portable RIMS

[astrocaver]

Www.astrocaver.com/rims

It fits in a Honda fit.
After 3 batches I think I have the process figured out.
Found a lot of good low-cost sources.
It has an Arduino application for the flowmeter. It displays flow rate and activates an interlock to shut off current if no flow.
The flowmeter was $11 plus shipping from China.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Please post more details.

 

[astrocaver]

Did you get to the web page ? (a couple dozen pictures of the thing)
www.astrocaver.com/rims

What detail did you want ?

 

[astrocaver]

The circuit board has an arduino mini and a socket for the lcd. One input pin is biased to accept the hall-effect sensor input and one output pin drives a couple of small mosfets that drive a pair of 5volt relays. One relay drives the flow fault lamp and the other is in series with the heater SSR 12volt pulses from the PID.
The program is an interrupt response routine on the flow pulse input that increments an integer variable. The background task checks if 2 seconds since last run then reads & clears the interrupt counter and writes the value to the LCD. If flow is OK, it drives the output bit to permit SSR pulses and open the NC contact for the flow fault lamp.

 

[passedpawn]

did you buy that flow sensor from digisavant?

 

[Yuri_Rage]

The pics are great. How did you build it? What sensors? Any Arduino libraries? PID? More details on its operation and your results?

 

[astrocaver]

The flow sensor was the 1/2" high-temp unit from futurlec.com
It cost $10.90
It has a little ceramic propellor in it that spins as fluid goes past. A magnet passes the hall effect sensor making low-resistance pulses as it spins.

 

[astrocaver]

The PID was $35 from www.sureelectronics.net
It includes a threaded and armored K thermocouple but I substituted another one with a small tip that would fit in the thermowell of the RIMS tube.
It puts out both 12 volt pulses and relay contact closures when calling for heat. You wire the 12 volt pulses across the 3-26 volt input of the solid state relay for the heater.

 

[rockytoptim]

The flow sensor was the 1/2" high-temp unit from futurlec.com
It cost $10.90
It has a little ceramic propellor in it that spins as fluid goes past. A magnet passes the hall effect sensor making low-resistance pulses as it spins.

Any idea whether the sensor is rated food safe. I see temp spec is 80C which is ~ 176 F so it would be ok for mash temps.

Tim

 

[astrocaver]

The only arduino library needed was for the LCD display. The board was hand-wired on perfboard. The pump & RIMS tube frame was yellow-painted scrap plywood.

Lacking a hot liquor tank, you have to do no-sparge mashing or else batch sparging with a small amount of sparge water heated on the stove after you drain the wort.
So get used to lower brewhouse efficiency.

It sounds like a dishwasher as the pump circulates through the tube and cooler.
I plug into a 220 volt dryer outlet but it uses it like two separate 120 vac circuits one for pump/electronics and other for heater.
At full-on the water leaves the tube 5F hotter than the inlet. As it gets closer to setpoint it heats only 1 or 2 degrees.

 

[astrocaver]

The flow sensor plastic body looks like similar material as the pump housing. After a few minutes of circulating warm PBW and several rinses I dont have any worries.

 

[passedpawn]

The flow sensor plastic body looks like similar material as the pump housing. After a few minutes of circulating warm PBW and several rinses I dont have any worries.

If there is ever a problem, it will fail safe (it will indicate no flow, which should result in the element being switched off.

I like it.