Comments on BCS 4.0 public beta 3
Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2015 1:41 pm
I’ve been enjoying 4.0 beta 3 for a few weeks during the commissioning of my new-build electric HERMS. This has a BCS-462 running a semi-automated three-keg system (3 Chuggers, HLT and BK heating and several 12 volt ball and solenoid valves; I have 4 floats controlling levels for 5 and 10 gallon batches). My early trials have thrown up a few questions / issues. Maybe these are naïve or already covered in the forum - so regrets for any cross-posts. Overall, the BCS is a great development; IMHO 4.0 adds much to the BCS’s ease of use. I particularly like the fact that the system is both intuitive and flexible, lending itself to skinning the cat in ever more intricate ways once you get into the system.
My comments/issues (in no particular order and mainly minor niggles under the circs) :
1. I can’t see how to set up an overall system timer which runs across all processes from start to finish.
2. Programming exit conditions in some processes seems to have glitches which I think have already been reported. In my case, process 2 state 1 (and some others) sometimes has blanks entries and/or will not accept a next state. I think I saw a work-around (by flipping into timers and then out again ??) but assume this is something you’re working on for the final version.
3. I’d like to be able to reorder states and move them ‘up’ or ‘down’ within processes, and processes within the overall system. This view is a function of how I approached programming. Now I’ve worked up some nice 5 and 10 gallon variants, many of my states are confusingly shown in the wrong order. Either perhaps they should reorder themselves depending on mutual exit condition parameters or there could be some drag and drop facility to move them up or down in the order shown.
4. I have several floats (as DINs) which don’t reset themselves following a system stop which has resulted in a couple of floods argh! The only way to deal with this as far as I can see is to manually flip each float before starting.
5. The title of the system or recipe could be a usual addition to the main screen so you know (or can simply check) which one you’re in.
6. Is there any demand of off-line programming? On many occasions when my BCS is switched off or remote, I’d have liked to sit in front of my laptop and get on with designs…
7. I have a few points on the Recipe Utility. I can’t find much in the forum on this or on how it’s supposed to work. However, although clunky it’s obviously potentially useful for storing sets of variables parameters say for 5 gallon and 10 gallon variants or for single and multi-step mashes, etc. Some issues: maybe I’m using this incorrectly (and it’s difficult to systematically document repeatable glitches…so I haven’t!!), but I’m generally finding that backing up one recipe messes up the variable setup in the other (e.g. blanks, temp changed to times). A further hard to explain issue is that under certain circumstances, I can only change [Celcius] values to integers under Recipe Values - it won’t accept any decimal points. The integer values are then reflected in the BCS program (e.g. 66.7 input in the Recipe Values truncates to 66 which renders as 66 in the BCS). This is weird because if I go into the BCS process editor and change (say) all instances of mash-temp to 66.7 C, the Recipe Value does then show the correct value (66.7 C). Do input values in the BCS determine the Recipe Value or vice versa? If the latter, how can I turn it off?
8. Maybe related to this (??) is the fact that when I edit some of the temps in the BCS process editor I can sometimes see either a red box or a blue box – what do these mean as I Can’t see a logical link with the recipe utility. OK, I guess this is still a work in progress but at least I’d like to understand some more about the recipe functionality.
9. Finally, when I switched on today my BCS had reverted to an unprogrammed status (Firmware 4 but no process/state defined and temps back to Fahrenheit, etc.). Restoring the files worked fine and all is working great, but that inexplicable loss was a bit worrying.
Apologies for all this, but hope it might be useful and I’d appreciate any feedback.
My comments/issues (in no particular order and mainly minor niggles under the circs) :
1. I can’t see how to set up an overall system timer which runs across all processes from start to finish.
2. Programming exit conditions in some processes seems to have glitches which I think have already been reported. In my case, process 2 state 1 (and some others) sometimes has blanks entries and/or will not accept a next state. I think I saw a work-around (by flipping into timers and then out again ??) but assume this is something you’re working on for the final version.
3. I’d like to be able to reorder states and move them ‘up’ or ‘down’ within processes, and processes within the overall system. This view is a function of how I approached programming. Now I’ve worked up some nice 5 and 10 gallon variants, many of my states are confusingly shown in the wrong order. Either perhaps they should reorder themselves depending on mutual exit condition parameters or there could be some drag and drop facility to move them up or down in the order shown.
4. I have several floats (as DINs) which don’t reset themselves following a system stop which has resulted in a couple of floods argh! The only way to deal with this as far as I can see is to manually flip each float before starting.
5. The title of the system or recipe could be a usual addition to the main screen so you know (or can simply check) which one you’re in.
6. Is there any demand of off-line programming? On many occasions when my BCS is switched off or remote, I’d have liked to sit in front of my laptop and get on with designs…
7. I have a few points on the Recipe Utility. I can’t find much in the forum on this or on how it’s supposed to work. However, although clunky it’s obviously potentially useful for storing sets of variables parameters say for 5 gallon and 10 gallon variants or for single and multi-step mashes, etc. Some issues: maybe I’m using this incorrectly (and it’s difficult to systematically document repeatable glitches…so I haven’t!!), but I’m generally finding that backing up one recipe messes up the variable setup in the other (e.g. blanks, temp changed to times). A further hard to explain issue is that under certain circumstances, I can only change [Celcius] values to integers under Recipe Values - it won’t accept any decimal points. The integer values are then reflected in the BCS program (e.g. 66.7 input in the Recipe Values truncates to 66 which renders as 66 in the BCS). This is weird because if I go into the BCS process editor and change (say) all instances of mash-temp to 66.7 C, the Recipe Value does then show the correct value (66.7 C). Do input values in the BCS determine the Recipe Value or vice versa? If the latter, how can I turn it off?
8. Maybe related to this (??) is the fact that when I edit some of the temps in the BCS process editor I can sometimes see either a red box or a blue box – what do these mean as I Can’t see a logical link with the recipe utility. OK, I guess this is still a work in progress but at least I’d like to understand some more about the recipe functionality.
9. Finally, when I switched on today my BCS had reverted to an unprogrammed status (Firmware 4 but no process/state defined and temps back to Fahrenheit, etc.). Restoring the files worked fine and all is working great, but that inexplicable loss was a bit worrying.
Apologies for all this, but hope it might be useful and I’d appreciate any feedback.