Well, I went and did it now. I splurged on a brand new glass front refrigerator to hold my 7 gallon conical. I debated for a long time about getting a glycol chiller. I decided that for me, the contained box to hold my fermenter which minimizes heat/cool losses outweighed the flexibility of the glycol system and being able to add more fermenters in the future. I don't foresee ever scaling up to having more than one beer going at a time. It will also look wicked cool with my fermenter in!
So, now I have this fancy new thing and am about to cut into it and void the warranty! I thought I would check with you all and get some advice before I proceed. As always, all help is greatly appreciated. All of the expertise of this community has consistently allowed me to play above my league on a regular basis. Thank you so much!
It is a Summit brand purchased online. Here is a link to the spec sheet.
It has a control panel at the top which lets you turn the unit on and off, switch the light off independently, and set the temperature. It also reads out the current temperature when you are not setting the set point. This panel is pretty nice and I think I might be able to keep it all intact and operational except for the temp control.
I'd like to keep the features of the light control and readout of the current temperature, while intercepting the control of the temperature and run that through a CraftBeer Pi with a probe in my fermenter thermowell. I'm open to other units as a suggestion, but I have a CBP for my brewery and am already somewhat familiar with how to build them and make them work. I have not dug into the configuration of that, but I’m assuming I could figure out how to run multiple GPIO pins for whatever I might need. I would prefer to use an advanced controller rather than try to adapt the built in temp controller. I will want to have a heater controller for the fermenter, the ability to have automated temp control for the fermentation cycle, and be able to network into the unit to check and set temps and program fermentation profiles.
Here's the schematic from the back of the refrigerator.
Here are some images of the two PCB boards. The green one lives behind the controls at the front side of the unit and the tan board is down near the compressor.
I am debating trying to intercept the low voltage controls vs intercepting the power side of things. I am also handicapped because I am not sure what the heater is, does, or how it operates. I’m guessing it is only for defrost cycles? The unit is a refrigerator, but the instructions reference an automatic defrost cycle. If that could stay operational for crash cooling cycles that would be good, but probably not essential.
I have experimented with unplugging the red wire to the compressor. This does in fact make the compressor stop running. When the unit is calling for cooling and this is unplugged there is a computer style fan on the bottom of the unit that still runs. It is blowing across a small set of evaporator coils on the bottom of the unit. (The main coils cover the whole back of the refrigerator.) There is also a triple fan inside at the top of the unit to blow cold air. This also continues to run if I unplug the red AC wire from the compressor.
I have no idea what 'E' is in this picture.
A=switched hot AC to compressor
B=unswitched hot AC
C=unswitched common AC. This is spliced to the white wire coming in from the chord.
D=unswitched hot coming in from the chord
If I were to control on the AC side, I could easily switch the red wire through my own controller, but I am not sure if I need to take some control of a heat cycle too, or where I would want to control that from. I will also need to find the fan circuits. The evaporator one I have traced, but not the ones at the top of the unit yet.
There is a ribbon cable that runs from the Control PCB to the Power PCB. This seems like an ideal spot to splice in to control on the low voltage side. This seems to be represented on the schematic with the seven lines between the two PCBs. From the Power PCB the 7 wires are labeled as such.
I have not been able to figure out what ‘RT1’, ‘F1C/F1H’, or ‘HEAT1’ mean. I think F1C/F1H might be the fan controller. This appears to be a 12v circuit so I would have to create a 12v circuit from the CraftBeer Pi. I have not really experimented with these pins yet. I may need to set up a 12v circuit and jump to some of these pins to see what they do.
I’m at a crossroads and think I need to figure out if I can utilize the low voltage side or this. I think that would greatly simplify my project. I am also hopeful/wondering if that would retain some of the logic of the original unit.
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.
So, now I have this fancy new thing and am about to cut into it and void the warranty! I thought I would check with you all and get some advice before I proceed. As always, all help is greatly appreciated. All of the expertise of this community has consistently allowed me to play above my league on a regular basis. Thank you so much!
It is a Summit brand purchased online. Here is a link to the spec sheet.
It has a control panel at the top which lets you turn the unit on and off, switch the light off independently, and set the temperature. It also reads out the current temperature when you are not setting the set point. This panel is pretty nice and I think I might be able to keep it all intact and operational except for the temp control.
I'd like to keep the features of the light control and readout of the current temperature, while intercepting the control of the temperature and run that through a CraftBeer Pi with a probe in my fermenter thermowell. I'm open to other units as a suggestion, but I have a CBP for my brewery and am already somewhat familiar with how to build them and make them work. I have not dug into the configuration of that, but I’m assuming I could figure out how to run multiple GPIO pins for whatever I might need. I would prefer to use an advanced controller rather than try to adapt the built in temp controller. I will want to have a heater controller for the fermenter, the ability to have automated temp control for the fermentation cycle, and be able to network into the unit to check and set temps and program fermentation profiles.
Here's the schematic from the back of the refrigerator.
Here are some images of the two PCB boards. The green one lives behind the controls at the front side of the unit and the tan board is down near the compressor.
I am debating trying to intercept the low voltage controls vs intercepting the power side of things. I am also handicapped because I am not sure what the heater is, does, or how it operates. I’m guessing it is only for defrost cycles? The unit is a refrigerator, but the instructions reference an automatic defrost cycle. If that could stay operational for crash cooling cycles that would be good, but probably not essential.
I have experimented with unplugging the red wire to the compressor. This does in fact make the compressor stop running. When the unit is calling for cooling and this is unplugged there is a computer style fan on the bottom of the unit that still runs. It is blowing across a small set of evaporator coils on the bottom of the unit. (The main coils cover the whole back of the refrigerator.) There is also a triple fan inside at the top of the unit to blow cold air. This also continues to run if I unplug the red AC wire from the compressor.
I have no idea what 'E' is in this picture.
A=switched hot AC to compressor
B=unswitched hot AC
C=unswitched common AC. This is spliced to the white wire coming in from the chord.
D=unswitched hot coming in from the chord
If I were to control on the AC side, I could easily switch the red wire through my own controller, but I am not sure if I need to take some control of a heat cycle too, or where I would want to control that from. I will also need to find the fan circuits. The evaporator one I have traced, but not the ones at the top of the unit yet.
There is a ribbon cable that runs from the Control PCB to the Power PCB. This seems like an ideal spot to splice in to control on the low voltage side. This seems to be represented on the schematic with the seven lines between the two PCBs. From the Power PCB the 7 wires are labeled as such.
I have not been able to figure out what ‘RT1’, ‘F1C/F1H’, or ‘HEAT1’ mean. I think F1C/F1H might be the fan controller. This appears to be a 12v circuit so I would have to create a 12v circuit from the CraftBeer Pi. I have not really experimented with these pins yet. I may need to set up a 12v circuit and jump to some of these pins to see what they do.
I’m at a crossroads and think I need to figure out if I can utilize the low voltage side or this. I think that would greatly simplify my project. I am also hopeful/wondering if that would retain some of the logic of the original unit.
Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.
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