data. I stuck it in some hot water to get some dramatic data....wooooooo. I've posted the data logging file here on on Github. I'll have a full page on my site in regards to the project when it is done.

Beer Data Logger Progress

Booted up the raspberry pi again and had plenty of updates. I started the python script to log the data on a time interval. Fermenting usually takes 2-4 weeks so it will be logging for a relatively long time. I just started by having it record numbers since I didn't have sensors hooked up but I download a program called 'Screens'. There is a nice tutorial/overview in this link. With this I can have the program run in the background after I disconnect via SSH and I can reconnect later to download the data file or reattach to the 'screen' that is running the program to view the current temperatures. I'm working on incorporating it into a controlled fermentor that logs and maintains a set temperature. More to come...

Here you can see the data file recording with time stamps, temperature and lux (numbers made up). It also displays it in the terminal as it records.

Screen Shot of Data File and Display

Racked the Double IPA to Secondary

So far so good, just racked it to the secondary and added first addition of dry hops. Smell and color are both really good.

Changes to blog/site

You may see some links pop up on my blog post. Those will direct you to a site that will have 'Project Pages' categorized. I could add a bunch of pages to the blog site although it wouldn't be very well organized. So those links will direct you to the other site that will have dedicated pages to certain projects I am working on. General tinkering will still take place here!

Copper Cooling Coils

Here is the link to the page on the cooling coils I made for brewing.

Copper Cooling Coils Project

ATTiny 85 Blink

I just remembered today that I had another Atmel chip that I had sitting around. I originally purchased it to program with the Arduino, which failed. I've been working through the AVR book some more. Recently did some analog stuff however I have a lot of time in between working on it so I forget a lot of what I had previously done. Takes a lot more time to work through things but it is starting to get engrained. The ATTiny85 gets programmed using the same hardware/processes, only has less memory and fewer pins. I programmed it to do a simple blink program just to see if I was successful. Turned out I was, I'm starting to think how I could incorporate this into a project eventually.

Starting with AVR Programming and ATMega Chips

I really enjoy microcontrollers but wanted to understand them in more detail. I saw on O'Reilly media they were having a book sale and noticed one specific to AVR programming. It essentially is a book of programming the chip series that is used on the Arduino and many more. The book is called Make: AVR Programming and I happened to get it 50% off. It takes you through three levels including beginner, intermediate and expert. It doesn't take much to get started. I purchased a few components I did not have on hand and the biggest purchase is an AVR programmer. I bought the AVRISP mkII from Digikey (I think it is now discontinued?). There are others that will work as well. I've started to walk through the book and worked on some basics. Everything is coded in C and the book walks you through on installing all the necessary programs as well. The image to the left is just an example of controlling multiple LED's. I altered the code several times and created several different patterns. Most recently I had the chip hooked up to the computer using Serial-USB communication. Everything I've done thus far has been outputs. The next chapter is inputs so the famous push button example will be up next. Here is a video of one of the patterns I created.

AVR LED PATTERN