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03-12-2011, 03:44 AM
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#31
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Senior Member
Feedback Score: 0 reviews
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Catonsville, MD
Posts: 424
Liked 12 Times on 11 Posts
Likes Given: 3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fastev
Wow, you weren't kidding about "FULL-OUT"; really looking forward to following along! I will be interested to hear your thought on the level sensors. I have a few guided wave level probes available and am thinking about trying to incorporate one into a build. Your method may prove to be far easier. Keep up the great work!
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Congrats on the first post, welcome to HBT! Do you work in the process industry? Not many people have a few guided wave probes just laying around  Are they hard to interface with?
__________________
Primaries: Air
Secondaries: Lakefront India Brown Ale
On Tap 1: Rootbeer, On Tap 2: NB White ouse Honey Ale, On Tap 3: Nitrogen, On Tap 4: Air, On Tap 5: Air
On Deck: DIPA, Imp Stout, Porter, Wheat, Black IPA
"No sense having empty carboys around when full ones take up just as much space. " - Me
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03-12-2011, 04:22 AM
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#32
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Feedback Score: 1 reviews
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: San Jose
Posts: 69
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Haha, worthy thread for a first post! I work in the bio-pharma business, being a mechanic/instrument tech sure has it's advantages when it comes to "leftovers" for projects such as ridiculously overkill (but totally necessary!) brew rigs.
We use Magnetrol probes pretty much exclusively. Very easy to interface, extremely reliable, and the newest versions seem to penetrate foam quite accurately. As cool as they are, I love your approach with the backup sensor. That is the kind of ingenuity that fuels these homebuilt breweries.
Last edited by fastev; 03-12-2011 at 04:29 AM.
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03-15-2011, 04:16 AM
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#33
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Senior Member
Feedback Score: 0 reviews
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Catonsville, MD
Posts: 424
Liked 12 Times on 11 Posts
Likes Given: 3
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Extract brew in progress with my new eHLT and power control unit!! Will post some pictures/results tomorrow. So far so good.
__________________
Primaries: Air
Secondaries: Lakefront India Brown Ale
On Tap 1: Rootbeer, On Tap 2: NB White ouse Honey Ale, On Tap 3: Nitrogen, On Tap 4: Air, On Tap 5: Air
On Deck: DIPA, Imp Stout, Porter, Wheat, Black IPA
"No sense having empty carboys around when full ones take up just as much space. " - Me
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03-15-2011, 06:22 PM
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#34
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Feedback Score: 0 reviews
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Campbell, CA
Posts: 1,427
Liked 15 Times on 15 Posts
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I just finished wiring my control panel up and I've already got a complex after looking at yours. Too nice! I'll post a thread for mine later this week, but damn - nice job!
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03-15-2011, 07:12 PM
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#35
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Feedback Score: 0 reviews
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Baltimore, MD
Posts: 1,860
Liked 40 Times on 37 Posts
Likes Given: 7
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TFB, your work is incredible!
Also love the pics from your brazing thread. So, how much would you charge to hook a local brotha up with some fine fittings on a keggle? 
__________________
http://smokebubbles.wordpress.com - Brewin' and 'Quein' since last Tuesday.
Bottling the Belgian: A Photo Odyssey
Beer is the mind-killer. Beer is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my beer. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see it's path. When the beer has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
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03-15-2011, 11:43 PM
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#36
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Senior Member
Feedback Score: 0 reviews
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Catonsville, MD
Posts: 424
Liked 12 Times on 11 Posts
Likes Given: 3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fastev
I love your approach with the backup sensor. That is the kind of ingenuity that fuels these homebuilt breweries.
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That backup sensor may be shelved for a while if the standalone tank level probe works as well as I hope it does.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JetSmooth
TFB, your work is incredible!
Also love the pics from your brazing thread. So, how much would you charge to hook a local brotha up with some fine fittings on a keggle? |
Thanks, I wouldn't mind helping out with some fittings provided I had the time... Time is an extremely precious resource right now. Maybe more towards summer.
As promised, here are the pictures from my first electric brew. Brewed the Norther Brewer Pro Series Town Hall Hope and King Scotch Ale, one of my personal Minneapolis favorites. Tonight I brew the Surly Furious copy, my personal favorite 
For starters, I drilled a hole in the bottom of my HLT and added on a 3/4" triclamp ferrule for the drain.
Then I finished up the heating element enclosure wiring with a nice strain relief.
Next I setup my microcontroller circuit to adjust the heating element power. This is very ugly right now but it performed perfectly. With the potentiometer I am able to set the duty cycle of the element between 0-100%. All of this equipment will eventually make its way into the HMI on a dedicated circuit board. The code was hacked together over the last couple nights... I am new to this processor but there were some great examples that kick started my development.
Here is how the inside of the PCU turned out with just one of the outputs wired up. Everything worked great, first electric brew was a complete success!
__________________
Primaries: Air
Secondaries: Lakefront India Brown Ale
On Tap 1: Rootbeer, On Tap 2: NB White ouse Honey Ale, On Tap 3: Nitrogen, On Tap 4: Air, On Tap 5: Air
On Deck: DIPA, Imp Stout, Porter, Wheat, Black IPA
"No sense having empty carboys around when full ones take up just as much space. " - Me
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03-15-2011, 11:51 PM
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#37
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Feedback Score: 0 reviews
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Atwater, OH
Posts: 4,247
Liked 31 Times on 31 Posts
Likes Given: 42
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Looks good, but where's the picture of that "Sweet Wort" being boiled?
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by Revvy
And I'd like to see my 1.080 beers ready from grain to glass in a week, and served to me by red-headed twin penthouse pets wearing garter belts and fishnet stockings, with Irish accents, calling me "master luv gun," but we can't always get what we want can we? :)
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03-15-2011, 11:51 PM
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#38
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Feedback Score: 0 reviews
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: placerville, california
Posts: 13
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well that looks like a lot of fun.. and quite expensive.... i wish i could put that into my home brewery though i think the wife would kill me.
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03-15-2011, 11:55 PM
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#39
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Senior Member
Feedback Score: 0 reviews
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Catonsville, MD
Posts: 424
Liked 12 Times on 11 Posts
Likes Given: 3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wyzazz
Looks good, but where's the picture of that "Sweet Wort" being boiled? |
I'll be sure to take a picture later tonight on brew #2. The 4500W element for the HLT was pretty speedy... not looking to go back to propane anytime soon.
Quote:
Originally Posted by thirdeye13
well that looks like a lot of fun.. and quite expensive.... i wish i could put that into my home brewery though i think the wife would kill me.
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Shhh... not so loud, SWMBO might hear you.
__________________
Primaries: Air
Secondaries: Lakefront India Brown Ale
On Tap 1: Rootbeer, On Tap 2: NB White ouse Honey Ale, On Tap 3: Nitrogen, On Tap 4: Air, On Tap 5: Air
On Deck: DIPA, Imp Stout, Porter, Wheat, Black IPA
"No sense having empty carboys around when full ones take up just as much space. " - Me
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03-15-2011, 11:59 PM
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#40
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Feedback Score: 0 reviews
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: placerville, california
Posts: 13
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Been working on the use of electricity myself
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well... i use a much cheaper... say ghetto way to do this... i use two heating elements for my boil kettle (240 volts) with a dimmer switch for lights on each leg of 120. works ok for temp control for mashing. Though I just use straight connections for my boil kettle due to the fact that these dimmer switches cant really handle the wattage for that.
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