Logging temp probes?

[Northern Brewer]

I was wondering if anybody uses or know of a temp probe that will log information to a PC or store it so you know how of historical temperature variations. For example what temp your FV has been since you started your last batch. I found this which seems to do the trick, it has a water proof probe however I'm thinking that there must be a way of getting the info from a PT100 probe.

Cheers
NB

 

[Vossy1]

Eskimobob will probably be able to help you with that one, drop him a pm.
Dataloggers.

 

[Northern Brewer]

cheers Vossy - will do :thumb:

 

[BeerEagle]

cheers Vossy - will do :thumb:

would you let us know the answer NB? Thanks

 

[Northern Brewer]

No problem :

 

[Northern Brewer]

cheers Vossy - will do :thumb:

would you let us know the answer NB? Thanks

BeerEagle

I swapped PMs with Esimibob and logging PT100 is not going to be that economical, he pointed me to some USB loggers this one for the ambient temp in my cellar and this one with a seperate thermocouple that coudl be used with an FV possibly however I have been distracted with other stuff liking leaking cellars recently.

There's a whole load of stuff on ebay that can be cheaper however not looked into it in detail and may not be relevent this one looks like it could be usable, may nead a holder for the thermocouple if using it in an FV, Vosssy has a nice link to place that sells some that may work.

Cheers NB

 

[Rparkera]

I bought a USB-502 second hand from ebay. Works a treat. Collects data - you can set the sample rate from every second to once a day; amount stored dependscon sample rate but min of 48 hours at 1 sec samples. Runs on a half AA camera battery for ages. Exports data to its own viewing software or to Excel. Also records humidity and tracks dew point with optional alarmsmif you need.

Quite expensive new (£75) but I paid about £35. There are good Chinese clones for a similar price ~£30. That said, it just showed that various digital fridge controllers were doing exactly what they claimed to do!

 

[Northern Brewer]

I've just bought an 8 quid USB temp probe (in postage0 from HK to see how they perform, may be a while to deliver due to the holidays over there, I'll report back when I get it.

I have PCs in my office aboe the cellar brewery so easy to drop a USB cable into it - along with some beer line

 

[Rparkera]

Good price there. Be interesting to know how you get on as at that price regular monitoring becomes more feasible

 

[evanvine]

I use an extra sensor from my weather system to monitor ferments etc.
It even draws a graph for me.

 

[Northern Brewer]

I use an extra sensor from my weather system to monitor ferments etc.
It even draws a graph for me.

Interesting, I was thinking of getting a weather system, there's a large wind farm just up on the the hill behind me adn supposedly ther were 111mph gusts in the pennines a couple of weeks ago so may be interesting to see what we get here.

What kind of sensor is it and how do you monitor your fermentation with it? In the FV cupboard/area or in the FV itself?

 

[evanvine]

It is the"Oregon" weather station, with which you can have up to 3 extra sensors.
For brewing you need the ones with the probe on a lead.
My FVs, Fermenters and HLT all have tank connectors fitted such that the thread is on the inside.
A short piece of blanked copper tube is fitted into them.
You can then push probes into the tube without coming into contact with the wort etc.

 

[Northern Brewer]

It is the"Oregon" weather station, with which you can have up to 3 extra sensors.
For brewing you need the ones with the probe on a lead.

I had a look on the Oregon web site for their sensors and I can't see the probes on a lead, would have to be a big tank connector to fit these into :grin:

Can you point me in the rignt direction? Could be discontinued I guess? :wha:

There are other weather stations with probes on a lead such at this one from Technoline and this one form Irox. Haven't looked in detail but seems to be a solution thier somewhere, I guess its only relevent if you want a westher station otherwise the 8 quid USB probe may be good enough.

 

[evanvine]

You are right, oregon appear to have discontinued them.
I bought my weather station 6 years ago.
You may find something on this site

 

[Northern Brewer]

Thanks evanvine, that's the site where I got the technoline and irox links from, both of which have probes on leads.

I'll wait for the 8 quid USB probe to wing its way from HK before thinking about a weather station.
Cheers
NB

 

[evanvine]

I'll wait for the 8 quid USB probe to wing its way from HK before thinking about a weather station.

Yes, that is a sernsible thing to do.
The only advantage of the weather station option is that you can monitor the sensor remotely.

 

[evanvine]

This is a photo of my computer screen, apologies for quality and colour fidelity.
The graph is of my current TC in my unheated garage, the FV is fitted with 2 heating belts and was initially unlagged.

The top trace (meant to be white) is the cider temp
The bottom 2 traces , red for the garage temp and green for the outside temp.

It shows the temp rising from cold and then stalling as the heat loss = the heat from the belts. Lagging was fitted and the temp continued to rise until the PID1 took control.
The rippling section is the PID1 control before Auto Tune was used and then the trace shows consistent temp control (19C).
PID 1 was changed for PID2 and the process of Auto Tune was repeated.

Is this the sort of thing you are after?

 

[orlando]

I bought a USB-502 second hand from ebay. Works a treat.

That said, it just showed that various digital fridge controllers were doing exactly what they claimed to do!

Given that I think I will pass but £8 for the USB version is cheap peace of mind.

 

[BeerEagle]

Thanks NB