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nickl111 / beerlogger

Monitor fermentation activity with a Raspberry Pi Zero W and Tilt Hydrometer
MIT License
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Airlock is not consistent #14

Closed nickl111 closed 4 years ago

nickl111 commented 5 years ago

The airlock doesn't always "bloop", it sometimes just kind of leaks from the sides if it leans. The weight on top should help with this but not much.

The sensitivity needs to be dialled right to the edge to pick up the vibrations. This is fiddly and hard and can only be done while it's fermenting.

nickl111 commented 5 years ago

This is a problem. I've increased the weight to 30g. This increases the size of the air bubbles rather than the size of the impact of the lid dropping (as it often doesn't) but also means that sometimes the up action triggers a bloop too. Making the airlock level seems to help it.

Basically the airlock is not designed for this. possible solutions are to make the airlock dead level (fiddly) or maybe put some teflon tabs in the top of the cup to reduce sideways movement.

nickl111 commented 5 years ago

30g weight does indeed seem to fix it.

nickl111 commented 5 years ago

This is still an issue. It might be because I didn't fill the airlock up to the line but it still sometimes seems to get "stuck" meaning the sensor doesn't catch every bloop, especially at high activity rates. As long as it's internally consistent I guess it doesn't matter as it's only an indication, but I'm not massively happy about it.

nickl111 commented 5 years ago

OK, fermenting wine at the moment and the airlock is very poor. The activity is way in excess of any beer and the starsan in the airlock foams out and all over the place, including the beer logger. Obviously this didn't do it any good. I suspect the foam is why it sometimes gets "stuck".

I've replaced the starsan with water which is better but still splashes quite a bit. Perhaps less weight is needed with water. Also perhaps a water resistant case of some kind is necessary.

nickl111 commented 5 years ago

Perhaps also for wine the activity rate limit needs to be removed or lowered

nickl111 commented 5 years ago

I'm using vodka in the airlock now. I don't trust the water.

It definitely needs a case. It stopped working properly after I did cider because I suspect some apple juice got on it and shorted something.

nickl111 commented 5 years ago

Vodka splashes to much. Trying quarter strength StarSan now. But the long and short is that it needs a cover. It did start working again - I suspect there was liquid in the variable resistor - but stopped counting halfway through the brew after a huge spike. Again liquid getting somewhere it shouldn't. The near zero ambient temp probably isn't helping either.

nickl111 commented 4 years ago

This is something of a show stopper. The mechanical shortcomings of the speidels airlock prevent me from ever collecting a clean set of data. Often at the start of fermentation the activity is so fast it either causes bubbles that clog the airlock (with starsan) or splashes liquid out that causes a) damage to electronics and b) the properties of the airlock to change. By the time we get near the end everything is working nicely (as long as you replace any evaporated liquid) but this is not totally useful.

nickl111 commented 4 years ago

wontfix