My electric brewery build

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Gus,

I took out the pause/reset circuits on the timer. I set up the timer alarm circuit to the common buzzer. I also added the fuse for the PIDs.

On your follow up e-mail (quoted below), you mentioned the missing neutral to the PID. I totally missed that and fixed it with the attached new version. By the way, it has a new name so that both diagrams still exist. I also fixed the original diagram with the missing neutral. If you refresh that drawing you will see the change.

This is the small image and the link below it to see (and save) a full scale diagram that is printable on Tabloid paper (11" x 17")

http://www.pjmuth.org/beerstuff/images/SwiftCreekBrewery-SYL-2352-5500w-2b.jpg

Again, I hope this is what you are trying to achieve.

Paul

SwiftCreekBrewery_small.jpg
 
Really excited to have the wiring diagram complete... Time to start melting the credit card again!

No surprise, but P-J is the man! :rockin:

-Gus
 
Here's what I'm envisioning for the CP front view. 16"x16"x8" enclosure (drawing is not to scale, obviously).

SwiftCreekBrewery_CP Front PPT.jpg
 
Would you need the PID on/off lights? Wouldn't you know if they were on or off if the display was lit up? I know it's only $10 in lights but sometimes less is more.
 
You shouldn't need the PID power switch as well. I have mine powered anytime the panel power is on. It would look much cleaner if you added the MLT alarm switch(Pretty inexpensive). That's about the only thing your missing of a Kal clone, like the one I've also built. Just My two cents, Castermmt
 
You could also use illuminated swithces or buttons for the pumps and combine the LED into the switch, if you wanted. I agree that a PID power switch isn't really needed as there doesn't seem to be a reason to have your panel turned on if you have your PIDs turned off.
 
I can find no major flaw with your current design decision. Not how I opted to do mine, but you're not brewing on my panel and I'm not brewing on yours! On to fabrication!
 
I really admire all this camaraderie among brewers and builders. I am in the midst of building a system like this and am stumped by the panel and what I really need vs what i want. I am moving forward with my build slowly and love seeing all these schematics that P-J puts together. I am trying to use some of the drawings P-J did for badnewsbrewery and piece together a rims and multiple timers. Anyway thank you for sharing all your thoughts it keeps me going.
 
tovelo - this is a great board! Post up a thread about your build, as you get going, and I'm sure you'll receive all kinds of thought provoking feedback. Also, searching for RIMS in the electric forum should turn up some useful builds from other folks. Good luck!
 
Pooobah - cutting the sight glasses is on the list, for sure. Also still have to mount the pumps, and complete the heating element electrical wiring.

Parts for control panel should arrive mid-week, so I could be assembling CP next weekend!

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So... my March 809 pumps came with 3' power cords on them... light reading on the interweb suggests that I should use a junction box to extend these cords to the control panel. Thoughts?
 
So... my March 809 pumps came with 3' power cords on them... light reading on the interweb suggests that I should use a junction box to extend these cords to the control panel. Thoughts?
Just install a plug on the end of the cable and then use an extension cord of the length you need from there on.
 
False bottom for MLT arrived, and so did all of the remaining guts and enclosure for the panel! UPS lost my CP part shipment for four days, so I lost this past weekend of build time.

Guess I'll have to spend some additional time on this over the coming weekend to catch up.

Christmas Day brew is looking good! :ban:
 
Loosely spaced out components on panel door. Will tape, measure and start drilling Saturday morning (or maybe Friday evening).


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With the switches down low and near the edge - keep in mind that the rubber seal around the frame may interfere with that plan, and even if the switch fits fine, remember there will be wires coming out of them too.
 
Good point... that rubber seal is pretty thick! Going to tape the entire front of the panel and do a measured layout before I cut anything.
 
Punched all of the circle holes in the CP over the course of this past week.



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Door, receptacles and heat sink installed. Next weekend will be backplate and wiring.



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I like seeing all the different ways people are doing these. Has anybody got an idea of the cost savings as apposed to purchasing the kits? Keep up the good work and thanks to all those applying their expertise.

Home brewers rock:rockin:
 
I like seeing all the different ways people are doing these. Has anybody got an idea of the cost savings as apposed to purchasing the kits? Keep up the good work and thanks to all those applying their expertise.

Home brewers rock:rockin:

I built mine from scratch. Kal has excellent instructions. It is cheaper than buying, but alota work (fun work)
 
I think I'm about $2800 all in so far. SWMBO will be happy to get the kitchen table back soon. Remaining is probably one or two more small trips to Radio Shack/Home Depot for CP small parts (including a small space heater for the garage... any recommendations?).

There's a complete parts list that I'll publish at the end of my build, and a pretty long list of folks that I need to thank for sharing their knowledge and selling good parts!

:mug:
 
I finished mine last weekend, but it's not running right. Was supposed to spend this weekend trouble shooting but had a little too much fun at a Christmas party and spent the weekend nursing a MIGHTY hangover. Here's hoping yours works right the first time!
 
Looking for some feedback here, after pondering the wiring diagram that P-J drew up for my panel. Here's what I'm planning to do:

1) Ground connections, all "home runs" to ground post on back of panel including 6# wire from my panel power 4-wire (also will wire ground post from panel door here)
2) Neutral connections, run 6# panel power wire to terminal block, step down to 14# wire, run in series to all 3 contactor coils, 4 PID/timers, flash buzzer, main power light, pump lights, and pump outlets
3) Hot 1 (Blue) connections, run 6# panel power wire to 50A contactor, 6# from contactor to terminal block, 6# to all three circuit breakers, 10# from 25A breakers to each element contactor, 10# from each element contactor to element outet, 14# from element outlet to element light, 14# from 15A circuit breaker in series to element switch, pump switches, and PID/timers, 14# from PID/timers to alarm switches and alarm light/buzzer, 14# from pump switches to pump lights and pump outlets
4) Hot 2 (Red) connections, run 6# panel power wire to 50A contactor, 6# from contactor to terminal block, ???# wire from terminal block to fused resistors and e-stop, 6# to the two 25A circuit breakers, 10# to each SSR, 10# from each SSR to element contactor, 10# from element contactor to element outlet, 14# from element outlet to element light

I'm sure it would be easier to redraw P-Js diagram with different thicknesses shown on all of the wires... I may do that (now that I'm off of work!).

What size wire do I need to run from my Hot 2 (Red) terminal block to the E-Stop resistors/switch? Any reason I should not run neutral in series? Any reason I should not use grounding post instead of terminal block for grounds?

Wiring up everything this Sunday (pending SWMBO approval). Getting close now!
 
No sense in running 6ga to the circuit breakers as the max load that circuit will see is 25a before a trip. Run 10ga to the circuit breakers. Easier to work with and fit in a small box.

You can use 14ga for the red line run to the EPO.

No reason I can think of not to run the neutral in parallel. I opted not to use my panel as the terminal block for the neutral because, and I may be wrong, if something does go south my panel would be energized as part of the path from the faulty wire to ground. As a feed off the grounding terminal block, the panel is still attached, but the errant current will take the path of least resistance and avoid the panel. Maybe?

Also, I did something VERY similar to what you describe. My only change - I ran the output from the 15amp breaker to a small terminal block. That way I didn't have to deal with trying to piggy back all kinds of things off one wire, and it has allowed me to pull individual lines for troubleshooting. You can see the small terminal block in the second photo here, to the right of the breakers.
 
Thanks (as usual), Kevin! 10# to 25A circuit breakers and 14# to EPO makes sense.

For the neutral, I was thinking about running all of those connections in series, rather than having a terminal block for these. Not that I'm trying to save $5 at this point in the effort, but it seems like a lot less white wire would be consumed through series wiring, as a lot of the components requiring neutral are all located fairly close to each other (i.e. go straight from main power light to pump lights, rather than coming to each from terminal block on the backplate). I'm probably missing something simple here, but what's the difference in running neutral parallel versus serial (maybe a use case on a bad outcome scenario would help clear the cobwebs for me)?
 
My bad. I thought Series, I told my fingers to type Series, and they typed Parallel. They will be dealt with accordingly. Run the neutral in series as best you can, it should save you some wire and headache. I still have a few parallel runs, but only because it was easier to run back to the terminal block rather than try and find another thing to tap off.
 
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