Anyone have a 101-level tutorial on DIN rails?

I am not an electrician but know enough to figure it out, but DIN rails are confusing me. Anyone have a simple guide on how to set them up and what the various modules do? I was planning on using terminal blocks but in hindsight the DIN rails look cleaner and easier to add new peripherals as time goes on. I am doing a single tier all gas system like JonW if that matters. TIA.

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A din rail is a track that you can attach with a couple of screws that allow you to attach multiple devices to or terminal blocks. The devices just snap on and can be removed easily

If you are using an all gas system, what exactly do you need a control panel for? Pumps? electric valves?

For our purposes, the stuff you might mount include breakers, contactors, terminal blocks, things like that.

Check out ebrewsupply, they have a lot of stuff geared toward brewing,

BadWolfBrewing said:

If you are using an all gas system, what exactly do you need a control panel for? Pumps? electric valves?

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Yes. Mainly I am trying to wrap my head around how to hook up a three way switch and an SSR to a device (e.g. a march pump) and a LED light. The switch would allow for automatic or manual control. I am leaning towards DIN for the cleanliness and ease of extensibility. BTW, I am using a BCS to control everything.


Sent from a tablet. Please forgive typos and brevity.

The switch you are talking about is not a three way switch, but a HOA. Hand off auto.

So a three way switch, or at least the types of switches we buy, work as follows. There's a knob on top that is either turned to the left, turned to the right, or centered. On the business end of the switch there are two switch blocks. Each block has two terminals. When the switch knob is turned to the left, the switch block on the left shorts the two terminals. WHen the switch knob is turned to the right, the switch block on the right shorts the two terminals. When the switch is centered, both terminal blocks do not short their terminals.

So, the hot leg of the outlet you will plug a pump into is wired to one terminal from both switch blocks. For the switch block on the left, wire 120V into the other terminal. So, when the switch is turned to the left, it just connects the hot leg of the outlet to your 120V source.

For the switch on the right, you do sort of the same thing, but wire in the power side of the SSR in series with the connection, so 120V --> SSR power terminal 1 AND SSR power terminal 2 to the right switch block. So, when the switch is to the right, it connects the SSR power terminal 2 to the pump. If the BCS control system is sending a 'pump on' signal to the SSR control inputs, it will short the SSR power terminals together. So, if both the switch is in the right position and the BCS is sending a 'pump on' command, 120V will be connected to the hot leg of the pump outlet.

Using the above, the switch turned to the left turns the pump on. The switch turned to the right gives the BCS the authority to turn the pump on. Switch in the center position means the pump is off.

For the light, just wire it in parallel to the pump outlet (both 120V and neutral). If the pump outlet is getting 120V, then the light turns on.

The only thing you need to connect to a DIN rail would be the SSR heat sink. The heat sink connects to the DIN (if you get the right heat sink), and the actual SSR connects to that.

Please take a look at wiring diagrams on ebrewsupply.com and from P-J. If you have questions, ask them to make sure everything is correct and safe. I've wired up a few control panels, and am happy to help.

GFCI protection is not optional.

Here's the ebrewsupply circuit:

http://www.ebrewsupply.com/designs/30a-BCS-2-Electric.pdf

Look at the area around the pump outlet. They do it differently. The switch controls what control input the SSR sees. Either a constant 5V, or the 5V output from the BCS. Another set of switch blocks controls two different LEDs depending on which way the switch is.

This works as well. My recommendation is simpler and required fewer components. Additionally, if the SSR fails (which happens), with my method you can still control the pump in manual mode.

BadWolfBrewing said:

So, the hot leg of the outlet you will plug a pump into is wired to one terminal from both switch blocks. For the switch block on the left, wire 120V into the other terminal. So, when the switch is turned to the left, it just connects the hot leg of the outlet to your 120V source.

For the switch on the right, you do sort of the same thing, but wire in the power side of the SSR in series with the connection, so 120V --> SSR power terminal 1 AND SSR power terminal 2 to the right switch block. So, when the switch is to the right, it connects the SSR power terminal 2 to the pump. If the BCS control system is sending a 'pump on' signal to the SSR control inputs, it will short the SSR power terminals together. So, if both the switch is in the right position and the BCS is sending a 'pump on' command, 120V will be connected to the hot leg of the pump outlet.

Click to expand...

I think we are on the same line of thinking just slightly different approaches.

So given a SPDT (I think) switch like this http://www.ebrewsupply.com/shop/indicators-switches/2-3-way-switches/3-way-1-no-contact-switch.html would you make a jumper to connect the hot terminals on the switch? Or would it be cleaner to run a wire from each hot leg of the switch to two jumped DIN terminals (with the SSR in the middle respectively)? My thinking is I could then run the hot lead from the first terminal to the pump and the LED from the second terminal block. Maybe a bit overkill but I am attracted to the cleanliness.

Sent from a tablet. Please forgive typos and brevity.