Control panel

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Not mandatory but makes life easier. You can program in your temperatures for the heating elements to control everything from hot liquor temps, mash temps and boil, kind of set and forget:)
 
It's not mandatory, but it makes is much easier to turn off (or down) a kettle that is about to boil over!

And it depends on what you're doing. If you have an HLT, for example, how will you control the temperature that it reaches? If you only go as hot as it goes, and then turn it off that would work but it's much easier to set it for "175" and walk away knowing it won't be boiling when you come back.
 
Yes, my current setup is plug-in only. It is difficult to control the temps if you are planning on using it for your mash though. Definitely the cheapest way to get into electric brewing is to build a plug in kettle, then add in the pid/control later. I did this and it works well, but need to add the temp control for biab all grain.
 
I just don't have the know-how to build one of those boxes....and I certainly don't want to mess something like thatup.
 
The guy that built my control panel is a friend of mine (lschiavo on this forum). Maybe you have a friend that would be able to help out?

I'm not able to build my own CP, so I know that some people have the know-how and ability and some don't even with great diagrams. You may know someone that can do it, though, and save you a ton of $$$$.
 
I said the same thing, I don't know how to build one of those control panels. I did do it and it was very simple. You don't have to go crazy. I have a 1 pid 2 element setup, that let's you switch and use the pid for hlt or for boil control. Find a p-j diagram you want to use and ask questions if you don't know what to do. With hbt helping you you should be able to do it even with minimal electrical knowledge. Don't worry about messing something up. It will either work or not work. You are not building a thermonuclear device, it's pretty straight forward.
 
I plan on doing a simple electric kettle. It seems daunting but there is to s of information on here. Good luck!
 
I said the same thing, I don't know how to build one of those control panels. I did do it and it was very simple. You don't have to go crazy. I have a 1 pid 2 element setup, that let's you switch and use the pid for hlt or for boil control. Find a p-j diagram you want to use and ask questions if you don't know what to do. With hbt helping you you should be able to do it even with minimal electrical knowledge. Don't worry about messing something up. It will either work or not work. You are not building a thermonuclear device, it's pretty straight forward.

Thank you so much for that.

icantbejon,

Please describe what you are trying to achieve. Perhaps I can help and develop a diagram for you. Wiring it all up is really easy. I'll help in any way that I can.

Let's keep this thread active until you are brewing.

Wising you the best.

P-J
 
Thank you so much for that.

icantbejon,

Please describe what you are trying to achieve. Perhaps I can help and develop a diagram for you. Wiring it all up is really easy. I'll help in any way that I can.

Let's keep this thread active until you are brewing.

Wising you the best.

P-J

I'm not 100% sure what I'm after yet. I have one keg already, and I'm looking to find a second that I can convert as well. I also have a 1/2 keg (the 7 gl type) that I want to use as my HLT. I want something simple I guess...I enjoy the process of sitting out with my beer while its brewing, I don't want to push buttons and walk away for 3 hrs and have beer. I guess I want to push the button to fire up the elec burners and control them. I haven't decided whether to go gravity feed or pump yet, so probably in short term it will be gravity fed.
 
I'm not 100% sure what I'm after yet. I have one keg already, and I'm looking to find a second that I can convert as well. I also have a 1/2 keg (the 7 gl type) that I want to use as my HLT. I want something simple I guess...I enjoy the process of sitting out with my beer while its brewing, I don't want to push buttons and walk away for 3 hrs and have beer. I guess I want to push the button to fire up the elec burners and control them. I haven't decided whether to go gravity feed or pump yet, so probably in short term it will be gravity fed.

I don't know that having a control panel necessarily means you're pushing buttons and walking away. I have a simple CP with 1 PID and 1 element. A typical brewday is: fill the kettle with water and start the PID/Element set to 165F, mill grain, get better bottles sanitized and ready, sit around for another 40 minutes waiting for water to come to temp; add grain and water to MT; sit around for an hour (occasionally stirring), drain MT to buckets, batch sparge to buckets, add wort to a now empty kettle, set PID to 212F, wait 15-20 minutes to get to boil, add hops, boil, chill to better bottles. What I'm not doing is chasing temperatures all over the place and alternating ice cubes and boiling water in the MT to make sure I hit 152 (or whatever the target is).

Adding switches in for the pumps is relatively painless and inexpensive - even if you don't add the pumps right away. $15 for an auber push-button switch and some bits of wire. It's much easier to add the switches up front than later when you want to get pumps.

This was a very helpful thread for me when I built my control panel:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/ready-not-e-biab-here-i-come-312256/

And the only electrical work I did before was change out light bulbs, but after building my control panel I feel much more confident about doing minor electrical work in the house now. I do recommend getting a decent multimeter and learning how to use it. It's essential for testing your circuits.
 
I thought I'd revive this thread since I have similar questions.

I don't argue that a PID and switches are aren't necessary to control an electric setup, but what is the purpose of the control panel?

Is it to simply house the wires?

Is its main purpose to contain all controls in one place?

There's no doubt in my mind that one can operate an element through a pid by simply wiring them together without a control box.
 
There's more to it than just a PID. The PID takes input from the temperature probe, and provides an output to turn on / off the element. The PID itself can't actually power the element, so you run it through a Steady State Relay (SSR) that takes a relatively small control voltage from the PID and then switches the main power on and off. Then most people add some sort of an on/off switch, and some mechanical contactors (SSRs leak a little power) and an emergency power off button and a buzzer alarm and... well, your panel grows.

The absoloute simplest you could have would be a PID and an SSR. You'd still want to mount this in some sort of a box to keep the wires out of harms way and keep the devices dry in case you splash any water around. You don't want the powered equipment just sitting out on a table.

So yes - a control panel is really just to house everything you need in one simple, compact location, and to keep it away from wandering hands or splashed water.
-Kevin
 
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