Recent content by kladue

When looking at RTD's and thermocouples, inexpensive temperature transmitters can be obtained for under $10 a sensor. They will convert sensor signal to 4-20ma (1-5V across 250 ohm resistor) or 0-10vdc when powered by 24 vdc. If you take time to find the units with range and zero adjustments...

For homebrew systems the Chinese SS ball valves with 12v actuators for on/off, Belimo's for floating and proportional control work. Solenoid valves are only appropriate for clean water, LP gas, Nat. Gas, O2 ( if cleaned for O2 service), not wort applications. Now if you talk industrial...

I have used Belimo SS ball valves with proportional actuators (1 - 10) volt signal, 24 vdc supply. These are used as control valves in HVAC applications and are usually found for reasonable prices on Ebay. The valves have a removable disc for flow limiting, which when removed will give a 3/8"...

Interesting concept but not practical for brewing as sparging is needed to remove the extract from the grains. A simple spin cycle will give a higher gravity extract, but efficiency will be poor as a significant amount will remain behind. This is essentially the no sparge brewing method with a...

FWIW: Here are the lines of C# code I use for the level correction in the MashTun in the automated system. Reset factor calc: double mtIn = DataObject.mashTemp; double mTReset = 1000 / (1000.1325 * (1 - (mtIn + 288.9414) / (508929.2 * (mtIn + 68.12963)) *...

Are you monitoring temperature and calculating the density to correct pressure transmitter reading. An additional tweak is to estimate SG and apply that correction factor for level calculation also.

New off the shelf 1/2" SS ball valve $28.95, 24V proportional actuator $108.95. They are available from auction sites for considerably less than retail if you know what to look for, and have the time.

The Belimo proportional control (2-10V) ball valves work well if you have the analog output capabilities.

Not sure what to to call this setup, automated somewhat, fully automated not a chance. If a system can take grain and elevate it to the mill, grind and dough in, step mash, boil and chill wort, and oxygenate wort as fermenter is filled, then it can be considered nearly fully automated. Here...

Steam surrounds pipes in calandria shell, wort flows up the inside of the pipes as it heats and boils.

I built a system around the Opto 22 generation 1 hardware, modular design with plug in modules. The generation 1 hardware was cheap and modules easy to acquire from Ebay at the time of construction, 2008. Upside was the availability of input modules to handle 4-20MA, 0-5V, PT100 and...

Not bad with software so far, do you measure liquid level in various kettles, or just manually control valves with a visual measurement. The fun part with the software is making all the process variables accessible during run time for calibration. It took me about 2,000 hours of programming...

Nice looking panel build, looks like strictly on/off operation though. The challenge for PLC builds comes when you go to analog process control. I went quite a bit farther with software to implement a system that handled the brewing process from recipe to process control, you could pour grain...

The digital pressure sensor was the right idea, just the wrong product, look at the LM series analog sensors with ss diaphragm and pvc body http://www.meas-spec.com/downloads/LM.pdf. When mounted away from the hot process they work well as the static fluid in the tubing cools to ambient and...

The automated unit was built with Opto 22 hardware and Ebay sourced valves and sensors. The expected price for the control hardware would be in the $2,000 - $3,000 range with rebuilt mass flow controllers. The flash boiler would be about $300 to fabricate, the counter flow chiller would be...