Meet Thing 1. A 5Kw Induction All In One...

[brewman !]

Meet Thing1.

Thing1 has:
- 5 Kw Induction heating
- an 11 gallon boil kettle
- a 8 gallon grain "basket"
- a CraftBrewPi controller
- a March pump
- a custom welded SS frame with wheels
- a 4F/minute heat rate for 6 gallons without a lid. The boil is vigorous.

I built Thing1 because I wanted an all in one brewing system for kitchen brewing and I wasn't happy with what was being offered on the market - the GrainFather, Robobrew and Mash and Boil.

I love the concept of the GrainFather - automated, compact, portable, enables hands off brewing in the kitchen, etc. I just don't like how some things were implemented on the GF and the other all in ones for that matter. So this is my custom GF if you will, a GF on steroids, the ultimate kitchen brewing system.

I'm a busy guy with kids. I don't have time to sit alone in my basement and brew. My brewing has to occur when I'm multi tasking and that means I need to brew where my family is, in the kitchen.

What I didn't like about the current all in ones:

- the grain baskets were too small
- the boil kettles were too small
- the heating elements were under powered
- they use a small custom pump prone to plugging
- the controllers offered limited programmability and connectivity.
- they sit too low. (I'm 6'1".)
- they all have niggling issues, like the hop filter on the GF falls off, etc.

I would have been fine brewing with stand alone kettles and an induction plate. The 3500w plates have decent power but there doesn't seem to be an easy way to wire a controller into them. And the coil diameter is small relative to most brewing pots. And I don't really have counter space to set up a bunch of kettles. So that was a non starter.

I also thought about using a radiant element assembly from a ceramic stove top to heat a kettle. The biggest one I could find was 3,000 watts, which would have been OK. But I worried about scorching the wort due to possible high boil kettle bottom temps. The boil kettle bottom temp should be the same on the inside surface whether using a radiant element or induction, but the difference is that induction warms the pot bottom directly whereas a radiant element gets really hot to heat the pot bottom.

I also considered using a hot water heater element in a kettle, but they generally increase the underlet volume by a lot. And I don't like BIAB. Thus I decided to give induction a try.

So I bought a stand alone induction power supply, figured out the coil design and then built a stand on wheels around it. Then I tied the pump into the stand for convenience. And then I integrated CraftBeerPi as the controller. Wala... Thing1 was born.

The mash underlet water volume on Thing1 is a bit less than 1 gallon. More than I'd like but it leaves a bit of water out of the mash for fly sparging.

The underlet volume on Thing1 is governed by the height of the hop screen in the bottom of the brew kettle. If I remove the hop screen I can set the grain basket right on the bottom and the underlet volume is essentially zero. I also thought about using a bottom drain on the kettle but decided against it because it was convenient for electrical reasons to mount the induction power supply right beneath the induction coil.

Thing1 has a larger footprint than a GF. A GF fits in a 15" circle. Thing1 has a 20x24" base. But Thing1 is on wheels and sits much higher. I'd probably build a stand for a GF if I brewed with it., so that negates any size disadvantage that Thing1 has.

I love that Thing1 is on wheels. It has a 5 foot cord and I wired a 240V GFCI protected outlet under the sink in my kitchen. I can roll Thing1 up to the sink for filling, chilling and cleaning and yet roll it out of the way if I want to prep a meal or wash things. Multi tasking, remember ?

I was worried about scorching with such a high power heating system. I measured the underside pot temp on Thing1 at full boil (208F where I live) and found it to be 240F. The underside pot temp at less than boil is typically 25ish F higher than the liquid inside.

Thing1's induction coil is 12 inches in diameter. 5,000 watts / 113 in^2 = 44.2 watts/ in^2. Ultra low watt density hot water heater elements are supposed to be 50 watts/in^2 or less, but when I calculate their area, I get more like 80 watts/in^2.

Thing1's stand is 14.5" high. The top of the boil pot is 32" high. I'm 6'1", so lifting the grain basket isn't a problem. I think this is the perfect height for both lifting the grains out and for watching the brewing process.

The 3 way valves on the pump are great for priming the pump and I can pump from an HLT to the mash bucket to fly sparge or from the boil kettle to the chiller, all with only 1 pump.

The base without the kettle weighs about 25 pounds, so there is no problem hauling it up a flight of stairs. It takes 2 trips to move it, but so would a GF with base and at least the boil kettle has handles. GFs have no handles.

The wheels make Thing1 easy to move. Everything stores nicely in a closet.

The boil kettle just sits on the base. Any induction kettle will work. The kettle has handles so it is easy to lift up to a sink to drain out.

I'm still tweaking Thing1. I've been out of brewing for a long time. Thing1 makes brewing SO easy compared to what I used to do. (Propane hermes with keggles, manual control !) I'm very happy I built it.

 

[golfindia]

For shizzle....

Nice work.

 

[swimIan]

Tell us more?

 

[brewman !]

What do you want to know ?

 

[brewman !]

If I had to do it again, I might turn the pump upside down for more head on the inlet and for easier priming. It works OK as it is though. It is nice to have the 3 way valves high like they are.

The RPi3 in the control box is running CraftBeerPi. Very inexpensive, easy to set up and versatile. I love using a tablet to control things.

 

[brewman !]

 

[brewman !]

Pick up in the bottom of the boil kettle to keep hops out of the chiller. I could actually mash in this vessel.

 

[brewman !]

Screen in the bottom of the grain basket. I'm going to put a stand pipe in the middle ala the GrainFather. I'll use GrainFather or RoboBrew parts.

 

[swimIan]

I’d like to know about the induction plate you are using for one.

 

[brewman !]

I’d like to know about the induction plate you are using for one.

It's not a plate. I bought a stand alone induction power supply and then wound an induction coil to work with it.

 

[Jbrown57]

Sweet build.
Any info on the final filter coil below the screen?
I have been looking for one. Where did you source it?
Jb

 

[brewman !]

Sweet build.
Any info on the final filter coil below the screen?
I have been looking for one. Where did you source it?
Jb

You mean the hop filter in the bottom of the boil kettle ? I built that from scratch. The SS mesh came from a bathroom water supply line. The rest is just a copper tee with a short piece of pipe for nipples.

I like the quote in your footer. "Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence. Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision."

It took a bit of belief and persistence to put this thing together and get it working.

 

[brewman !]

Here is what the CraftBeerPi controller screen looks like. You can access the process from any browser and view and control it from multiple browsers at once.

It is an open source project, so you can tweak things if you want.

There are charts and logs for temperatures and duty cycles. It is very easy to add another pot, heater, pump or temp sensor. There are tons of software add ons, including various different types of PID loops, complete with an Autotune app.

If that isn't enough, the development manual gives instructions on how to write your own addons in Python.

You can actually set up 2 controllers that use the same temp sensor and heater, but for different purposes. I have 1 controller set up for mashing and another for boiling and they use different PID algorithms and tuning ! They both control the induction coil ! (This is not shown in the screenshot I took. I'll grab a new one the next time I fire it up.)

On the left are the brewing steps. CraftBeerPi will import steps from the more popular brewing software apps or you can edit a brew process right in the browser. Because you can access CBPi from any browser, you can upload and edit brewing steps to it straight from the computer you run your brewing software on.

I generally run Thing1 from a 10 inch Samsung tablet. I works great. You could run a display, keyboard and mouse right from the RPi too. It is, after all, a full fledged computer running Linux. I personally like the control UI being wireless and away from the mess of the actual brewing.

CraftBeerPi is very easy to set up on an RPi and wire into a brewing system. Way, way easier than building a panel.

www.CraftBeerPi.com

PS: CraftBeerPi can also run fermentors.

 

[Scarabrew]

The 3-way ball valves are a great idea for chilling/sparging. Hope I can use this solution for my next project.

Hope to get some info after the first batch.

 

[brewman !]

The 3-way ball valves are a great idea for chilling/sparging. Hope I can use this solution for my next project.

I got the idea from someone who put a 3 way valve on the outlet of a GF. I took it one step further and put one on both the inlet and outlet. They are also great for draining the system. Just put a tray beneath and open them up.

FYI, there are 2 different types of 3 way valves. This one will connect three ports. The other type will only connect 2 adjacent ports.

I placed the pump so that the inlet cam lock was roughly in line with the back of the stand. This means the catch tray has to be placed right next to the wheel to catch the drain off from the inlet tri valve. If I did it over, I'd center the pump on the frame so the catch tray isn't tight to the wheel. I might change it someday.

Hope to get some info after the first batch.

I'll keep the thread updated.

Presently the induction coil gets very hot. Like 300F. I need to add some air flow to the case to cool the induction coil. I'll brew as soon as I get that resolved. I've done several test boils and this is the only issue that has come up thus far, with this iteration. There were some implosions prior to this iteration...

 

[Gravitysucks]

I don't see your Pi in any on your pictures. Do you have any pictures of how you have the Pi wired into your system? Separate enclosure from your induction unit?

 

[brewman !]

I don't see your Pi in any on your pictures. Do you have any pictures of how you have the Pi wired into your system? Separate enclosure from your induction unit?

The RPi3 is mounted to the front panel of the control box, on its side. That is why you don't see it. But it is in there.

As for wiring, here are the connections:

Power
+5V supply in the control box goes to 5V pin on the RPi.
Supply ground goes to the common supply ground point.
Common supply ground goes to one of the ground pins on the RPi.

One Wire Temp Sensors
The One Wire VCC wire goes to a 3.3V pin on the RPi. You'll fry the RPi if you connect the One Wire VCC to 5V !
The One Wire Data wire goes to a GPIO pin. (CBPi dictates which one.)
The One Wire Gnd wire goes to one of the ground pins on the RPi, not to the common ground. This is for noise immunity.
You need to tie the OW VCC to OW Data with a 4.7K ohm resistor. I did this on one of the jacks I used to connect the sensors to the control box

I wired 2 temperature sensor jacks (1/8" stereo jacks) into my control box so that I can watch 2 temps at once. I might add more.

SSR
Vcontrol goes to a GPIO pin.
Vcommon goes to the common ground
CBPi lets you select which GPIO pin you want to use.


Opto isolated relays (I used 2 of them)
Vcontrol goes to a GPIO pin.
Vcommon goes to the common ground
CBPi lets you select which GPIO pin you want to use.

It is very simple to wire an RPi into a brewing system like this. Not much more work than wiring up a PID controller. 11 wires (5 of them grounds) to connect power, 2 temp sensors and 3 relays. Way, way less work than wiring up a manual panel. Here is the official CBPi hardware page. http://web.craftbeerpi.com/hardware/

I don't use the SSR right now. I might use a special RIMS heat exchanger for heating the mash in the future.
One of the relays is used for the pump.
The other relay turns the induction power on and off. The board itself is powered as soon as the unit is plugged into the outlet. The relay just closes a connection to enable output to the coil.

You can buy a CBPi adapter board for the RPi. It would save some space. It would simplify things even further. It includes a regulator to accept up to 12V for the RPi power. I didn't see the need for it as wiring the board directly was so easy.

FYI, CBPi can do PWM output from a GPIO pin.

I was worried the magnetic and electrical fields from the induction power supply board would cause problems with the RPi. But they haven't. I was also worried that the enclosure would kill the Wifi range. I can't comment on that much since my router is only 20 feet from the kitchen, but it works that far.

I didn't run any of the RPI ports (USB, Ethernet or HDMI) out of the case. I didn't see the need. As long as the board boots (it always has) and it connects to my network via Wifi, I can use remote tools like ssh to do anything I need to. The only wire that connects Thing1 to the outside world is the power cord.

The knob you see on the front panel in the pictures controls a 10 Kw variable power SCR. I need to test it more before I talk about it.

 

[brewman !]

Wiring photo?

See the 2nd image in the first post in this thread. The blue board is the induction power supply. I wired everything else. The RPi is along the bottom side of the enclosure. You can just see a few of the black push on pin connectors.

 

[brewman !]

A better angle. I told you it was in there. Took 2 hours to wire it and test it. Inexpensive too.

 

[brewman !]

Winding the induction coil. I twisted the cable together as well.

 

[Gravitysucks]

Thanks for that. I hang out here and over at the CBPi forum looking for panel ideas. It's really interesting to see the different ways the Pi is being implemented in brewing controllers.

 

[BrunDog]

Nice. In case there isn’t any, you might want to add circuit protection. Perhaps you are counting on an external breaker (GFI I hope), but it will not protect lower current items like the power supply.

 

[brewman !]

Nice. In case there isn’t any, you might want to add circuit protection. Perhaps you are counting on an external breaker (GFI I hope), but it will not protect lower current items like the power supply.

Huh ? What am I supposed to be protecting from what ?

 

[BrunDog]

Huh ? What am I supposed to be protecting from what ?

Assuming your breaker is 30A, then all the wires “downstream” need to support that amount of current. Assuming you branch into smaller wires, and there is a short circuit fed by those wires, either those wires are going to become miniature heating elements, or the devices they feed are going to see far more current than they should in a fault situation. Either of which could cause an electrical fire.

 

[brewman !]

Assuming your breaker is 30A, then all the wires “downstream” need to support that amount of current. Assuming you branch into smaller wires, and there is a short circuit fed by those wires, either those wires are going to become miniature heating elements, or the devices they feed are going to see far more current than they should in a fault situation. Either of which could cause an electrical fire.

This thing is fed by a 20A rated plug on a 20A GFCI. The "downstream" AC wires are 14 ga. A short would trip the breaker, period, end of story. One could overload a 14 ga wire with 20A, but not to the point where it would become a heater, as you describe it. The AC wiring is not in contact with anything flammable. The case is metal. Should a wire get hot the insulation will melt off, the wire will droop and short out, causing the breaker to flip.

I could have put 15A breakers on the downstream AC circuits, but I'm OK without them.

 

[golfindia]

.

 

[brewman !]

No heat sinks and no issues with the Pi getting too hot? I got overheat warnings continuously until I put a fan over the top of mine.

It ran fine. I thought I might have to put on heat sinks and a fan, but it seems OK. I didn't check the temp though. Maybe I will next time.

The induction coil gets hot. I ordered fans for the enclosure. I should have them on by next weekend.

 

[brewman !]

FWIW, I love the stand on Thing1. I hate the height of the all in ones.

I think all in ones are too low to be sitting directly on the floor, especially if you want to use the controller, especially on the Mash and Boil and RoboBrew, where the controllers are built into the base. You essentially have to kneel on the floor to set things up. The Grainfather is a bit better. With CraftBrewPi, I can have the controller wherever I want it.

The top of the boil kettle on Thing1 is 32 inches, counter top height. This puts it at a nice height to stir and watch the mash and still makes it easy to pull out the mash bucket. Some people put their all in ones on a counter. Then they need a step ladder to mash and pull out the mash bucket.

 

[BrunDog]

I could have put 15A breakers on the downstream AC circuits, but I'm OK without them.

Indeed you will be OK, but as you know this doesn’t adhere to documented safety practices. In addition, as you know, the 5 kW induction circuitry (assuming that’s the input requirement) will exceed the rating of both the plug and feed circuit. The pump and DC power supply increase that overage further. It will certainly work, but erodes the SF engineered into the components.

One additional comment: your system would benefit from a kettle with an induction-friendly kettle. The Bayou has minimal ferro-magnetic properties but is very thin. A legit clad kettle may help your induction coil run cooler.

It’s your system, and it’s got some really cool and unique ideas incorporated. I don’t know of anyone building their own induction coil. Plus taking time to post up your build and share ideas is always commendable. Trust this feedback is not a condemnation of you, your system, or your efforts... Just ensuring that others reading this understand certain approaches don’t follow standards.

 

[lump42]

I also considered using a hot water heater element in a kettle, but they generally increase the underlet volume by a lot. And I don't like BIAB. Thus I decided to give induction a try.

How does the basket function differently than a bag?