Deep Six Brewing System - v2.0

[BrewBeemer]

With you purchasing controllers, temp and PH probes and other needed electronic items in bulk you must be able to beat anyone that orders single items like myself or other homebrewers that would purchase single items. Hence the question about a basic unassembled basic parts package available to us homebrewers to upgrade our basic kettles if we have the ability to assemble without injury or death. A basic kit but allowing a computer hookup available as one grows into their system (more money available) would be great after thinking about your system.

I myself an 'ex licenced A&P mechanic until the 75 airline layoffs, a few years machine shop background, now a forced retirement back injury as a union electrician of 27 years. For toys a fully loaded Miller 350 Synchrowave Tig, Miller 251 Mig w/30A spoolgun, Hypertherm Max 20 Plasma, Lathe and a Bridgeport mill with 10" rotary index table that mounts vertical and horizontal. All personal shop and garage toys while I lay around taking pain pills thinking up crazy ideas like I posted above during idle (pain) times all night long.

PS; thanks for the PM sent, will take note. Some day i'll get what I would call a presentable unit for show and tell. Thanks again and best of luck with your project.

 

[eschatz]

Jesus John, what the hell are you doing? It's this kind of jealousy that killed Lennon you know! That thing is increadible. Your prowess in the brewing idiom is certainly aberrant. Once again jealousy abounds.

 

[John Beere]

Jesus John, what the hell are you doing? It's this kind of jealousy that killed Lennon you know! That thing is increadible. Your prowess in the brewing idiom is certainly aberrant. Once again jealousy abounds.

Why thanks - that is my ultimate goal... assassination. heh

 

[M@!]

That is sofa king awesome. Automated saltwater tank setups have PH probes that give of readings, not sure if it would be worth while looking into them.

Neptune AquaController control modules

 

[Clayton]

these guys make ph meters with serial interfaces
pH meter: Hanna Instruments Complete Selection of pH meters
thay even make some for wine and food

BTW the VIA EPIA board are faster cheeper and useless power
that and most have 4 to 6 rs232 ports plus 6 to 8 USB and LVDS port for hooking an LCD screen strate to the board like in a laptop "no external power"
http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/mainboards/

 

[John Beere]

these guys make ph meters with serial interfaces
pH meter: Hanna Instruments Complete Selection of pH meters
thay even make some for wine and food

BTW the VIA EPIA board are faster cheeper and useless power
that and most have 4 to 6 rs232 ports plus 6 to 8 USB and LVDS port for hooking an LCD screen strate to the board like in a laptop "no external power"
VIA Embedded Boards - VIA Technologies, Inc.

Thanks, I'll check out those PH meters but I think we are on the downhill with building an amp...

I looked at those VIA boards but chose the Intel based on the specs and price - it was only $79 delivered from NewEgg and has all the horsepower I can ever imagine it needing.

 

[SILVER13ACK]

:^0

........

 

[Clayton]

oh and BTW
take a look at this via pico kit it uses a 12volt power supply so you can run it off the same power as your other controls VIA ARTiGO Pico-ITX Builder Kit A1000 - VIA Technologies, Inc.

here are abunch more pico 12 atx powesupplys that will run any computer mother board off 12 volts so long at the watts are mached, the powersupply is no bigger than the atx wire harness.. i love nano computing i have been useing nano boards for years as mesh routers becase you can slip one in a weather proof box right next to a wireless access point and power the whole deal with power over ethernet, i built a setup for a local Internet service provider, that let them push a rual wireless internet service where each user was a cell that pushed it out further, works great
small PC ATX power supplies with 12V or 6-24V input

that will save you some space i see you have that AC powersupply in there now

 

[John Beere]

I had an issue last night that I didn't have a chance to look at until I started to re-test this AM - the circuit for the 220v heating element was not turning off at the relay when it was supposed to... the LED on the relay would toggle off, but the power wouldn't. After asking around (thanks kladue), my hunch of what was causing it turned out to be right - the relay was getting too hot.

So I did what any good DIYer / Modder would do on a Sunday night when there wasn't anywhere to go buy a heatsink - I scavenged. I ended up disassembling a small 12v fridge that was powered by a peltier cooler. After removing the peltier cooler and hacking around, turned out to be a perfect fit - even the bolt pattern matched up - although it isn't the prettiest thing. It is pretty much hidden from the front of my rig, so I'm OK with it.

I'm running one last test with it now that everything has been reassembled and it is working great. Thank God I didn't ruin that relay - that would have been several days wait to replace...

Here's a photo:

 

[Orfy]

Good fix.

When Are you getting beer out of the thing?

 

[John Beere]

Good fix.

When Are you getting beer out of the thing?

Hell or Highwater - next weekend. It will in no way be "done" by then, but it'll brew...

 

[John Beere]

OK, here is what I've been patiently waiting for several weeks for... the first real statistics from my system. This is what has been missing in the fine tuning. For this run I had a mash differential of .25 degrees and a HEX differential of 5 degrees. I "doughed-in" at 100 degrees, held for one minute, then ramped to 153 and held for 30 mins. It basically took the HEX 30 minutes to reach 153 and 34 minutes to reach 158 (+5 HEX differential), and roughly took the mash 40 minutes to reach 153.

Here is a quick chart thrown together in Excel:

 

[CrookedChris]

First off... Awesome.

Second, and this is probably obvious, but please tell me there's GFCI involved in that circuit somewhere and that your HLT is grounded. Don't want to be a ****** bag but just want to make sure we're all playing safe. Sorry if you already mentioned that somewhere and I missed it.

Could you potentially give more information about what you're using for the software end of things. That is, is the interface written in C? Visual Basic? Where did you get the PID code?

I wasn't too surprised to see you were having SSR problems w/out a heat sink. Is that one heat sink being used on all your SSRs? I've got a bit of experience with these and I can tell you confidently that SSR life is greatly diminished w/out proper heat sink use. I'm not sure what the current load on the others is but you might potentially want to consider getting a much larger heat sink or individual heat sinks for each SSR. Although, if not much current's being drawn on the others it might not be a big deal. Usually SSR data sheets have some graphs and recommendations for heat sink use.

Again... that's freaking awesome. I've been thinking for a long time about doing something similar w/ a PLC, LabView, or Visual C++ and a touch screen but don't have anywhere near the time and money that you apparently do. I'm very jealous! Bravo to you sir!

 

[Ryan_PA]

Ahh, so you painted the frame black, nice upgrade.

Just kidding, that is brilliantly insane man.

 

[John Beere]

First off... Awesome.

Second, and this is probably obvious, but please tell me there's GFCI involved in that circuit somewhere and that your HLT is grounded. Don't want to be a ****** bag but just want to make sure we're all playing safe. Sorry if you already mentioned that somewhere and I missed it.

Could you potentially give more information about what you're using for the software end of things. That is, is the interface written in C? Visual Basic? Where did you get the PID code?

I wasn't too surprised to see you were having SSR problems w/out a heat sink. Is that one heat sink being used on all your SSRs? I've got a bit of experience with these and I can tell you confidently that SSR life is greatly diminished w/out proper heat sink use. I'm not sure what the current load on the others is but you might potentially want to consider getting a much larger heat sink or individual heat sinks for each SSR. Although, if not much current's being drawn on the others it might not be a big deal. Usually SSR data sheets have some graphs and recommendations for heat sink use.

Again... that's freaking awesome. I've been thinking for a long time about doing something similar w/ a PLC, LabView, or Visual C++ and a touch screen but don't have anywhere near the time and money that you apparently do. I'm very jealous! Bravo to you sir!

Yes, all the wall plugs in my brewery have GFCI's built in - including the 220v. While there is always a chance of a major leak, the chances are minimal and would probably happen in the front of the rig, not in the back where the breakout box sits. The touchscreen is fully encased in metal and can withstand getting wet.

The load on the other relays are minimal - they are all rated for 25 amps and are probably pulling < 1 amp each. The 220v relay is rated for 40 amps and the packaging stated that a heatsink was only required above 25 amps. This is obviously wrong as I estimate that the heating element is pulling around 22 amps and that thing was crazy hot.

The API was provided by the manufacturer of the usb device and could be programmed in most any language.

 

[John Beere]

Ahh, so you painted the frame black, nice upgrade.

Someone finally noticed! woot!

 

[John Beere]

Here is a little taste of the splash screen. My wife is working on it now. This is from a test of the LCD component's ability to render graphics.

 

[Brewing Clamper]

Who do I make the check out to and when can I expect delivery?

 

[powerjb]

unreal.....

that is absolutely amazing.

 

[Jester369]

Brilliant - completely brilliant If you can't brew consistent beer with that thing, you must be doing something SERIOUSLY wrong!

 

[John Beere]

Thanks all. From the statistics gathered last night, I can clearly see the current algorithm's faults and have already started the process of refining it.

I am also going to build some insulated lids for both vessels which should considerably help with ramping and heat loss...

 

[CrookedChris]

Yes, all the wall plugs in my brewery have GFCI's built in - including the 220v. While there is always a chance of a major leak, the chances are minimal and would probably happen in the front of the rig, not in the back where the breakout box sits. The touchscreen is fully encased in metal and can withstand getting wet.

The load on the other relays are minimal - they are all rated for 25 amps and are probably pulling < 1 amp each. The 220v relay is rated for 40 amps and the packaging stated that a heatsink was only required above 25 amps. This is obviously wrong as I estimate that the heating element is pulling around 22 amps and that thing was crazy hot.

The API was provided by the manufacturer of the usb device and could be programmed in most any language.

When you say you're using the the API provided by the manufacturer do you mean DAQFactory Express or are you using the provided DLL w/ some custom C code or LabView or something? Sorry if this seems like a silly question but I've heard so many people use the term API to mean different things so I just want to clarify. If you're using DAQFactory the express version doesn't have PID capability so are you just doing an On/Off limit switch type controller? If I finally get around to my HERMS I really want to go PWM PID for HEX, Mash, and sparge water temp but then again maybe that's overkill.

 

[John Beere]

No, I didn't even install the DAQ software... I integrated directly to their provided API.

 

[Clayton]

i know that you have alot on your plate just getting it to work right and get all the bugs and engineering issues taken care of,, but do you plan on makeing a propain or natural gas version ,, should be an easy option ,with some Gas Solenoid Valves

I am wanting to build a Flat BrewSculptures but i am going to make it natrual gas becase i have gas ran out to my brewcave

 

[John Beere]

Clayton,

I think where my app / hardware ends are the relays. You could hook a solenoid up to it, a heating element, whatever. But right now, there is no option in the software for directly controlling the mash heat seperately from the HEX. That will have to come in a future version.

 

[Chriso]

You already know all of my thoughts in great detail from the other thread, JB, but I reiterate, this is flippin' sweet.

Did I mention that SWRLM* gave me the preliminary OK on the basement electric rig? You and I will have to chat sometime.

* - I know, I'm inventing new acronyms. Someone Who Really Loves Me.

 

[Damonic]

WOW! Truly impressive... great to see this thing take shape finally.

 

[JVD_X]

That's really impressive.

 

[BrewBrain]

son of a bitch. look at that thing

now I can't post a photo of my slightly crooked keezer collar

 

[steelerguy]

I feel like it is almost a waste of space to say how cool this, and all your projects are, but I simply must waste that space at this point. I am new around here but have looked through a number of your threads and am always very impressed with the level of detail and workmanship involved.

Keep all the Title Town projects coming!