Colorado Brewing Systems touchscreen controls -- pics and info

[Horseflesh]

I took some pictures of the touchscreen while I was getting familiar with the system, thought some folks might be interested.

I got the touchscreen (which they call a PLC) as an upgrade for my Nano Brewer Home system. It appears to support functions that are not part of the Nano, like automatic water filling. Tim at CBS said that it is possible to add the required hardware, which is cool.

Be aware that if you get a Co Brew Systems rig with the PLC, the control panel will be built as UL listed. This means that the power supply will be one normal 120V line and one 3-conductor 240V line. Without the PLC, they said you should get a 4-wire 240V outlet, which can power the whole thing.

On to the pics...

Main menu, showing the mash running. Main menu view has water fill controls on the right, and on the left are the recipe select, start boil, and start mash buttons. (Operation notes: When the mash is running, if the temperature probe is not hooked up, timer steps run without delay in between. With the temp probe connected, timers don't start until you hit the target temperature. Also, if you edit the current recipe, those changes won't be applied here until you touch the Recipe button and re-select it.)

Main menu, boil selected. You can enter the boil temperature and element power. I am not sure but I THINK that once you hit boil, it automatically reduces element power from 100% to the value listed here. (Still haven't gotten the system wet.)

Now it shows that it's filling the rinse water, which my Nano can't actually do. (BTW, the Rinse Water button toggles between Rinse and Mash water.)

This is a Recipe main screen. You can enter mash temp/time steps and water volumes. The water volumes are used by the fill controls on the main screen.

Also in a recipe, you can input names, times, and amounts for hop additions. The mash timer has some quirks. It appears that all time values are countdown timers that run in parallel. However, I had problems unless the steps were sorted by time, from smallest to largest.

Settings menu.

PID settings.

Temperature settings. Looks like you can use the Offset to calibrate.

Manual controls page. (Pump control is on the main screen. Element controls are part of the Mash and Boil functions on the main screen.)

That's it!

 

[woo_pig]

Nice .

 

[wyowolf]

Wow, I had no idea they even had that option? must be new... I bought mine last year.

 

[Horseflesh]

It was a pretty new option when I ordered in August. I think what I got is even different than the PLC they showed back then, as if they changed suppliers. Can't be sure about that, but that's what it looks like.

 

[usarcher]

I got the touchscreen for my Down Under version and it just has one 4 wire 240v line, no separate 120v line needed.

The PLC they show in their video is of the larger 7" screens for the dual systems, ours is just a smaller 4.3" screen as we don't need the space for running two kettles.

Did you happen to get a price on adding the water control?

 

[Horseflesh]

Ok, that makes sense about the screen size.

I definitely expected a 4 wire unit and had a 4 wire outlet installed at Tim's suggestion. Believe me, I was surprised by what I got. I am not sure if I can use my outlet and just not hook up the neutral wire, or if I need to pay the electrician to come back and put in a 3 wire outlet. That's my next thread.

CBS has been quick to reply to all my questions in email, and they sent missing parts immediately, but they have not handled my order well overall. It took 10 weeks to arrive, had no power cable, no control panel bracket, and not the electrical hookup they told me I needed. There were also no instructions for the PLC, and when the thing asked for a password (!) I guessed 4 zeroes and got lucky. So, I like the gear and would order again but things have not been easy so far.