MapleEngineer

After getting a roaring start to getting my system up and running for the season, the first time in three years, I decided that getting my elderly parents settled with health issues, my father going in to long term care, and my mother having major surgery I just couldn't muster the time to finish getting ready in time for the season.

I decided instead to work on the next version of my home made sap releaser and the controller that runs my system. To that end I designed a new bottom board for the PLC and sent it to PCBway. It should be here in a few days.

Top Copper

Bottom Copper

I added a pair of level shifters and a Schmitt trigger along with a DS3231MZ+ real time clock.

I'll post pictures as it comes together.

I have a pair of 9" tablets above my desk in my office so that I can monitor and control the machine room while I'm doing my day job. This is a pair of screenshots from the two tablets as they are right now. The system is not running and the measurements are all wrong. I was sending measurements manually to test my MQTT broker. I'm running Mosquitto Broker on my shed notebook. The tablets are running MQTT Dash.

I've been considering publishing this information to a public MQTT server so that other people can run this MQTT dashboard and watch my system in real time.

If anyone wants an explanation of any of these widgets are information about how these data points are collected please feel free to ask.

I have a pair of 9" tablets above my desk in my office so that I can monitor and control the machine room while I'm doing my day job. This is a pair of screenshots from the two tablets as they are right now. The system is not running and the measurements are all wrong. I was sending measurements manually to test my MQTT broker. I'm running Mosquitto Broker on my shed notebook. The tablets are running MQTT Dash.

I've been considering publishing this information to a public MQTT server so that other people can run this MQTT dashboard and watch my system in real time.

If anyone wants an explanation of any of these widgets are information about how these data points are collected please feel free to ask.

I made a video tour of the maple syrup system a few years ago.

This is my vacuum releaser. I built it from 12" PVC watermain that I pulled out of the garbage pile at a local construction company, aluminum that I bought at my local metal supply company, lexan that I bought and had machined at a local plastic supply company, and blumbing that I bought on Ebay, Amazon, AliExpress, and at local hardware stores. The large white pipe and the clear check valves are from CDL.

I spent the day today cleaning everything, replacing a couple of o-rings, and putting the machine back together. I had a big vacuum leak that it took me a while to find but I eventually managed to get the main releaser chamber down to 26.5 inhg.

This is my vacuum releaser. I built it from 12" PVC watermain that I pulled out of the garbage pile at a local construction company, aluminum that I bought at my local metal supply company, lexan that I bought and had machined at a local plastic supply company, and blumbing that I bought on Ebay, Amazon, AliExpress, and at local hardware stores. The large white pipe and the clear check valves are from CDL.

I spent the day today cleaning everything, replacing a couple of o-rings, and putting the machine back together. I had a big vacuum leak that it took me a while to find but I eventually managed to get the main releaser chamber down to 26.5 inhg.

This controller is based on a pair of custom boards that I designed, had manufactured, and assembled. The main board uses an Arduino MEGA2560 Pro and an ESP32. The MEGA2560 runs the machine and the ESP32 acts as a WiFi modem that the controller uses to send MQTT messages.

The top section of this controller is the mains entry, a 12VDC power supply and a 5VDC power supply. The next section down is the PLC that does all the work and a 24VDC power supply that I added later but didn't have room for in the power section above.

On the bottom the left section is analog inputs, the middle section is digital inputs, and the right hand section is digital outputs, mostly using solid state relays.

The box at the bottom of the right section is a driver for a motorized ball valve that I'm planning to use to replace the air solenoid on the vacuum releaser I will eventually replace the vacuum solenoid as well.

The code on the MEGA2560 is written in Bascom AVR, a compiled AVR BASIC. I'm moving away from BASCOM to Great Cow BASIC because the guy who wrote Bascom AVR had a hissy fit when I found a problem in one of the libraries and asked too many question. He cancelled my license and banned me from the forums. Don't use BASCOM AVR, the guy is a dick.

Great Cow BASIC is cross platform and supports AVRs, PICs, and LGTs (Chinese knockoffs of the AVR chips.)

The code for the PLC is around 8,000 lines.

The code for the ESP32 is written in C++.

This controller is based on a pair of custom boards that I designed, had manufactured, and assembled. The main board uses an Arduino MEGA2560 Pro and an ESP32. The MEGA2560 runs the machine and the ESP32 acts as a WiFi modem that the controller uses to send MQTT messages.

The top section of this controller is the mains entry, a 12VDC power supply and a 5VDC power supply. The next section down is the PLC that does all the work and a 24VDC power supply that I added later but didn't have room for in the power section above.

On the bottom the left section is analog inputs, the middle section is digital inputs, and the right hand section is digital outputs, mostly using solid state relays.

The box at the bottom of the right section is a driver for a motorized ball valve that I'm planning to use to replace the air solenoid on the vacuum releaser I will eventually replace the vacuum solenoid as well.

The code on the MEGA2560 is written in Bascom AVR, a compiled AVR BASIC. I'm moving away from BASCOM to Great Cow BASIC because the guy who wrote Bascom AVR had a hissy fit when I found a problem in one of the libraries and asked too many question. He cancelled my license and banned me from the forums. Don't use BASCOM AVR, the guy is a dick.

Great Cow BASIC is cross platform and supports AVRs, PICs, and LGTs (Chinese knockoffs of the AVR chips.)

The code for the PLC is around 8,000 lines.

The code for the ESP32 is written in C++.

I ordered a bunch of 316 stainless steel plumbing parts from McMaster-Carr and picked up a few from Wolseley. These are the parts I need to connect up the new 4040 RO membrane.

The black piece at the bottom is the end of the 4040 RO housing. In the back is a 1/2" x 2" nipple to a 1/2" 90. This is the permeate outlet. Permeate is the clean water which I give back to the trees by sending it out onto the ground outside of my sugar shack. In the front is a 1/2" x 4" nipple to a 1/2"-1/4"-1/2" reducing T. This one is for a pressure gauge. Next is a 1/2" x 2" nipple to another reducing T. This one is for a pressure transducer. Then another 1/2" x 2" nipple to the Hikelok pressure relief valve. The drain on the valve is where the concentrate comes out. In a normal, domesic household RO system the permeate is what you drink and the concentrate is what you throw away. In a maple syrup system you throw away the permeate and save the concentrate.

With my old system I could take the sugar content from around 3% to around 10%. That makes a big different to your yield over the course of a day.

All the joints were taped with the correct teflon tape.

I ordered a bunch of 316 stainless steel plumbing parts from McMaster-Carr and picked up a few from Wolseley. These are the parts I need to connect up the new 4040 RO membrane.

The black piece at the bottom is the end of the 4040 RO housing. In the back is a 1/2" x 2" nipple to a 1/2" 90. This is the permeate outlet. Permeate is the clean water which I give back to the trees by sending it out onto the ground outside of my sugar shack. In the front is a 1/2" x 4" nipple to a 1/2"-1/4"-1/2" reducing T. This one is for a pressure gauge. Next is a 1/2" x 2" nipple to another reducing T. This one is for a pressure transducer. Then another 1/2" x 2" nipple to the Hikelok pressure relief valve. The drain on the valve is where the concentrate comes out. In a normal, domesic household RO system the permeate is what you drink and the concentrate is what you throw away. In a maple syrup system you throw away the permeate and save the concentrate.

With my old system I could take the sugar content from around 3% to around 10%. That makes a big different to your yield over the course of a day.

All the joints were taped with the correct teflon tape.

I am very anti-death penalty but I believe that humanity would be better off if anyone who is this fucking depraved was loaded into a helicopter, flown out to the 200 mile limit, thrown into the ocean, and invited to swim home.

When I decided to ramp up my maple syrup production my wife insisted that I come into compliance with the regulations for the handling of maple syrup which meant that my entire production path needed to be plastic, stainless steel, or ceramic. I had been using a Watts 350C brass pressure relief valve with my first homemade RO system.

This valve replaced the ball valve that I spent hours watching and feathering to try to maintain a steady back pressure in my RO elements.

Being able to simply dial in the back pressure that you want is AWESOME!

When I went looking for stainless steel valves I ended up putting out a call for offers on Alibaba. A really nice sales person named Grain contacted and after some back and forth recommended these valves. I have been SUPER happy with how the one I have been using has been working.

This year I'm moving away from four 400GPD elements to a single 2600 GPD element in a stainless steel 4040 housing. I'm planning to get the stainless steel nipples and fittings that I need to get it hooked up tomorrow in Ottawa. I need to remember to add Ts for a pressure gauge and a pressure transducer.

More pictures to follow.