Understanding TSS2 parameters (Temperature probe)

[Skrimpy]

I know there's a lot of threads on here about how to program this bugger but I figure part of programming it is understanding the "manual" (yeah the manual sucks) and how parameters are set up. So, I figured a thread with all the information in one place would be helpful.

So I will start and hopefully somebody will continue this thread or maybe post another...and I will continue and post another one as I learn more.


I'll start with what I did when I first turned this thing on...after I got it wired up. For a good wiring diagram, see this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/another-tss2-controller-box-build-195713/

The way I understand it, factory default on this is to have two temperature probes. I've thought about this for a while and decided it has two probe outputs in case you wanted to control two environments with one panel (two refrigerators/freezers or maybe a combination refrigerator/freezer). There would be no reason to have two temp probes in the same environment and I don't think most of us are using this to control two freezers or refrigerators at one time. So, we hook up one temp probe. When we turn it on we immediately get an error message that says "ErP" flashing and beeping between two outputs (i.e.; ErP and a temperature). This means that the TSS2 is trying to find two temperature probes and only finds 1. You need to take two steps to change it.

1. Shut the alarm off. It's annoying. To shut it off, hold down the set button and the down arrow for a few seconds. This will silence the alarm.

2. Shut off the second temp probe. To shut it off, hold down the set button for 8 seconds until the Tss2 flashes "0". Then press the set button again and it will read "SP1". Push the up or down arrows to now cycle through the parameters. Stop on the parameter that reads "P5". This parameter tells the Tss2 how many probes are hooked up and they correspond to the labeled inputs in the back of the panel (i.e.; 1 and 2). If you have only one temp probe on, it should be in outputs 1 and 3, and the parameter needs to be set to 1. Push the down or up arrows to set it to 1. Then press the set button again to exit the parameter. You can now either press the set button in conjunction with the down arrow to exit out of the parameters or just let the unit sit for one minute and it will exit out of the parameters on it's own. It will now read a temperature. This is the temperature measurement from the probe. Mine says 71.3 at the moment.

 

[Skrimpy]

The "manual" describes SP1 and SP2 as:

"SP1 = Operation order of relay 1. Specifies the ON/OFF point of
relay 1. Variable between r4 and r6.
SP2 = Operation order of relay 2. Specifies the ON/OFF point of
relay 2. Variable between r5 and r7"

I'm not an electrician. I wouldn't even call myself amateur. So I had to look up what "relay" meant. Yeah, I know. I'm an electrical moron. A relay is an electrically operated switch. In this case, it switches the electricity on and off to whatever you've wired it to.

SP1. Specifies the temperature at which the electricity is turned on and off to the SP1 switch. In the wiring diagram I linked above has "Output 1" wired to SP1 to cool. Variable between r4 and r6 means just that. SP1 can be any given number between r4 and r6. I don't quite understand why you should set what the max and min your set point can be but it seems to me that this is what it means. Please, somebody correct me if I'm wrong, so I can fix this.

SP2. Same as above except that r5 and r7 are the min and max you can make SP2.

 

[Skrimpy]

On the panel, underneath the Out1 and Out2 words there are two LEDs. These are indicators to tell you if the switch is on or off. They are controlled by parameters H2 and H3. There are two settings, dir and inv. My guess is that these two settings stand for "direct" and "inverse" and would mean that if "direct" is the setting the led is ON when the switch is ON and OFF when the switch is OFF while when "inverse" is the setting you have the led ON when the switch is OFF and and led OFF when the switch is ON.

See my previous post about fixing the temp probe on how to get to the parameter settings and toggling through them.

 

[Skrimpy]

So, I'm finally getting around to trying to install this temp controller and learning a little more about it. As I said before you change any patameter by holding down the set button for 8 seconds until you get a flashing 0. Then you press set again and it should display, SP1. At this point you can cycle throigh the parameters with the up and down keys and chose the parameter you want to change by pressing set while that parameter is displayed. Now, if you want to set a differential, r2 and r3 are your parameters. r2 for SP1 and r3 for SP2. They range from 0.1 to 20.

 

[Skrimpy]

Heating vs cooling. I'm not sure for our purposes we need any more parameters other than those I mentioned before and two others, c1 and c2 (I still don't get why we need r4-r7). c1 and c2 are the parameters for turning the relay on or off when the temperature is above or below SP1 and SP2 respectively. The values are dir or inv. When set to dir the power is turned on when the temperature to the probe goes above the set temp. When set to inv the power is turned on when the temperature goes below the set point. At this point it's intuiative. The inv value is for heating and the dir value is for cooling.

 

[Elfmaze]

do refrigerators have built in short cycle delays? Or is that something I need to program into the parameters?

 

[Skrimpy]

I'm not a heating and cooling guy but I'm think. The only thing I can say is if you want full control over exactly what temp your beer/wine/cider is stored or fermented at you will probably have to hook up a temp controller.