STC-1000 for dummies?

[FatDragon]

On recommendations from some of the excellent members of these forums, I bought an STC-1000 to control the temperature of my new wine fridge fermenting chamber, which doesn't offer the kind of control I want for fermenting. Unfortunately, I didn't realize in advance that the STC-1000 is something of a DIY device; I was expecting a little grey box with a temperature probe, a power supply, and two outlets for the heating and cooling elements, when in actuality I got a little box with a temperature probe, a wiring diagram, and a bunch of holes for connecting wires. The last electronics project I did was powering a light bulb with a lemon twenty years ago, so I'm a bit out of my element here.

I'm in China and bought the 220v version, if that makes a difference. My completely off-the-top-of-my-head line of thinking is that I find an unused power cord and wire its two leads in to the power supply side of the STC-1000, and then buy a couple solo female plugs and wire them into the heating/cooling outlets of the STC-1000. Am I on the right track?

I've done a couple forum searches and come across some wiring diagrams that don't make a lot of sense to my untrained mind, and then I'm also a bit wary about the idea of hardwiring into a wall outlet because A) I don't know what I'm doing and B) no, A)'s pretty much enough on its own.

 

[Jon73]

See if this is any better. Might be worth returning the STC and getting this instead.

http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8&products_id=334

 

[Rockn_M]

If you have a wine cooler that has temperature control do you really need another form of temperature control? My wine cooler can be set to the mid 40's to mid 60's.

 

[Rockindaddy]

This is the best video I found that helped me wire mine. Although this is for 110v it might still help you.

 

[FatDragon]

This is the best video I found that helped me wire mine. Although this is for 110v it might still help you.

Looking forward to checking this out when I get home to my VPN connection (otherwise no YouTube in China). I definitely want to set this up myself, I just need the dumbed-down tutorial so that I don't screw it up and/or electrocute myself in the process.

 

[FatDragon]

Finally got it done. The YouTube video was very helpful, though I had to adjust the recipe to reflect that the outlets that I found couldn't be split between two power sources, so I had to use two separate outlets instead. I'm hoping I can find a housing like the project box he used as well, since there are a bunch of poorly-taped wires all over the place.

My crudely-designed, crudely-drawn wiring diagram is attached in case anybody needs to replicate the dual-outlet solution from as weak an electrical background as my own.

 

[fermentednonsense]

Here's an article that I wrote a while back on wiring it up. Its pretty easy.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/stc-1000-ebay-temperature-controller-build-330427/

 

[day_trippr]

My crudely-designed, crudely-drawn wiring diagram is attached in case anybody needs to replicate the dual-outlet solution from as weak an electrical background as my own.

Awesome drawing! Electrically correct, too! :rockin:

Cheers!

 

[BrewDrinkRepeat]

Here's the illustration that I foundin another thread on HBT, that was most useful to my non-electrical engineering brain:

 

[FatDragon]

Here's an article that I wrote a while back on wiring it up. Its pretty easy.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/stc-1000-ebay-temperature-controller-build-330427/

That's exactly what I did. I wish I had seen that sooner - so many threads like this but they can be hard to find when you search STC-1000 on the forums. I still would have needed the YouTube video to wrap my head around it in all likelihood, but this diagram would have been helpful once I had the basics from that video.

Here's the illustration that I foundin another thread on HBT, that was most useful to my non-electrical engineering brain:

Yeah, this is exactly what the guy on the video did as well. I had to do two outlets because the outlets here can't split power sources like those US outlets can, but I'm kind've glad that was the case. Having to adjust the "recipe" a bit let me personalize the project and feel a bigger sense of accomplishment when I finished it.