Panel alarm use?

[MplsUgly]

Simple question regarding E HERMS panels and PID use.

What are people using the alarm function for on the panel? It seams like the only use would be to set at a temp to be notified when you are close to a boil or at a mash or strike temp. It just seams like a lot of crap to have something annoying that need another switch and or light and space on my small enclosure.

Am I misunderstanding the use of these alarms or do a lot of people have these and value them?

 

[augiedoggy]

Simple question regarding E HERMS panels and PID use.

What are people using the alarm function for on the panel? It seams like the only use would be to set at a temp to be notified when you are close to a boil or at a mash or strike temp. It just seams like a lot of crap to have something annoying that need another switch and or light and space on my small enclosure.

Am I misunderstanding the use of these alarms or do a lot of people have these and value them?

Some people use timers on their phone or pc with an alarm besides that the other use is the one you stated for the boil time and hop additions. on my old panel the alarm came in handy for that and also because I set the alarm to notify me when I hit 207 degrees so I could babysit it from there to boiling to avoid boilovers. I also set it to notify me if the rims temp would go too far above or below the setpoint which I thought was kind of important so YMMV You absolutely dont need it so if your trying to talk yourself out of it... but it was like $10 in hardware for me for the alarm and 2 3-way switches.

 

[MplsUgly]

This sounds logical. I'm using EZboil controllers so I think I can tune those to step down the power/duty cycle at a certain temp close to boil. I think with some trial and error I can work it out to not need an alarm, plus just paying attention should keep everything on track.

The issue is that I have a 17x8 enclosure that I would like to use so space is going to be at a premium. The idea is that I want a 2 PID, three vessel HERMS system.

What I haven't worked out is how to control the mash the way I have it planned. I would like to use one PID, but with two RTDs that are selectable, one would be in the mash outlet, one would be the HLT water temp. I want this to be able to select the RTD that I want driving the heating element in the HLT.

I have seen people have a PID for mash and PID for HLT and select what PID to control the HLT element but it sounds more simple to select the RTD rather than the PID.

Maybe I’m wrong?

 

[OdeCloner]

EZBoils have built in timers, alarms/beepers. No need IMO. When I did my single-element build with the EZBoil, I skipped the alarm. 4 brews in, no regrets!

 

[Bobby_M]

This sounds logical. I'm using EZboil controllers so I think I can tune those to step down the power/duty cycle at a certain temp close to boil. I think with some trial and error I can work it out to not need an alarm, plus just paying attention should keep everything on track.

The issue is that I have a 17x8 enclosure that I would like to use so space is going to be at a premium. The idea is that I want a 2 PID, three vessel HERMS system.

What I haven't worked out is how to control the mash the way I have it planned. I would like to use one PID, but with two RTDs that are selectable, one would be in the mash outlet, one would be the HLT water temp. I want this to be able to select the RTD that I want driving the heating element in the HLT.

I have seen people have a PID for mash and PID for HLT and select what PID to control the HLT element but it sounds more simple to select the RTD rather than the PID.

Maybe I’m wrong?

You only need to regulate the HLT temp and the mash will follow. The only bummer is that even though the ezboil can switch to boil mode, you really can't switch between two rtds because the calibration may vary between two units. Better to double up on the ezboils.

 

[augiedoggy]

EZBoils have built in timers, alarms/beepers. No need IMO. When I did my single-element build with the EZBoil, I skipped the alarm. 4 brews in, no regrets!

Yes I upgraded one of my pids to the ezboil and used one of it's relays to start a separate hop timer and used the alarm in the ezboil for just the kettle it controlled as well as the timer..

 

[augiedoggy]

You only need to regulate the HLT temp and the mash will follow. The only bummer is that even though the ezboil can switch to boil mode, you really can't switch between two rtds because the calibration may vary between two units. Better to double up on the ezboils.

Yes but is the temp readout in the boil kettle that critical? Even if it's off 2 degrees you can just compensate.

 

[MplsUgly]

Well understood. Thanks all.

I think what I really want is multiple RTD readouts that don't control anything just to monitor temperatures in different locations of the system. I know this wouldn't be needed but I think it would be interesting to have HERMS inlet, HERMS outlet, Mash Outlet and HLT outlet. I think the only one that I would control with a PID would be the mash outlet controlling the HLT element. The others would be just for monitoring.

I have a lot of PT100s I could use but I dont have a good way to display them cheaply.

 

[Honda88]

I know you want digital display but honestly there is nothing wrong with a well calibrated analog probe. The 2 vessel system I'm building just has one sensor to control the element and a couple analog temperature probes in the center of the kettles to monitor temperatures. I'm sure if you really wanted to find a digital solution you could but it would take time and resources. There are things that I would have wanted different with my build but I'm trying not to get hung up on something so I can get to the end result. For me the tinkering part is fun and challenging but I enjoy brewing more than tinkering so getting past that step without too many headaches is kind of my goal.

 

[augiedoggy]

Well understood. Thanks all.

I think what I really want is multiple RTD readouts that don't control anything just to monitor temperatures in different locations of the system. I know this wouldn't be needed but I think it would be interesting to have HERMS inlet, HERMS outlet, Mash Outlet and HLT outlet. I think the only one that I would control with a PID would be the mash outlet controlling the HLT element. The others would be just for monitoring.

I have a lot of PT100s I could use but I dont have a good way to display them cheaply.

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Digital-0-56-Auto-LED-Display-Thermometer-Meter-Gauge-PT100-Sensor-200-450-/222339458173?hash=item33c476e47d%3Ag%3AuF0AAOSwo4pYSTRe&_trkparms=pageci%253A404cf39b-2dd8-11e7-bc06-74dbd18084aa%257Cparentrq%253Ac042aeaa15b0abc10c767d32ffff2328%257Ciid%253A10

 

[MplsUgly]

That looks like what i need but that shipping from China is the slooooow boat!!

 

[highland_brewer]

EZBoils have built in timers, alarms/beepers. No need IMO. When I did my single-element build with the EZBoil, I skipped the alarm. 4 brews in, no regrets!

The 300 is the only one with an alarm.. the 120 does not have alarm outputs

 

[Honda88]

That looks like what i need but that shipping from China is the slooooow boat!!

yep, I was lucky I found my Chinese RTD sensor from someone who was selling it from the U.S. Its funny, there are people buying these things in bulk from china and selling them at a slightly higher price out of the U.S because they know people don't want to wait 3 weeks for shipping.