StillSmart

The sensors themselves are 3 or 4mm.

If you buy them prewired the tube that the sensors are wired in are approx. 6mm diam.

More information here.

http://www.hobbytronics.co.uk/ds18b20-t ... GwodRv0D0Q

I have just finished my first run with my Digital Parrot.

These things are better than I hoped for and even better than Shifu says - they are in fact the Dogs B****cks.

After comparing the readings with a real parrot a few times, the real parrot is now dead, deceased, pushing up daises, it has shuffled off its mortal coils never to be used again.

Added a couple of warm up screens, to save having to keep touching the still to see the progress, rather than a mad panic at the end when the still boils, it is nice to see steady progress.



A couple of warning screens to reminds you to switch on the cooling water.

Why do I need reminding? You guess.

A buzzer at this point might be good.



Distillation Imminant - needs increasing by a couple of degrees.







By the tine it got here things were slow and smelly, switched off



I set the display for the temperature to round numbers, think I will change them back to two decimal points.

All in all, today was a good day.

Great stuff. Can understand your happiness.

This will be my first project of the new year, I would have bought the bits already but Christmas has severely crippled my stilling funds :-(

Happy that this seems to have come to fruition for you, I followed some of the slog elsewhere.
Have yourself a very merry one Brian.

Robert.

Would you mind posting a shopping list for this please YHB? After smashing another hydrometer I've decided to order a couple of thermowells & take the plunge, if anyone wants dibs on the bits after I've lost my rag with it then please form an orderly queue!

Benoit

YHB doesn't hang around here much these days.
But you can try seeking or asking for the info you need here http://visionstills.org/
Where he is now a moderator.

HTH

Robert

Thanks Robert, I spent 10 mins on there just reading & my brain is fried already! Me & electrical doodahs don't get on, let's hope I can find someone willing to nurse me through the whole process in the morning

Yes, the same thing seems to happen to my head when I try and catch up there, small (our size) base user size,but seem to have a lot of Tech. heads.
And number crunchers.But they are a friendly bunch, and that makes them my mates.

Robert.

I'm currently hunting on there for an idiots guide, or if they have one, an absolute simpletons guide!
Putting the bits together shouldn't be too hard, I have even been known to repair mobile phones...wiring things to mains electricity always makes me nervous though & lets not even get started with all the talk of code & software. If I can't touch it then it's not real & runs on magic!

If you come up with something simple and share-able please do!
I have failed to find a simpletons guide over there.

Robert.

Sorry if do not pop in too often.

Building a parrot is relatively easy, Sometime ago I have posted a circuit diagram and published the code for the one I am using now.
http://visionstills.org/index.php/topic,100.0.html

The trouble is that the e-parrots are developing fast with different people concentrating on different aspects.

A couple of really intelligent people are concentrating on levels of accuracy that I do not think are necessary. Whilst others are intent on making Wi-Fi parrots that are accessible on their phones. Since I built mine code is now available to compensate for different atmospheric pressures as a thunderstorm passes overhead or if you are running your still on top of a mountain.

I am sure that all these efforts will come together in a "Digital guide for Dummies" sooner or later

It is fascinating stuff but I keep reminding myself that it is only to help me make better booze and not an end product in itself.

I am currently working on a parrot that hopefully will be as near plug and play as you can get. It is changing so quickly that it is impossible to keep all the forums updated with the progress. But I will post any major breakthroughs here as they happen.

Benoit wrote:Thanks Robert, I spent 10 mins on there just reading & my brain is fried already! Me & electrical doodahs don't get on, let's hope I can find someone willing to nurse me through the whole process in the morning

Same here Benoit...I've had an Arduino Uno for the last year that I've been playing on...must admit when you write a line of code and that bloody LED bulb lights up..but the look the other half gives me is a picture.

You wait today a LED...tomorrow the world then we'll see who's laughing then...

A lightbulb is success all the same! Before you know it Ice, you will be controlling your entire brew shed from your mobile phone! I must admit, plugging in a little box that shows up on an app my phone sounds amazing....getting that app past all the controls to get it in the App Store would probably be the death of it though. Maybe a jail broken phone & 3rd party app?! I think that might be doing the foxtrot before leaving the womb for me, let's wait until the clever people work it out!
In the mean time, I will make my brain ache over at VisionStills & see what happens. And yes I've ordered more spirit hydrometers

I am still looking to make a plug and play Model.

Here is the start of the Mark 2 combined with power controller

Warm Up Routine
Stage 1


Warm Up Routine
Stage 2


Warm Up Routine
Stage 3


Operating
Mode 1

Operating
Mode 2

Operating
Modes 3 to 8 to follow