CraftBeerPi Dual Stage Fermentation Control

[Brian Parfitt]

Hey all.

I'm currently controlling (or not) fermentation temperature using an InkBird two stage temp controller. I have a glycol chiller, pump, and coil for refrigeration and a heating pad for heating.

I find the InkBird swings a fair amount between heating and cooling due to it's lack of PID control. I'm looking to improve this by using the CraftBeerPi controller that I use for the other portion of my brewery.

My question is: How do I model the control on a fermentation vessel with both heat and cooling? Can I have two temperature control loops on one vessel? Won't they start fighting with each other? Curious to hear if others have this type of setup? How did you do it?

Thanks in advance,
Brian

 

[jtrainer]

I only use it for cooling. Being in SoCal the heating is typically not needed as the heat generated by the fermentation in my freezer seems to keep it going just fine. I do use CBPI 4 to manage both my fermentation freezer and my kegerator. For the kegerator I have extra actors (fans) to cool the tower and simply move the air around.

As I see the heating side, if the differential is set correctly, no they won't fight. For me, I guess I could benefit from the heater a month or two a year but in 22 years it really hasn't been a big concern to me.

Hope this helps...