Hbrew
New Member
I've started working on a project that I thought y'all might be interested in, and would like some feedback on. The idea is that I'm designing and building (from the ground up) a temperature controller for fermentation chambers. It will be able to control both heating and cooling, with standard AC connectors on the back for both. Right now I'm looking at using a NTC thermistor as the sensor, and dropping it into a thin stainless steel tube (so it can be put straight into the wort/beer). The interesting part about this is that I am designing it to run temperature profiles, as well as hold a single value. The idea is that you could punch in a set temps and times that you want the fermentation to occur at, then just let it run and it would step through the profile. At the same time, it will log the data, so you can go back and see what the beer was really doing.
Like I said, I wanted to see what people thought of the idea. I know it's a little lite on the technical details (some of those I've figured out, others not so much), I've started but am only maybe 50% done on a first run at the coding. I also wanted to see what y'all thought about a few things.
First off is the accuracy of the sensor. My plan was to make sure it would read correctly to within about a degree. I assume this will be accurate enough, because from what I understand the variation in temp in the static bulk of the fermenter could easily vary by more than a degree between any two points, so a finer measurement doesn't really mean much. I'm not sure about this, though, and I'm also interested in agitating the wort/beer to keep yeast in suspension and maintain better control, but that's a conversation for a different topic and forum.
The second thing is a little more practical. I've been trying to find a connector I'm happy with for the temp probe. I'm thinking of using an M8 connector, as it's a sensor connector and is fairly standardized. But they're a bit on the pricey side (somewhere around $20 for a mating pair). I was wondering if anyone had some good suggestions on where to get M8 connectors for less, or perhaps a different option.
Thanks, and I hope that this build proves to be interesting for everyone.
Neal
Like I said, I wanted to see what people thought of the idea. I know it's a little lite on the technical details (some of those I've figured out, others not so much), I've started but am only maybe 50% done on a first run at the coding. I also wanted to see what y'all thought about a few things.
First off is the accuracy of the sensor. My plan was to make sure it would read correctly to within about a degree. I assume this will be accurate enough, because from what I understand the variation in temp in the static bulk of the fermenter could easily vary by more than a degree between any two points, so a finer measurement doesn't really mean much. I'm not sure about this, though, and I'm also interested in agitating the wort/beer to keep yeast in suspension and maintain better control, but that's a conversation for a different topic and forum.
The second thing is a little more practical. I've been trying to find a connector I'm happy with for the temp probe. I'm thinking of using an M8 connector, as it's a sensor connector and is fairly standardized. But they're a bit on the pricey side (somewhere around $20 for a mating pair). I was wondering if anyone had some good suggestions on where to get M8 connectors for less, or perhaps a different option.
Thanks, and I hope that this build proves to be interesting for everyone.
Neal
