GEORGE NEEDS YOUR HELP

[@andycalcutt2177]

I subscribed yesterday because of how much you are dedicated to helping others. I was blind off and for the past two years, so this is why this effort of yours to help him really tugs at my heart. Thanks to God and some great Doctors, my sight has been restored almost to good as new. Merry Christmas to all, even if I'm a little late seeing video.

[@CihangirD]

I built system using VL53LOXV2 sensor. Instead of sound output add one LED display to show current prof. As improved version added servo motor which changes direction of output plastic hose between jars. Separate head heart and tail.

[@BarleyandHopsBrewing]

Wow. Sounds like a good set up

[@jcinsaniac]

Haven't read if anyone offered this one yet, but you could simply print a strip out with marks on it (think barcode) and attach it to the hydrometer. Position a simple USB Mouse and read the pulses from the strip as the hydrometer rises. The mouse is cheap and easily calibrated, easily programmed, no special drivers, and you could easily then assign values to be read aloud using common text to speech software code. No fancy 3d math needed. I think I would have employed a Raspberry Pi Zero Wireless to do the computations instead of the arduino, but that is preference.

[@wldtrky38]

I wish I could offer some constructive help, but you're already beyond my knowledge and ability. Thanks for what you are doing George ! You are an amazing man. Merry Christmas to you and ALL of your family, and to all of the distilling community.

[@deanwinger2994]

George, hope you have a merry Christmas and a happy New year. Just wanted to thank you for your work in this area. I too am legally blind and appreciate everything you are doing to help the visually impaired community. You rock!

[@timfranklin8352]

Thanks for all your contributions to the craft. You continue to amaze us all. Wish i could add to this project but your so far ahead of anything i could help with. Have a Merry Christmas

[@adamw2785]

If you click the Documents tab on Sparkfun for the EMIC2, it has a User guide, Example Code, and there is even a project tutorial where they used the device. But it seems really easy to use. You just connect 5v, gnd, and set 2 pins on the arduino for serial TX and RX, 9600 baud, 8N1. Connect Arduino TX to EMIC2 Sin, and Arduino RX to EMIC2 Sout, the S+ and Sp- are for the speaker. Then you just send a string to it, via serial(), using the Prefix S to make it speak, like "S130 Proof" or "STemp 60F, Proof 130". There are a bunch of other options too, all in the userguide. The example code they provide is easy to read as well. What I would do is create an array, say 17 values, 1 seconds worth of data. Then blank it and repeat. When the button is pushed, wait for the array to be filled, average it, and use that as your initial proof value. You will also need to know the current temperature, and adjust the proof for that. Then output that as the final proof value. Sparkfun sells a 1-wire waterproof temp sensor for $12, SEN-11050. Genius idea to measure density though. The only other cheap way I can think of would be to take a known volume, take its temperature, and weigh it. Which would be more complex. Optical density sensors do exist though, but they are often quite expensive. I wonder if it would be possible to clunk one together.

[@tonytango6676]

Wow!!!! As I have mentioned in the past once I am also losing my reading vision so I too am interested. You are doing an awesome job and figuring all this out. I am very, very impressed with your work.

[@baijokull]

I started thinking about having it humming a note where the frequency of the sound changes based on the proof/distance. So when it gets higher pitched it's higher proof. While that might give you a rough feeling of how high the proof is it obviously won't give you an accurate number. But if you just make the program throw the current proof value at the time of button press into a different variable and then play the sound file associated with the value in that variable it should work fine.

[@HustleAndGlow330]

Aurduino also has an ultrasonic sensor that will let off a beep once certain perimeters are breached. Try that options well. It might be easier to control the output.

[@PyroRob69]

You could use ultrasonic for this as well. Also, I would change the sample rate down to around once/second. If you look at what you are measuring, and how long it will take to speak the values, you will realize you don't need to sample so often. As far as how to speak it, you will be able to equate the distance to a proof, and create a table for that, then you don't have to interpret it. Use an array for your values.

[@williamhouston9312]

Been a while and my mind doesn't work right anymore but...Place the push button on second input of tts module and program an "or" statement to the first output of bridge side of the Arduino. second output on bridge triggered for set "proof" states with "and" statement on Arduino to primary input of tts board. Should allow an instant "proof" read out for push button and set state triggered read out for presets...maybe...if I'm not crazier than normal

[@MrRogsmart]

George, I think you are on the right track. You might be able to get some technical assistance directly from Sparkfun, especially since you are buying their products. It's the sort of problem that is a real pain in the tuchis the first time around. However, if you've done it before it's pretty straightforward. For tech assistance you could also check with Adafruit company out of NYC. They sell much the same stuff as Sparkfun and have a lot of folks who are conversant with these kind of problems. Keep up the good work.

[@lesapan1]

Simple idea, > once you push selected key on the keyboard, at that moment it will register last 100 readings (since there is 17/per second) - then it will thru simple formula, lets say by using excel, count average - that number will then be send to voice reader and speaker will say proof in number... I think it is just playing with couple different programs (excel and any voice reader) and it should be doable... Let me know if you would want more details... BTW Excellent job on figuring this out!!!! Merry Christmas !!!!

[@clifbeam8505]

Hi George - Clif here. Sorry I did not catch this video earlier. I have an extensive background in designing instruments such as the one you are building. Im not sure where you are in the effort, but an idea (if you do not mind starting over) is to use an opacity scale along the hydrometer. Opacity is basically the blocking of light. If you tint the glass in the hydrometer and leave one end clear and have the other end at (for instance) 50% opacity (50% of the light gets blocked) you have created a usable scale. There is an LED on one side of the test tube along with a light sensor. On the opposite side is a mirror. The LED sends light from one side of the test tube across to the mirror where it gets reflected back across to the light sensor located next to the LED. Theoretically, if the test tube is empty, then 100% of the light goes across, hits the mirror and is reflected back across to the detector. The detector measures that light and reads it as 0.00% opacity or 100% light return. If you completely block the light, the detector will read 100% opacity or 0.00% light return. Since the hydrometer will have a translucent coating INSIDE the tube, it will gradually increase the opacity as the hydrometer moves from high to low through the light path. The detector can be calibrated to produce an output signal from 0 to 10 volts DC from one end of the scale to the other based on the amount of light it receives from the LED. This 0 to 10 volt output can then be fed into an analog to digital converter which will produce a binary number based on the analog (0-10 volt DC) input it receives. The binary number can then be fed into an arduino which can be set up to trigger a specific output based on the number it reads. each output from the arduino can be used to trigger a specific digital recording with the associated proof reading in whatever language (English is my favorite) you choose to use. I would keep it kind of simple and only use proof increments of 5 to minimize the amount of readings and recordings needed. There are chips available that can hold 20 recordings up to 30 seconds long and each recording can be called up by triggering a specific input. You would have to use 2 of these chips to get voice recordings for every increment of 5 from 0 to 200 proof. Opacity monitors currently exist to measure how much smoke is coming out of a smoke stack and there are numerous labs across The US and Canada that can accurately tint the hydrometers with known standards. The actual letters showing the proof on the hydrometers would have to be removed because they would interfere with the light transmission. If you dont want to bother with starting from scratch, however, the system you are working on could be modified to work with the analog to digital converter system I described. Hope this helps, thanks for your dedication to helping (ALL of) us and good luck. Keep us posted!

[@rubberfish5836]

George, to measure the S.G constantly, simply put a cylinder on an arduino connected micro scale, output the data and calibrate it. You can then output this to a program to read the result at preset intervals.

[@vintnerwinemaker]

Looks like your getting close. My first thought is once you get it to speak repeatedly, Just use the button to connect the speaker circuit. When the button is pushed it speaks repeatedly and when it's not pushed it disconnects the speaker.

[@BarleyandHopsBrewing]

I had not thought about that. That seems like a better means instead of programming a button to turn on the voice. Thanks for that piece of valuable info. Truly genius.

[@mannye]

I stopped this right when you started to describe the distance sensor because you were about to go above my head... but I thought that if you could assign a tone to each reading, say 500 to 1000 Hz, then teach a Raspberry Pi to interpret those tones and play the corresponding voice prompt, you could solve the issue. so... 500 Hz is zero alcohol, 510 is 10%, 520 is 20% and so on... Keep in mind, that for managing a run, you don't really need pinpoint accuracy, you just need to know 170, 160, 150...etc etc down to 20%... because that's where most hobbyists are going to stop.

[@BarleyandHopsBrewing]

Very good point. My though is why stop at a beep when I can produce a voice? See where I am going with this. We did this with a controller so we are just taking it to the next level.

[@anthonybarra2391]

Good work George your a true gent. Great idea, sorry I’m no help though. I might of use a variable resister the type used in cars on accelerator pedal, attached it to the parrot and translated the change in resistance to the distance moved. But your idea is better.

[@Mezox13]

Connect it to a raspberypie and make an audio file for each %/proof point. Then program an if loop to run every 30 seconds. (something like if the latest reading is 1% play track 1 else if latest reading is 2% play track 2 else...) then plug the raspberrypie into his tv/computer speakers/sound bar/sound system via hdmi or auxiliary cable

[@blindguy63]

Hi everyone; I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas/Holiday! This is Mike here; the ordinary average blind guy in question. I’d like to thank all of you helping George figure this thing out. I’m sure there are a lot of the folks that helped George figure out the audible PID controller he flew out to me; who are now helping him out with this audible proof and tralle /parrot. I’m just so thankful for all of your comments, thoughts and well wishes. It means so much to me, I cannot express it with words. I’ve been blind for a little over 15 years now; due to type I diabetes; diabetic retinopathy. It was unbelievably tough to adjust to and I went through a lot of head games in the process; but whatever don’t kills you, makes you stronger. Once fully adjusted to my new vision loss; I came back with a vengeance. Through proper training: I’ve learned on my own how to do darn near everything I once did with sight, with zero sight. I first came across one of George’s videos; abouts 3 years ago. The man sure knows how to teach this fantastic craft! That’s what got me started and I told myself I’m gonna learn how to do this, and do it well. George honestly has to be the most giving person I have ever known. Now I might know a thing or three about home distillation, but every time I watch one of his new videos for beginners; I still learn something new! He has opened up my mind to try some many new different washes, mashes and pastas? To try. Once you truly understand the processes; the sky’s the limit. Kind of like graduating from Chef’s Training School, and hitting the ground running; creating wild new recipes and techniques, exciting you to go further and further. In closing I again want to thank all of you in our community that make this secret home hobby so very very special; Thanks big time!

[@colingrant321]

Someone suggested this channel to me, and I'm happy they did.

[@Oxman101]

@barleyandhops Could you build a theremin that changes tone when the hydrometer moves higher or lower? If so, you could measure the frequency of sound and have a receiver display the proof based on the sounds/signal received.

[@JesusisJesus]

George, can you get hold of a Genio sensor and hook that up to an arduino? I’m not exactly sure what you’re asking for help with here? Is it programming the arduino to speak? Easy solution might be to have it beep x number of times for each digit. Ie. “.........” short pause “...” would be 9 3 or 93%

[@HeartPumper]

Happy Birthday very soon!! 😉

[@realgenxscott]

Awesome work!

[@hacgarimman9660]

Using your concept, you could let the device tell you when it drops in proof when it happens. Or tell it to read out at say 5 min intervals

[@philiptruitt]

You're light years ahead of me! Awesome stuff George!!

[@U812GREEN]

Not much up on voice. But what if you did just a light break sensors at the top as the proof comes up and down at key points with variable tones, maybe 40%-95% then you calibrate by raising or lowering your sensor cluster because you know the spacing. Up side you can use any ABV hydrometer after a quick adjustment to your lowest setting. Just a thought. Just under $400 Stilldragon has what they call a electric parrot but it's only visual. Also maybe a Bluetooth voice module you could play to a bluetooth speaker.

[@kirkwasson7531]

George, If you have converted your reading down to 2 digits like 60% alcohol and are able to display those to the computer or display, can you write code to separate the 2 digits and beep a beeper the number of each digit (tens first then ones) with a short time in between? It could be programmed to beep every so many seconds or on request from the push of a button. I have done a little programming on the Ardinuo making temperature monitor and controller but nothing this tough. Good luck and thanks for all the great advice.

[@patazertyui]

Hi George, I find your project technically interesting, and so useful ! The comments are full of great ideas, I can't find better ones :-) I wish you and your community a merry Christmas.

[@flyingbeaver57]

Geprge. I'm an old, retired disabled electrical engineer - but - back in the early 1990's I was doing research work on cold-weather-starting vehicle engines running on pure alcohol. In northern Canada. As you might imagine, we had to come up with a lot of new and "unusual" instrumentation, much of which we designed outselves. Most of what was availale didn't work, because we were doing this right at the Arctic Circle, at -30 to -40 degree temperatures (-40C = -40F, BTW). One of the many problems we had was to determine the viscosity of the liquid fuel, and another was to determine its purity. We were experimenting with both pure methanol and pure ethanol, so the sensor(s) had to be able to handle both. Th good news is that we did find a reliable method. The second bit of good news was that one of the big auto companies made some pre-production prototype modules based on our chewing gum and bottle-cap devices that incorporated the principles. I doubt one of those could be found, but since we worked on the premise that, "simpler is better, stupid" and that it had to work even at 40 below, the end result was a neat little package. In the late 1990's both Chrysler and GM offered, for a few years, a car with a V6 engine than ran on pure alcohol. What we did became part of that end result - a project with contributions from government research funding, that was a colaborative project between university engineering geeks and industry researchers. We did the first 4 years of experiments outdoors, because although we had funding for building technology and paying staff, we didn't have a quarter-million bucks to build a cold chamber. Especially when we had the world's biggest cold chamber outside the lab door. (Yeah, Canada is weird, I know). That's the good news. It's been done. It would measure to within 1% the purity of the alcohol (and another gizmo could tell if it was methanol or ethanol. (we got both in truckloads of 200 litre drums as a by product from process streams of a couple of petro-chemical refineries - but that's another story). All the instrumentation and control went into a computer the size of half a loaf of bread - and this is 1992-1996, remember, and it was hand-made. Now, it's been a long time since I've see my box of black lab notebooks - hardcover with all the pages sewn in - but I'm pretty sure they didn't get tossed out. Also, we may have written that part of it up in a paper for the Institute of Electrical or Mechanical Engineers or something - I forget the details now. But the operating principle was not based on measuring distance to the top of a floating densitometer hooked up to an Arduino - Arduinos were far in the future, as was that style of reflectometer module - but it did use off-the-shelf parts where ever possible (we being naturally lazy and not wanting to re-invent the wheel, etc). So, if I can stir up the little grey cells and come up with the details of this 30-35 year old work (which was ultimately successful, BTW), there would be some kind of a doohickey that spit out the alcohol percentage as an electrical signal, and probably as a simple digital one (8-bit). I'll see if i can find out how we did this trick - the one thing I do remember off the bat is that it did not rely on a float, and the whole instrument wasn't very big. I know, satisfying as kissing your sister. But if we could build it and make it work in Yellowknife (look on the map) back then, it can probably be done more easily and for a lot less money now.

[@BarleyandHopsBrewing]

This is amazing. Please let me know what you find. I am all ears.

[@BeardedBored]

Pretty awesome! Really cool project George. I wish I was smart enough to help, but good luck on getting this solved:-) I was wondering, is there a way to rig up an ethanol sensor in the vapor path if you want to take readings from inside the still?

[@robertmountjoy5870]

I've built an Arduino type package (used an ESP32 - much more powerful and cheap as chips) for my Boka still. I realise the obvious benefit of using a parrot for a sighted person; it's simple and it works, but if you are not able to actually see the hydrometer I think it is such simpler to forget the parrot infer the proof that the parrot would measure from the vapour temperature at the take off point at the still head. I've done that. It need less hardware and it's easy to make a look up table of the well published curve by temperature to get the abv of that vapour when condensed. Am I missing something? Of course it still requires a vocalisation to provide the measurement to a sightless person, but I would use CryoPonics approach for. What you've done is excellent but I think more complex than is needed for the required measurement.

[@MarcBush]

Do you have your code in gitHub?

[@robertmountjoy5870]

@@MarcBush Marc, no I don't. My coding is miles away from elegant. It is not finalised yet, however all the sensors, calcs, routines etc are working so I'll just tidy it up a bit and add more comments when I have finished soldering the thing together and it is ready to install. If you're interested in the routines that infer abv of the offtake from the vapour pressure I'd be happy to send that.

[@arealcanadian419]

Hey George, When you change your program to convert mm to proof, could you also have it average the readings for say 2 seconds? Then just send only the one 2 second average reading to the serial monitor/output file. I’ve never worked with any of these components and haven’t programmed a thing in years. So I’m assuming a lot here like the boards will auto run the programs when they power up and that output file can be sent to the text to voice chip in a format that it can understand.

[@BarleyandHopsBrewing]

You are reading my mind/

[@hawke2325]

G'day George there are easier ways to measure the rise and fall of the hydrometer than attaching extra weight on top. Ultrasonic can be used but it may prove bulky. A Hall effect sensor maybe as well but blocking what would have to be even a tiny magnetic field on the other side could prove problematic. There are tons of solutions out there though especially using light interferometry where one side is the send the other side is receive and the hydrometer moving up will block signal so that it registers. I've been building an automation process and experimenting with it for different reasons. My solution which is a work in progress I can email to you as its not something I want as common knowledge just yet. Also you cat get most arduino iota things to convert text to speech without another board but that board may make life easier for you.

[@stefanshelenko4487]

A sufficiently accurate ultra sonic sensor may be able to measure the density of the liquid directly by measuring the echo attenuation? Or phase/frequency shift? Need alot more information than a 40 year old engineering degree allows for. Still I admire the goal, sufficient accuracy, containable costs, it is not a moon shot. Go George🖖👍👍

[@faircompetition1203]

An electric eye like from an alarm system that sets it off if the beam is broken . Just set it so the beam is broken when the Hydrometer rises it sets off . Have a couple set at different key heights . Should be all off the shelf stuff .

[@jasonmares5171]

George, Great work so far, I really think this may have more of a market than just your intended target audience. I know you have put a lot into in already, but I would recommend also adding a temperature sensor to this, and a formula in the programming to provide the temp corrected proof, as well as allow Mike access to the temp the distillate is coming off the still at, allowing him to make corrections to condenser cooling as well

[@stephenranti173]

George I watch your channel frequently. I wish I had the ability to help on this project what your doing with this project is just awesome!

[@BarleyandHopsBrewing]

Thanks Merry Christmas Happy Distilling George

[@MrJef1964]

Hi George , just hang it on a load cell and measure the weight , and convert the signal into a morse code like sound. you can measure very accurate on the milligram or otherwise in grains. you can break up the number like 1.05 in 1 , - , O , 5 so that would be : .. - . - ......

[@adiefender]

another idea for this is to switch some valves to switch between hearts and fients containers

[@4mikesutube]

Wow, what a neat project you are working on for Mike. I am sure you have thought of this but maybe your source is not available, but the person who helped out on the audible PID sounds like the go to person. Since you have the audible interface working on the PID, I would think tapping into that same logic input from your Arduino print command output would get you what you are looking for but I am just thinking out loud. This stuff is above my pay grade but have found that brainstorming with a group will normally produce a great idea and result. Look forward seeing what you come up with in the future. PS - I have worked with IR sensors in the past and instead of placing a red cap on the end of the T/P just paint the top of the glass to make it reflective for the sensor to see and eliminate the cap weight. But then again, it may be too small of a target and your flat cap has more surface area for the sensor to see if the T/P is bobbing around. 🎄Merry Christmas George!🎄

[@ryanpowell7748]

If you dont "need" speech you could use a piezo speaker for arduino, cut the sample rate and output a beep tone. ie. 1=beep 2=beep beep.

[@RyanAbrey]

I agree. Can even get more accurate. I.e 52% outputs 5xlong beep and 2xShort beeps. Or 75% beeps 7xLong beeps and 5xShort Beeps. Should work the same as the ones output on the arduino.

[@CascaFugioLonginus]

You are tracking well for off the shelf and limited tech resources, now you get to experience the joys of system integration at its finest. Good luck, it should work as you connect each one.

[@joeljes53]

the cycle rate seems to fast(17 times per second) to convert to an audible, I'm assuming an analog signal coming from the sensor to convert to audio so if you design the logic to capture the signal when a button is pushed then use that input to convert to the audio. Would that be accurate enough

[@kathym7495]

I know this project is probably wrapped up and delivered by now, 8 months out. I'm a retired embedded software engineer and this is awesome; I love your solution. Just want to say thanks for all your great videos. I am new to the hobby and am currently working on my first wash and your videos are the best. I would have recorded a series of .wav files with possible the readings and in a big case statement I would have called the appropriate .wav. This isn't as flexible as your text 2 speech module, but would have suited a limited number of readouts.

[@BarleyandHopsBrewing]

I actually did what you describe. I did not use text to speech. There is a individual wav files that are called up for the proof read out.

[@GarnettM]

Hi George using the Kiss method why can't use use a fuel sensor from a vehicle hook it up 12v safe all day he probably does brail anyway but the lift and lower of the hydrometer can have a micro wire or tap cover above that makes contact to sending unit to which either beeps or moves a guage put bumps on the guage he just feels it it's all theory anyways but simple

[@glleon80517]

George, it seems like your Time of Flight sensor has the hardware figured out. If the sensor outputs the value of the hydrometer tip distance, you can program a data array that contains the data points in the first column representing the output values of the sensor and the output text string in the other column. The program reads the array value, subtracts it from each data point in the first column looking for zero, then writes the text string in the corresponding second column to the text to speech module. Your programming language should let you declare an array. You need an enabling procedure that says “if read button is pressed then do speech”. Not sure what your level of programming expertise is but if you can find an Arduino hobbyist they can write the program easily and place it in a shared library for you. Good luck, great project!

[@BarleyandHopsBrewing]

Awesome. Thanks

[@LordLarryWho]

If you can get the data out of your code to a Mac you can just use the "say" command at the command line and it'll speak it. I'm just assuming that a person has a Mac. This is also possible with Linux and I'm sure somebody has made something for Windows by now too. What method(s) does your creation have for getting the data out of it?

[@LordLarryWho]

Does your device have TCP/IP capabilities or is it only serial capable? If it has any TCP/IP capabilities, I could write something to speak it on any major operating system.

[@jethrob258]

You are one awesome guy. Always going that extra mile. One thought, Will it require a sleeve or like a washer so it can't miss judge the reflection of the liquid vs the top of meter inside the black tube? Just thought. I'm sorry my electrical knowledge is not even close. Good luck I know you'll get it.

[@heavenhellspirits6723]

George I don't have any ideas. Everything you do is awesome. The controller you built me is still working good thank you. Hey have a good Christmas and a good New year. What I would like you to build for me would be automated heat controller.

[@howiesammons3048]

Hey George, for starters you’ll need to know the exact change in height across multiple proofs. Hopefully the difference won’t be much. With this you’ll need a variable for hydrometer height that updates about .5-1 seconds or more often if you want. Then you will need to subtract your height correction from your distance. Hopefully the proof marks a 1mm apart(makes this easy). You need the max and min distance from your sensor. To set your limits for a proportionate calculation if % and distance are linear. If not then a table search would be easier based on distance.

[@MrBillTroop73]

I had another thought... since alcohol weighs less than water, perhaps you could set the parrot on a talking scale. The conversion I found online is "English measure, a pint of water, for example, weighs 1 pound (actually, a fraction of an ounce over). A pint of alcohol, on the other hand, weighs only 0.79 pound. So a beer with an alcohol content of 3.2 percent by weight is actually 4 percent by volume. A beer that is 4 percent by weight is actually 5 percent by volume. To figure it out yourself, convert an alcohol-by-weight reading to its alcohol-by-volume equivalent by multiplying by 1.25. To convert an alcohol-by-volume reading to its alcohol-by-weight equivalent, multiply by 0.80. " I found a talking digital precision scale here... balance.balances.com/scales/461

[@silver-hy6mi]

Hell George you are so impressive, what a god loving thing to do for such a nice bloke! You are absolutely fantastic! And further more your use of metric is impressive! Unfortunately I can’t give anything on this I would have gone down the wrong track and used laser and LED’s. Good luck and give Mike our best wishes.

[@BarleyandHopsBrewing]

Thanks. I'll pass on your well wishes

[@Techyon]

To me I'm reading into this like a if else statement in a simple JavaScript line, If value = Greater than .001 Else less .002 Output line to generator; Print to text speech to text option in something as simple as a cell phone, tablet, laptop or any other windows, Linux, Android or iOS capable device.

[@EddieHarbinson-z7p]

George I think the best solution would be to use a topping measuring scale of wet whenever the parrot gets more alcohol. The stick raises out and turn where’s more and Valium try a scale. It’s Eddie Harbinson here give me a shout out. Thank you.

[@nonamelefttouse22]

Is there a way you can get with a company that makes hydrometers and have them make one with a magnetic strip in it similar to digital calipers and then have a readout device

[@HeartPumper]

Merry Christmas to you George! Awesome project! Yep you've almost all covered. My 0.02$ - if for some reason you have back to square one. Instead of IR sensor, maybe you'd try luck with ultrasonic sensors (like those used in car reversing buzzers / devices etc). Anyway, happy distilling!

[@rexmorgan72]

What programming language are you using? Do you just want the text to speech module? Is a computer interface a possibility? Are you simply wanting something that can be placed together with the audible PID that is stand-alone? Getting text to speech in some languages is much easier than others. I am not a novice but not an expert either at programming but I have been able to accomplish writing programs that have made work flow better and more efficient. Mainly I program in Python currently but have programmed in C++, some java, some html, some perl, some basic, etc.

[@lorenzonanni2639]

As a person with disability and one of your followers great thinkin

[@P38C50T]

Good On Ya George 👍 Merry Christmas to you and your family too. Cheers Pete

[@wiseguysoutdoors2954]

Is there a way to feed the data into the computer, so that it reads each imputed data audibly?

[@JBernhard72]

Pic16F should be able to handle that

[@ZMan3k]

It would speak a reading 17 times per second if it did every reading. He needs it to act on a button.

[@thecoldwarchannel8830]

Your cleaning tips and videos about the T-500 got me in to distilling. Since I'm a programmer/hardware developer by trade, I'm glad I can help! I see that sparkfun claims "accuracy is +/-5mm" which on my alcometer is at the high end is probably 2-3 proof, but at the low end maybe 5-10. I trust that's going to be sufficient? Also, for calibration, there are a couple things to consider. First, the temperature will have an effect, so if that's going to be an important consideration try adding an NTC 10k waterpoof temperature probe (thermistor) to further enhance the calibration capabilities (on amazon canada I see a 5 pack for about $15 CAD). Second, my alcometer has a logarithmic scale, so by adding 1.5g you'll have to take some care to track how that affects it using a fair number of data points including both extremes. Is it going to be a linear shift downwards in buoyancy? With the extra weigh, will the range be truncated (maybe it can only do 10-100% abv or 0-90)? For the audible part, if you haven't made the purchase yet, something like this could be an easy solution: www.instructables.com/id/MP3-Player-With-Arduino/ Simply store 201 audio files ("96 proof", "200 proof anhydrous ethanol", etc) with the voice and in the language of choice, then call them by making a string for the filename using the proof variable cast as an int ( "en96proof.mp3" ). You'll more or less want to have this: #include #include "SparkFun_VL53L1X.h" //define pins for sensors int calibrateWaterPin = 5; int calibrateVodkaPin = 9; int audibleButton = 10; int zeroProofMM = 300; int eightyProofMM = 200; //declare an array to help flatten out the curve by sampling the average over 2 seconds float mmReadings[34] = {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0}; float mmReading = 0; float proofValue = 0; int proofInt = 0; void setup(){ Wire.begin(); Serial.begin(9600); if (distanceSensor.init() == false) { Serial.println("Sensor online!"); } pinMode(calibrateWaterPin, INPUT); pinMode(calibrateVodkaPin, INPUT); pinMode(audibleButton, INPUT); } void loop(){ distanceSensor.startRanging(); //Write configuration bytes to initiate measurement int distance = distanceSensor.getDistance(); //Get the result of the measurement from the sensor distanceSensor.stopRanging(); //shift readings in array and find the average float sensorTally = 0; for(int i=1; i

[@BarleyandHopsBrewing]

WOW. This is great. Thank you so much.

[@jaghook]

Hi george,,,,, Just a thought,,,,,my metal detector will tell me what metals are in the dirt with different audible sounds. Could it be converted ! Is the hydrometer a vaccuum or does it have a gas or ordinary atmosphere.,,,,,could it be built with different metal rings for different audibles......i know i am flying off at a tangent into a spasmodic period of lunacy , but i think it will work if you could build your own hydro.

[@Handicapper_Gen]

I think that EMIC 2 board's overpriced for what it does, but honestly it's probably well worth it and the best solution for the simplicity it offers...I think you're going down the best path.

[@chuckdontknowdoya6100]

God bless you George let me know when you're coming to Florida would love to meet you. Going into my bat cave to see if I can help you out. I'm in Miami an know he's in Tampa four hours away but let me know if you're passing through.

[@looye29]

You said 2 important things: 1) You want audio at the moment you press button 2) You have module that converts text to speech Now you need to combine both of them. Make 2 variables: one that stores your proof value as integer and one variable that convert integer value of proof into string (which you will give this value to your text to speech module) You need to monitor input signal of you push button and put status in if statement. When you press the button if-statement will be triggered and value of proof in string will be given to text to speech module. The question is putting proof value only as audio output good or do you want add text "proof" that then text to speech will say. E.g "130" or "130 proof"

[@BarleyandHopsBrewing]

Awesome. Thanks

[@KevinCogill]

I think the ToF sensor is a great solution. I personally wouldn't overcomplicate things with a text to speech module. If all you really need is a number (from 0 to 200), then I'd just use a real simple Arduino setup with tiny audio files ("zero" through "nine" spoken) that played the appropriate 1 to 3 samples when a button was pushed. Much simpler logic and cheaper components. I'd be happy to help. I'm an R2/BB-8 builder (so I know a little bit of everything), but my speciality is programming (software developer for Apple & high end independent contracts). Where are you located?

[@BarleyandHopsBrewing]

I am in Texas. This is great. I am working on a similar resolution now. George

[@KevinCogill]

@@BarleyandHopsBrewing Alright. I do love Texas, but I'm in SoCal; a little too far to brainstorm over a beer. But happy to help with any programming questions anytime.

[@martyeuler2667]

hi George why not keep it simple something like a fuel sender in a car with a different tone for different proofs of alchohol threw some kind of a electronic board

[@dariusweezer2]

That is one amazing piece of equipment you're designing

[@492982]

Reach out to these people Tilt hydrometers tilthydrometer.com maybe they could make one for proofing. They have an app also. They would just need it to give the app audible capabilities. If not for anything else just use it for inspiration.

[@53packardclipper]

How about keep it simple with brail dots every 10 proof. Let it float gently between the fingers count the dots from the top and subtract

[@kevinfodge2707]

That may work, I'd be worried about issues with surface tension though, as I've heard even having fingerprints on the glass can affect the reading

[@Randy-ew1ku]

What about Brail on the alcohol meter

[@jpvoodoo5522]

First, it appears that the text to speech module gets its command through a terminal connection. You need a way to compile code that sends the commands directly. I don’t know enough about programming arduino. Alternatively, if you had some function which could play a set of files that says if Distance== 4 mm then play 130Proof.wav. The number of millimeters will probably change depending on the measurement device but the set of sound files would not need to change. He needs to hear “100 Proof” not X mm. I would concentrate on the audio problem first and let the measurement idea percolate. You are definitely on to something, but you need to be able to read the measurements and communicate with the text to speech or sound generator from the same code.

[@sixtyinsix]

Would you be able to adopt linear encoding in some fashion? Here's an example of the technology: www.linearmotiontips.com/where-are-glass-scale-linear-encoders-used/ Would there be some way of having an optical sensor read the graduations directly off the float? It would eliminate the extra weight and the re-calibration.

[@mattf9096]

What you're doing so far is out of my realm of knowledge. I wish I could contribute something to this process, but I have nothing. However, there is an existing product called a Tilt Hydrometer that sends real time readings to your cell phone. It's designed for fermentation and not distilling as far as i know, but it could be worth reaching out to them and seeing if its possible to make something happen.

[@riseaboveit3042]

Arduino wont get you to text to speech. What you need is a raspberry pi. You can either use the GPIO pis directly on the Pi or configure your Arduino to communicate with the Pi via serial or eth, (depending on the model you have) to send the sensor reading to the Pi. I would just scrap the Arduino, use the gpio on the Pi, and use a text to speech engine, here is an example of how you can get the pi to talk: www.dexterindustries.com/howto/make-your-raspberry-pi-speak/. You can do more with the Pi. To keep your work with the Arduino just send the data to the pi like this: maker.pro/raspberry-pi/tutorial/how-to-connect-and-interface-raspberry-pi-with-arduino See also, raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/67840/send-data-from-python-to-arduino-through-serial-port Hope that helps ya.

[@JasonBlack66]

put a rule on the side of it (the hydrometer) with horizontal bars placed at positions that represent certain values. so you might have 1mm, 2mm, 3mm lines etc, increasing by 1mm horizontally as the scale goes vertically up. Then, use a video camera/sensor connected to a microprocessor like Raspberry Pi (not sure if Arduino can take video sensor feeds), etc. of course you will need a good programmer to make code that takes those images from the video sensor and either tracks their motion or trans their change, etc. I prolly didn't explain that quite right coz I've had a few tonight. but hopefully, you get what I am trying to say. Sorry, George, I am a crappy slow, beginner programmer so I cant help with that. Anyway, good luck matey, I'm sure you will work it out. o7

[@markrutter2486]

Keep on going with the home brew george respect

[@stefanshelenko4487]

Ace work George, I am impressed. Sorry your request is beyond my usual bailwick. But I will ask around. So your question is, taking the raw data from the sensor to the Arduino? The data being numeric (integer) as opposed to a voltage signal. Best Regards, Stefan

[@BarleyandHopsBrewing]

Thanks for caring enough to reply. George

[@kerryb2689]

You're doing incredible. Here's some of my ideas, but I think yours are better. The liquid in the cylinder is displaced by the hydrometer, so you could actually measure the liquid level in the cylinder, but it won't be as accurate as what you're doing, so I like your idea better. You could use your cell phone to record the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, etc. into seperate wav files, then save those files into the prom of ARM System on a Chip (Arduino probably has something like this already) using a specific address for each number. (that's probably what the device you're looking at using does anyway). Then all it takes is a D/A converter (already built into the SOC) and amplifier, and speaker, and a small program that either samples the reading or averages it then spits out the numbers to reference the spoken number (files). (My original thought was to use the numbers to produce a series of beeps corresponding to the number- not sure how 0 would work.) The only other thing i can think of to do is send the data via bluetooth to a smartphone, but that would require an app and java programming ugh. Really, It sounds like you have it mostly figured out, so i'm not quite sure of what you're needing help with. I have been out of engineering too long. I know about Arduino, but no experience with it.

[@BarleyandHopsBrewing]

This is awesome. I am working on something similar now.

[@ryanpowell7748]

You could use a Raspberry pi +picam+opencv. It might be way simpler and cheaper in the end.

[@BarleyandHopsBrewing]

Thanks

[@ryanpowell7748]

No Problem :)

[@robertmountjoy5870]

Hey George, take a look at CrytoPonics comment below. That would be an easy to implement idea and give really nice clear information to a sight challenged person.

[@frankomand]

Downscal a floarunit from a gastank and convert resitance to data and then to audio

[@0ver7aker]

Use a ESP8266 with TTS (text to speech) Can also still use Arduino IDE

[@0ver7aker]

Probably won't be very pretty, but it will be enough

[@countryboycharlie9793]

Been busy got some catching up to do MERRY CHRISTMAS from or house to yours 🙏🎄🎁❤️🙏

[@Bigpete9000]

Why not make it 'simple' and go and get a lego mindstorm vision camera.. The same way they program robots to solve Rubik cubes based on colors or patterns of lines in a specific order (bar codes ) can be used for this .. you would need to customize the trail and proof but the camera can read it. Its the same concept that is used in food production quality control take a picture .. analyze the color or markings ..then give an audible result.

[@carlooosthuizen5455]

Good day George First I need to thank you. I'm a South African and all sales of alcohol is banned by our government. So thanks to your vidios i mannage to build my own distiller and currently producing my own alcohol. My only problem is I don't have a proof hydrometer so I have no idee what percentage of alcohol I'm producing and that is killing me. There is also no where I can buy in my country. Is there anny way of making! one that is somewhat accurate till my country opens up for international trade again. Regards Carlo

[@BarleyandHopsBrewing]

Not that I am aware of

[@BarleyandHopsBrewing]

I may research how to do this and if I find a way I will share it. George

[@azrielbaz]

I would look at the adafruit wave shield for ardunio. You could record all the proofs as a wave file and store them on the SD card, then look at your measurement in distance, convert that to a proof and tell the shield to play that recording. Here is the shield www.adafruit.com/product/94?gclid=CjwKCAiAluLvBRASEiwAAbX3GeFu1cxfnLomDNxpqHKf2wbZVZ04aRK3h5dJoHlAHG4VxEcLK1NTPhoCMWIQAvD_BwE

[@azrielbaz]

Also I am a software developer so if you need any help on the code just ask

[@BarleyandHopsBrewing]

awesome. Thanks

[@paulsons4287]

may be a way to tie it into a smart phone , text to audio and vise versa ,

[@clifbeam8505]

Hi George - Clif here again. Belay my last! I jumped on this too quickly. My system of opacity wont work because no all liquor will be clear. It will affect the transmission of light and give a bogus reading. My bad!

[@werner-de-jong]

would have been great to help on this one but I read that you solved the issue years ago :)

[@TheThorgoesinya]

I'm confused as to why you want to make it so technical??? is the Hydrometer staying in the SS tube? if so then take that red plastic cap off the top and mount a proxy switch (laser or mechanical) with a buzzer on the side of your PVC with a slider bar for adjustment and when the top of the Hydrometer hits the switch it closes the Nomanally open switch closed to power the buzzer! I made basically the same thing for my sump in the basement as an alarm when my pump would crap out so I wouldnt have wet carpet! cost me $6.00 at radio shack and $2.00 for a toilet bowl float from Ace Hardware. forgot how much the 9 volt battery was. $10.00 and no power needed. your welcome! lol. love the Vids Buddy

[@fourdeadinohio8303]

got to ask. did you calibrate computerized audio sensors for nuclear weapons when you were in the service?. edit....HVAC stuff... temp and pressure are related. cap the parrot with a pressure relief valve. measure the ABV by pressure and temp for a guide line. use a flow valve to measure the pressure and the correlation of the alcometer relevant to the liquid displacement in the parrot. how hard can it be??..lol

[@MrToothdrill]

You could use ethanol sensor (flex fuel etc) to eliminate parrot 🤔

[@BarleyandHopsBrewing]

Please explain more about this sensor. Sounds interesting and I am not aware of a sensor that does what I am attempting. George

[@RT-hl4uk]

@@BarleyandHopsBrewing Hey George - I'm not sure if you have this solved yet, but the car guys have a different approach with a flow thru sensor. I found a page that has the sensor specs zeitronix.com/Products/ECA/ECA2.shtml that doesn't solve the speech part tho...as I was looking I found a page with the Arduino for the digital display too www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/797848-DIY-Arduino-Ethanol-Content-Analyzer I hope this helps, I'll keep my ear to the ground on the audio output until I hear from you.

[@jameswhitfield5842]

George, I'm curious about your background. Were you a science teacher or something of that nature? Ether way you are my mentor. Thanks for everything.

[@BarleyandHopsBrewing]

No, just a retired military now hobbyist

[@richardbianco3193]

Sounds like you already have it figured out was looking forward to the challenge. You only need to add button, code to capture the press, and code to convert the number into whatever you want to say, and some sort of speaker. I'd help but would be better if I were there, don't have the same sensors. I'm hobbyist too, but IT is my profession for last 30 years, microprocessor programming has been a hobby. A real electrical engineer would have better ideas, though yours seems fine. Displaying the value on LED, LCD would be a lot easier, I could give you code that captures button press & code that displays value on screen, then you could incorporate into your arduino code, also LCD, LED are dirt cheap. Then you want to get your code directly to a chip versus arduino, unless you want keep it on arduino- which would be fine. I live in Florida also, will ping your email if we're close I'd be glad to help as I'm John Galt now & could use help getting started with distilling. My name is Rich B., you'll see my mail.

[@richardbianco3193]

If you have other microprocessor programming needs I'd like to earn a few bucks, & don't want work for corporate america anymore, not worth the six figures.

[@cryptoponics]

Rich, the guy he is designing this for is blind. His name is "Blind Mike." Anything to do with vision or "displaying values on LED LCD's are out the window for "Blind Mike". Good to hear that you are going Galt

[@irondoger]

Talking parrot? Really doesn’t sound like it should be to hard for you 😂 George, making the world a better place for everyone one day at a time. Thank you 🙏

[@cracker3033]

Couldn’t use a PDC sensor from a car Calibration data log in distance

[@DotanBrand]

You can translate the output of the Arduino to speech through windows, osx or even linux. I can help. Let me know and I'll give you a call. Marry xmas indeed!

[@BarleyandHopsBrewing]

That would be great.

[@timhodges622]

Reduce the sample rate off of com4 to say once every 15 seconds or 30, feed the output from the serial port directly to the text to speech card you have. Probably want that sample rate configurable, too often would drive anyone crazy. Or average the samples you are getting from com4 down to only outputting every minute or so.

[@owiebooboo6097]

In Bradenton.... Send me what board you got “text to speech” wise and Ill look at the packages... in short you need to write a call that checks the proof number and if it changes announce it. I’m assuming the big lifting is already done by the board designers so its not hard to just have it state the proof. (You need to figure/measure your signal to proof) I can help with the SW to do the call and help you vocalize it... if your in tampa I can bop up too

[@owiebooboo6097]

Me [e-mail]

[@tannerfaulkner3216]

Agreed. This COULD be done via Arduino (probably using the Talkie library github.com/adafruit/Talkie) but... That's pushing it in my opinion, and I feel it could quickly expand outside of the Arduino's capabilities (or at least, what it's easily capable of doing). Were it my project, I'd either look at using a laptop OR just adding a cheap Raspberry Pi and simply piping the data to that somehow. From there you could do anything. Might be worth turning in to a community project on GitHub?

[@michaelsmith1675]

Senor to Tone Generator to speech mod