BrewTroller Control Panel Build

[jcdillin]

Thanks!

Well I found a source for stainless solenoid valves but they are saying it's going to be 10 to 12 weeks until they know if they can get them and for how much. I really wanted the system to be automated much sooner.

Sooo I think I may be trying to cook up some homebrew valves

 

[jcdillin]

So on Friday I received my batch of valves. So of course most of this weekend has been spent building manifolds and running electrical. So far i've used over 90ft of 16/3 cable.

On to the photos

Here is the 3/4" main input valve for the fill control

Here you can see the main output manifold, which is the outputs for mash recirc, mash heat, kettle fill and chiller out.

Another shot showing the mounting point for the terminator

Here is the view from the front of the system, here you see the 3 valves that collect the water/wort from the different vessels, then it goes into the float sensor which is the wires coming out on the left hand side. This will prevent the pump from running without any liquid in the system.

 

[jcdillin]

Close up of my ghetto mounting job until I build a proper mount

So far its working good, I have to order more silicone tubing in order to complete it all, but i've been able to run mash recirculation tests and it works like a champ. Tomorrow i'm going to heat it up to full temp and see how it runs.

 

[cyberbackpacker]

That looks amazing! Continued success to you!

 

[BeernuT100]

Thanks!

Well I found a source for stainless solenoid valves but they are saying it's going to be 10 to 12 weeks until they know if they can get them and for how much. I really wanted the system to be automated much sooner.

Sooo I think I may be trying to cook up some homebrew valves

Can you tell us where you are getting them?

 

[jcdillin]

Thanks!

It was some company that was listed in one of those global trade sites. I will see if I can find the contact info.

 

[Whiskey]

That is awesome.

 

[brewjunky]

where are you getting your silicone tubing?

Also is there some kind of fail proofing to stop 2 valves from being opened at the same time or is it just up to the user to no what they are doing?

I was just thinking if you forgot to close one valve when opening another you may mix wort and HL water in the pump head.

Only reason I ask is because I could see myself doing that leaving one valve opened on the input manifold and forgetting to close it and opening another one on the same manifold

 

[jcdillin]

I ordered all my silicone from morebeer

Yeah the fail proofing is the BrewTroller, besides the HLT and the Chiller H20 valve, the BrewTroller has complete control over the valves at that point and unless I have something set wrong in the config it will not open more than one valve at a time.

My main concern was letting the computer transfer liquids automatically and running my pump dry, so thats why I incorporated the float switch into the pump input.

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

Are those valves diaphragm valves? Are you concerned about cleaning them out? What is your cleaning plan?

Just a good soak in hot PBW???

Your build is incredible. Thanks for sharing!!!

 

[jcdillin]

Yeah i'm pretty sure they are diaphragm, well as far as cleaning goes I plan to fill one vessel with hot PBW and then just circulate it to the various vessels. Since the manifolds are so small I could just slip a silicone tube off and backflow it if I had any clogging issues.

 

[jcdillin]

So I ran the system up to 180F last night and did some water tests with water recirculation, everything ran perfectly and the valves are working very very well.

Now I just need to finish testing the volume measurement and I might be able to brew this weekend.

I had to swap out my water heater element because it was rusting like there is no tomorrow.

 

[pompeiisneaks]

Awesome! I can't wait to see the full run of a solenoid controlled fully automated, pressure sensor brewtroller! Puts my manual QD switcheroo and manual valve open/close to shame I'll tell you, I've already, more than once, accidentally leaked a bit of hot HLT water or MLT wort out forgetting to close valves

 

[moosecaboose]

What was your source on the valves? How much do they cost? IM having my stand welded up now so IM in the planning process of where I want the valves and pumps. I would like to get this all mounted and holes drilled into the stand then take it apart and send it off to powder coat.

 

[jcdillin]

Let me see if I can find the source, it was from a company called Kaling in china. After shipping they came to about $39 a piece.

 

[jcdillin]

did some testing of the pressure sensors yesterday, just have to calibrate them again. But otherwise came out great.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VaRCh_TuFM]YouTube - BrewTroller First Volume Measurement Test[/ame]

 

[kladue]

Nice, looks like the pressure sensor resolution is about 22 counts to the gallon?. I am waiting to hear the results from a test run with mash and pump running to see if there will be any pressure influence from false bottom suction.

 

[Jonathon]

Looking great mate,
One thing I have had a lot of trouble with is these types of pressure sensors used as level indicators. During testing with water they were fine until you heat it up, it played havoc with my readings. With the change in temp the air in the tubing to the sensors would expand then as it cooled retract sucking in liquid up the tubes, this would sometimes not clear once empty due to the surface tension of the liquid up the tube making them very unreliable. I have seen setups with a constant air supply or "bubble" to combat this situation. I ended up giving it away and sticking with resistive static level probes.
Cheers
Jonathon.

 

[jcdillin]

Yeah I noticed the volume does rise a bit with the heat, also rises if you your lids on too tight. My main concern is with the initial fill volumes and the sparge amounts. If I can get those accurately I don't really care what it reads during the brew.

We shall see once it brews a batch

 

[Stachelrodt]

Just in case this might solve the problem. you are in fact using pressure sensors? that can be why the heat especially when a lid is on changes what it does, water expands with heat and pressure defiantly builds very little, but if the numbers are small then i would hack it up to something along those lines



By the way i joined and an building a similar set up and am very inspired by what you've done. Especially the float sensor! Was something I just didn't see!

 

[Sawdustguy]

Just in case this might solve the problem. you are in fact using pressure sensors? that can be why the heat especially when a lid is on changes what it does, water expands with heat and pressure defiantly builds very little, but if the numbers are small then i would hack it up to something along those lines



By the way i joined and an building a similar set up and am very inspired by what you've done. Especially the float sensor! Was something I just didn't see!

The sensors work extremely well when using a bubbler. The inaccuracies stem from the fact that the air expands and some of the air in forced out of the measurement column in the form of a bubble. The bubbler replaces that lost air. Go to the brewtroller site for some examples.

 

[jcdillin]

Just in case this might solve the problem. you are in fact using pressure sensors? that can be why the heat especially when a lid is on changes what it does, water expands with heat and pressure defiantly builds very little, but if the numbers are small then i would hack it up to something along those lines



By the way i joined and an building a similar set up and am very inspired by what you've done. Especially the float sensor! Was something I just didn't see!

great to hear, yeah a lot has changed on my system since these posts. So far everything has been working great.

 

[Stachelrodt]

How do you control heat? valves? or electric heat element?

 

[TriangleIL]

Would love to see updates on your build ....I am currently in the process of *attempting* to build something very similiar with the use of solenoids, floats, pressure sensors, and full automation.

 

[jcdillin]

How do you control heat? valves? or electric heat element?

My rig is all electric, specs are in my sig

 

[jcdillin]

Would love to see updates on your build ....I am currently in the process of *attempting* to build something very similiar with the use of solenoids, floats, pressure sensors, and full automation.

You should stop by the brewtroller forum sometime, there are alot of us going for fully automated systems. I'm one of them. I'm currently rebuilding my system and adding a grain hopper and automatic hop dropper for full automation.

 

[Stachelrodt]

what electric elements do you use? sorry for all the questions this is in fact my biggest hurdle

 

[TriangleIL]

Use Camco elements, they can be had on Amazon for cheap. Typically the 5500W or 4500W elements are used. You will want the LWD or ULWD elements to avoid scorching.

 

[kladue]

The hardware build is the easy part.

 

[Stachelrodt]

thats where your'e wrong I'm certified in basic C++ and many other languages, thats the easy part, configuring the CORRECT parts is hard, anyone can do it half assed, but i dont want to waste my money