My experiences with the Speidel brewing machine

Discovering the possibility to communicate directly with the Speidel machine inspired me to write a simple Web app which supports several different ways to transfer recipes to the Speidel machine:

• entering recipe data (mash temps/times) into the web page, and uploading the results to the Braumeister machine
• upload a BeerXML-file from the local computer directly to the Speidel machine
• using an API provided by brewersfriend.com, searching and uploading recipes directly to the Speidel machine.

Other Speidel owners have also used my app. The source code for this web app is available at https://gitlab.com/vegard.vesterheim/speidel-ui and the solution is also available at https://vesterheim.no/speidel/speidel.html.

In fact, when announcing the latest FW update (see below), Speidel mentions my solution as a workaround for those unwilling/unable to update the FW. On one hand I am somewhat flattered about being attributed as a "sophisticated developer", but on the other hand I feel a bit exploited, since the efforts I have put into creating this solution is used by Speidel to "justify" a decision which renders the Speidel machine a lot less useful to me.

I have also created solutions for automatically generating beer-bottle labels based on data from the beer recipe and the brewing session.

When describing the Wireless LAN module on their web pages, Speidel itself states:

"With this module you can synchronise your recipes with the Braumeister and monitor and control him during the brewing process in your home wireless network. So you know what is going on in the brewing kitchen while sitting on the sofa."

This is not entirely correct, because the solution relies access to a cloud service running at https://myspeidel.com. I would ideally prefer a monitoring solution which could work without being connected to the Internet.

Cloud service or not, a monitoring solution like this could be very convenient. But sadly I often experience a problem when using the monitoring solution from the cloud service at myspeidel.com. When brewing, the connection to my Speidel machine often seems to get lost. I understand that the Javascript code loaded from myspeidel.com fetches the status from the Speidel machine every few seconds . In the upper right corner of the web page there is a counter which displays seconds since last update. Normally this is refreshed every couple of seconds, and the web page is updated to reflect the current progress of the brewing process. But sometimes I notice that this counter keeps increasing, and the rest of the status info on the web page is not updated, meaning that the connection to the Speidel machine is somehow "lost". This is not a local network problem in my house, because I can still successfully ping the IP address of the Speidel machine directly, and I can simply reload the web page to restore the connection. But this means that I simply cannot trust that the web page shows the current status, and that the audible alarm will be triggered whenever needed. I have to manually check that the connection is ok every now and then, which somewhat defeats the purpose of using a monitoring solution.

The javascript code in the web page is obviously aware that the connection is lost (since it displays the seconds counter which keeps increasing without being refreshed). So, this should be easy to fix, either by having the web page play an alarm sound to indicate the lack of updates, so that the user can manually reload the page. Or, preferably, the web page simply reloads itself whenever the status update is lagging more than a few seconds.

Recently Speidel announced a new FW for the Speidel controller. In the announcement it was stated that the Speidel would no longer be able to connect to Myspeidel.com unless the Firmware is upgraded to the newer release (1.1.27)

I tried upgrading my firmware some time ago, but discovered that the functionality which allows me to communicate directly (via http on my local network) with the Speidel no longer worked. I immediately downgraded to 1.1.26 to restore this vital functionality.

I sent an email to feedback@myspeidel.com describing this issue. I got a email response from Speidel stating:

"But monitoring will work with 1.1.26."

This statement from Speidel seems to contradict the announcement about requiring an upgrade to 1.1.27.

Other Speidel users also reports problems with the new FW.

I understand that the new FW version has a new mode of operation ("client function"). This allows encrypted transfers of the monitoring process, and also allows connecting to the Speidel machine from "anywhere". Encrypting data sent over the Internet is fine, but I have no need to control my Speidel from other places than the local network in my house. In fact I consider it a security hazard allowing access to my Speidel from "everywhere", encrypted or otherwise. Granted, other customers may consider this a good thing, but surely this does not mean that direct communication to the Speidel must be disabled! When communicating with the Speidel directly on my local network, encryption is not strictly necessary.

The possibility to use myspeidel.com for monitoring, and also control the Speidel directly as described above, was the main reasons for buying the Speidel in the first place. Having this possibility taken away, makes the Speidel machine a lot less useful to me.

1. Focus on creating a simple, secure and robust mechanism for monitoring the brewing process via a web browser.

   Preferably this solution should work without connection to the Internet, but a cloud solution is also ok, provided that the 3 criterias above is fulfilled.

2. Create open APIs for integrating with the Braumeister.

   Specifically, do not lock down the current functionality which allows communication with the Speidel directly (via http requests)

   There are lots of SW solutions for managing beer recipes, some users may prefer the solution provided by myspeidel.com, but others, like myself, may prefer other solutions. Allowing integrations with the Braumeister would enable Speidel owners and SW developers to innovate, create and share new solutions, making the Braumeister machine a prominent option for serious home brewers.