ebay aquarium temp controller build

Well I finally got around to building my temp controller last night. I brewed an IPA and was eager to put it into use.

I checked my temp this morning and it had reverted back to 10˚C. I missed the part where you had to push the power button to save changes. The directions that came with mine didn't say that you had to.

Oh well, my temp is now coming back up......SLOWLY. I'll give the carboy a good swirl to wake my yeast up when I hit 20˚C.

I got mine up and running and it worked like a charm. Until the day I actually needed it. I brewed yesterday and but the carboy in it and when I got home from work the controller was off. I reset the GFCI plug and it came up but as soon as the fridge tried to turn on it would fault out again. Needless to say my fridge is shot.

I wonder if this has to do with it cycling on and off? I set the compressor delay to 10 minutes and taped the sensor to the outside of the carboy with bubble wrap on the outside. Was there something wrong with that method?

StrmStlkr said:

I got mine up and running and it worked like a charm. Until the day I actually needed it. I brewed yesterday and but the carboy in it and when I got home from work the controller was off. I reset the GFCI plug and it came up but as soon as the fridge tried to turn on it would fault out again. Needless to say my fridge is shot.

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Have you tried plugging the fridge directly into the wall to verify if it's the fridge or your controller that is causing the problem?

Walker said:

Have you tried plugging the fridge directly into the wall to verify if it's the fridge or your controller that is causing the problem?

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Yes, I plugged it into a outlet without a GFCI and the compressor never turned on but the light would work on the inside. When I plugged the fridge directly into the GFCI outlet it tripped instantly again.

How are you guys removing the tab to separate the two outlets? I keep breaking the outlet itself. I bought the cheapest ones that I saw, which may be the problem.

At least I have the cooling side setup. That's all I need for now as my basement stays at 70˚F this time of year.

TRainH2o said:

How are you guys removing the tab to separate the two outlets? I keep breaking the outlet itself. I bought the cheapest ones that I saw, which may be the problem.

At least I have the cooling side setup. That's all I need for now as my basement stays at 70˚F this time of year.

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The best way is to bend the tab up with a screwdriver then repeatedly bend down/up with needle nose pliers until metal fatigue makes it break off. You should not have to apply much force. My dad is a retired electrician, as a kid I watched him do this countless times when wireing a living room where you wanted the bottom socket to be switched (for lamps) and the top to be constantly on for other stuff.

You can use a pair of needle nose pliers, I did this for one of mine the other I used two small extension cord ends for.

Agreed. Just bend it back and forth until it breaks. Took me like 30 something times or something. Good news on my situation though. I started troubleshooting my broken fridge and found that the compressor and start relay are both fine. Pluged it in and checked voltage at the relay, no voltage so I started working my way upstream and after messing with the fan and thermostat switch it started working.

It must be a loose connection at the fan or thermostat switch (fridge). If it goes down again I will check these places first and if I determine it is a problem with the fridge thermostat, I will just jumper the hot line.

If ya had to replace the probe, does anyone have an idea of what kind of thermocouple it uses? I'm considering using it for BBQ as well...would like to replace with a high temp style probe.

Anyone mount this to their keezer with the display exposed in the collar?

If you put in the back corner one side of the 90 could be the display and the other side could be the outlets.

For the display in the front of the keezer, you could do the same as above and just run a long extension to the back out the keezer and into the wall.

Can the project box be made out of wood?

I plan to mount mine on the front of my Garage Keezer & put the outlets in the back of the collar. I don't see why the project box couldn't be made of wood, should work just fine for a keezer/ferm chamber build.

Anyone mount this to their keezer with the display exposed in the collar?

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Yes I did that. I don't have a pic but I'll try to post one later. The only issue is the thickness of the wood - Mine is only 3/4 inch thick and it was barely enough room to fit if I recall (using the included flange, anyway). I put a couple of layers of foam insulation on the inside of the wood where I could but my collar is like 9" tall so I was still loosing heat quickly. A fan in the box has helped that but I'm still having wild foamy beer issues that I'm trying to work through...

ubermick said:

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Is there any way to put DC LEDs on the other side of the relay. I am not really current in my EE powers, but I am thinking 2 individual LEDS, or maybe one bi-color LED.

Thanks for this thread. I bookmarked it a little while back and just ordered mine tonight.

I am cleaning up a fridge i just got today and will be installing this in it to get ready for my fermentation chamber.

I am so excited to get it all working. Have a beer, apfelwein and a cider that i will be placing in it asap

thekingofspain said:

Is there any way to put DC LEDs on the other side of the relay. I am not really current in my EE powers, but I am thinking 2 individual LEDS, or maybe one bi-color LED.

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You could but you'd have to step the 115V AC down to ~6V DC or so to run a led. IMHO it's probably not worth the trouble.

wyzazz said:

You could but you'd have to step the 115V AC down to ~6V DC or so to run a led. IMHO it's probably not worth the trouble.

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no you wouldn't, all you'd need is a resistor to limit the current to 20mA (or whatever the rating of the LED is) or so. The LED itself is a diode and will 'rectify' the AC, so you just need to limit the current. a 10k ohm at 5W should work.

Bjornbrewer said:

no you wouldn't, all you'd need is a resistor to limit the current to 20mA (or whatever the rating of the LED is) or so. The LED itself is a diode and will 'rectify' the AC, so you just need to limit the current. a 10k ohm at 5W should work.

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Really? I'll take your word for it but I wouldn't do it.

Bjornbrewer said:

no you wouldn't, all you'd need is a resistor to limit the current to 20mA (or whatever the rating of the LED is) or so. The LED itself is a diode and will 'rectify' the AC, so you just need to limit the current. a 10k ohm at 5W should work.

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This will work, the only issues I would see are that the LED would work at half brightness because you'll only be running current 1/2 of the time and could get some interesting strobe effects with out of phase light sources.

My other concern would be that you'd be consistently passing the reverse bias voltage rating of the diode, though you wouldnt over current it, if the diode is not designed to operate in the reverse bias region (like a zener diode) the life of the diode may be reduced.

Putting a 1N4004 in series with the diode (make sure the diodes are wired the same direction) would prevent the reverse bias problem on the LED. Also using a full wave rectifier before the LED would prevent the brightness/strobe possibility.

wyzazz said:

You could but you'd have to step the 115V AC down to ~6V DC or so to run a led. IMHO it's probably not worth the trouble.

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Forget all the craziness with diodes and what not.

Got an old cell phone charger? That's a very easy way to step the 115VAC down to 6VDC.

You can hide it inside of your enclosure.

I did something similar for my HERMS system to get the DC source for a pulse width modulator from the AC feeding the box.

Walker said:

Forget all the craziness with diodes and what not.

Got an old cell phone charger? That's a very easy way to step the 115VAC down to 6VDC.

You can hide it inside of your enclosure.

I did something similar for my HERMS system to get the DC source for a pulse width modulator from the AC feeding the box.

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+1 This is far easier I did the same!

shushikiary said:

This will work, the only issues I would see are that the LED would work at half brightness because you'll only be running current 1/2 of the time and could get some interesting strobe effects with out of phase light sources.

My other concern would be that you'd be consistently passing the reverse bias voltage rating of the diode, though you wouldnt over current it, if the diode is not designed to operate in the reverse bias region (like a zener diode) the life of the diode may be reduced.

Putting a 1N4004 in series with the diode (make sure the diodes are wired the same direction) would prevent the reverse bias problem on the LED. Also using a full wave rectifier before the LED would prevent the brightness/strobe possibility.

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true, the reverse rating would have to be high enough...or put that 1n400x in reverse parallel with the LED. That way the LED would only see the .7v drop of the other diode during the negative half cycle.

Half waving an LED and strobing isn't a problem . Most LED's you see in the most common day to day devices are being turned on an off at some random frequency rate anyways. the human eye can't see it turn on an off faster than 13Hz anyways.

Bjornbrewer said:

true, the reverse rating would have to be high enough...or put that 1n400x in reverse parallel with the LED. That way the LED would only see the .7v drop of the other diode during the negative half cycle.

Half waving an LED and strobing isn't a problem . Most LED's you see in the most common day to day devices are being turned on an off at some random frequency rate anyways. the human eye can't see it turn on an off faster than 13Hz anyways.

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Yea the strobing would mostly come from if you tried to film it on camera.

Hmm, I think series same direction or reverse parallel would work. In reverse parallel you're right you'd only see the .7v drop across the diode. In series same direction you'd prevent all current flow on one half of the cycle and not exceed the reverse voltage of the bigger diode (the 4 series is 400v), so the voltage across the LED would be very small (leakage current of the diode, blablabla) but the voltage across the line side of the resistor and the line side of the diode would be the voltage of the other half of the sinusoid.

So either way would work, I think. Just goes to show there are many solutions (diode in series, parallel, and even just using a wall wort, lol). I'd do what ever ends up cheapest/easiest for you .

Has anyone used this controller with a freezer on top fridge on bottom? Since the fridge is cooled by just moving air from the freezer I was thinking all I would have to do is have the cooler circuit control the fan. This will eventually go into a full chest freezer build but for now I cant turn down this free fridge. Plus it holds 3 carboys + bottles or 5 cornies + a carboy with frosty mugs and a yeast bank on top!

cant find the link to these controllers please help.

danger831 said:

cant find the link to these controllers please help.

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http://cgi.ebay.com/Mini-Digital-Te...tem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f00a8fd21

thanks will these work to control a mini fridge size wine chiller. Also will they work on a full size deep freeze has any one been using them is the internal switching able to handle the load.thanks again

They can handle anything under 10A, check the sticker on the back of the fridge/freezer to be sure. I use one on a small chest freezer and a large chest freezer.

The instruction sheet and the website both have the amperage and/or wattage specs. (I forget which)

Have not received mine yet... (Hong Kong isn't exactly nearby ) Again, can anyone comment on the type of thermocouple? It seems it won't accept just anything like the auber PID's do.....

No clue what kind of thermocouple it is, but I do recall that someone got an extra sent to them from the Mfgr for a little coin.

I had the ebay guy send me a replacement - I simply told him that when I plugged it in, all I got was an "E E E E" message.

As to the thermocouple, it's just a cheap thermister. Plopped a 10K 1/4watt resistor in there when I was sans probe, and it read 25 degrees. So not sure if it was a TB or a TK. (Don't ask how I know this, I just did what I was told!)

about how long does shipping take

i got mine in like 10 days.

Woo hoo, my wife just said that mine came in the mail today. It took 10 days to get it. Ordered on 6-11. Can't wait do do the build and then make some beer.

craigbrew said:

Woo hoo, my wife just said that mine came in the mail today. It took 10 days to get it. Ordered on 6-11. Can't wait do do the build and then make some beer.

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aww hell! I ordered mine two days after you and will be on vacation on wednesday LOL

figures right?!

Not to hijack the thread but would this aqua temp controller work for a 22cf deep freezer?

http://www.fish-street.com/temperature_controller_10a?category_id=49

Thanks,
Az~

i'm not 100% sure, but i think that looks like basically the same thing with a slightly different appearance. it's rated for 10A just like the other one, but i couldn't find anything about 110 or 220.

Android thanks for the response I did some digging and found the manf. and model # it looks like its gtg

http://www.iecworld.com/ym/index.php?TabId=7&pid=10762

Just got mine yesterday....now I gotta find the time and $$$ to get the fermentation chamber set up.

i think I might need to order another one... the one i made in the first place was for a fermentation chamber but ended up on a keezer... amazing how many temperature controllers a brewer needs!