Three E's Electric Brewery Build

[EuBrew]

It's been a long time in the works but I finally have made some progress on my build.

The panel is about 3/4 done

Panel to do list:
Wire the switches and lights and LED's on the panel cover
Attach Brewtroller LCD
Install and connect 2A breaker for estop circuit
Install and connect temp sensor wires
Install and connect pressure sensor wires
Install 25 pin sub-D

Breakers, SSR's, relay board, Brewtroller board, and power supply

Receptacles, to the right are the holes for the XLR connectors I'm using for my temp and pressure sensors, and on the far right is the sub-D25 which will connect all my valves and DC components to the panel.

Contactor, ice cube relay for estop, contact blocks. Bare wire on right is for the 2A Breaker for estop circuit.

Front of panel. 5500W element switch for HLT, selector switch, 5500W element switch for BK, 3500W element switch for HEX coil
3 Pump switches in middle.
Bottom shows switches and LED's for motorized ball valves.

Bottom of panel with receptacles for 3 elements, 3 pumps, stir motor for HLT, pressure and temp sensors, and DC control.

Heat sinks for SSR's

Inside of front panel (Needs a lot of work here)

Inside of panel after a little wire clean up.

Still have a lot to do but I'm hoping to be running some tests by New Years and brewing shortly after.

Keggles are all soldered up and ready to go. I'll be constructing a stand out of leftover lumber until I get the time and money for a proper stand.

Special thanks to EVERYONE who helped me in one way or another. I hate to list names since I know I'll leave someone out.

BREW ON!!!!

 

[DeeDub76]

AWESOME WORK!!!!!

I can't wait to see more.

That stainless steel enclosure had to be high dollar!!!

 

[JayInJersey]

I hate all you people and your neat wiring...mine looks like spaghetti with zip-ties here and there


(Nice build though)

 

[WAORGANY]

EuBrew,

Great looking control panel...if mine only turns out half that nice I will be happy!!! Can't wait to see the rest.

 

[EuBrew]

AWESOME WORK!!!!!

I can't wait to see more.

That stainless steel enclosure had to be high dollar!!!

$60 plus $25 (IIRC) shipping.

Gotta love fleabay!!

 

[Ohio-Ed]

EuBrew

Nice work!

Looks great.

Ed

 

[EuBrew]

EuBrew

Nice work!

Looks great.

Ed

Without your help it's still a pile of parts and wires!!

Thanks again Ed!!

 

[NiteOwlBrewing]

I know this is asking a lot, but you didn't happen to do a wiring diagram, did you? Even a back-of-the-napkin rough sketch? I know my system will be nothing in comparison as I'm not even looking at the valve set-up initially, but...

 

[Tiber_Brew]

Nice work! Is that a Brewtroller system?

TB

 

[jfkriege]

That looks like a Brewtroller and the associated 16 relay board. Very nice.

 

[rvklein]

Look really, really nice.

 

[DiNap44]

Very clean wiring. Great Panel. Can't wait for more updates.

 

[EuBrew]

I know this is asking a lot, but you didn't happen to do a wiring diagram, did you? Even a back-of-the-napkin rough sketch? I know my system will be nothing in comparison as I'm not even looking at the valve set-up initially, but...

I used the schematic on brewtrollers wiki as a base and tweaked it with the help of Ohio-Ed's build thread. I don't have a final drawing but these two will get you headed in the right direction.


LONG Honey Do List this weekend so I think my panel is on hold for a couple days.

Thanks everyone for the kind words and help!

BREW ON!!!!

 

[jonsmorrow]

This is definitely one of the nicest panel jobs out there! Congrats on the awesome work.

 

[kal]

Very nice work. Makes me wish I had gone with a larger panel and used channels as you did for wire management.

The only thing missing are labels! You need some nice labels (tags)! They're dirt cheap (about $1/each). The price will be absolutely negligible compared to what you've already sent.

You can read about the ones I use here: http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/control-panel-part-1?page=14

You fill out the info online and they show up in the mail a week or two later.

Kal

 

[EuBrew]

Very nice work. Makes me wish I had gone with a larger panel and used channels as you did for wire management.

The only thing missing are labels! You need some nice labels (tags)! They're dirt cheap (about $1/each). The price will be absolutely negligible compared to what you've already sent.

You can read about the ones I use here: http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/control-panel-part-1?page=14

You fill out the info online and they show up in the mail a week or two later.

Kal

Thanks Kal! I obviously stole some ideas from you.

IIRC my panel is the same size as yours 16x20x8. If I wanted to add anything I'd be SOL because I am flat out of space!

I'll be adding labels at some point but I have to come up with a logo first so I can order all at the same time.

Got nothing done on the panel this weekend as I expected, but I did throw together a wooden stand. I'll fab a steel one when money and time permit but it could be a LONG time before I convince the SWMBO to let me spend any more money. At this point it's all about getting it running, function over form.

I'm hoping I can have the panel buttoned up by the end of next weekend, wish me luck!

 

[jfkriege]

Where did you get the wire management channels?

It looks fantastic, well done.

 

[EuBrew]

Where did you get the wire management channels?

It looks fantastic, well done.

They came from automationdirect.com as did the bulk of the guts of the panel. There are tons of options but I ended up using the .5" x 1" channel.

Thanks!

 

[kal]

IIRC my panel is the same size as yours 16x20x8. If I wanted to add anything I'd be SOL because I am flat out of space!

Really? It seems bigger. It's deceptive. FWIW mine's 16x16x8 so pretty close.

Panels are never as big as you first think... They fill up fast!

Kal

 

[EuBrew]

Really? It seems bigger. It's deceptive. FWIW mine's 16x16x8 so pretty close.

Panels are never as big as you first think... They fill up fast!

Kal

It's the proverbial ten pounds of sh*t in a 5 pound bag

I'm slowly but surely making progress.... I've been soldering and shrink wrapping my butt off. All of the connectors I ordered for connecting the switches to Brewtroller needed to be extended, including the 16 pin connector for the LCD. I don't feel like counting but I'm well over 100 solder connections and I'm not done yet.

I had a brain fart on making the lights on the 3 position selector switches work the way I want them to so I'm looking for suggestions.

I'd like the lights to come on ONLY when the relay is active regardless of position. Since I have the LED version of this switch I'm limited in current to 5mA. I had originally thought I could run 2 wires from the relays for the pumps, one to the receptacle and one to the switch. In theory this would allow the switch to light only when the relay was active. Problem is there would be 2A coming from the relay for the pumps which would overload the filament on the light and burn it out. I could always wire the lights direct from one 5mA fuse and use another set of contact blocks to control when the light is on, but this doesn't solve my problem.

Any ideas out there?

 

[trigger]

If I understand your description of your current wiring, you have two separate wires coming from the terminal side of the pump relays, which separately are connected to the pump receptacles and the light. These are both then connected to neutral. If this is the case then you should be fine with your current wiring. The pump will draw 1.3A or so through its wire, and the light will draw 0.005A through its wire. For example, the illuminated PB's on my panel are all wired directly to the 1A breaker. They're the PB version of the switch you're talking about. The light will only draw as much current as is needed to illuminate it, just like the pump will. Keep in mind that while voltage will be equal across all loads connected in parallel and equal to zero around any loop, current will not be. As long as the light and pump are connected in parallel, your design will work.

 

[EuBrew]

If I understand your description of your current wiring, you have two separate wires coming from the terminal side of the pump relays, which separately are connected to the pump receptacles and the light. These are both then connected to neutral. If this is the case then you should be fine with your current wiring. The pump will draw 1.3A or so through its wire, and the light will draw 0.005A through its wire. For example, the illuminated PB's on my panel are all wired directly to the 1A breaker. They're the PB version of the switch you're talking about. The light will only draw as much current as is needed to illuminate it, just like the pump will. Keep in mind that while voltage will be equal across all loads connected in parallel and equal to zero around any loop, current will not be. As long as the light and pump are connected in parallel, your design will work.

What about my elements? Will the LED handle 10A and 15A coming in without causing problems?

And I actually have 1 wire coming out of the terminal side of the relay that I pigtailed into 2 wires, one that runs to the recep one runs to the light.

 

[Ohio-Ed]

What about my elements? Will the LED handle 10A and 15A coming in without causing problems?

And I actually have 1 wire coming out of the terminal side of the relay that I pigtailed into 2 wires, one that runs to the recep one runs to the light.

If you look at my diagrams, I think you'll see that is exactly what I did.

As said earlier, just because you have a fuse in line, that does not mean that amount of current is "coming out". The device it is powering will "draw" current. Your scenario is like plugging a toaster into one outlet on a receptacle and a night lite in the other. They each "draw" the current required.

Ed

 

[EuBrew]

Thanks Ed! For some reason I had in my head the max you could bring to the switches was 10A. Makes my life MUCH easier.

 

[hammis]

man it looks awesome, when can we see the rest of the build?

 

[EuBrew]

man it looks awesome, when can we see the rest of the build?

With any luck I'll be moving the stand and the kegs from the garage to my basement brew cave this weekend.

The keggles have all been soldered up and leak tested. I've "polished" the MLT keggle and the dedicated HEX tank. I say polished because I just used the maroon pad to clean them up and give that swirl pattern you see on my panel. Oh yeah, the MLT has been wrapped in refletix(SP?) as well. I still have to install the coil in the HLT that I'll use for chilling the wort. This has been a bigger challenge than I thought because the output is below the level of the element so I'll have to figure out the best way to bend the copper down to the port without making it look like poo.

 

[EuBrew]

well sh*t.............................

I got everything wired up finally and tried to fire her up but she doesn't feel like playing nice

Good news is I didn't let the smoke out!!!

There's a problem with how I have my contactor/estop relay wired I think. When I press my start button I get nothing, but when I hit the button on the contactor I get momentary power and the breaker on the spa panel trips.

I checked the ice cube relay and I only have power to 1 terminal (terminal 8), that's the one that is connected to the 2A breaker. I have no power going to my start button or estop button so I'm sure I wired something wrong on the ice cube relay and contactor.

Ohio-Ed can you chime in here? I wired as you described in the PM I sent you.



Any ideas where to start on trouble shooting ?? I have a multi meter.

EDIT:::::::: There's something going on with the 12V power supply. I checked to make sure it was in the 110V position and not the 220V and that's fine. I took the 12V+ and 12V- leads to brewtroller off and it's still the culprit on tripping the breaker. I still have issues with the wiring on the estop though because I can't get the relay and the contactor to latch even with the breaker for the 12V supply off.


I'm slightly baffled because I first unhooked the wires for the 12+ and 12- and had the same problem, ok so it's not brewtroller. Then I took all the wires off and wired directly to a plug leading to a GFCI outlet, no problems there either. If I leave the breaker for the 12V supply OFF in my panel the spa GFCI doesn't trip. I've checked all connections to make sure they were tight and no luck there either. I have traced all the wires back as far as they go and I have continuity on all three, neutral, hot, and ground. Yes neutral is on neutral bus, ground on ground bus.

Anyone have any suggestions???

 

[EuBrew]

OK, so now I've bypassed EVERYTHING in the panel with the exception of the 5A breaker supplying the 3A 12V switching power supply and hooked one hot leg to the input of the breaker, removed all jumpers on neutral and ground dist blocks so the only connections are neutral from 50A GFCI spa panel to neutral dist block to neutral of 12V supply, ground from spa panel to ground dist block to ground of 12V power supply, 1 hot leg from spa panel to 5A breaker to 12V power supply, and I hooked the other hot leg to another breaker that is off just to make sure it had a termination point.

DAMN THING STILL TRIPS GFCI!!

This is the supply I'm using at this link

Before I bypassed everything I flipped all the breakers to on in the panel except the 5A for the power supply and had no problems.

I still for the life of me can't figure out why in the hell this power supply can be wired to a cord leading to a GFCI receptacle and not cause any problems but it is causing the 50A spa panel to freak out.

GGGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

 

[CodeRage]

Is this the only 110V device in the panel? If you plug it into another 110 GFCI outlet and it doesnt pop I would suspect there is something wrong with the GFCI spa breaker or how it's wired. My suspicion is the neutral may be mis wired in the spa breaker. Is this the only 110 device in the panel?

Another thing you could try is to remove the gnd from the power supply and see if the breaker still pops. That would tell you if the problem is due to a ground fault or not.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Have you considered the possibility of a bad power supply? It may have an internal short...maybe you DID let the smoke out.