Thanks pickles for the offer. I appreciate it.
The core of my system will be a boiler for heating the mash and brew kettle with steam. Along with the boiler, mash tun and brew kettle I will have a HLT to heat the water for the sparge.
I got to thinking about it a little more and I suppose what I really want right now is to have the Brewtroller control the temperatures in my vessels while recording the temperature data, display temperatures at a couple of key locations (such as chiller out), time each part of the brewing session giving an audible alarm or light when it's time to start the next step, control and recored,the fermentation temperature if possible and take all the recorded data and put it on a USB drive for a later download. I like the idea of having the capability of expanding the system for more control in the future if I want to.
Other options I'm looking for are "Hand Off Auto" switches for the pumps & heating elements, and visual indication of what equipment is one.
My system will have two heating elements (boiler & HLT) and two pumps (wort & water). I will need TI's in the boiler, HLT, mash tun, brew kettle, chiller wort out and fermenter. I have a 15 gallon conical fermenter that will have a glycol filled stainless steel coil in it. The glycol temperature will be control by an A/C-ice chest set-up and the temperture of the fermenter will be controlled by a TI that controls a small aquarium pump.
Like I mentioned in the first post, I think I know what I should be getting for this but would like confirmation on that. Also, I don't know if it will control the fermenter and record to a USB drive.
Here is what I think I need to get but please correct me if I'm wrong;
- Brewtroller 4.0
- Encoder with cable
- USB module
- 1-wire module
- LCD controller & screen
- Triple relay board
- ??Breakout board??
- Power supply
- TI's
- 3-position switches
- LED's
- heatsink
- Alarm
- Various connectors, wire and fittings
I worked 11 years as an electrician, mainly doing housing and light commercial. Putting together the control box is not a problem, though having never worked with control boards and what not, I get a bit lost putting it all together in my head.