2/13/2016 update
today was the day to fire up the control panel and make sure everything worked. first step was getting the main power cord ready. the ebrew supply kit comes with a 6 foot dryer cord and a cordset plug:
taking the plug apart:
ring lugs cut off the dryer cord and stripped for termination in the plug:
be sure to slip the plug cover on before terminating the conductors on the plug body:
conductors terminated in the plug body:
sliding the cover on. the cover/body are keyed so you can't screw it up:
cover installed (sorry about the blurry photo):
attaching the cable clamp:
plug complete and plugged into the panel:
cord installed. it was a bit of a chore to snake the cord up to the receptacle above the hood. i always felt the 6 foot cord would be too short, will likely replace with some so cord. my hood rests tight against the rear wall and now sticks out with the cord. this is just a temporary installation anyway to test the panel:
and the moment of truth:
hooray, no smoke and no tripped breakers! not all news was good though, the panel was not performing as expected. the photo above is actually after some corrections. two issues were the power light would not illuminate and the safe-off circuit was not functioning properly. only took a couple of minutes to solve the issues. one was that i missed a whole wire in the safety circuit! sure enough, it wasn't highlighted in my diagrams. second issue (the light) was because i terminated a wire on the wrong normally closed contact on the e-stop. i moved it to the correct normally closed contact and all was well. got output on the pump receptacles:
everything worked like a charm. i don't have elements yet so i couldn't test the ssr output. also, i need to solder the rtd probes to check that but everything else worked. the lights, the safety circuit, the timer, the alarm, everything. next step was to ground the door and enclosure. first step, scuff up the paint to get a good bond to bare metal:
the ebrew kit didn't come with any nuts for the ground studs (?) and there was no indication of what size to use. i found a thread over at kal's site which indicated 8mm-1.25 nuts worked so i was off to menards. i checked out the 8mm-1.25 but they seemed to big. i grabbed them but also grabbed some 6mm-1.25, just to be safe. in either case, i wouldn't be able to thread a nut on the door stud because the water pump switch was in the way. pulled it off:
test fit the nut on there and teh switch reattached, all was well. the 8mm were too large but the 6mm fit perfectly. i opted for the nylon bushing to keep the connection from getting loose:
the ring tongue lugs that came with the kit didn't work with #10 wire. there were some spade bits that worked though. due to the welding of the stud, a 'gap' was created so i needed to add a spacer to ensure i had a tight connection. i didn't have any washers on hand that would fit so i used the ring tongue lug in its place:
repeat the process for the stud on the door:
with all the wires in place now, time for cable ties and cleaning everything up. first set of ties:
more ties:
ties cut and cable wrap applied:
time to start adding cable anchors:
not really necessary but i put some extra wrap on the cable bunch inside the panel:
anchors for the ssr firing signals. the wires were too long, disconnected to be trimmed later:
more ssr signal wiring:
done and covers installed:
everything closes nice and smooth, no pinching and no pulling. cutoff cable tie pieces, used a bunch:
