First Time Fermenting

[hogateb]

Trying my hand at fermenting. Set up in a styro cooler at a heat of ~ 130F and 65 to 70 RH. Has been running since 8/30.

Built an Arduino based temperature controller using a TMP36 analog temperature sensor. The controller is set at 130F. It controls a solid state relay that turns a 40 Watt light bulb on an off as temperature gets too high/low. Measuring RH with an analog dial hygrometer from an old humidor. My lo-tech moisture control is a spray bottle on the leaves and a cup filled with humidifying crystals charged with distilled water.

----MODIFICATION----
Replaced the light bulb and cup of humidifying crystals yesterday (9/2) with a small crock-pot to alleviate some of the dryness issues that the light bulb creates. throughout the day yesterday, RH was about 80 so I have placed the lid back on the crock pot with the lid handle removed which has a small hole that allows smaller amounts of humidity out instead of the entire crock pot. Now RH is at 70, which seems much better than 80.

Does this sound right for a fermenting setup? Any suggestions?

Thanks for the input!

 

[deluxestogie]

Sounds good, hogateb. Temp ~120ºF to 130ºF, with RH ~68 to 78%.

Bob

 

[hogateb]

Sounds good, hogateb. Temp ~120ºF to 130ºF, with RH ~68 to 78%.

Bob

Thanks for the input Bob.

So it sounds like I may be on the high end of the temp range with my setup. Easy enough to modify my code to turn my heat source to say maybe more like 125 to be right in the middle of the range. Wanting to add a humidity sensor to it and use that to help control RH, or at the very least monitor it.

I will work on some pics this week for anyone interested now or documentation for later. I will also see about posting the Arduino source code and component setup as well. It is nothing special, but it may help someone.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

I'm curious as to what your Arduino controller costs. I paid about $45.00 for my digital controller. It works perfect. I am able to keep the temp in my kiln to within 1 degree F, +/-
My humidity source is a hot air humidifier with humidistat and my heat source is a 100 W lightbulb. My humidity varies between about 65% - 72%

Randy B

 

[hogateb]

Arduino was about $35, temp sensor $ 2, had the solid state relay and other components laying around. Probably all told just under $50. Arduino is a fun toy to have around too.

 

[Chicken]

sounds to me like what you have is a kiln,,,,,

 

[Chrism]

I'm using the dht22 sensor. I got a relay module off eBay that'll be wired to heat source. I'll have a servo open and close a valve based on Rh. I have my project box from radio shack I'll be using for the components. And I'll have a handy 16x2 LCD display with it. Later on I'll add buttons to control the heat so I won't have to reupload new code. Probably work on it this week. So far inside the house Im getting -2 degree difference and haven't checked Rh. But the Rh in house is 40% according to the sensor readings.

 

[hogateb]

Hey Chrism, just ordered the same sensor yesterday along with a 16X2 LCD screen. I too was considering button control for temp adjustments. It sounds like you are finding the DHT22 to be fairly accurate which was my concern with it. Right now I am just running everything from a proto shield and some spring terminals attached to the breadboard of the shield. I also plan to add my data logging shield to the setup this week in order to track temp and RH over time.

Curious how long you made the leads for the DHT22? Where abouts in OK are you? I'm from NW Arkansas.

 

[Chrism]

I'm in the panhandle of oklahoma. Right now I have everything on a breadboard. I'll be adding a valve later but for now I believe this will work (my code and a photo)

#include <LiquidCrystal.h>
LiquidCrystal lcd(7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12); // arduino digital pins to lcd
#include "DHT.h"
#define DHTTYPE DHT22


#define DHTPIN 2 // dht22 signal pin to digital pin 2
DHT dht(DHTPIN, DHTTYPE);
#define CROCKPOTPIN 4 // relay digital pin 4

#define TEMP_HIGH 50 // max temp in celcius
#define TEMP_LOW 48 // min temp in celcius
#define HUMID_HIGH 80 // max humidity (this will be used later on when a valve is attached)
#define HUMID_LOW 60 // min humidity (this will be used later on when a valve is attached)

float minTemp = 100;
float maxTemp = 0;

float minHumid = 100;
float maxHumid = 0;

int crockValue = 0;

void setup()
{
lcd.begin(16, 2); // setup the lcd
dht.begin(); // setup the dht sensor
pinMode(CROCKPOTPIN, OUTPUT); // crockpot pin as output
}

void loop()
{
// READ DATA
int t = dht.readTemperature(); // temperature
int h = dht.readHumidity(); // humidity
int temperatureF = (t * 9 / 5) +32.5; // calculating C to F

// DO THE MIN/MAX
minTemp = min(minTemp, t);
maxTemp = max(maxTemp, t);

// DISPLAT DATA
lcd.setCursor(0, 0);
lcd.print("TEMP: ");
lcd.print(temperatureF);
lcd.print(" F");
lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
lcd.print("HUMIDITY: ");
lcd.print(h);
lcd.print(" %");


// CROCKPOT
if (t > TEMP_HIGH) crockValue = 0; // temp higher than relay is set to open
else if (t < TEMP_LOW) crockValue = 1; // temp lower than relay is set to close
digitalWrite(CROCKPOTPIN, crockValue);



}