BCS 460 SSR problem

I posted this on the ECC forum as well but I'm hoping someone here may have some insight...

I have been trying to finish up my controller and it is having a perplexing problem. I have a bcs 460, 4 temp probes, 5 ssrs controlling HLT honeywell valve, MLT honeywell valve, three 115v pumps. I have it all connected now and no matter what I do, all of the SSRs are passing power to the device as soon as I plug in power. It's like they won't turn off. The led indicator is off (unless I enable the SSR - then it turns on as it should). The two honeywells valve SSRs get power via a 24v transformer and the pump's SSRs are powered from the AC bus. I have tried:

1. Screwing everything down tight - there were a few loose ground control connections but that is fixed now.
2. reversing the power in and power out connections - I originally had power in on post 1 and power out on post 2. I changed this and nothing changed so I changed it back. I now have AC power supply on post 1 and power out to the device on post 2.
3. I removed all connections from the SSR to the power outlet for the pump. I thought perhaps there was a something amiss in the way I wired the outlet and wanted to take it out of the equation. I did this and the bare screw (post 2) still has 115v all the time, no matter if I have the output enabled or not.

Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

I think that's how a ssr works. You will still have a voltage reading but no amps, hook up a light bulb to the output to see if any current is actually flowing through. There have been bad ones too. I got lucky and my eBay ssr worked fine.

OK - I just plugged in a lamp to each pump outlet and it worked as it should. Learn something new every day! Now I know that volt meters and SSRs do not give honest answers.

Thanks!

Patirck,

I want to build a setup similar to yours. Don't having much electrical experience. Can you give me more info./detail on your diagram/wiring scheme? Excuse the dumb question, but what are the green, red and gray boxes in diagram?

thanks,
christian

csbara said:

Patirck,

I want to build a setup similar to yours. Don't having much electrical experience. Can you give me more info./detail on your diagram/wiring scheme? Excuse the dumb question, but what are the green, red and gray boxes in diagram?

thanks,
christian

Click to expand...

They are terminals to tie in all the similar wires. One for 120v ac, one for 12 v dc, etc..

I have been using this for a while now and it works pretty well. I don't have any physical switches - everything is controlled via a web browser. It works pretty well but my next step is to wire up switches, and temperature LEDs.

One other thing I would do different (and may still) - the honeywell valves work great but the pilot lights are difficult to light and tend to blow out. If I were brewing indoors it would not be a big deal but in my driveway it is a bit of a pain. There are electric ignition sources out there I have yet to check out but it is on my to do list.