Help wiring a Love Controller

Can someone tell me how to wire a love dual stage controller a specific way? I want to put the controller in a project enclosure with extension cord leads coming off of the box rather than hard wiring it to the freezer and heater. Much like the ranco controller sold at morebeer. This way I can switch applications without rewiring. Any help would be appreciated.

theron said:

Can someone tell me how to wire a love dual stage controller a specific way? I want to put the controller in a project enclosure with extension cord leads coming off of the box rather than hard wiring it to the freezer and heater. Much like the ranco controller sold at morebeer. This way I can switch applications without rewiring. Any help would be appreciated.

Click to expand...

Not going to pretend to know what that is but speaking as an electrician
how about trying this:

Make 2 complete different circuits in your enclosure hard wired to a
switch with 3 choices ON OFF ON <--- like that

where you can choose between the two circuits and off

should prevent rewiring since you have 2 wired circuits.

Here is what I did using a Love TSS2 with a TS-61 temperature probe. I bought two extension cords to provide the wire and plugs & receptacles. I left about 6ft of cord attached to the female receptacles into which I plug my fridge and heater (40w heating pad). The male end of the extension cord I left about 10' long so I could easily plug it in and then slide the fridge back in place. According to the wiring diagram I have the fridge running off the higher capacity set of contacts and the heater off the lower capacity contacts.




I contained this inside a PVC plastic enclosure which is why the enclosure is not grounded. All the outlets in my brew area are GFCI protected providing an added layer of protection.





Keep in mind that all wiring (except for the temp probe) must carry the full current load of your fridge & heater. I used 14ga wire. You can use house wiring wire nuts or Lowes & Home Depot sell small insulated junction strips that allow you to tie up to four wires together. They are in the aisle next to the electrical tools & supplies (wire strippers, wire nuts).

Connect the two wires from the temperature probe to terminals 1 and 3. It does not matter which wire goes where. Shown as pencil lines on drawing.

From the male (prongs sticking out) plug of the extension cord cut off the outter layer of insulation exposing the three wires inside, and do the same with your two female receptacles.

Connect the three green wires together so you can pass the ground connection on to your heater and fridge. There is no ground connection to the Love controller. Shown as green on drawing.

Connect all the white wires from your two female receptacles and male plug and run a jumper up to terminal 5 on the Love controller. This is your common and serves as a ground. Shown as yellow on drawing.

Now, take the black (hot) wire from your male plug and connect it to terminals 4, 7 and 10 on the Love controller. This is getting always "on" power to the controller (terminal 4) and to your two output relays (terminals 7, 10).

Connect the black wire from a female receptacle to terminal 8 and label the receptacle "fridge". Output 1 (terminals 6, 7, 8) is the output that can handle up to 16amps.

Connect the black wire from your other female receptacle to terminal 11 and label the receptacle "heat". Output 2 (terminals 9, 10, 11) is the output that can handle up to 8 amps.

The instructions for programming the Love leave a bit to be desired so here is what I did.

I have my controller set to hold the temp between 68 and 69. The heat or fridge turn on when the temperature goes .1f above or below the set range. I have a one degree dead zone to prevent the heat and fridge from both running at the same time and to prevent them from quickly cycling on/off which is bad for the fridge.

Here is how my controller is programmed. Most are the factory default, I am only listing the values I changed.
SP1 69
sp2 68
r1 .1
r2 .1
a1 72
a3 32
c2 inv
p5 1

You can change SP1 and SP2 to be whatever temperature you want. For example when I want to cold crash the fermentor for a few days to clear the beer before kegging I change SP1 to 34 and SP2 to 30 which holds my fridge between 33.5 and 34f.

Wow thanks for the great info and pics. One last question. Is your controller set up for a minimum/maximum cycle time for the fridge? I've read it helps to extend the life of the compressor if set so it has to be off for 10 min before it's cycled on again.

Does not look like he has that parameter set up !

c0 = Minimum relay stop time. Minimum time from the disconnection
of a relay until it can be switched on again

Sorry it took so long. I've been out of town. As samc pointed out I do not have the minimum stop time programmed. When summer comes back around I may program 5 or 10 minutes relay stop time or increase the r1 and r2 values if I notice the fridge cycling on/off too frequently.

pilotdane said:

Here is what I did using a Love TSS2 with a TS-61 temperature probe. I bought two extension cords to provide the wire and plugs & receptacles. I left about 6ft of cord attached to the female receptacles into which I plug my fridge and heater (40w heating pad). The male end of the extension cord I left about 10' long so I could easily plug it in and then slide the fridge back in place. According to the wiring diagram I have the fridge running off the higher capacity set of contacts and the heater off the lower capacity contacts.

Click to expand...

I'm glad to finally see such a clear write up! Do you think it would draw too much current through the controller if instead of just female cord ends I put an outlet hooked up to each output so I could hook up a small 4" fan to keep the temperature consistent throughout the chamber? Meaning I'd have a heating element (pad or ceramic lamp) and small fan hooked up to sp2, and the fridge and a small fan to SP1.

Resurrecting an older thread here... I've cleaned up the photo using Powerpoint and colored the wires to (roughly) the US standard for wire colors. I am NOT an electrician. Please verify the information. I simply used Pilotdane's initial drawing and simplified it for people that need clarification.

Thanks for posting everything in this thread it made it really easy wiring up my TSS2 for my fermentation chamber.

Chromados