Cook and Hold with Raspberry Pi (video)

Cook and Hold with Raspberry Pi (video)

When we geek try to cook a nice chunk of meat, the tricky part is the cooking itself. Instead of sitting idle while the meat cooks, we go read something on the iPad, code some stuff or even to talk with the guests rather than watching a meat in the oven. And at the end, the meat is often overcooked. But this is gonna change. Our new recipe, using a Yocto-Thermocouple and Raspberry Pi, solves the issue. The Raspberry Pi will monitor the meat temperature for us, and send an e-mail as soon as the ideal temperature is reached. And long life to the smartphones !


Hardware
For the hardware part, we will use :
- a thermocouple hard tip, to be inserted into the meat (~ EUR 20.-, often provided with new ovens)
- a Raspberry Pi to run the monitoring script, written in Python (~ EUR 30.-)
- a Yocto-Thermocouple to read the thermocouple with the Raspberry Pi (~ EUR 38.-)
- a USB charger to power the Raspberry Pi (~ EUR 10.-, but you can reuse a mobile phone charger)
- a USB cable and misc screw (~ EUR 5.-)
- a RaspBox to mount all pieces together (~ EUR 12.-)

Since everything will end up hidden in a closet, we don't need to build a complex enclosure. We will simply screw the Yocto-Thermocouple on top of the RaspBox, using the designated holes.

The Raspberry Pi in a RaspBox, with a Yocto-Thermocouple on the top
The Raspberry Pi in a RaspBox, with a Yocto-Thermocouple on the top



The Raspberry Pi

Thee Raspberry Pi is a cheap and tiny credit-size mini PC, using an ARM processor and running under Linux. Installing the recommended image is well documented (http://elinux.org/RPi_Easy_SD_Card_Setup) and shows no issue.

There is one caveat on the Raspberry Pi : the USB support is still somewhat buggy perfectible, and we will need to configure it to make it work reliably. The problem is, the RasPi will occasionally drop USB packets for "full-speed" peripherals (such as keyboard, mouse, modems, as well as some audio devices) when working in standard "high-speed" mode. The problem is less acute with the most recent firmware, but it is not completely solved. The only reliable workaround for now is to force all peripherals to run in "full-speed" mode. This will have the negative side effect of limiting all peripherals (including the on-board network adapter) to 1.5 MBytes/s, but anyway, the Raspberry Pi is not designed to be a race horse...

To force USB to run in "full-speed" mode, simply add dwc_otg.speed=1 to the /boot/cmdline.txt file, as follows:

dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=ttyAMA0,115200 kgdboc=ttyAMA0,115200 dwc_otg.speed=1 console=tty1 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootfstype=ext4 elevator=deadline rootwait


Edit: The "dwc_otg.speed" option is no more needed on Raspberry Pi B+ and later models.

Configuring the Yocto-Thermocouple

At this point, we check that the thermocouple is well configured. To do this we simply start the VirtualHub software (provided with the Yocto-Thermocouple) on the Raspberry Pi. and connect to its web interface (on port 4444 by default). The type of thermocouple can be changed if needed (type "K" is the most common). We give a logical name "food_sensor" to the module input on which we have connected our thermocouple.

The thermocouple input is configured
The thermocouple input is configured



Software

Our monitoring software will have to send e-mails, handle HTTP requests (for the control UI) and draw temperature graphs. The Python language nicely fits the bill, since it can natively send mails and handle HTTP requests. It is pre-installed on Raspberry Pi standard image. To draw the graph, there is a library named Matplotlib, that can easily be installed using the command:

> sudo apt-get install python-matplotlib



Then you need to install Yoctopuce library [edit: now available on PyPI see this article].

The Python code is quite simple, you can download it here. Here are some explanations about parts that deal directly with our API:

First, we need to import yocto_api to use our library, and yocto_temperature to access the YTemperature class that knows how to deal with any kind of temperature sensor.

# import Yoctopuce Pyhton library (can be downloaded from http://www.yoctopuce.com/EN/libraries.php)
from yocto_api import *
from yocto_temperature import *



When starting the program, we have to setup the API to connect to the module using USB.

def main():
    """ Main function, deals with arguments and launch program"""
    ....
        errmsg=YRefParam()
        if YAPI.RegisterHub("usb", errmsg) != YAPI.SUCCESS:
            sys.exit("init error"+errmsg.value)



The core of the code is in function run, which runs in a separate thread and will check the meat temperature every second.

...
def run(self):
    temp_sensor = YTemperature.FindTemperature("food_sensor")
    ....
    while not self._mustStop :
        # verify that our device is still connected
        if not temp_sensor.isOnline():
            sendResult('No temperature sensor connected !',0)
            if options.verbose : print "Temperature sensor 'food_sensor' not found"
            return
        cur_temp = temp_sensor.get_currentValue()
        if options.verbose : print "current value is %2.1f" % cur_temp
        ...
...



The bulk of the code handles HTTP queries and provide them with the last measured value.

Testing party

If you start the program as is, it is very likely that e-mails won't come through (unless you have configured an SMTP server on the Rasberry Pi). You need to pass the name of the SMTP server to use on the command line, as well as any credentials required to send mail. If you start the software with an argument --help, it will show the command line syntax.

For instance, here is a sample command line for using Gmail SMTP server:

> ./picooker.py --smtp_host=smtp.gmail.com --smtp_port=465 --smtp_user=myemail@gmail.com --smtp_pass=mypassword



Connect to the program Web UI (by default on port 8888) to configure the temperature at which you want to get an alert e-mail, and the recipient e-mail address. Plug the thermocouple tip into the meat, and press Start Recording !

The web UI to setup the cooking parameters
The web UI to setup the cooking parameters



Once the meat will reach the desired temperature, an e-mail will be send with the graph of cooking temperature.

An e-mail is automatically sent when the meat is cooked
An e-mail is automatically sent when the meat is cooked



And here is a small video of our first real-life test:

  



This being said, I need to go back to my guests...

Update: 19 April 2013
We have improved the Pi Cooker to support multiples temperature sensors. Check this post : Yoctopuce libraries, GitHub, PyPI, and Raspberry Pi




1 - mvuilleu (Yocto-Team)Monday,october 15,2012 7H37

I tried it on Saturday to cook a saddle of venison, using a MK805 (I have WiFi but no Ethernet in my kitchen). It worked like a charm. The real-time temperature graph looks great on the iPad :-)

The only pitfall with regard to the article content is the SMTP port in the sample command line: use it for GMail only. I had to use the standard SMTP port (25) for my provider.

2 - chrisdu Thursday,february 28,2013 17H01

ImportError: No module named yocto_api

I have as made it as from you given, however, by the call of the programme I always get this error message: "ImportError: No module named yocto_api"
If you can show me step by step the integration of the libraries, with the right orders.
Many thanks!

3 - mvuilleu (Yocto-Team)Thursday,february 28,2013 17H08

@chrisdu: You have probably missed the step about the Yoctopuce library. You need to download Yoctopuce API for python, extract it in the directory of your choice (for instance /home/pi/Yoctolib) and run the following command in your shell:

export PYTHONPATH=/home/pi/Yoctolib/Sources:$PYTHONPATH

This will add the Yoctopuce library to the places where Python will look for packages.

P.S. I just notice there was a typo in the article: the name of the sources directory in the library is Sources, not Source. Fixing the article right now, sorry for that.

4 - chrisdu Thursday,february 28,2013 20H08

Now programme runs, but no temperature registers!?
Please, help me
Thank you
lg Christian

5 - chrisdu Thursday,february 28,2013 20H27

export PYTHONPATH=/home/pi/Yoctolib/Source:$PYTHONPATH the order works only up to the next new start. The python's path cannot be stored permanently.

Thank you for your help.
lg Christian

6 - chrisdu Friday,march 01,2013 13H47

Please, help me, I get this error message:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/threading.py", line 552, in __bootstrap_inner
self.run()
File "picooker.py", line 134, in run
sendResult('No module connected',0)
File "picooker.py", line 96, in sendResult
mailServer = smtplib.SMTP(options.mail_host,options.mail_port)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/smtplib.py", line 249, in __init__
(code, msg) = self.connect(host, port)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/smtplib.py", line 309, in connect
self.sock = self._get_socket(host, port, self.timeout)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/smtplib.py", line 284, in _get_socket
return socket.create_connection((port, host), timeout)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/socket.py", line 571, in create_connection
raise err
error: [Errno 97] Address family not supported by protocol

Danke!
lg Christian

7 - seb (Yocto-Team)Friday,march 01,2013 15H34

You probably do not have set correctly the SMTP host and SMTP port (--smtp_host and --smtp_port options).
If you have some other question please send us an email to support@yoctopuce.com. It will be easier and quicker to help you to configure your PI.

8 - mvuilleu (Yocto-Team)Monday,april 15,2013 19H34

A quick note since this is a frequent support question: depending on your internet provider, the right SMTP port to pass on the command line might be 25, 465 or 587. In case of doubt, try each of those until you find one that works.

9 - felixdk Tuesday,november 29,2016 17H32

Hi

Is this project still active? - anyway, I got it running but the img graph is not working - just a broken image

Any clues?

Thanks
Felix

10 - felixdk Tuesday,november 29,2016 17H42

ahh ok plot do work if I start "recording" - thanks

Yoctopuce, get your stuff connected.