Coloradoan Single Tier Build

[bsomogyi]

It's been a while since the last post. Got good news and I'm gonna be a dad this April. So I had to turn up the pace on finishing grad school which has pretty much destroyed my weekends. Anyways- got er painted up today. Planning to do some more work over the holidays. I'm going to brew a partial mash tomorrow on the stand to test the engine paint and burners.

 

[andycr]

Congratulations on becoming a dad! Looks great.

 

[de3isit]

I don't mean to thread jack or take away from your awesome rig, but since there seems to be some interest in hot surface, I will share my experiences. I am using hot surface ignition with the honeywell s8910u modules, and glowfly universal ignitors. The module is supplied with 24 vac to operate the valve as well as 110v to fire the hsi.

Upon call for heat...the module starts a 32 second prepurge, then the ignitor fires and the module gives it 30 some seconds to heat up at which point the valve is activated, burner fires and and the ignitor shuts off. There is also a flame rectification circuit on these modules.

The time from call for flame to flame is just a little over a minute, but i think that is fine, I don't think the amount of heat lost in that minute would be measurable. I decided to go with them because I like the idea of flame rectification, and a member here decided to go with spark ignition and made me a great deal on the parts. Here is a shot of the burner with ignitor glowing just before igniton of the main burner,

I think the amp draw on the ignitor is less than 5 amps, but I would have to double check that to be sure, if you look close, you can see the flame sensor just to the left of the ignitor...cheers to a great build, looking forward to the final product

The issue you will run into with HSI is the igniters won't last long after they get water and wort on them. I would recommend some sort of shield over them to reduce the exposure

 

[bsomogyi]

Needed to start pricing the fittings for the fluid design so I put together a design (the engineer in me). I decided to go with the switches like JonW, but with center inlet chuggers. Planning to put my temperature probes directly into each keggle instead. Let me know if any of you see any flaws. The build has slowed as I'm hitting the expensive parts. Maybe the tax man will be nice.

 

[patthebrewer]

incredible amazing work....wish I had that kind of ability to make something like that

 

[JonW]

Very nice drawing. What QD's are you going to use? Williams Brewing has the SS ones like MoreBeer, but less expensive. I bought a couple of them and they are interchangable with the MoreBeer ones. The quality is not quite as good as the MoreBeer ones, but very close and definitely worth the savings.

Why so many 1/2" SS compression fittings? It looks like you are using a bunch on the plate chiller. You're going to want the plate chiller to be setup so you can remove it easily without being hard plumbed to things.

 

[bsomogyi]

JonW -

Thanks. I was planning on QD's from moreBeer, but will have a look at the ones from Williams Brewing. Thanks for the tip. As for the compression fittings. Yeah - I had like 10 or so planned in the drawing around the plate chiller. I was going to hard plumb alot with SS instead of flex hose, but the drawing isn't to scale. After looking at your thread again - maybe it is best to just put the valve on the chiller like you did and do flex hose with QDs instead of all the hard plumbing.

patthebrewer -

Thanks man. I can't wait to move this build along.

 

[DenverUSMC]

incredible amazing work....wish I had that kind of ability to make something like that

I agree, I got really excited that my rubbermaid AG system didn't leak. I can do electrical work and plumbing, but I do not have the ability to building something of this quality.

 

[bsomogyi]

Wheels make a world of a difference and the total locking casters are badass.

 

[bsomogyi]

Well, I managed to final take the time to plan out and design the control panel. Will be sending it off to get laser cut this week. In the begining, I was leaning towards no brew controller, but have since decided to make a BCS-462 stand. Took some of the ideas from Blackheart brewery for the panel, but will be adding an ipad mount (http://www.chiefmfg.com/Series/FSRI) to the panel as you can see on the bottom portion of the design.

 

[bsomogyi]

And I grew up on Swamp Road in Pennsylvania - hence the name.

 

[bsomogyi]

Booyah! Got a bunch of goodies in the mail with a few more on the way. Like Christmas morning, only better!

I also started my wiring plans. Please have a look at the pdf. I may get an electrician to review, but I would love to get all of your opinions on anything I might have blatantly missed or miss-wired. It's been a while since I've dealt with electronics. Lol.

View attachment Schematic-1Page.pdf

 

[JonW]

Got a link to the Sainsmart SSR board you're using? Most boards are for either AC or DC switching, so I'm thinking you can't mix the switching like you have listed in the PDF.

BTW, nice schematic.

 

[bsomogyi]

Thanks!

Here is the link:

http://www.sainsmart.com/arduino-compatibles/module/relay/8-channel-dc-5v-relay-module-for-arduino-pic-arm-dsp-avr-msp430-ttl-logic.html

Says on the webpage, 5V 8-Channel Relay interface board, and each one needs 15-20mA Driver Current. Equipped with high-current relay, AC250V 10A ; DC30V 10A, so I assume that means each relay can switch either DC or AC. Might be worth asking Sainsmart before I try it out (already bought the relays). I also found on another document that the driver current for the coil can be between 5-24v to trigger. So either 5v or 12v I have feeding shouldn't be an issue. (I don't think ). I also noticed a few other changes after reviewing my wiring. The OUT12,13,14 I have feeding the terminal block needs to be changed. I will be changing how I'm wiring the HSIs as they obviously cannot be run off a BCS signal. I probably will rethink my SW10,11,12 wiring.

 

[JonW]

That's a mechanical relay, not an SSR. It will work just fine. Since your drawing listed an 8 channel Sainsmart SSR relay board, I thought it was this one: http://www.sainsmart.com/8-channel-...oard-omron-ssr-4-pic-arm-avr-dsp-arduino.html - which is for AC switching only.

Why do you state that you cannot run the HSI's off the BCS? It's setup just fine to do it.

 

[bsomogyi]

Funny - I actually did buy the wrong ones. I bought the one's you linked to, though I was considering the 8-channel I linkied to in my post. Didn't update my BOM spreadsheet yet, so I had the wrong link in there still. Still gonna use them for all my ac switching. Built a test circuit on my breadboard with the 8-channel SSRs and in fact they do not switch 12vdc. Go figure.

The one I did post, which I thought about buying originally http://www.sainsmart.com/arduino-co...arduino-pic-arm-dsp-avr-msp430-ttl-logic.html I will now purchase for my DC switching. I will just need to update the schematic to wire the switches for 5v that feed the relays instead of 12v when manual is selected.. Gonna have to wait for another shipment from china. Darnit!

As for the HSI's - yeah I understand they can be driven by the BCS. I was just stating that I noticed some wiring issues in my schematic. I have the BCS outputs tied directly to the HSIs through my terminal block instead of going through a relay. One of many other issues I noticed...

 

[JonW]

Wiring your manual switches for 5V is my preferred choice. That way all the switching, whether BCS or manual, is simply a 5V input to the relay.

On the HSI's, I use one output to trigger all three of my HSI's at one time, but you can set it up to trigger them individually if you want.

 

[bsomogyi]

Yeah I think 5v will be better. Though I will be using 12v on one pole of my DPDTs for the LEDs. My bcs is on its way- please let me k ow if this will work.I'm gonna feed 6 of the BCS DINs from my three burner switches. My switches are on-off-on so when up I will send 5v to one din as a manual signal and 5v volt to another din when it is down as an auto signal. Then if the manual din is high I will initiate a process to fire the corresponding hsi and burner. If the din is high afor the auto signal a process will be initiated for the hsi and burner, but based off temp input. Make sense? Not sure what the bcs is capable of yet from a logic and process standpoint. Should have it by the weekend.

 

[JonW]

If you're going to wire manual switches to do overrides in the system, you really shouldn't do it through DIN's in BCS. You should wire the on-off-on so that in one position, it will send the BCS signal to the relay and in the other on position, have it send 5v directly to the relay. This way you can run the system completely manually even without the BCS.

 

[bsomogyi]

That's how I have my switches for the burners wired currently. But I'm trying to figure out how to wire the switch where a single switch controls the hsi and burner. Using the bcs seemed like a good option. All the other switches will be wired like you said, but for my three burner switches (mlt, bk, hot), it seemed like the bcs dins were a good solution. Pseudo manual...

 

[bsomogyi]

Do you think something like this would work? This is what I was referring to in my previous post. The Burner switches are the only ones I'm having problems planning the wiring. I don't want to buy time delayed SSRs to make a true manual-on for the burners/HSIs, so I figured I could make it seem like manual through the BCS using DINs and logic (if R10 | R12 | R14 then start HSI & Burner process. If R11 | R13 | R15 then auto and allow ignition based on temp). I also ordered my laser cut panel so I don't want to add individual switches for the HSIs. In this approach, the off switch position would still override the bcs, since HSI and Burner processes would need to have input on the DINs to initiate. It would just be pseudo manual, needing the BCS to work. All my other switches will have true manual wiring, where they can run without the BCS.

 

[bsomogyi]

Got one keggle finished up. Thanks to BobbyM for the sight gauge.

 

[bsomogyi]

All three kegs are pretty much done. Just need to tinker with the middle one's sight gauge coupling. Threads are all jacked for some reason.

 

[bsomogyi]

Decided to go a different route on some components within my control panel design. I'm taking the HSI and Burner ignition timing out of the BCS and using time delayed SSRs (found some relatively inexpensive ones from Factorymation). I think my wiring plan is pretty much finalized. I would appreciate it if anyone glances at the schematic, to please let me know if you see anything obviously wrong.

View attachment Schematic.pdf

 

[bsomogyi]

Fabricated pump and plate chiller mounts this past weekend. After working through a chugger pump issue, the new pumps line up much better. Tonight I put in plumbing to ensure everything is good to go.

 

[bsomogyi]

Got the external components on the control panel mounted with my custom face plate. Next step wiring! I think it turned out pretty nice.

 

[JonW]

Very cool! Love it! Is that the iPad mount on the front or a different screen?

 

[bsomogyi]

Thanks JonW. Yeah - that's the Ipad mounted on the front. Wish the mount was a little more flush, but I think still looks pretty sweet.

 

[wncbrewer]

Dude, that is an awesome looking panel. Can you post a few shots of how you have the iPad mounted? Also, is the iPad removable? I have been considering going with BCS some time down the road, but I don't see SWMBO letting me buy an iPad solely dedicated to the brew rig.

 

[skepace]

Subscribed! Looks great!

Fellow CO Brewer