Flow Controller

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We have lift off, after about an hour of messing around I realised a few things that will probably help everyone else:

1) A 5v relay needs 5v. There is a switch on your board to change this setting.
2) Do not use digital pins 0 or 1, I have moved the solenoid in code to pin 13
3) My relay was active high, check yours with a multimeter to make sure which way round it is :)

That being said with the power supply tucked away in the cupboard I did a wet run...

[youtube:t4s2ss4h]zLwW-EbS0S0[/youtube:t4s2ss4h]

IT LIVES!

Apologies for the shaky cam, I got bored part way through and dropped the volume to 5 litres so it would end.

Time to go measure how much it thought it put in.

The only issue I have is at the end of the video you can see it resets, it appears when the solenoid closes the arduino goes through a software reset but I'm not sure why.

Now I supposed I need to start thinking about prettying this up!
 
Quick weigh of the liquid

Container without liquid: 1.7kg
Container with liquid: 6.9kg

Total liquid 5.2kg

Given I had already filled the pipe with water before I started the flow sensor up I think that is fairly close and probably much more accurate than doing it manually 2L at a time.
 
Well done. Have you tried putting the flow meter down stream of the valve? Either way you can just adjust for the delay in the valve closing. Ie deduct 200ml or what it was from the volume required.
 
Belter said:
Wow that's awesome. Jealous my gear still hasn't arrived.
Click to expand...

Thanks. That just means I can make all the mistakes in advance for you :)

One thing I forgot to mention was that setting the voltage on the board to 5v means that the values being output by the buttons also changed so I had to rework that. I've updated the code on GitHub with my new changes but may need tweaking for other peoples boards.

Printing the values of the adc_key_in out to the LCD display was useless to try and figure out what the buttons should now be, I printed them out to the serial port and they were a factor of 10 out! Explains why I had so much trouble getting them up and running in the first place.

Also changing my board to 5v has made my select button work.
 
bobsbeer said:
Well done. Have you tried putting the flow meter down stream of the valve? Either way you can just adjust for the delay in the valve closing. Ie deduct 200ml or what it was from the volume required.
Click to expand...

No I haven't tried swapping where the flow meter is at the moment it's

Liquid in -> Flow meters -> Solenoid -> Liquid out

I assumed this would be the better way to do it as you would have less additions due to the delays in signalling, if the flow meter was after the solenoid then that liquid would have no change of being stopped by the valve closing after the signal had been sent.

When I get some more permanent connections I can have a play, it's a bit...fragile at the moment :)

If I end up at 200ml over in 23 litres of strike water I'd be OK with that.
 
200ml is great. Probably better accuracy than doing it by hand. But I'm guessing you could set the volume required to say 22.8 rather than 23lt and that would account for the delay. Can't wait to try my rig out on my return.
 
fantastic job trail blaizin again steve... 200ml out over 23000ml is better than +/- 1%.. ;)

i could be out that much pr jugfull...

Glad to hear the select buttons working.. switching the board to 5v DUH!! didnt even occour to me... just assumed it was set already!

Belter-- something u to try too!!!

got excited when i spotted postie this aftrenoon but he walked right past.. at least no bills ;)

the watervalve is NC so the solainoid opens it right?
so its sprung closed????
stronger spring would require a bigger/stonger solanoid hmmm cant wait for my bits to arrive so i cam play too.. if however the 200ml overrun is consistant enough and not depndent on back prssure which could cause probs with a variable mains pressure its a totally livable with err.
 
I've had a bit of a look around and it seems that isolating the power for the relay and not using the arduino to power it should prevent the reset when the solenoid closes. I'll give it a try when I've next got an hour free and see if it makes a difference, might have to finally get a soldering iron for this though :)

bobsbeer said:
200ml is great. Probably better accuracy than doing it by hand. But I'm guessing you could set the volume required to say 22.8 rather than 23lt and that would account for the delay. Can't wait to try my rig out on my return.
Click to expand...

If it's a constant overrun then definitely, the code already has a variable to handle just that (adjustment_volume).

Having had another afternoon of bottling 23 litres I'm starting to see a potential value in improving the accuracy so I can hit 330ml consistently! Smaller bore flow sensor and pipe work are probably a good place to start with that but a problem for another month I think.

Anyone have any links to decent enclosures I could use for this, I was thinking the usual ABS project boxes but I'm starting to get a little sick of that beige colour and look of them

I'm thinking I'll put the PSU in its own enclosure as it can then be used for other things such as pumps etc then a smaller one to contain the arduino board and outputs. As it's then only a low voltage enclosure I could put the solenoid and flow sensor inside it without fear of 240v and water mixing.
 
Hi Guys
Just read through this topic with interest - an Arduino setup is a distant hope, not even an aspiration at the mo :(

Could I revisit the earlier discussion of power supplies? PC power supply units are often going begging, as people chuck-out their old desktops in favour of laptops. They have plenty of wattage/amperage, and output 5 and 12 volts 'out of the box'. A little butchering of the connectors wouldn't be too demanding, and there's a power supply. Or have I missed something?

Cheers, Chris
 
No reason I can think of that you couldn't use an old PC power supply, I simply wanted something a bit smaller that would fit inside a waterproof enclosure for safety. If I'd had a spare PC PSU lying around I would have probably used it.
 
I plan on using a pc power supply that I just happen to have lying around. I knew it would come in useful. :lol: I can use it to power the arduino and the other peripherals such pump and valves. I might have to mount it in a separate project box, but then there will be 12/5v power leads all over the place. But maybe they can be tidied up a bit.
 
Cheers Steve..

the flow sensor arrived today, and now after a short while wearing glasses me head hurts but my copy of your system is UP.. :)

9713015294_01f962e2ae_z.jpg


i had a arduino mega and shield from an earlier ebay binge, just had to change the pin assingments for flowsensor and soilanoid to accesable pins, and its running
went from 13, and 2 to 22, and 24 :)

Cheers..

One thing however, I tested the solanoid valve under mains pressure with a 12v 1.25a unregulated dc supply to switch, and the output seemed strong. using the same psu switched via a relay the blow test thru the valve met with significant resistance?? i can blow thru but with some force..
does this mean a gravity fed hlt will drain slowly thru this valve????
if so sticking a 12v pump behind it to increase the pressure thru may be needed??
 
???? while typing the above post, i left the system on, with the solaniod open,, on picking up to put away for the night the solanoid was quite warm, not lihjting a match head warm but warmer that i would expect ( not that i know what to expect)

it was powered bt a 12v 1.25a plug in adaptor via a relay, no polarity i cld see marked on the thing, and it seemed to work with either +ve/-Ve configuration.

is that normal???
 
Nice one Fil! It's a great feeling getting it up and running.

I had the same thing, when trying to blow through using the relay I thought the valve wasn't opening properly as there was a high resistance. As soon as it was hooked up to the mains water supply the output was fine even without opening the incoming supply fully.

I haven't tried powering the relay from the 12v supply rather than from the arduino yet don't know if that will make a difference. If not as you say a pump will help force it through.

Interested to see what your overrun is like.

I also noticed quite a lot of heat on the solenoid when it was open and first testing, I swapped the cables over after that but can't remember if it made it better or not. My cable has the +ve on the left terminal when they are pointed towards you.

I've turned mine on now and will see if it gets hot
 
I will be using pumps for my transferring of wort and using these solenoids to be directing it to the right place with a lot of pipework and solenoids. :)
 
It's just a coil/electromagnet. Polarity is irrelevant. It will get hot. Hopefully not too hot.
 

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