Newbie - looking for guidance

Hi folks,

New user from the UK who has just discovered this amazing project.

I’m reasonably techie but have no idea of coding. I have got a Synology NAS so that would be great if I could use that. I am generally an iOS user, but happy to get an Android tablet if need be. I’d prefer a tablet build to a RaspberryPi as I don’t really know what I’m doing there.

Is there a real easy step by step guide that I could use to build a 2 tap monitor (maybe expand later) I’ve seen THIS but I could do with a bit more of a guide for the code and building bits.

If anyone has some good tips and tricks as well that would be great as I could really do with some help!!!

I’m also keen to see if there is any simple way - maybe the App? - to be able to monitor how much is left in my kegs, just to go with that?

Thanks muchly in advance.

In my opinion there’s no way around a bit of technical complexity here, but it’s worth the outcome. The community here is pretty quiet, and although the product works perfectly well once set up, getting it working will require a bit of trial and error.

I decided to look at this as a fun challenge to learn a a bit more coding than I knew before. I went with the docker server build on raspberry pi because it was the simplest deployment option I could find and understand and there is a complete step by step guide here on the forums, but if the tablet build looks easier to you, run with that.

Either way be prepared for some trial and error and know the end result is worth it!

1 Like

As myrison said it will be much better to run it off RPi, you will then have ability to access data from any device over web interface even from your iOS devices I guess :wink:

I’m from the UK too and I went through dozen of different flow meters, some were no supporting slow flow others were foaming my beer like crazy. If it helps I settled with: ICQUANZX YF-S401 I’ve set them up with 4.37 ticks and they provide very accurate data.

What I did was to take the official installation file from the git project and tried to run it on my Pi, it didn’t work but after checking content of the install file I was able to run all the commands manually and get the all the containers up and running.

I’m actually packing for the weekend trip but might be able to help more when I come back sometimes nxt week.

Good luck!

The help would be great! I do get a bit hazy (like a good NEIPA!) when the code chat starts. I’m more on the hardware side of things.

I’m in Southampton btw.

I think you should get all the required kit first.

  1. Arduino Mega2560 alike, I didn’t get original as it’s 3x the price this is what I got and it works great: Arduino Mega2560 R3 Compatible Board
  2. Raspberry Pi 4 2GB, I can see they are out of stock in most places, you could get 4GB version but it’s overkill and money could be spent elsewhere. Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 2GB
  3. Flow meters, get as many as you need, the Arduino board I listed above supports up to six flow meters. ICQUANZX YF-S401

Get all the parts, update the post and then we can start getting things setup.

By the way, I’m passing Southampton every other month (sometimes more often) when going kitesurfing to either Calshot or Hill Head… driving from Reading

The easiest method is to install the server on a pi or a linux VM. Just a base build and then use this…

I’ve found you need to manually install docker, Python and docker compose etc using below:

curl -sSL https://get.docker.com | sh
        sudo usermod -aG docker $USER


sudo apt-get install -y libffi-dev libssl-dev
        sudo apt-get install -y python3 python3-pip
        sudo apt-get remove python-configparser || true

sudo pip3 install docker-compose

Finally run:

/bin/bash -c “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kegbot/kegberry/master/install.sh)”

Then grab a nexus 7 (other tablets might work) and install the kegbot application, specify your server in the settings. You will need a custom ROM that supports USB host mode on the tablet.

For the arduino, grab a mega 2560 for more than two taps (you need to install the support utilities and set the serial number). You will need a Y splitter to plug the arduino into the tablet and also power the tablet.

There should be some guides around on wiring and the ROM/kernel for the tablet but if not please post here and I would be happy to dig up my notes and help.

Cheers

What is the specific requirement for the tablet? Is it just USB OTG functionality?

Help! I seem to be missing some dependencies, but where?

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ curl -sSL https://get.docker.com | sh

Executing docker install script, commit: 93d2499759296ac1f9c510605fef85052a2c32be

DEPRECATION WARNING
This Linux distribution (raspbian stretch) reached end-of-life and is no longer supported by this script.
No updates or security fixes will be released for this distribution, and users are recommended
to upgrade to a currently maintained version of raspbian.

Press Ctrl+C now to abort this script, or wait for the installation to continue.

  • sudo -E sh -c apt-get update -qq >/dev/null
  • sudo -E sh -c DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y -qq apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl >/dev/null
    E: Unmet dependencies. Try ‘apt --fix-broken install’ with no packages (or specify a solution).