This project is started from my need. As a brewing beginner, I want a device that help me to present information about temperature and ethanol level. Temperature is an important factor for brewing. If it is too high, ingredient go bad when before must ferments enough. Ethanol level informs whether must ferments properly. Also, these data help users to promote their brewing next time. Brewing data logger repors temperature and ethanol level to the user via Bluetooth.
| General view |
Hardware used for this project consists of BGM220-EK4314 development kit, MQ-3 Gas Sensor used to check the ethanol level (0.04 mg - 10 mg), and 10K 3950 waterproof Thermistor for measuting the temperature inside the can. The images below show the sensor schematic and assembly.
| Schematic | Assembly | |
Brewing Helper is designed to 6-week brewing. By Bluetooth, 5 factors can be checked, current operating hours, current temperature, current ethanol level, temperature history, and ethanol level history. Additionaly, one attribute is added to the profile that is used for requesting data history by the user.
Once every second the sensors check the temperature and the ethanol level. Once every hour the average temperature and ethanol level is stored in the history arrays.
BGM220 acquires sensor data by using internal ADC. These data types are float. Brewing Helper converts these data to the string type and reports it via Bluetooth. Below one can see screenshots of the Bluetooth interface displayed by Silicon Labs EFR32 Connect mobile app.
| Screen 1 | Screen 2 | Screen 3 | ||
It was a meaningfull project. I made something that I want and that I need with the knowledge that I learned. Compared to assembly language, C is very productive language. If there were no APIs provided by Simplicity Studio and smartphone application, I would not finish project in one semester. The next two images show the unit operation.
| Unit view | Brewing stuff | |
Brewing Helper was tested in real brewing. The test was successful. Test time was totally 100 hours for Korean traditional alcohol drink brewing. The test ingredients consist of the dough with some natural enzymes put in a closed bottle. For an accurate brewing, the brewing tools were cleaned with a 70% ethanol cleaner. That was the reason that a low ethanol level was reported at the beginning. After 60 hours, oxygen is depleted, so enzymes stopped to reproduce and started to ferment and ethanol level increased. The details are summarized in the attached document.
Plans for the future include developing Android application for the Brewing Helper. I have taught myself Kotlin programming environment and here is a prototype of the future application.
| Android app |
Last modified:Mon, Jan 23, 2023.