Having trouble with Kal control panel

My friend and I built the Kal control panel, triple checked everything to make sure it was wired properly, turned it on and it shorted out because the adjustable dc power supply touched the back plate. When I turned the panel on the blue power light flashed and the main power relay turned on and off a few times until I turned the whole panel off. The flashing and relay engaged 3 times in about 2 seconds. We also had to replace the 7a fuse cause it got toasted. We unhooked the volt meter and when we turned the panel back on nothing happened. Any ideas as to what might be happening? I know it's not much info to go on but we poked around with a volt meter but don't really know much about where there should and should not be power. I'll take some readings and pictures when I get a chance but in the mean time I wondered if anyone could tell me if I fried another part and what that might be. Thanks!

Also, I plan on switching around an element relay with the main relay to see if that's the problem. I just don't know what else could have been fried.

You may have cooked the contactor coil so it wont close the relay and allow power into the circuit now. Disconnect everything after your main power contactor and energize it, then measure resistance across the contacts to see if the contactor is closing. I fried a power relay in a cobra (helicopter) by pinching a wire on it one time. Electricity will burn stuff up real real fast if you aren't careful.

I checked the relay just now and there is consistent resistance throughout the them all. The neutral bus is registering kinda funny so I checked the power coming into the panel and my electrical guy didn't feel it was necessary to hook up the neutral even though I told him it needs to be able to split to 120... This could be the cause of all our problems. Thoughts?

Resistance through a relay is bad when it is energized. Not the coil, but the contacts. Should read 0 ohms or very low, .8 to 1 ohm.

flanneltrees804 said:

I checked the relay just now and there is consistent resistance throughout the them all. The neutral bus is registering kinda funny so I checked the power coming into the panel and my electrical guy didn't feel it was necessary to hook up the neutral even though I told him it needs to be able to split to 120... This could be the cause of all our problems. Thoughts?

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Are you saying you only have 3 wires coming into your panel hot hot and ground?

We REALLY need to see either your schematic as reflective of your current situation or pictures of the wiring or, preferably, both.

OMJ said:

Are you saying you only have 3 wires coming into your panel hot hot and ground?

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Yes. I told my electrician exactly what I needed but didn't check his work like an idiot... This should cause the neutral bus to be uneffective and the 120v stuff to not work at all, including the power switch.

The schematic is the same as Kals, I naught the unassembled edition.

Power is coming off a 40amp breaker to the spa panel and then to the control panel. We used 10/4 cable but he only hooked up hot/hot/ground. I got power when I fired the thing up the first time and cooked the volt dc regulator. Since then, no sign of power. I haven't tested voltage coming through the power cable but will tomorrow.

Not running a neutral is probably your issue.

Can I just wire the neutral into the ground to test it?

It's...... ALIVE!!!

Hi,
I never saw this post before today, and sorry that you didn't have any responses to your 10/25 entries. I'm glad that you got it working, but you REALLY NEED to add what you did to go from F'd up to "IT'S ALIVE". Glad things are working, but there are a lot of people out here with Kal clones in various stages of work, and any/all help and info is appreciated.

Thanks, and hope things keep going in the right direction for you. Good luck with the rest of your system. Your panel looks great!

Dead to alive was as simple as adding a fourth leg to the main power. I'll expound in the morning. Thanks to all who helped!

A neutral is absolutely required to make my control panel work. It's how you get 120V to power everything in the control panel. Only the heating elements use 240V.

Without a neutral the control panel would have never come on (as was the case here).

Glad you got it working! I've seen lots of different choices for enclosure paint colour but yours is the first bronze one I've seen. Nice job!

Kal

kal said:

A neutral is absolutely required to make my control panel work. It's how you get 120V to power everything in the control panel. Only the heating elements use 240V.

Without a neutral the control panel would have never come on (as was the case here).

Glad you got it working! I've seen lots of different choices for enclosure paint colour but yours is the first bronze one I've seen. Nice job!

Kal

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Paint color was a last minute decision and I figured everyone was going black so I would do something different. I wish it were a bit darker but what the heck, it's done!

Running the neutral is a must and I told my electrician that but he didn't seem to agree. Granted he hasn't seen the control panel and hasn't done the research and build for it but that's all water under the bridge now. PIDs need to be calibrated, a few seals need tightening and we are ready to brew!

Thanks again to everyone that helped by giving feedback and advice, no way I could have built this without you all.