What started out as a fascination around the 901p vacuum sensor, thanks to @gonzo and @JacobsLadder, has got me thinking large scale for the open source community as a whole. Its still very much a work in progress but the idea is to grow an open source hardware and software initiative around the space here at Future.
I’m a bit of an eccentric person😁 with a background in hardware and software design. I’m the type of person that looks to buy products that I can grow as my skill sets grow. Anyway, I was in the market for a new vacuum monitor and happened upon this post:
Hours of digging, coding and building only to end up with something that looks like this:
Now despite its looks (horrendous I know), the idea is a hub based distillation monitor/controller utilizing pluggable sensors. My current prototype only monitors vacuum via 901p sensor and temperature via pt100 temp sensor (which will be replaced with a real probe). Another temp sensor will be added so I can monitor both head and condenser temps. The plan is to get into the mantel next for monitoring and controlling heat.
Now here comes the real beauty:
The software was written to make adding a new connected lab device quick and easy. The above is the example code for my distillation monitor prototype. This is an Arduino library; at this time it only supports ESP32 based chipsets but that will expand as I try new hardware. I choose esp32 based chipset because of the built-in connectivity (wifi/ble) and I’m on a feather platform kick currently. Why does your spd need wifi? Why not?
The software hub utilizes an easy to use website that will expand as new devices are added. In fact you can add new “modules” to your connected lab without actually adding a new device. Here I have an example of concentration calculator that I personally use to mix up carts.
My goals going forward are to make the source code and hardware designs open and available to iterate on. I would like to spend a little more time cleaning up the software and building a full hardware prototype with 3d printed case design and full printable eagle circuits if anyone is interested. I have access to 3d printer, miller, and circuit printer (Voltera) so I could even manufacture small hardware runs.
My ask to the community as a whole; if there is interest, what would you like to see as an MVP? The faster I can get this out to you the faster we can all build off of it. I’m thinking of taking the existing functionality and simply buttoning it all up as the best option. Thoughts?
