Introduction

Suggestions, Problems, Availability, etc. Everything is up for discussion.
captainbigdude
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Introduction

Post by captainbigdude »

Hi,
My name is Gregg and I'm the father (mechanical Engineer) of an all grain homebrewer, Keith, who is currently out on a 700 ft articulated tug barge which hauls crude. He works 3 weeks on and then has 3 off. His dream is to open a Farm Brewery in upstate NY on his time off. There is a law that makes it a little easier to be licensed if you use NYS ingredients, although it still takes about a year. Anyway, we are currently building his home brewery to be as close to the (very small) commercial one he plans on starting with. I am purchasing things so we can put it together when he gets off. I just purchased a BCS-460. I considered the 462.

I'll be honest, being a mechanical engineer, I'm the most afraid of just getting the BCS hooked into the wireless network. I'm very ignorant of computer Ip addresses etc as I've always had IT help wherever I've worked and frankly it doesn't interest me. So, when I read all the discussions, I'm afraid I don't even know enough for them to make sense to me. " Oh just make your IP 80, 8080 and then send it to the .........WTF?

Is there a discussion that someone can point me to that tells me exactly what to buy and step by step what to do to get hooked up? Of course I've read the stuff on the BCS site. It doesn't make sense to me. I feel that the people discussing it don't know what they know. In other words (there's a funny skit on SNL about it), people that know this stuff assume that EVERYONE knows what an IP address is (I sort of know), How to access it and change it (no idea on that). I'm not stupid, but I need to find a lower level discussion of hooking up. I don't want to direct connect, I want to be networked.

I'm thinking (hoping) that I won't have as much trouble controlling as I do hooking up. At least I understand that to a degree and had a course in Controls 30 years ago. No course in wireless networking, we were programming in Fortran on punch cards, ha. Seriously.
JonW
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Re: Introduction

Post by JonW »

Welcome Gregg,

Hooking up the BCS can be as simple as plugging it in to your router and using the Finder app to locate it on the network. That's what 99% of the users do and it's very straight forward. Most of the problems we see are because people want to customize the network settings and often make choices in those settings that are incompatible with their home networks.

You're asking what to buy to make this work and said you want it "hooked into the wireless network", but given your networking level, I'd suggest trying to stay hardwired. The BCS is not a wireless device, so if you really do want to be wireless, you will need a wireless bridge (a device that allows hard-wired ethernet devices to connect to your wireless network). I would suggest that you not go wireless and just plug it into your router if at all possible. Places like Monoprice sell cheap network cables that you could run 100' if needed. There are also devices called "Powerline Ethernet Adapters" that would allow you to plug a module into the powerline and connect it to your router, then you go to where your BCS is located and plug in the other adapter to the powerline and BCS to complete the link.

The above two options would require zero configuration to use. If you want to go the wireless bridge route, then there are configuration settings you'd have to do on whatever device you buy to make it work with your wireless network. However, I really don't suggest these devices for non-networking people.
captainbigdude
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Re: Introduction

Post by captainbigdude »

Jon,
Thank you and don't worry, I'm going to take your advice on hardwiring. I just wanted to be on the line (ha) and not just plugged into a computer. Gregg
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Viejo
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Re: Introduction

Post by Viejo »

I'm having groundhog day troubles, two years after initially setting up my BCS-462. Like Gregg, I'm no IT guy, so most of the tutorial is over my head, but I was able to connect the BCS to my home wifi eventually the first time around, and I'm determined to do it again, if just to monitor temperatures, which is all I could get it to do before.

I'm using a set of Netgear Powerline 500 extenders, one on the router, and one on the BCS. I've tried locating the BCS's address using the BCS finder utility, but no address appears, after several attempts and several refreshes. What the heck am I doing wrong?!?

Some day, if I ever get this thing to work again, I might ask for help to do some more complicated things like turn on a burner or a pump. I built a panel wired with SSRs to do both, but they have never worked.

Thanks for any help you can give me.
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Viejo
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Re: Introduction

Post by Viejo »

I forgot to say that the reason my BCS stopped working is because I changed Internet service providers, from Verizon FiOS to Comcast. Somehow, I'm sure that's relevant.

Thanks.
JonW
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Re: Introduction

Post by JonW »

Viejo wrote:I forgot to say that the reason my BCS stopped working is because I changed Internet service providers, from Verizon FiOS to Comcast. Somehow, I'm sure that's relevant.

Thanks.
Can you look in the router config to see what devices it has allocated DHCP addresses to? Your BCS should be listed there. If it isn't, then something might be wrong with your powerline adapters.

When it was working, did you assign it a static IP address? If so, it's possible that it's not on the same subnet as your new router is configured for.
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Viejo
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Re: Introduction

Post by Viejo »

How do I look at the router config?
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Viejo
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Re: Introduction

Post by Viejo »

BTW, I also connected the BCS directly to the router with a long ethernet cord, but nothing showed up that way either.
brahn
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Re: Introduction

Post by brahn »

There are a lot of possible things going on here. What's the make/model number of the router?

Did you configure the BCS to have a static ip address before? Like Jon said, that could very well be the problem. You could try resetting the BCS to defaults by holding the reset button down for 15s (make sure the BCS is plugged in). You will lose any configuration/states/etc unless you backed them up before when you set it up.

How did you try to find the BCS? If you're looking for the same IP address it had before that may have changed. Did you try BCS Finder?
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Viejo
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Re: Introduction

Post by Viejo »

The router is from Comcast, Arris model TG862G/CT. The guy who helped me set it up on the prior network says he used dydns (I don't know what that means) which didn't require a static IP. I'm using the BCS finder tool on the wiki, but nothing shows up any way I test. I have tried connecting both the BCS and the laptop directly into the router, as suggested by Derrin at Brewers Hardware, then looking for the BCS address, but no-go that way either.

Is nobody else having the trouble I'm having with this thing? I've wasted so much time trying to get it to do stuff, but at best, I've only been able to get it to monitor temps. I hate that I have to be an IT expert to use it. I just want to brew beer!
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