Introduction
Welcome to the projects section of this website. In here, you’ll find lots of unusual stuff to build. Not many homebrewers are into electronics or 3D printers but a bit of expenditure and learning can open up a whole new world of capabilities. Homebrewers generally love gadgets and special tools but are often wholly dependent on what’s available commercially. When a new product arrives of the market interest in it can be gauged from the number of product reviews that start to appear on various websites. However, when you start to consider the purchase of such a device, you may not find that it’s not totally what you want and it may cost hundreds of dollars. Building your own stuff means that you can design it exactly the way you want it and, after some initial expenditure on tools, can save you a ton of money. However, it does require additional effort, a certain level of skill and some good instructions. The first two of these is down to you; the last is what this website can, hopefully, help you with.
The best way to design and make anything is to take something that already exists and improve it. The projects listed here range from very simple stuff like cutting up bits of cork to sophisticated scientific instruments requiring electronics, optics, software and 3D printed parts. None of these projects need expensive materials and most can be made for less than $50 (excluding the initial cost of, for for instance, a computer and/or a 3D printer).
Some of the projects are presented as both barebones breadboard devices for learning and experimentation and as near-commercial products with fancy user controls and packaging for serious use ( and making great presents for any of your little brewing friends).
Project Downloads
Many of the projects presented here are technically complex involving circuit diagrams, CAD drawings, software listings etc. In such instances, all the necessary files are packaged together as a downloadable ZIP file. These files contained a detailed instruction manual that contains details of the construction and operation of the device being built. The manual is in PDF format and can be printed for easy reference.
Simpler projects will retain all the information on the project webpage.
Project Rating System
In the documentation for each of the projects, a ratings box is provided. This is intended to provide you with an indication of how difficult, expensive and useful each project is. The tables below indicate what these ratings mean. They are my own (arbitrary) assessments.
Difficulty
Cost
Utility
So, as an example, something that is dead easy to put together, costs nothing but is insanely useful, would have the following ratings:
There’s no project rated like this so I’ll save you the trouble of looking for it.
Licensing
These projects are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
This license means that the information on this website for each of these projects is free to download and use for non-commercial purposes. If any content or derivation of that content is published, then an acknowledgement should be included referencing the original developer – me (Andy Tipler).
If you want to make money out of my efforts, please contact me via the email address at the base of this page for an initial discussion .
Project Listing
Because websites are living breathing things, they can be continually changed. In this case it means that the number of projects in this section will steadily increase as I finish putting them together. Please come back later to check what’s new.
In the meantime, the projects that have been completed and available on this website are given below. If there’s project you like to suggest for inclusion, please enter a comment below.
