ECC Forum

Is there an existing effort to build a Windows 8 modern/touch friendly app... if not, anyone interested in working on one? I am thinking HTML5/JS so it is portable to other platforms or as a website. Initially thinking mostly just temp gauges and alarms (in other words, a dashboard), but eventually growing into some config/control (manually setting HLT temp, steps, etc.)

would be nice to have a remote view of what is going on in addition to displaying it on screens in my bar in a simplified view with big gauges.

let me know if anyone is already doing this...or if anyone is interested in working on it.

thanks,
eric

JonW's app is the closest thing, I had considered building a native win8 "metro" app but laziness has thus far kept me from seeing it through. I think I had read about some API and UI changes in the next major firmware release so, so it may be worth finding out the status of that too.

There are major API changes on the way that should make developing for the BCS a much better experience. Most of the API is complete at this point, but we've got a lot left to do on the interface. Recently I've been trying to track down some bugs in the I2C code on 3.7.0, but I think I'm finally almost done with that and can get back to working on 4.0.

brahn wrote:There are major API changes on the way that should make developing for the BCS a much better experience. Most of the API is complete at this point, but we've got a lot left to do on the interface. Recently I've been trying to track down some bugs in the I2C code on 3.7.0, but I think I'm finally almost done with that and can get back to working on 4.0.

Cool, sounds exciting! Maybe the time for us to collaborate on a Win 8 native app is after the 4.0 beta/release. I still want to make something iOS based too, the existing iOS app (BrewBuddy) is desparately out of date.

I'm interested in prototyping a UI design for a Windows 8 application. I have an idea on how a custom application would work for me, but could use your help. If you had a wish list of things this application would do, what would they be?

For me, the most important things would be touch screen process display and control (much like what JonW has done with his GUI, just refactored in Win8 style), and BeerSmith2 recipe loading for mash profile, times and temps, and hop additions. The latter is sort of a tall order, since every BCS process configuration is different. These two combined is the ideal process automation to me. Other stuff that would be nice is basic brewery fermenter, keg and tap management and on tap listings since I also use my Win8 tablet for tap display when I'm not brewing. I currently use RaspberryPints for that though.

I'm starting to understand how much of my interface is tied to my system and the type of brewing that I normally do.

I'm up to hundreds of user stories. Perhaps I'll start with an interface that works for me and then see where it goes.

I've got my BCS panel ordered and starting design work on the Windows 8 app.

Is there a mock BCS system hosted somewhere that you can make test API calls to?

Yes, demo.embeddedcc.com is available, but it is running 3.7. In all honesty, I would not use the 3.7 API since the 4.0 is so much better. A public 4.0 beta will be out very soon and you should use that.