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TC4 Artisan 311 and PID I2C LCD help
ACEMBL
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Posted on 04/26/2021 12:01 PM
Afternoon All,

I've been using a TC4Plus and a couple of pimped poppers for a year plus now. Currently I'm using aArtisan Q_PID, mainly because it accommodates the replacement 20x4 LCD I installed. I'd quite like to go back to 3.11 (or newer?) but it doesn't play nice with the 'cheap Chinese' type of display. I've spent the last couple of hours trying to adjust the code but I have to admit defeat. I can do the Hello World coding and Newliquidcrystal libraries etc but get lost in user.h and aArtisan.ino

Is 3.11 the most up-to-date version?
If so, is there a version that works with my display?
Can anyone suggest a really simple step by step guide to modifying 3.11

The display is a 20x4 0x3F
 
ACEMBL
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Posted on 04/26/2021 12:40 PM
Somehow, it's working! I have to admit to being a little confused as to what did it. I've been swapping between two arduino boards through the day.

I'd still like to know whether there's an update out there.
 
greencardigan
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Posted on 04/27/2021 12:48 AM
That's great you got it working, but I don't think you gain anything by going back to aArtisan 3.11. Was there a reason you wanted to switch back?
 
ACEMBL
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Posted on 04/27/2021 2:58 AM
I?m using three thermocouples, one just before the inlet, one bean mass and one exhaust. 3.11 shows them on the display. I have also been having some issues with the PID/graphs in Artisan that I wanted to pin down and so wanted to see all the temperature measurements as they change coming out of the Arduino.

With sampling set to 1s I?ve been getting an odd stepping of the heat graph. It seems to pulse every second stepping by 2 on the heater slider and two?ish celsius on the graph. Also, the temperature display on the laptop has been changing every two and not showing the stepping? The RoR graph is crazy!

So, I wanted to rule out any issue with Arduino by running both 3.11 and Q_PID on different roasts.

I?ve found an old Windows laptop and installed Artisan on that so will hopefully identify whether it?s in the application. I use an old Mac usually and it won?t update past 2.4 so I will run a newer version and see if the issue goes away. Oddly, after dry end is clicked it seems to lessen - but that might be a red herring as the RoR starts to back off.

So that will be at least 4 roasts - let?s hope they?re drinkable.

I?ve also been getting some pretty nasty spiking on the graphs - some days nothing and others six or seven followed by the Arduino crashing. I admit I was using Bluetooth so am now fully connected by cable.
 
renatoa
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Posted on 04/27/2021 3:05 AM
You can capture the TC4 out in Artisan from Serial window, then analyse/plot the values in another tool like excel.
I never had a look in 3.11 but I can't imagine what could led to such different behaviour other than a complete different filtering of samples. Or maybe 3.11 don't handle on Artisan FILT command...
If not clarified until the weekend, I can do a diff 3.11 vs 6.8 and find what are the differences in signal processing.
 
ACEMBL
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Posted on 04/27/2021 8:17 AM
OK, a bit of an update. I?ve had a few more spikes and some success.
It seems the supply voltage to the shield and Arduino board has an affect.
All today?s roasts have been connected via USB so no Bluetooth interference. I?m using the standard style brushed 24v DC motor controlled through the DC PWM controller on the TC4+

First I did a 140g roast with the power supply at 27V and got lots of spikes then another 90g at 24V and no issue. Then a third swapping from 3.1 to Q_PID and again no issue.

So next was to recheck the current draw by the motor and it Max?s 1.7A at 27V so that shouldn?t be a problem. I did a surface temperature on both the MOSFET and switching regulator and both are sub 30C under full load. There?s a fly back diode across the terminals of the motor so there shouldn?t be any back voltage.

There still seems to be a fair amount of heater jiggling (pulsing by 4% up to about Dry) The RoR on the Arduino display seems a lot more stable so must be filtering a fair amount. I have seen the temperature spikes on the arduino display so am now working on the assumption it?s not Artisan. I might try controlling the motor independently and powering the board by a 12V supply to see if that clears any hidden issues.

I really want to concentrate on the new ?bigger? roaster but feel I need to understand and solve this one to improve my knowledge - especially of all the acronyms!
 
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