bruin_ale
Well-Known Member
So I'm heavily leaning towards using a BCS for my build. I've done alot of research - I like the expandability and the interface. The PID route is nice also, but I'm a computer engineer so using a state machine just makes sense to me. In any case, after drooling over Kal's control panel and then starting to design my own I realized that there's really not much that I need to put on there - no PID display, I don't want to bother with separate power supplies for volt/amp meters, and even auto/manual switches seem unnecessary - if the BCS isn't working I wouldn't be able to PID or PWM the heating element so controlling a boil would be difficult.
So here's my question(s) for those with a BCS based system:
1. What's on your control panel ?
2. If you put switches for manual control - do you use them at all or do you just use the web interface switches. Do you find the switches unnecessary?
3. Anything on your panel that you absolutely wouldn't give up? I think an e-stop is about the only thing I see as an absolute necessity for my panel, otherwise maybe just a light to show which heating element is on would be a nice visual.
4. Did you mount the BCS in your panel or are you using cat-5 or some other method to route control signals? I'm thinking of mounting the BCS on the wall and running cat5, that way I can have a BCS-460 do double duty of fermentation control and brew-control.
5. I'm thinking the size of the enclosure can be significantly smaller than Kal's since there only needs to be a couple distribution bars, an SSR for each element and pump, and an e-stop switch. But I haven't started wiring so maybe I'm wrong - what size enclosure did you use?
So here's my question(s) for those with a BCS based system:
1. What's on your control panel ?
2. If you put switches for manual control - do you use them at all or do you just use the web interface switches. Do you find the switches unnecessary?
3. Anything on your panel that you absolutely wouldn't give up? I think an e-stop is about the only thing I see as an absolute necessity for my panel, otherwise maybe just a light to show which heating element is on would be a nice visual.
4. Did you mount the BCS in your panel or are you using cat-5 or some other method to route control signals? I'm thinking of mounting the BCS on the wall and running cat5, that way I can have a BCS-460 do double duty of fermentation control and brew-control.
5. I'm thinking the size of the enclosure can be significantly smaller than Kal's since there only needs to be a couple distribution bars, an SSR for each element and pump, and an e-stop switch. But I haven't started wiring so maybe I'm wrong - what size enclosure did you use?