Adafruit Sous Viduino

Has anyone tried to port the Adafruit Sous Viduino project to the Spark Core?

They use several libraries like:
PID_v1.h
PID_AutoTune_v0.h
Adafruit_MCP23017.h
Adafruit_RGBLCDShield.h
EEPROM.h

Based on my (little) experience with the Spark Core so far, I’m sure there’s plenty to adjust - but I don’t know much about C.

I’m not entirely sure if it’s the exact same project, but it’s pretty darn similar. In fact, someone tried to port it so badly, they spontaneously created a new product. That does Sous Vide. With the Spark Core. They’ve managed a full blown, succesfull, kickstarter project, and are featured on the Spark.io mainpage. They’re called Nomiku, and their website is to be found here: http://www.nomiku.com/ Take a look!

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@exposure, if @Moors7 hasn’t discouraged you from making your own, these libraries have been ported:

PID including auto-tune  (available on the IDE)
Adafruit_MCP23017 (available on the IDE)
Adafruit_RGBLCDShield (I am currently porting it)
EEPROM (in Spark built-in function or with the flashee-eeprom library available on the IDE)

:slight_smile:

@peekay123 As a engineer who has gone through several controls courses in college I am of the opinion that anyone who wants to play around with controls and micro-controllers should try their hand at two projects: a balancing robot and a sous vide controller! Go for it @exposure!

I don’t think @Moors7 was trying to dissuade you from building you own but as someone who has tried, if you are doing this to impress a significant other I would suggest you buy the Nomiku and play with Sous vide on the side. As an owner of a Nomiku it’s fantastic!

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I recently make a reflow oven for soldering boards using the Spare Core and most of those libraries. I think I will try the Sous Vide next since about the only difference is the heater element is under water :wink:

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Also keep in mind that most sous vide setups have active water circulation to keep the temperature in the bath fairly uniform. The hot water circulation seems to be the hard part for many sous vide projects

Yeah, I figured that was assumed. I would think a simple stirrer of some sort that would circulate the water would be easiest.

Hi everyone, thanks for your input.

I was hoping someone ported the Adafruit project so I could ‘enhance’ it. Apart from my lack of programming skills (I can do a fair bit PHP and JS but I’m not a programmer and C is more fiddling through for me) my biggest enemy is time :wink:

I just build the Adafruit Sous Viduino on the Arduino and I’ll see how it goes.

Why the Spark Core? Ultimatively it would be great to remotely read temp/switching events (e.g. publish) and have a timer program. As for the timer it might be interesting or easier to have that logic on a webserver, depending on the WiFi connection & reliability, and only use the Spark Core as a ‘dumm’ sensor reader that receives switching events for a relay.

Actually I’m not too concerned about the stirring since I use a fairly big pot (8-10l) but it can be added easily if necessary. I want to use it for making cheese and sous vide cooking. Smoking is another great application and I saw that someone here started that project and also a brewing/distilling controller would have the same foundation.

The Nomiko looks interesting but it won’t have enough power for my application and you definitely have to stir it. I modified a 3.5kW induction plate that’s controlled by the Arduino.

@peekay123: I’m looking forward to trying your Adafruit_RGBLCDShield port.

@exposure, I will post it tonight :wink:

The PID libraries should port with no issues, there’s an EEPROM library already in Spark, and Spark Wiring should take care of the porting of the other two. Have you tried just copying the libraries over to Spark, changing the headers and pressing compile?

I’m not sure I would recommend using an induction plate, those don’t behave like the simple resistive loads of most projects. In our experience, a 1800W turkey roaster is more than sufficient for cheese making, as is an 1100 W circulator. Do you have more description of what you’re trying to do that requires so much power? In the US you can’t get more than 1800 W from a regular socket.

I have some more basic code for sous vide from our previous project on github, if you want to shuffle through that: https://github.com/abefetterman/Ember-Kit.

And, if you don’t want to touch any code, and you’re truly looking for the ends (rather than the means) of the project, the Nomiku would get the job done. But then I’d suggest you buy a spark core/photon and at least blink some lights, because it’s pretty amazing to put the internet inside real life.

No, I haven’t tried copying over the libraries yet but it seems many have been ported already. I’ll give it a go at some point but I probably wait for peekay’s Adafruit_RGBLCDShield library.

The induction plate suits my purpose well because it’s very flexible. For cheese making I wouldn’t need a strong one like mine but I also use it for normal cooking and I want to use it for distilling/brewing as well. For the latter purpose you want some grunt to speed up things and I don’t want to end up having 3 separate cookers. I’m not in US and our normal outlets have 10A (2.5kW). Additionally you can put install bigger outlets to draw more amps.

I also don’t have an issue regarding resistive load (in case you were thinking of the relays). I’m not switching the power on/off of the whole induction plate but control its controller - so the internal fan for example will continue cooling.

I’ll have a look at your project, thanks. I’m not too worried about touching code but I don’t want to reinvent the wheel and rather base my project on something proven to save time. Otherwise this will end up in a drawer for I don’t know how long…

@exposure, I just posted the library here on my github which includes the MCP23017 library as well. At some point, I will post on the IDE. As for the rest of the libraries, they are ALL ported and available on the IDE or on github repos from other members :slight_smile:

Cool, keep us updated on your progress! If you’re also looking into brewing, there’s a brewing shield that has been discussed earlier that may be relevant to your plans:

I’m definitely jealous of 240V countries and your high powered appliances. Let me know if there’s anything I can add!

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