Wiring help... single stage ebay temp controller

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Flaviking

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So I found a F calibrated single stage ebay temp controller on ebay and it just arrived yesterday. being the total noob that I am, I have no idea how to wire this thing. I was thinking I could wire the temp controller directly to the compressor in my fermentation chamber as the fridge I took it out of already a temp controller of some kind.

The original setup has a grey wire coming from the power cord, which I assume is hot, then a white wire that came from the old fridge temp controller into the compressor, then a Brown wire that came from the compressor back to the power cord.

Seemed like a pretty simple closed loop. so I was I was thinking I should do this:

Temp_control_diag.jpg




RED = Positive/Hot
Blue = Neutral
Black = Temp probe

The red (grey) would come from the pwer cord into the temp controller, the blue (white) would eventually come out of the temp controller and go into the compressor, the brown would remain as is and go from the compressor back to the power cord.


If thats incorrect, if you could let me know what to do that would be awesome... If that is correct, Im not sure where to ground this thing... there is a green wire coming from the power cord itself and the compressor already has a ground wire from it to the base of the compressor... Shoudl I just screw down the green wire coming from the power cord to the wood? does wood work as a ground?

As you can see.. I need some serious help :( Thanks in advance for your time and knowledge.
 
From your diagram, it appears that the controller is powered at 1&2 and the relay is at 6&7. If that is not correct than you must adjust accordingly.

Identify hot and neutral from the power cord first. These will provide 110v to your controller at 1&2. It doesn't really matter which one is connected to which terminal.

Power cord hot is jumpered over to one terminal of the relay, again it doesn't matter which but let's specify #6.

Based on your description: The white wire from the original controller to the compressor is the hot to the compressor and the brown wire is the neutral to the compressor. The white wire would attach to the other relay terminal, #7. The brown wire from the compressor remains attached to the neutral of the power cord.

No. Wood is NOT a good ground. There is no ground requirement for the controller. Just make sure that the power cord ground is attached to the chassis and use a GFCI outlet or circuit.
 
Thank you.. that helps a lot...

I neglected to mention however that this has a function control..

Here is the exact diagram form the instruction sheet i got (which is very limited)

Temp_control_diag_v2.jpg


Does the function control require anything? or should I just not wory about that?
 
Don't worry about the function control, leave it with no connection. It has to do with locking in settings and can be ignored.

I have adjusted my earlier post to reflect the relay terminals as 6 & 7.
 
Don't worry about the function control, leave it with no connection. It has to do with locking in settings and can be ignored.

I have adjusted my earlier post to reflect the relay terminals as 6 & 7.

Does this look about right?

Temp_control_diag_v3.jpg



Red = hot
Blue= neutral
Brown = Existing Neutral from Compressor
green = Ground
Black= tcmp probe
 
Thank you.. that helps a lot...

I neglected to mention however that this has a function control..

Does the function control require anything? or should I just not wory about that?

The function control simply locks in the programmed settings if you run a jumper between those terminals. Unless you're worried someone might come along and change your temp settings, don't mess with it.
 
Thank you everyone for your input...

I just ran into a problem.. A big one...

I changed around the way i wired this thing to use a GFCI outlet to power both a fan and the compressor.

Temp_control_diag_v4.jpg


The system was chuging along pretty well.. started off at 91 degrees.. got it down to 75 in about 25 minutes... the temp controller then shut it off.

I programmed a delay of 1 minute and set the temp again to 68 to see if I could get it down to a good temperature..

I went back out 5 minutes later and the temp was 77... Checked the compressor and it was off and hot.. not scalding hot.. but hot enough were you didn't want to keep your hand on it for too long... the GFCI outlet i had wired in did not trip, the fan on the inside of the chamber was still going, just the compressor shut down on me...

Do you think i blew the compressor? or blew a fuze in the compressor? Any ideas on what could have happend? you think i just overworked it?

this really sucks.. was trying to have this built for family brewing tomorrow... any help or advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

UPDATE: I unplugged the compressor and let it cool for about an hour and a half... plugged it back in to test and it works... thinking maybe the ambient temperature of my garage is too high (91 degrees) and the compressor was working way to hard... I'll have to move it inside tomorrow (house is at 76) and test it again...

Please let me know though if the wiring looks off though, or you think there may be some other problem.

Thanks again everyone!!!!
 
Wiring looks good. Compressors can have built-in overtemp switches.

I looked through some of your other threads and see that this is all associated with a fermentation chamber built with the cooling components from a mini-fridge. You must consider that you've tripled or even quadrupled the internal dimensions. Was there anything in the chamber during your test? I assume the fan is being used to circulate air across the evaporator coils inside the chamber?

I'm not too familiar with mini-fridges but I'm guessing that there is no forced air movement over the condensor coils, which helps dissipate the heat generated during the cooling process. You might consider adding a fan that blows over the condensor coils. This will help.
 
Thank you... Yes, It is for a fermentation chamber. I added a fan to move air over the cooling coils as well... it looks pretty cool. I'm going to update my fermentation chamber thread with the latest results.

I let the compressor cool and it turned back on, I actually brewed some beer yesterday and put it in the fermentation chamber and it seems to be holding stable around 72 degrees...

Thank you for your help on this!! really appreciated!
 
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