Help with TD4 PID

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

winterc

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2012
Messages
82
Reaction score
4
Location
Cumberland
I'm new to electric brewing, I built my system based on one of P-J's diagrams, but used a TD4 PID instead, acquiring most other equipment from Amazon. If I put the PID in manual mode, it heats the element fine. If I connect the thermocouple with blue ends on pins 7 and 10, with 8 and 9 jumpered and the red ended connector attached it displays "UUUU" which means that the upper limit of input exceeds the measured value. If I attach either of the blue ended wires from the thermocouple to 8/9, and the red to 7 or 10, it displays -403. I have set it to farenheit, and the thermocouple to Pt. Did I get a bad thermocouple?

Thanks in advance for any help!
 
I think that is a MyPin brand PID... I have a TA7 model. I ran into two minor issues with my about two weeks ago when I set it up. First, the probe type was factory set to a "K" type, had to change it to a RTD/PT1000, but it sounds like you checked that already. Second, I had to cut off the terminals on all three probe wires, when I looked at them I saw that when they crimped on the terminals they never stripped the wires. Some to check. So much for quality control, but hey, the price was right!!
 
looking at the terminal ends, it seems that the wires weren't stripped, now to go back to trial and error with switching them around. I wish my voltimeter worked, time to buy a new one.
 
I so have a MyPin TA7. I opened mine up to look at wire colors. Red, yellow, and green on the thermocouple and I think it was pins 10-13. That doesn't help you in the slightest.
 
I'm fairly confident that the thermocouple is wired poorly on the other end as well. I switched around the wires again and still no luck. With the TA7, when you wire it correctly does it resemble the ambient temperature of the room or do you put it in autotune mode or calibrate it somehow? I noticed some fluctuation around -400F this time, where there was none before. I ordered a different thermocouple from Amazon, I may just have to measure with an external thermometer and brew in manual mode this weekend. So far I've only missed 2 weekends brewing this year, I don't want to make it a 3rd.
 
When I stripped the wires it worked just fine. The probe read right about room temp. then.
 
It showed some crazy stuff until I got it wired correctly and on the correct setting buried down in the menus. On mine, I had to jump one of the terminals. It took some research to figure that one out. Yeah, it came to ambient. I checked it at least in hot and cold water. I should go back and check calibration.
 
Just thought of this.... Check to make sure that there is not an offset programmed into the pid already. I am at work and don't have the instruction sheet....but I know one if the screens in the set up is for an offset
 
Yeah, it read -403 so I set an offset of -99, the highest the offset would go. Now it's showing -310. It states to set it in autotune when equipment changes. I suppose I could give more detail:

Pins 8 and 9 jumpered according to the diagram:

Diagram: B: 7 and 10, A 8/9 jumpered

PV 'UUUU'
blue in 7 or 10
red in 8/9
yellow in 10 or 7

PV -310
red in 7
blue in 8/9
yellow in 10

PV -310
red in 7
yellow in 8/9
blue in 10

Haven't tried:
Jumper 7 and 10 instead of 8/9 . . . trying that now.
 
Just saw a post over on the Automated Brewing Forum called Trouble with MyPin TD4 Temp Controller. Seems they are having a similar problem. There looks like some good info on it for trouble shooting.....
 
I bought another multimeter, low resistance between yellow and blue wires, infinite resistance comparing red to either. It looks as though I have a DOA PT100. I guess the price was right for an electronics lesson, but no price is right when you receive a defective product.
 
Back
Top