Roaster Automation - Drum Roaster

#1: Post by **blondica73** » June 1st, 2023, 7:54 pm

Hi all,

I've looked at this thread Huky Gas Automation and tried to see I could use it with my BC 5 roaster. However, the Python code is from a different version, and after updating it, I can't seem to have my Python code talk to the Arduino board. Any help would be great.
When running the "arduinoCommunicator.py" file I see this message:

Arduino Uno (COM5) found at COM5
Pipe open for data from Artisan...

Then I run the "artisanprog.py GAS 50" to set the gas to 50 to check that Arduino sees the message; however, it gets stuck with

Sending data to arduino...

and I never receive the "Data sent" message

June 1st, 2023, 9:40 pm

Here's a screenshot of the buttons, which I don't think they work.

June 2nd, 2023, 10:48 am

it appears that the call command for the python file does not seem to work as nothing happens when I push that button. Any suggestions?

June 2nd, 2023, 3:06 pm

Thank you to @Brewzologist, who helped me troubleshoot the code. I needed to downgrade Python to 2.7 so that the code works.
I'll report as I make progress in the next few weeks.

June 3rd, 2023, 4:43 pm

I have a question about sliders in Artisan: I use the Python routine to send button commands to the Arduino board where I specify the value; see my screenshot above. How could I use the sliders portion to do a similar thing? Meaning, as I move the slider, a new value to be passed to the Python routine?

June 5th, 2023, 2:25 pm

My first attempt to roast using this setup failed miserably. Delta BT kept switching between 0 and a high value, see below.
Please keep in mind that this is a drum roaster.
Any suggestions?

Here's my PID setup

my curves set up

#7: Post by **Jeff** » June 5th, 2023, 2:50 pm

I'm not sure what all the lines are, but I would check the raw data for evidence of noise, either introduced or quantization. If a data series is "sticky" compared to the differencing interval, it would show "0" delta and then a large magnitude value as it stepped up/down to the next sticky value.

---

If https://github.com/phil-nelson/hukyroas ... nicator.py is the source, that shouldn't be too hard to port to Python 3 -- \'print\' is a function rather than a keyword and you probably have to convert to/from bytes rather than strings.

June 5th, 2023, 3:08 pm

Thank you, Jeff.

The source is from the Huky Gas Automation blog listed in the first post, and I tried porting to Python 3 but could not make it work. I ended up using Python 2.7, and that worked and I could create buttons and sliders, and I could manually open and close the gas valve.
I also checked the thermocouple noise and is fairly stable. It does appear that the data series is sticky; however, I don't know how to "unstick" it.

June 5th, 2023, 5:15 pm

Jeff wrote:I'm not sure what all the lines are, but I would check the raw data for evidence of noise, either introduced or quantization. If a data series is "sticky" compared to the differencing interval, it would show "0" delta and then a large magnitude value as it stepped up/down to the next sticky value.

---

If https://github.com/phil-nelson/hukyroas ... nicator.py is the source, that shouldn't be too hard to port to Python 3 -- \'print\' is a function rather than a keyword and you probably have to convert to/from bytes rather than strings.

My temperature readings in Artisan seem to lag behind the roaster's OMRON readings for ET and BT and get an update once every few seconds; I'm connected via Bluetooth. I don't know if that is an issue.

June 5th, 2023, 6:00 pm

I recall in some discussion that Bluetooth is slower. You might want to ask this on the GitHub Discussion site.