-
|
I have installed Fermentrack on a laptop running Ubuntu 20.04. Everything works, except the bluetooth dongle I had isn't strong enough to reliably read the tilt hydrometer in my fermentation chamber. I found a new (stronger) bluetooth dongle, which required downloading a driver. It works fine in Ubuntu, but Fermentrack doesn't seem to get any results, even when I place it on right top of the fermentor. This leads me to believe Fermentrack doesn't have access to the new driver. Is there a way to get Fermentrack (or docker) to run with an added bluetooth driver on Ubuntu? |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
Replies: 2 comments 17 replies
-
|
What dongle (and what driver)? |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
If it's any help, here's another location of a version of the driver. It's a different file size from the other driver I linked to, but I can confirm it works. https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/rtl8761b-fw/ |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
I feel a bit embarrassed, but somehow, the bluetooth dongle seems to be working now! I don't know what (if anything) changed. I spent a little time reinstalling Fermentrack and playing around with Docker today, but I can't point to anything I did that would have solved the problem. If I unplug the dongle and plug it back in, it doesn't work with Fermentrack until I restart the computer (it works plug-and-play with everything else in Ubuntu, however). So I guess the problem is solved? Maybe I made it up in my head? : / Thank you so much for taking the time to look into this issue. And thank you for taking the time to write this software in the first place! I'm looking forward to using it over the next few days. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
I suppose it’s possible that when I reinstalled Fermentrack, something (Docker?) detected the Bluetooth driver (which wasn’t on the computer when I first installed Fermentrack). |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
What you experienced makes sense - it sounds like the drivers need to be loaded in the base OS before Docker loads the Fermentrack container. Restarting the Pi accomplishes this - as does reinstalling Fermentrack. If you have any further issues, you may be able to edit Fermentrack's docker-compose.yml file to map your driver into the container, but I would avoid this unless necessary. No reason to modify things if they work without change! |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
If the usb dongle is unplugged for any reason (or if the computer goes to sleep), Fermentrack stops recognizing the dongle until the computer restarts, but I also found that running "docker-compose down; docker-compose up -d" from the "fermentrack-tools" directory gets it working again. I'm posting that just so anyone else in a similar situation will see. I agree - no need to modify things if they're working! |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
I know you've already bought the BLE dongle, but have you looked at TiltBridge as a potentially better solution? It's a little less expensive (not sure if you can return what you have) and I assume easier to get working than what you are going through now. There's are also some additional capabilities you may enjoy. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Thanks for the link! Yes, I think my “spend as little as possible” mindset has been overactive since shelling out $140 for the Tilt. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
lbussy - I ended up buying one of the TTGO ESP32s that you linked to, but whenever I try to connect via USB to flash it, I get Connecting......................................_____ I tried multiple cables, holding down different combinations of buttons, and nothing has worked. Alas, <15 minutes is now pushing a couple hours... Any advice? |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Never mind. I got it to work through Fermentrack. :-) |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
If you have any issues whatsoever, let me know. TiltBridge was made for Fermentrack, after all. ;) |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
For what it's worth (and in case anyone else sees this!) Macs require a driver to be able to recognize the serial-to-USB chips on some ESP32 (and ESP8266) boards. That driver is included in the linux distribution that most Raspberry Pis run, hence why they work with Fermentrack but not on Macs out of the box. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
What dongle (and what driver)?