“New 3rd generation Particle hardware is here, and there’s a lot to love. I have an old, Photon-based project that I’ve been itching to update and add a few new features to, so I decided to see just how easy it would be to migrate a Photon-based project to the new Argon, hardware, firmware, and all.
In addition to this post, you can also go behind the scenes with this build in a series of Twitch live streams I’ve recorded and posted to YouTube over the last several weeks. Here’s how I did it.
INTRODUCING THE BREW BUDDY
I’m a home brewer, which is no surprise given that I live in Austin, TX. Not only is homebrewing common in these parts, but every Austin area household must have at least one homebrewer in order to claim city residence.
That last statement is not true, but it should be.
I’ve been homebrewing for about eight years, and I’m drawn to it for the same reason many are: not so much for the end product but the process and chemistry of it all. As with cooking and baking, it’s fascinating to take discrete ingredients and—by alchemy—transform them into something enjoyable.
CURRENT BREW BUDDY SPECS
As a techie and maker, it should come as no surprise that I’ve explored ways to incorporate technology into my brewing. One example is the Brew Buddy, a connected homebrew monitoring system that tracks wort—the pre-beer mixture of water, grains, malt, and hops — temperatures during the cooking stage of the brewing process. The current version of the project includes:
A Particle Photon as the brains of the project
One Type-K Thermocouple for measuring wort temperature
A 2.2 in TFT display for showing temperature readings and a historical temperature graph
A custom PCB designed in Eagle and fabricated by the fine folks at OSH Park”