Stc-1000+

[wbarber69]

They definitely have some "logic" they also have run dry protection and they shut down at 220f. They sell the same model with a speed control built in that has a 3rd wire on it but I didn't know that when I bought mine.

 

[alphaomega]

Aha... Well then, if they do contain logic, then yes it might not respond well to PWM. I guess that must be some desirable features for solar systems then, because I would personally not like that from a pump

 

[wbarber69]

Yeah it's got its downsides. Like when I'm recirculating and it shuts off. But it is nice when I forget it's running and it empties out and shuts off automatically.

 

[KindofBlues71]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/inline-fuse-wiring-stc-1000-questions-445683/

Interesting read here on the current draw of stc being extremely low

I read alphaomega's post about 3 fuses, then read thru the thread smithabusa posted and now I'm a little confused, as I know nothing about electronics and electricity.

I have a chest freezer that's used for serving kegs and fermenting ales. I have one STC controlling the freezer and a fan, and two STC's controlling fermentation temps with a heat wrap (www.reptilebasics.com). Should I have a fuse for the heat outlet instead of the power going into the STC?

 

[HansEinar]

I think you need PLM(pulse length modulation) to control those pumps. It is the length of the 12v pulse and the length of 0v in combination that control the pump RPM. Those 3 wire pot often goes to a controlbox that generate PLM to the pump.

 

[adam01]

AKA Pulse width modulation (PWM).

 

[des]

FWIW, I've read elsewhere (dunno where) about some pumps having their own pwm circuit built-in to ensure the RPM of the pump, and some of those having an input to use an external PWM signal

 

[ClunkClunk]

There is a fuse built into the power inlet, the slow blow 10amp fuse that will recommends

Where do you get this power inlet with a fuse? That'd kill two birds with one stone with my upcoming build.

 

[wbarber69]

http://bit.ly/1rqExyJ

 

[ClunkClunk]

http://bit.ly/1rqExyJ

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

I was asking not because they're impossible to find, but more on a hope that a national retailer might carry them (Home Depot, Walmart, Radio Shack, etc.) and I had simply missed them before - or that smithabusa would tell me that they're a bit difficult to find in retail stores, so they were purchased online.

 

[wilconrad]

Settle down kids, save it for the playground.

Here's the inlet I use:
http://www.alliedelec.com/search/productdetail.aspx?SKU=70133364


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[smithabusa]

And the fuse http://www.alliedelec.com/search/productdetail.aspx?SKU=70159968

 

[smithabusa]

Arduino showed today, and flashed the two new units from Will. Awesome.

Question though, I can't seem to figure out the right combination of when to connect things etc. When I plug the header into the STC1000, I hear the USB cycle, and I get error messages that the com port is busy being used by another program. If I close everything down, reopen Arduino, re-upload to uno, then try again I eventually get it, but thinking I must be doing something wrong.

I have the uno plugged into USB, comes up as com5 in device manager (shows arduino uno, com5), I open Arduino, open the picprog file, then hit upload. Sometimes it will upload, and others it will say com port being used by another program. Once I have it uploaded, I go into serial monitor, and sometimes get that same message.

When do you plug your USB device in, and when do you connect it to the STC1000 in your process? Experience anything similar to what I have going on?

Another dumb question, once you flash the STC, is the program removed from the Arduino Uno? I would like to be able to flash lots of STC's right in a row if possible, from the serial monitor screen could I flash them over and over or does it require a new upload to the Arduino, then go back into serial monitor each time?

Thanks very much guys.

Greg

 

[wilconrad]

Plug in USB, then start Arduino software, then open serial monitor and flash.

Before you do the next one you need to close the Arduino software and unplug the Arduino. Then make the connection to the next STC, plug the USB back in, open Arduino software, flash, repeat.

And no, you cannot flash multiple units without restarting the Arduino software, as far as I know.


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[orangehero]

Wrong post.

 

[smithabusa]

Gotcha, thanks Will the stcmaster

 

[wilconrad]

Gotcha, thanks Will the stcmaster

Mats is definitely the STCmaster, but I may be the less glamorous "flashmaster" as I have about 350 under my belt so far!


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[smithabusa]

Im up to 3, flashed one of the two twice for practice lol

 

[Bigdaddyale]

I was able to flash 2 the other day with the Pro mini.Those things are so cheap I'm going to mount one in each of my stc1000+ enclosures.I installed header pins in the stc1000 and ran wires out the back.Thanks for all of the hard work Alphaomega.
I got it engrained in the brain 98grd5v3

 

[alphaomega]

Hi!

Will, I have no doubt that you're the 'grandmaster flash' However, my poor dev board has probably seen a couple of hundred cycles at least. And I have not had these types of issues myself. But I'm running Linux. Only thing I have noticed is that if the serial monitor is open when I remove the USB, it will have a new device name when I replug it, but I never need to restart the IDE.
So the obvious solution is to switch to Linux

If you need to flash a lot of units, and are annoyed by this, you could try to enable AUTOMATIC_UPLOAD in the sketch. With this you won't need a computer at all. Just power. When you enable power to the Arduino, it will check for an STC present and if so upload. I think that auto upload works now, but it's been a while since I tested it.

I was able to flash 2 the other day with the Pro mini.Those things are so cheap I'm going to mount one in each of my stc1000+ enclosures.I installed header pins in the stc1000 and ran wires out the back.Thanks for all of the hard work Alphaomega.
I got it engrained in the brain 98grd5v3

I really think that just adding a connector is better. You could do it this way, but then you should add a diode between the arduino Vcc and STC Vcc to make sure Arduino is unpowered when not connected.

Or...

Check out my next post

 

[alphaomega]

I finally had some time to work on my datalogger project for the STC.
It is far from finished, but this will be sweet

It is a pretty simple deal actually, an arduino pro mini that is hooked up to the relevant lines of the STC. If you remember my fermentation fridge setup in this post, I have separated the display from the main board and connect them via a cable instead. The logger will simply plug into this cable.
For development, I have also modified my dev board in a simpler way, that is probably a more reasonable way to go if you are interested in doing this yourself.

So this is my dev board with the needed 'upgrade'.

This is the protoboard I use. An arduino pro mini, mini SD card module and a light gate (this is optional, I want to count bubbles in the air lock as well).

The bottom of the board. Connector for the cable and I also added a pushbutton.

The protoboard fits in an encosure.

Top of the enclosure.

The way I have chosen to implement this is pretty clever I think.
First off, I have chosen to maintain the connections from the programming sketch, so I can upload it and reflash the STC with the same hardware.
When using it as a logger, the temp probe outputs are connected to analog input pins and read the same voltage as the STC and the exact same method is used to convert the reading to a temperature. On my dev board this seems to differ 0.2 deg C from the STC, but it seems to be pretty consistently off by this, so it would be pretty easy to correct for.
I'll also log heating and cooling (and bubble count).

So far I have only gotten proof of concept working. I need to 'polish' the logging sketch a bit, but I'm pretty amazed myself at how easy this was

I'll probably put this project up on the github page when I feel it is good enough to share.

Cheers!
//mats

 

[wilconrad]

If you need to flash a lot of units, and are annoyed by this, you could try to enable AUTOMATIC_UPLOAD in the sketch.

This is awesome! FYI, I had to make a small tweak in the sketch to get this to work with the fahrenheit version; after uncommenting the #define for AUTOMATIC_UPLOAD_FAHRENHEIT, I also needed to remove the "AUTOMATIC_UPLOAD_CELSIUS ||" from the #ifdef statement a few lines down. I don't think the "||" operator gets along with #ifdef?

Anyway, this is a great feature, thanks for pointing it out!

Will, I have no doubt that you're the 'grandmaster flash'

Totally off-topic, but speaking of "Grandmaster Flash", have you seen this story? Hilarious.

 

[alphaomega]

This is awesome! FYI, I had to make a small tweak in the sketch to get this to work with the fahrenheit version; after uncommenting the #define for AUTOMATIC_UPLOAD_FAHRENHEIT, I also needed to remove the "AUTOMATIC_UPLOAD_CELSIUS ||" from the #ifdef statement a few lines down. I don't think the "||" operator gets along with #ifdef?

Anyway, this is a great feature, thanks for pointing it out!

But of course... I'll fix that, noobish misstake
I don't know about great... I mostly added it because with my fermentation fridge, the STC is mounted and I don't want to have dig out and boot up my old eeePC to reflash it...
But I'm glad you like it

Totally off-topic, but speaking of "Grandmaster Flash", have you seen this story? Hilarious.

Yeah, that was in the 'news' here as well last week Pretty darn funny

 

[smithabusa]

This is awesome! FYI, I had to make a small tweak in the sketch to get this to work with the fahrenheit version; after uncommenting the #define for AUTOMATIC_UPLOAD_FAHRENHEIT, I also needed to remove the "AUTOMATIC_UPLOAD_CELSIUS ||" from the #ifdef statement a few lines down. I don't think the "||" operator gets along with #ifdef?

Anyway, this is a great feature, thanks for pointing it out!



Totally off-topic, but speaking of "Grandmaster Flash", have you seen this story? Hilarious.

This is great guys, so much easier now to flash many of them when the opportunity arises.

I made up a quick graphic in case anyone else wants to try and modify the sketch

 

[alphaomega]

Yeah.
I already fixed it and pushed the change, so you can get the sketch from github as well.

 

[smithabusa]

Yeah.
I already fixed it and pushed the change, so you can get the sketch from github as well.

You are too fast Mats

 

[adam01]

Alpha;

So for logging you had to splice between the two boards, or simply tap into the connections.
I had hoped that one could simply read the temp probe, or get serial data from the STC.
I was looking at building a simply arduino board with a display to log/show temp graphs on
the display. That way the logging/display board could be plugged into an STC, or not.

 

[alphaomega]

Alpha;

So for logging you had to splice between the two boards, or simply tap into the connections.
I had hoped that one could simply read the temp probe, or get serial data from the STC.
I was looking at building a simply arduino board with a display to log/show temp graphs on
the display. That way the logging/display board could be plugged into an STC, or not.

I don't understand... This is exactly that (well... I won't use any display). I can connect or disconnect the logger whenever. Maybe I don't understand what you are asking. If you build an enclosure for your STC, then you can simply have a connector (DB9 comes to mind).

What you need to be able to log the temp(s) on an Arduino, is the probe output(s), and you also need common ground and preferably common AD ref voltage.
You can find these on the programming header + the temp probe terminals. You won't be able to monitor cooling/heating though.

I found it good enough to 'steal' power from the STC and feed Arduino with that and use the internal AD ref. This is also very convenient as you won't need any external power supply for the Arduino. If you are going to run a graphical display, you'll probably need external power.

Serial communication is probably not going to happen. At least I won't attempt to. Reason being it will not fit (at least within this firmware), and it won't be 'good' (i.e it would pretty much have to be hard coded 1 wire comm with severely limited functionality). It would be a cool experiment to see if it could be done, but even if it can, you probably would not be able to run anything else on the STC, it would be a pure slave. I'm not really interested in that and I don't have the time to spare to have a go at it either.

 

[smithabusa]

I don't understand... This is exactly that (well... I won't use any display). I can connect or disconnect the logger whenever. Maybe I don't understand what you are asking. If you build an enclosure for your STC, then you can simply have a connector (DB9 comes to mind).

What you need to be able to log the temp(s) on an Arduino, is the probe output(s), and you also need common ground and preferably common AD ref voltage.
You can find these on the programming header + the temp probe terminals. You won't be able to monitor cooling/heating though.

I found it good enough to 'steal' power from the STC and feed Arduino with that and use the internal AD ref. This is also very convenient as you won't need any external power supply for the Arduino. If you are going to run a graphical display, you'll probably need external power.

Serial communication is probably not going to happen. At least I won't attempt to. Reason being it will not fit (at least within this firmware), and it won't be 'good' (i.e it would pretty much have to be hard coded 1 wire comm with severely limited functionality). It would be a cool experiment to see if it could be done, but even if it can, you probably would not be able to run anything else on the STC, it would be a pure slave. I'm not really interested in that and I don't have the time to spare to have a go at it either.

you can't tap into the heating / cooling output pins and log them as an on/off state? I tapped into the 12v control for them when I added the tri-color LED, I am not sure what level they have coming out of the chip that opens the transistors, is it 5v?

 

[alphaomega]

Oh, yes you can. And I do.
It is all 5v logic. What I said was, that if you don't solder on connections (like the picture of my dev board), but rather use the programming header and probe terminal(s) for the breaking out the signals, then you wont have access to heating/cooling signals, only temp.
The point I was making is that it is not enough to connect the probe terminals to the arduino, as you will need common ground as well (but if you are willing to use programming header as well, then at least you can get something). So, say you have a boxed STC, but have put in a connector for the programmer, and a connector for the probe(s), then you can build a logger/whatever that simply 'jack' into these.(but without heating/cooling). But with only a connector for the probe(s) (i.e. without access to the programming header), you can't.