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**manoaction** · 01-31-2013, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Ah I didn't catch that the OP is using a BCS for his controller. In that case I don't know why you are talking about extending thermocouples as the BCS only accepts thermistors. I prefer and thermistors myself. Their high resistance makes the resistance of the wire negligible and they are easy to interface with once you calculate the steinhart coefficients

Well that's good to know. I really appreciate all of the information. I've started with a single PID and was planning to graduate to BCS in the near future. I hadn't realized that I'd need to switch out probes. Do you have strong preferences about your thermosisters? I see that Brewer's Hardware has a line of them... http://www.brewershardware.com/6-Temperature-Sensor-for-BCS-460.html

crane · 02-01-2013, 01:35 AM

I have used thermistors from brewers hardware, Omega and some others I got from Digikey. I have had no problems with any of them once I got my analog front end working correctly to filter out power supply noise. All of them have been accurate within 0.1F in both an ice bath and boiling water so I have had no need calibrate an offset for any of them.

**ChuckO** · 02-08-2013, 02:10 PM

Didn't see this thread for a week, but better late than never.

I have a BCS mounted on the wall near my fermentation chamber. It controls the fermenter temperature directly. I use two CAT-5 cables to send all signals out to the brewery control cabinet. There is no problem having the CAT-5 connectors mounted on the box on the wall with the BCS nor on the brewery control. I'm using pre-made CAT-5 cables 16' long for the connection. When nothing is running in my garage the temperature probe for the freezer reads within .2 deg. of the ones in the brewery, showing me that there is no problem with the extra distance.

chadillac7819 · 02-13-2013, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChuckO

Didn't see this thread for a week, but better late than never.

I have a BCS mounted on the wall near my fermentation chamber. It controls the fermenter temperature directly. I use two CAT-5 cables to send all signals out to the brewery control cabinet. There is no problem having the CAT-5 connectors mounted on the box on the wall with the BCS nor on the brewery control. I'm using pre-made CAT-5 cables 16' long for the connection. When nothing is running in my garage the temperature probe for the freezer reads within .2 deg. of the ones in the brewery, showing me that there is no problem with the extra distance.

ChuckO, do you have a wiring schematic you could share? I have almost all of the supplies for my system (BCS controlled Ferm 24/7 and brewery control on demand) and I want to start planning my control panel. Also, any pics of our set up would be really helpful.

**ChuckO** · 02-15-2013, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chadillac7819

ChuckO, do you have a wiring schematic you could share? I have almost all of the supplies for my system (BCS controlled Ferm 24/7 and brewery control on demand) and I want to start planning my control panel. Also, any pics of our set up would be really helpful.

Here's a copy of the wiring schematic. At present I don't have any useable photos of the setup though.

I'm not happy with the program that created my wiring schematic, but I will try to explain anything that isn't clear.