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April(ish) Updates

April(ish) Updates
Photo by charlesdeluvio / Unsplash

Over the past several weeks I've been hard at work trying to get a handful of projects I've had in flight for awhile now to the point I can release them. As all of them (other than the case designs!) are still technically either "alpha" or "beta" releases, rather than dedicate separate blog posts/emails to each at this point, I'm going to summarize them all here with the idea of making a full post about each as they become widely available.

TiltBridge v2

I’m proud to announce the first major version release of TiltBridge since the project was first made available six years ago. Virtually every part of TiltBridge has been revisited, incorporating best practices and lessons learned as I’ve worked on other projects. Changes include:

  • Brand new web interface, with a modern “single page“ design
  • Multilingual support, including initial support for English, German, Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese
  • Upgraded upstream libraries, bringing improved Bluetooth scan stability
  • Revised ”data target” implementations to simplify addition of future services
  • New screen and hardware types, including the ESP32-S3
  • Support for Fermentrack 2 (coming soon!)

The alpha version of TiltBridge v2 is available now via BrewFlasher for immediate testing.

BrewPi-ESP v16 - Beta Release

Although well known to anyone currently using Fermentrack 2, I’ve been hard at work over the last two years building out the latest version of the BrewPi-ESP firmware. This version - v16 - brings a number of changes and new features relative to the previous v15d release:

  • Brand new, multilingual on-device web interface
  • Support for Fermentrack 2
  • Added “eSPI” screen support
  • Reenables use of Inkbird temperature sensors
  • Adds support for using the internal and external probe of applicable Inkbird sensors simultaneously
  • Incorporates numerous upstream library changes to increase stability and reduce errors

This month, I announced the release of the first official beta/release candidate, with the goal of doing a full release in the coming weeks. The beta is similar to alpha5, but adjusts sensor timeouts for both Bluetooth and OneWire temperature sensors to reduce disconnects, and adds a setting to disable the newly introduced "reset display on pin toggle" feature.

Serial-to-Fermentrack (Fermentrack 2 Arduino Support)

One disadvantage to cloud support in Fermentrack 2 is that it complicates use with serial-connected devices like those that historically had been used with BrewPi. To enable their use, I’ve built a new app - Serial-to-Fermentrack - which can run on a Raspberry Pi (or other similar device!) and bridge your collection of Arduinos (or serial-connected ESPs) to Fermentrack 2.

This app is similar to the old BrewPi-Script, but has been built from the ground up specifically targeting use with Fermentrack 2's REST interface. It additionally adds a new, guided command-line configuration workflow and industry-standard daemonization to increase stability and make the app easier to use.

Available now - just follow the instructions in this blog post or on GitHub.

New BrewPi-ESP Case Designs

I was recently introduced to the wonders of heat set inserts, and have redesigned my BrewPi case designs to take advantage of their strengths, and reduce the hardware necessary to assemble a full controller. As a result, I have released three new case designs - including a case design for the “all-in-one” PCB I released last year.

All of these case designs are available for download on GitHub and Printables, as well as are available on Tindie for those who want to use them, but prefer not to print them themselves:

I have also designed and released revised case lids - including a modified lid for the LoLin 2.4” TFT and newly designed 3.2” “generic” TFT lid. The revised design for the LoLin TFT now utilizes a spacer/bracket to sit between the screen and the case lid, enabling the use of both screen revisions (v1.0.0 and v1.1.0) on the same lid design. The newly designed 3.2” TFT lid scales up the 2.8” design to work with a slightly larger screen. With these revisions there are now five lid designs available, built around the type of screen you want to use:

  • LCD2004 - For use with the previously standard 20x4 character display
  • LoLin 2.4" TFT - For use with LoLin's D32 Pro TFT screen
  • 2.8" TFT - For use with a generic 2.8" 320x240 TFT
  • 3.2" TFT - For use with a generic 3.2" 320x240 TFT
  • Blank (No screen)

New Assembly Videos

In addition to the new hardware designs, I'm also releasing a set of videos - including some for both new hardware and old - following me as I assemble some of the cases. Here are links to the videos on YouTube if you want to check them out:

And more to come!

This has been a busy five weeks - but it's good to clear off my proverbial desk, as there's still much left to come.