Jared311
Well-Known Member
Being an engineer, I love DIY projects. Awhile back I decided that I wanted to take the digital path for temperature monitoring of my HERMS setup. I picked out the Maxim DS1624 IC and designed really tiny pcb's to mount it on with latchable connectors on the back. Sorry, my iPhone couldn't focus very well on it because its quite small.
The next step was figuring out a way to submerge these into hot liquids and still get an accurate temperature. I decided to design copper thermowells that I could screw into my kegs standard 1/2" npt couplings.
Finally in this picture you can see how the small sensor fits inside the cap of the thermowell. I am going to use thermal epoxy to mount the chip into the cap. Then I can place the cap back on the thermowell and seal it up using silicon adhesive. The wires then will run through the pipe to the outside of the keg and some insulation will be placed in the ends to prevent heat loss.
I have also designed a main board with a microprocessor that takes in the digital readings from eight sensors and relays them off to my PC via USB. I have finished writing the necessary code to implement the USB communication on my microprocessor and have tested it successfully. Next, I need to finish coding the serial communication with my sensors and then I can finally see how accurate they are and how quick they respond.
The next step was figuring out a way to submerge these into hot liquids and still get an accurate temperature. I decided to design copper thermowells that I could screw into my kegs standard 1/2" npt couplings.
Finally in this picture you can see how the small sensor fits inside the cap of the thermowell. I am going to use thermal epoxy to mount the chip into the cap. Then I can place the cap back on the thermowell and seal it up using silicon adhesive. The wires then will run through the pipe to the outside of the keg and some insulation will be placed in the ends to prevent heat loss.
I have also designed a main board with a microprocessor that takes in the digital readings from eight sensors and relays them off to my PC via USB. I have finished writing the necessary code to implement the USB communication on my microprocessor and have tested it successfully. Next, I need to finish coding the serial communication with my sensors and then I can finally see how accurate they are and how quick they respond.