Electric conversion

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This circuit will work, but I don't see how it is any simpler than the one I provided that does allow for the alarm you desire.



Brew on :mug:


I have a momentary button to energize the coil. Yours has a maintained switch in it like the key switch the electric brewer uses.
I think for it to work with the momentary button the power to the two relay poles has to come from between the EPO and start button.
 
The EPO is a maintained mushroom button... push off, pull in. It is in series with the momentary push button (your second action) to trigger the interlock relay. If you lose power or whatever it will de-energize the interlock relay which will prevent the main power contractor closing.
There are no momentary action switches in my design.

Brew on :mug:
 
I have a momentary button to energize the coil. Yours has a maintained switch in it like the key switch the electric brewer uses.
I think for it to work with the momentary button the power to the two relay poles has to come from between the EPO and start button.

Sorry, for some reason I got the impression you were going to use a maintained action start switch.

If you want to use a momentary action start switch, just move the branch connection on the right of my start switch to the left of the start switch.

Brew on :mug:
 
Sorry, for some reason I got the impression you were going to use a maintained action start switch.



If you want to use a momentary action start switch, just move the branch connection on the right of my start switch to the left of the start switch.



Brew on :mug:


Ha! It's cool. We will get this hammered out eventually. I think that'll work well. The alarm would sound as soon as you close the EPO, Sonia think I'll leave that out.
Karl, thanks for the explanation on the relay. I didn't see that post earlier. For some reason the app didn't load it. Makes a lot of sense to have as few oddball parts as possible in the equipment.
Well boys, I think we are making some progress, but it's bedtime for me now. Hopefully I get time to finish putting in the outlets In the enclosure tomorrow. I need to get that done before the weekend since my honey do list is to put pulls in all our cabinets in the house.
Oh? One more thing. I've found some info on minimum bend radius for wires at their terminating end, but nothing about the routing between. I've also seen some manufactures that state to rout it so that the wires not damaged... duh. Some charts say to use 8x the conductor diameter. What's the standard?
 
Ha! It's cool. We will get this hammered out eventually. I think that'll work well. The alarm would sound as soon as you close the EPO, Sonia think I'll leave that out.
Karl, thanks for the explanation on the relay. I didn't see that post earlier. For some reason the app didn't load it. Makes a lot of sense to have as few oddball parts as possible in the equipment.
Well boys, I think we are making some progress, but it's bedtime for me now. Hopefully I get time to finish putting in the outlets In the enclosure tomorrow. I need to get that done before the weekend since my honey do list is to put pulls in all our cabinets in the house.
Oh? One more thing. I've found some info on minimum bend radius for wires at their terminating end, but nothing about the routing between. I've also seen some manufactures that state to rout it so that the wires not damaged... duh. Some charts say to use 8x the conductor diameter. What's the standard?
You are correct. The alarm wouldn't function if desired if my circuit was modified to use momentary action start switch.

Brew on :mug:
 
You are correct. The alarm wouldn't function if desired if my circuit was modified to use momentary action start switch.



Brew on :mug:


Yeah, I think I'll just have to figure out to go look at my switches if the power doesn't come on. At this point I need to just get this thing built and brew again. I can always mod it later when I've got by kegs filled up again. [emoji481] I really appreciate you all helping out.
 
Well, I was going to get a stainless HERMS coil, but a friend hooked me up with 50' of 1/2" L copper tubing. He drinks my beer all the time, so it'll work out well for him anyway. Saved me a hundred or so bucks too.
 
Well, after much delay I’ve picked back up on this project. Was a little down for a while after my little brewmeowster (cat) ran away. He used to help with the build. Got the holes punched for the heating elements and pumps. The heating elements still need opened up with a flap wheel since I didn’t have a big enough punch. View attachment IMG_4613.jpg
Turns out the end of my power cord I measured to the strain reliefs/cable gland was larger than the end I popped off for running into the enclosure. So... that’s gona get pumped full of sealant to keep it in place. A little disappointed in that, but it’ll work.
 
U need a mechanical lock on the cable which ensures it won’t move. One trip walking by the cable could put enough tension on it to pull conductors out of terminals or worse, just loosen them. That would be bad with live conductors.
 
U need a mechanical lock on the cable which ensures it won’t move. One trip walking by the cable could put enough tension on it to pull conductors out of terminals or worse, just loosen them. That would be bad with live conductors.



The sealant I’ll be using is way beyond RTV. We use it on aircraft at work. So much of it goes to waste. When it is fully cured it usually takes a hammer and plastic scrapers or a knife to cut it.
 
Got holes cut for the XLR receptacles for temp sensors and float switches. And most of the panel components located. The heating element receptacles took a bit to get righgbsince I needed a hole a bit larger than 1-3/8, but the largest punch I had was 1-1/4. A little work with a half round file, and I’m pretty happy. View attachment IMG_4702.jpg
View attachment IMG_4703.jpg
 
So, I’ve had some time off like a lot of people. I’m back to finishing this long overdue project. Highly embarrassed I’ve taken this many... years. Anyway. Here’s it mostly finished.
it has a safe start interlock to cover the pump and heating element switches, the water pump has a second mode switch to toggle between normal recirculation for the HLT, or sparging, and a bunch of bypass switchesto bypass element protection, grant, and sparge float switches in case they fail.
 

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Just need to bond all the receptacles time case ground, and the inside should be done. Hopefully I’ll get that knocked out tomorrow, and start on the wire harnesses. Still have to fab the HLT. HERMS coil is more or leas shaped. Also borrowing a MAP torch this weekend to try silver soldering up the grant.
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For a lot of my low voltage, temp sensors, float switches, and float switch bypassing switches I used scrap M27500 aircraft wiring. Most of it was shielded twisted pair, but I was lucky to have a little triple twist for the temp sensors. I like this stuff because it’s Teflon jacketed and can the high temp pretty good. Bumping into it with a soldering iron won’t immediately melt the insulation off of it like THHN. It was probably overkill, but I added shielding drains to ground to prevent the high current from inducing any EMI. My soldering is a little out of practice, and I am using a crappy Weller soldering iron rather than a soldering station (miss having one of them). For what it’s worth here ya go.
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I will also say having bout 6 Meters of PT100 metal stainless braided cable that stripping the fiberglass inner insulation off the conductors is a bit of a pain. I’m starting to figure out some tricks.
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Started smoke checking the system. The safe start interlock relay had issues due to the silkscreen ID on top of the relay, stamped ID in the Boynton if the relay, and the relay socket all having at least one error each not matching the data sheet... thanks a lot Uxcell.

The power meter ended up getting installed upside down because they installed the data sticker upside down, and I used that for reference.
The water pump works fine, but doesn’t turn off when I turn off the main pump switch unless I trip the float bypass switch, so I have to investigate that a little.

An anomaly I have is that my heater indicator lights are always on dim even when the switches are off. Power goes through a fuse, to the SSR, through the heater element contactor, then to the element jack. Is it normal for an SSR to allow some power through when off? I have to figure that out too. At least I know there’s no power downstream if the contactor.
 
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An anomaly I have is that my heater indicator lights are always on dim even when the switches are off. Power goes through a fuse, to the SSR, through the heater element contactor, then to the element jack. Is it normal for an SSR to allow some power through when off? I have to figure that out too. At least I know there’s no power downstream if the contactor.
This is normal. An SSR isn't a mechanical switch that interrupts voltage and current. It behaves more like a resistor that can be switched from a high value to very low value. The "off" state is a high value of resistance, so that only a few mA of current can flow, but that is enough to dimly light the LED indicator if the element is not connected. If the element is connected, then the few mA of current flows thru the element, and the voltage drop across the LED (and element) is not enough to light up the LED.

Brew on :mug:
 
This is normal. An SSR isn't a mechanical switch that interrupts voltage and current. It behaves more like a resistor that can be switched from a high value to very low value. The "off" state is a high value of resistance, so that only a few mA of current can flow, but that is enough to dimly light the LED indicator if the element is not connected. If the element is connected, then the few mA of current flows thru the element, and the voltage drop across the LED (and element) is not enough to light up the LED.

Brew on :mug:
Nothing was plugged into those plugs. In retrospect I should have tapped the power on the downstream side of the contactor... thanks.
 

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