2 Vessel BruControl RIMS 15 Gallon Brewery Build

[Die_Beerery]

I said Stout daggummit!! But your LODO stuff is super-sweet.

I know.. just giving you a link and a hard time.

Yeah, that stuff is really nice and has a price to match!

These kettles are designed from the ground up to be the best homebrewing vessels on the market, let alone for Low Oxygen. Mirror polished, thickest steel, tangential inputs, gaskets, 100% sanitary, bottom drains, etc etc. What did you expect?!

 

[Gameface]

Purchasing has begun. Still need to work out details of my Spike custom kettles but I think they're done for the weekend, but that order should go out early next week.

Haven't ordered the enclosure yet or most of the stuff that will go in it. That should be done by Monday.

Major unboxing will be happening soon!

 

[Gameface]

So I received some of my stuff today. One of the things was the female XLR panel plugs and the male XLR cable plugs.

I was expecting to solder these to the cables, but the ends on both of them are not what I was expecting.

This picture is something I pulled off google that shows the internal pins, which is what I have on both the female and male ends, but my stuff is 3 wire. Is this intended for soldering or is there a crimp connector I can use on the wires that will slide onto/into this?

 

[November]

I think Stout does but this is the way of the honebrewing future.

Stout does. All three of my tanks from them are bottom drain.

 

[FunkedOut]

So I received some of my stuff today. One of the things was the female XLR panel plugs and the male XLR cable plugs.

I was expecting to solder these to the cables, but the ends on both of them are not what I was expecting.

This picture is something I pulled off google that shows the internal pins, which is what I have on both the female and male ends, but my stuff is 3 wire. Is this intended for soldering or is there a crimp connector I can use on the wires that will slide onto/into this?

That’s for solder.

 

[BrunDog]

Yes, what you see are solder cups. You solder the wire into those “holes”.

 

[augiedoggy]

The regular 3 bbl kettles I bought are all bottom drain with sloped bottoms, drain port as well as side drain port and tangical whirlpool ports. I believe stouts smaller homebrew scale kettles follow the same design too? I know the 1.5bbl ones do.

As far as how pricey they are really depends on where you buy them. Multiple sellers and resellers now carry/sell these kettles now including the actual manufacturer sungood but most are through stout first meaning marked up 3 times before being sold.. I have an acquaintance that bought their 3 bbl stout electric setup from brumation for about 22K... I have about 11k in mine including thechiller, rims and brucontrol panel by buying the kettles on alibaba.

I'm not saying buying them elsewhere like brewers hardware or wherever is a bad choice but at the time I bought mine the same kettles where backordered from stout for a few months longer than they took from the manufacturer and quite a bit less with shipping and customs.. I'm sure stout had a lot to do with the design of these and later products and I dont really want to tell people to circumvent them but I'm just pointing out its an option for those who only have a limited budget. Also I want to point out that stouts products come from different manufacturers/suppliers and theve done a good job of sorting out the junk and improving on designs. I own some stout branded stuff myself and never had an issue with them or thier customer service... It can be a bit scary at first wiring money to china and dealing with a customs broker but for us we had to do everything we could to keep costs down with our budget. (plus I thought I was ordering them custom when I requested 4 2" tc element ports in the kettles)

 

[Gameface]

So from what I'm looking at I can run pretty much everything on the DC side with 24v, so I purchased a 24v power supply that should be more than sufficient. My only concern is that the arduino itself requires 12v to power it up. I can get a small 12v power supply, but it looks like it's only function will be to power the arduino. Is there any reason why I should either just go ahead and get a bigger (higher amp/watt rating) power supply in case I end up adding other 12V stuff, or is there an even simpler transformer that will take up very little space?

 

[smort]

So from what I'm looking at I can run pretty much everything on the DC side with 24v, so I purchased a 24v power supply that should be more than sufficient. My only concern is that the arduino itself requires 12v to power it up. I can get a small 12v power supply, but it looks like it's only function will be to power the arduino. Is there any reason why I should either just go ahead and get a bigger (higher amp/watt rating) power supply in case I end up adding other 12V stuff, or is there an even simpler transformer that will take up very little space?

IMO its better to have a good 24v source and use small dc-dc converters wherever needed. Like this one. You can find them up to 30A but then a lot bulkier.

 

[augiedoggy]

I did not have good luck with the buck boost dc power converters they worked but seem to fluctuate. In fairness I didnt buy expensive ones. I went with a 5 or 7 amp 24v supply and a 3 amp 12v supply which was overkill but I had the same thoughts about using the 12v for other things like fans and such I even had a 5v supply in my panel while troubleshooting spikes from electrical noise.

 

[smort]

I did not have good luck with the buck boost dc power converters they worked but seem to fluctuate. In fairness I didnt buy expensive ones. I went with a 5 or 7 amp 24v supply and a 3 amp 12v supply which was overkill but I had the same thoughts about using the 12v for other things like fans and such I even had a 5v supply in my panel while troubleshooting spikes from electrical noise.

Same here, no good experience with boost dc converters but the reducing dc converters has been working great.

 

[BrunDog]

Several ideas here... I think that having multiple PS's gives you options for the future. Ideally everything runs off 12 or 24, but invariable there is going to be a 5V needed somewhere!

 

[Die_Beerery]

I.e 1 wire

 

[adman]

Several ideas here... I think that having multiple PS's gives you options for the future. Ideally everything runs off 12 or 24, but invariable there is going to be a 5V needed somewhere!

I was going to run only 12v--all of my valves are 12v and I figured I could run any 5v stuff off of the MEGA, but I did not want to overload the MEGA's power circuits, so I bought a small 5v psu. Then I got a 24v voltage transducer, so I got a cheap boost DC transformer to run that from the 12v psu. The boost transformer blew a capacitor (and scared the sh*t out of me--I thought I'd shorted the big 240v wires or something!) the third or fourth time I powered it up, so now I have a 24v psu as well.

 

[Gameface]

Okay, 3 power supplies it is...

 

[Gameface]

Man, I don't usually buy extended warranties, but should I get one for the Penguin Chiller?

https://www.penguinchillers.com/product/12-hp-glycol-chiller/

 

[Gameface]

Okay, so I've kind of screwed up...

I was planning on controlling my brew system via wifi, and it has taken me this long to discover that it is not recommended. Definitely my fault. That said, I purchased a used Microsoft Surface Pro 3 to use as a touchscreen HMI. I have installed BruControl software onto it and activate the software. It has a USB 3.0 port, but no ethernet port.

Option 1 -- buy a USB to ethernet adapter to plug into the tablet, then buy an ethernet shield for the MEGA and connect to the MEGA that way
Option 2 -- connect to the MEGA using USB only

possible option 3, is the problem with wifi control inherent to all wifi or is it specific to the wifi shield? I have a spare wifi range extender that has 4 ethernet ports. I could connect the MEGA to the wired ethernet port of the range extender.

Feeling kind of dumb right now.

 

[Gameface]

Okay, so I've kind of screwed up...

I was planning on controlling my brew system via wifi, and it has taken me this long to discover that it is not recommended. Definitely my fault. That said, I purchased a used Microsoft Surface Pro 3 to use as a touchscreen HMI. I have installed BruControl software onto it and activate the software. It has a USB 3.0 port, but no ethernet port.

Option 1 -- buy a USB to ethernet adapter to plug into the tablet, then buy an ethernet shield for the MEGA and connect to the MEGA that way
Option 2 -- connect to the MEGA using USB only

possible option 3, is the problem with wifi control inherent to all wifi or is it specific to the wifi shield? I have a spare wifi range extender that has 4 ethernet ports. I could connect the MEGA to the wired ethernet port of the range extender.

Feeling kind of dumb right now.

Small bonus question...

I purchased the arduino w/screw shield and external wifi shield from @BrunDog I'm assuming it is the screw shield that needs soldering to allow the additional (wifi, ethernet, whathaveu) shield to be added, but that I will be able to remove the wifi shield and add an ethernet one without soldering? If that's the case I'm totally good to go. I plan to use Brucontrol on the fermentation side somewhat soon and I'll just repurpose the wifi for that application. If not it's not the end of the world but will require some extra work.

 

[BrunDog]

Wait... why is WiFi not recommended?

 

[Gameface]

Wait... why is WiFi not recommended?

I was watching a video on your site and it said it is not recommended for PID control.

 

[BrunDog]

Heck no... if we left that impression, apologies. We'll fix it - just confirm where you saw that. I know our manual states that it may not be ideal for timing critical tasks... but since then, we have learned that it is performing very well. No reservations on WiFi.

 

[Gameface]

Nice! That's a relief.

It was a video discussing the various controllers.

 

[Gameface]

Here it is. 2:48 mark

 

[Gameface]

My brewhardware haul came in today.

2x Riptide Pumps
18" RIMS tube
Steam Slayer
5500W Ripple element with the built in TC flange and plug
various fittings, tubing and such

It's getting exciting!

 

[BrunDog]

Ya that video is now a little long in the tooth.

 

[Gameface]

Shipping info received for my Spike Brewing order!
2x CF15 Unitanks w/heating and cooling package
2x 30gal custom kettles. Ordered on the 18th, shipped on the 23rd.
TONS of accessories.

Crazy fast turnaround for custom kettles.

 

[Gameface]

I'll be able to plug my new equipment into my existing 50A panel and use it in manual non/brucontrol mode until I receive a few more items and get my panel built.

Penguin 1/2hp glycol chiller is on the way. This is something I strongly considered as a DIY project, but ended up going with a commercially built chiller.

 

[Gameface]

So one of the packages from my Spike order got orphaned so my Mash Tun and both CF15 Unitanks got here today. Boil Kettle here on Monday.

I am somewhat slightly concerned about fermenting 15gal batches in the CF15 unitank. I thought total volume was 18gal, but the markings go up to 17 and there's only another 1/4 or so more space until the top.

Anyway, exciting day! I'll take pics soon.

 

[Gameface]

How easy would it be to go with a brewpi vs brewcontrol? I think the BCS could also be an option, I don't think I need any more I/O than it has.

Also, what is a good source for electronic valves that meet the needs of brewing?

 

[Wizard_of_Frobozz]

I can’t speak for Brewpi but I do have a BCS-460 (older version than the new one). It’s been ok but I’m switching to BruControl for a few reasons:

1. The I/O is too limiting. On mine, it’s 6 outputs and 4 temperature inputs. Not enough for what I want
2. Communication is twitchy. I have tons of issues trying to connect to it over my wireless network. Really stinks when you drop communication right in the middle of a brew session. It works best when connected directly to your router via an Ethernet cable. Most people don’t have routers in their brewing area.
3. The PID control is limiting. You can only assign PID parameters to a single output and an output can have only one set of parameters. Makes it difficult to manage different batch sizes, flow rates, sparge water heating, etc.
4. The state based control isn’t intuitive. I learned how to make it work, but I’d like something more user friendly.