Basic counting with the Stamp
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Talk about the automated still brought up a monitoring problem I have
had. I went through WAM but couldn't find an appropriate answer.
I am measuring the metabolism of beer batches by counting bubbles
coming off the air lock. I would like to have a graph of the entire
duration of the run to get a rough idea of the effect of changes in
parameters e.g. sugars, temperature etc. Bubbles per minute give a
rough estimate of the rate of yeast growth. The sensor part is easy
to imagine. For those familiar with the standard beer air-lock,
gasses come off by bubbling through a water lock chamber. The level
of water changes each time a bubble is generated. Thus by coloring
the water and using a light source and photoresistor one could easily
get a change in resistance each time a bubble is generated.
I would like to count the number of these resistance changes as a
function of time (They peak at about 30/minute) over a period of a
week. It seems like it should be easy but I'm still at a very
elementary stage of learning. Seems like the answer could be
applicable to a number of monitoring and control situations.
Thank you very much
Mike Z
had. I went through WAM but couldn't find an appropriate answer.
I am measuring the metabolism of beer batches by counting bubbles
coming off the air lock. I would like to have a graph of the entire
duration of the run to get a rough idea of the effect of changes in
parameters e.g. sugars, temperature etc. Bubbles per minute give a
rough estimate of the rate of yeast growth. The sensor part is easy
to imagine. For those familiar with the standard beer air-lock,
gasses come off by bubbling through a water lock chamber. The level
of water changes each time a bubble is generated. Thus by coloring
the water and using a light source and photoresistor one could easily
get a change in resistance each time a bubble is generated.
I would like to count the number of these resistance changes as a
function of time (They peak at about 30/minute) over a period of a
week. It seems like it should be easy but I'm still at a very
elementary stage of learning. Seems like the answer could be
applicable to a number of monitoring and control situations.
Thank you very much
Mike Z
Comments
I like this kind of problems and will share my first Ideas with you.
If you put the waterlock into a dark enclosure and have a small light source
on one end and a CDS photocell on the other end you should be able to
measure and count the bubles int the waterlock. You may well need to amplify
the signel from the fotocel to get a neat 0 or +5Volt reading. (swittching
between the two voltage levels).
On the Stamp you will get some 40000 readings per day at 30 bubles per
minute. So, if you want not to overflow the word value that counts your
bubles in the Stamp (65000+ maximum) you should take a new count value for
every day.
I real time clock for your Stamp would also be handy.
These are my first ideas, maybe there comes up more as the discussion
devellops.
Klaus
PS I have been brewing beer long before computers and microcontrollers
became popular :-).
Original Message
From: "mziegler1485" <mziegler@h...>
To: <basicstamps@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 12, 2004 1:53 PM
Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Basic counting with the Stamp
> Talk about the automated still brought up a monitoring problem I have
> had. I went through WAM but couldn't find an appropriate answer.
>
> I am measuring the metabolism of beer batches by counting bubbles
> coming off the air lock. I would like to have a graph of the entire
> duration of the run to get a rough idea of the effect of changes in
> parameters e.g. sugars, temperature etc. Bubbles per minute give a
> rough estimate of the rate of yeast growth. The sensor part is easy
> to imagine. For those familiar with the standard beer air-lock,
> gasses come off by bubbling through a water lock chamber. The level
> of water changes each time a bubble is generated. Thus by coloring
> the water and using a light source and photoresistor one could easily
> get a change in resistance each time a bubble is generated.
>
> I would like to count the number of these resistance changes as a
> function of time (They peak at about 30/minute) over a period of a
> week. It seems like it should be easy but I'm still at a very
> elementary stage of learning. Seems like the answer could be
> applicable to a number of monitoring and control situations.
>
> Thank you very much
>
> Mike Z
>
>
>
>
>
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> basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
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Body of the message will be ignored.
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Neat idea. One possible problem might be in the first 24 hours when the lock
is bubbling like crazy (assuming a large pitch). I wonder if it will be able
to distinguish individual bubbles at that point. I do massive pitches, and
the first 24 hrs. is non stop crazy bubbling. Perhaps instead of the
standard fermentation lock, run a blow off tube to a larger home made lock
of larger bore than the usual. If the liquid in the lock is colored, you
should be able to see the passage of the bubble as opposed to the rise in
liquid. One thing is you want to avoid backpressure, or you will slow the
rate of fermentation.
Another approach, that would be more accurate but much more difficult to
implement would be to measure the specific gravity.
Let me know how it turns out, I am very interested.
Jonathan
www.madlabs.info
Original Message
From: "mziegler1485" <mziegler@h...>
To: <basicstamps@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 12, 2004 4:53 AM
Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Basic counting with the Stamp
> Talk about the automated still brought up a monitoring problem I have
> had. I went through WAM but couldn't find an appropriate answer.
>
> I am measuring the metabolism of beer batches by counting bubbles
> coming off the air lock. I would like to have a graph of the entire
> duration of the run to get a rough idea of the effect of changes in
> parameters e.g. sugars, temperature etc. Bubbles per minute give a
> rough estimate of the rate of yeast growth. The sensor part is easy
> to imagine. For those familiar with the standard beer air-lock,
> gasses come off by bubbling through a water lock chamber. The level
> of water changes each time a bubble is generated. Thus by coloring
> the water and using a light source and photoresistor one could easily
> get a change in resistance each time a bubble is generated.
>
> I would like to count the number of these resistance changes as a
> function of time (They peak at about 30/minute) over a period of a
> week. It seems like it should be easy but I'm still at a very
> elementary stage of learning. Seems like the answer could be
> applicable to a number of monitoring and control situations.
>
> Thank you very much
>
> Mike Z
>
>
>
>
>
> To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
> basicstamps-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
> from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject and
Body of the message will be ignored.
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>