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poptarts
Well-Known Member
I honestly figured they were far enough apart. No special reason really. Think they are too close? Here is a picture of the heatsink.
BCS 2 Vessel No Sparge Garage Brewery Build
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I honestly figured they were far enough apart. No special reason really. Think they are too close? Here is a picture of the heatsink.
No was just curious. Thought wiring tight as a result. The sink looks big enough to pull the heat out. Now get to work!
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poptarts
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Im at work so thats the problem lol. Work on panel is stalled until the relay shows up sadly. Picked up goodies though so I can mount up the pumps and what not though.
J-Rock44
Member
love it!! keep the post boiling...you know what I mean
Cheers
Cheers
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poptarts
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poptarts
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Needs some wire management and still needs tested but as of now panel is pretty much complete.
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Lookin' good!
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poptarts
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Looks like we're both on the home stretch to that first batch of beer!
As much as I love brewing, I also really enjoy the building aspect of putting together a system. It's a lot of fun and satisfaction to see all your time in research, design and assembly come together into something you can use to produce great beer.
As much as I love brewing, I also really enjoy the building aspect of putting together a system. It's a lot of fun and satisfaction to see all your time in research, design and assembly come together into something you can use to produce great beer.
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poptarts
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Indeed we are. The goal is to do water testing saturday and get my first batch done christmas weekend. And I agree, I would think anyone who goes the BCS route enjoys the building and tinkering side of the hobby. Coding and brewing are my two main hobbies, the fact that I can blend them is awesome.
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poptarts
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Testing went good. All DC and 110 things appear to work. Float switches seem to do the job and all temp probes reading correct. Now I just need to get all the parts hooked up outside and do water and 220 testing. Here is a pick of It fired up with lights on inside 
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poptarts
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Been playing with bcs processes and figuring out this system all day. Got it hooked up to work over the internet, this is going to be awesome I can totally picture myself heating up my strike water over my phone at work and stuff. So stoked to get this thing finished and start brewing on it.
I always kinda dreamed about this, but never really did it. I don't like the idea of having some 240 VAC, 50A appliance, with open hot water running and some chinese parts running un-monitored in my garage. Plus, you gotta be there at some point and heating strike only takes a few mins.
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poptarts
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Hey if its going to explode or something I would rather not be next to it haha. I regularly heat my strike water while I sleep and then wake up and mash in. But yea my old systems herms was 800w so it took several hours to get to strike temp. I would imagine more than 5 times the juice will do some damage.
iijakii
Well-Known Member
Yeah with 5500W it usually heats up faster than I can measure and mill grain, water additions.
30Bones
Well-Known Member
Live on the edge. I go home at lunch and start heating my strike water with my sous vide cooker. Sames me a ton of time over my propane burner. Now that I am building an electric setup in the basement, I doubt it's needed since I will be running 240V
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poptarts
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I generally prep water and grains the night before since I have to pick up RO from the store and what not. But that's awesome to know it can heat up that fast.
link?
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poptarts
Well-Known Member
Pricey relay.. But it works is the important part! So you are using a BCS, and an Arduino, plus that Relay board? What is the arduino controlling? I was trying to use some relays with my arduino for a dry cure chamber project and I could never get it working. Could be the same issue, even though says it works with arduino.... http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E0NSORY?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage
By the way, I cannot find that link you sent about the float switches for the life of me. Can you resend please!
So when do you think you'll be able to fire it up? My setup is coming along still but had to order some last minute fittings I hadn't thought about. I don't think that my first brew session I'll be able to take advantage of the remote fill and pre heat capability.
More importantly, what the first beer you're planning to brew?
TD
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poptarts
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Not using an arduino for this project. I had originally planned on the cheap relay board but jumped onto the new one instead. It is pricy but the quality is definitely there. Here are the float switches I will be using. I actually have all day tomorrow set aside to hopefully get everything out to the garage and assembled fully and begin doing water testing and setting up processes etc with the BCS. If all goes to plan over christmas / new years I plan to run a few batches through it.
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Those relay boards are also available through Amazon in 2-, 4-, 8- and 16-relay editions, with and without DIN rail mounts. They ship from Hong Kong, but it doesn't take very long - less than a week, as I recall.
Here is a link to the 5VDC version I bought for the BCS (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M1MC3ZU)
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Most boards are active low trigger, BCS requires an active high trigger. You can do either with Arduino but low will be on the the relay. There are boards that are switchable but not as common.
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Those the floats you linked for me? I bought two. Hope mine both work. That is what I've read about the mechanical floats. They tend to fail. If they give you problems, can you implement the capacitative type sensors? Would need more relays and DIY "fun".
TD
TD
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poptarts
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Not fully sure yet, Im about to head outside and do some debugging.
Capacitive sensors don't work through metal like a keg. Would need to use liquid tight capacitive sensors.
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poptarts
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I mounted the float swtich sideways like a dope. Everything is working fine. still have a couple minor leakes I noticed when running cleaning cycles but everything is clean and working as intended.
Nice!
Let us know how that works! You got the 460 or 462?
Cool, so when you get it all working you can share
I assume that it is to bring your mash set points and steps for your recipe into the BCS without having to manually reprocess the appropriate process each time?
This inspired me to take a look at beersmith's xml file, 500 lines just for one friggin recipe! Not difficult, just tedious. What language are you using? I'd be curious to see your code if you are willing to share.
Maybe you can work with JonW and have his application do recipe imports?
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