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I did something similar, but with just a webcam and a laptop, and instead of beer it was mead. Basically, I pointed the webcam at the air lock, which produced a
by monstrado 14y ago
I did something similar, but with just a webcam and a laptop, and instead of beer it was mead. Basically, I pointed the webcam at the air lock, which produced a bubble every 15-30 seconds (depending on the fermentation process). I wrote a small Python program using PIL which processed webcam frames and detected sudden changes in the image (a bubble). Each time a bubble was detected, it would write an entry to a database (date, time_delta_from_last_bubble).
This was really cool when I went out of town because I could login and see the delta between bubbles gradually increasing, and once I saw it sitting at 40-50 seconds between bubbles for a day or so, I bottled it.
- gavinlynch 14y agoNice! :) Although I have to interject: Air-lock activity is not always a great indicator of the fermentation process. You can have active fermentation without bubbling, so it's always Best Practice to instead take Gravity Readings. When the brew has produced consistent measurements for 3 days, it's safe to say your fermentation period is over and the beer has reached it's Terminal Gravity.
- monstrado 14y agoAbsolutely, I agree with you 100%. This was a quick hack I had to do because of short notice trip. I wanted to be able to detect the amount of gas being released, but I had no time :(.