Need Held Wiring Up Simple RIMS Control Panel

Hi all, after having our first baby boy, brewing has unfortunately taken a back seat, but with his birthday coming up I wouldnt miss out on brewing "Sweet Baby Boyd's Honey Amber Ale" (Recipe TBD). I was in the middle of building a simple RIMS tube 6 months ago and am tryign to finish it up in time for brewing this weekend. I made the simple 2" RIMS tube according to RIMS for Dummies with the following parts list:

• 120V - 1500 Watt Extra Low Density element
• SYL-4352
• 25A SSR
• Auber Liquid Tight 1/4 RTD Probe
• 15-Amp Combination Switch with Pilot Light Lowes #89198

All i want the control panel to do is to use the switch to turn on the PID and heater element, i will separately control the pump in order to keep the wiring simple as I am a total wiring Newb. Can someone suggest a diagram and parts list to finish out the build?

I recommend either getting another swicth or using a stacked (single pole/single pole) switch instead. That way you can turn your pid on without turning on your element. There are many senarios where this would be handy or necessary.

Here's the schematic I used for my RIMS control panel build.



I use DPST 125V/20A toggle switches. I added pilot lights to the circuits for a couple of bucks more.

edit: duplicate post

STL-

Working on something similar and have been reading up on your posts. Your schematic is really helpful. A few questions if you can point me in the right direction:
Did you wire in a master power switch, or does your PID just come on when you plug in your panel?
Did you wire in an inter-lock so the element can't be turned on unless the pump is in?
Does your element LED come on when your element switch is thrown, or is it only activated when the element is actually firing?

Thanks! (sorry if there's a more recent thread explaining this)

jgerken said:

STL-
Did you wire in a master power switch, or does your PID just come on when you plug in your panel?

Click to expand...

No master switch. Plug it in and it comes on. As such, you want to make sure the pump and element switches are turned off. This is visually verified by seeing the toggle switch covers are closed. Also, if the pump fires up it is probably dry so you'd get an audible indication as well.

jgerken said:

Did you wire in an inter-lock so the element can't be turned on unless the pump is in?

Click to expand...

Yes. The way I did it was to use high amperage toggle switches. The pump toggle switch is a double pole single throw switch (DPST). It's in the drawing.

Think of it this way:
For the pump, there is one switch between the power source and the pump.
For the element, there are 2 switches between the power source and element. Power must flow through one side of the pump switch on to the element switch then to the element.

This way I can only heat wort while the pump is on, but can run the pump without running the element. Make sense?

jgerken said:

Does your element LED come on when your element switch is thrown, or is it only activated when the element is actually firing?

Click to expand...

The element light only comes on when the PID calls for power. Since PIDs lead voltage, and enough voltage light up a small light like you might use, the element needs to be plugged in for the light to work properly.

There's a video a guy did at Beer Geek Nation. He did a nice job.

Here ya go: https://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=OUTJE3HG9Vk

I built him both the RIMs Ammo Can Controller and the RIMs tube with heating element.

Thanks for getting back to me stl! This is helpful.