I have seen a few questions on the flowmeter build and thought maybe my build might help answer some questions. My build my not be elegant but it got the job done.
The attached pics are pretty much from start to finish. I decided to change out all my beer lines and to add some stainless steel ball valves that will let me turn my kegerator on and off at the same time. My kegerator is outside and I don't like the idea of neighborhood kids jumping the fence and stealing my beer so the valves allow me to 'turn off' the kegs.
I had some Cat 5 cable that I used for the wiring. I bought some male to male jumpers designed for the arduino to use as my connectors.
I cut the jumpers in half and then used each half to solder onto the cat 5 cable. This let me use the same color on each end without having to go through the white/green, green/white, etc.
I have 6 taps and this is my wiring:
Alamode Pin|Jumper color|Cat 5 Color|Jumper Color | Plug from flowmeter
D8| Blue | White/Blue | Blue | meter 1- center pin
D9| Green | Green/White | Green | meter 2 - center pin
D10| Yellow | White/Orange |Yellow | meter 3 - center pin
D11| Orange |Brown/White |Orange | meter 4 - center pin
D12| Brown |White/Brown | Brown | meter 5 - center pin
D13| White |White/Green White| meter 6 - center pin
Ground|Green | Blue |*Green |* See below
Vin| Orange |Red | **Orange |** See below
* I soldered 6 connectors to the red Cat 5 cable. That way I only need to run one Ground wire to the alamode instead of 6
** Same as above. I soldered all the power wires to the same wire so I only have to run one power wire to the alamode.
I started out using a breakout board but ended up discarding it and just plugged the male pins directly into the plugs. There are a lot of connections (18) on the flowmeter side but only 8 on the alamode side (which is great since the Cat 5 has 8 wires). I connected all the connectors and used a ty wrap for strain relief. Since there isn't going to be any movement I decided the breakout board was overkill.
The male to male jumpers use very thin wire so when you solder them to the cat 5 be sure to use some heat shrink tubing to add some strain relief to the connections. I actually double the jumper wire back onto itself in a half loop and then put the shrink tubing on. That way I get even more security and no strain on the actual connection.
Since my kegerator sits outside in the Texas heat I need a lot of air circulation to keep the foaming down. What you see it some plastic grate used in ceiling light fixtures. It is strong enough to support the beer lines and keep them out of the way and still let air circulate. I have multiple computer fans in there too.
If you are going to put all the meter cables in a nice neat bundle be sure to use a marker and label each on near the connector. I marked pieces of masking tape initially until I knew all the meters were working.
Hopefully the pics will do a better job of explaining than this text does. If there are any questions I'll try to monitor the thread and answer if I can.
The attached pics are pretty much from start to finish. I decided to change out all my beer lines and to add some stainless steel ball valves that will let me turn my kegerator on and off at the same time. My kegerator is outside and I don't like the idea of neighborhood kids jumping the fence and stealing my beer so the valves allow me to 'turn off' the kegs.
I had some Cat 5 cable that I used for the wiring. I bought some male to male jumpers designed for the arduino to use as my connectors.
I cut the jumpers in half and then used each half to solder onto the cat 5 cable. This let me use the same color on each end without having to go through the white/green, green/white, etc.
I have 6 taps and this is my wiring:
Alamode Pin|Jumper color|Cat 5 Color|Jumper Color | Plug from flowmeter
D8| Blue | White/Blue | Blue | meter 1- center pin
D9| Green | Green/White | Green | meter 2 - center pin
D10| Yellow | White/Orange |Yellow | meter 3 - center pin
D11| Orange |Brown/White |Orange | meter 4 - center pin
D12| Brown |White/Brown | Brown | meter 5 - center pin
D13| White |White/Green White| meter 6 - center pin
Ground|Green | Blue |*Green |* See below
Vin| Orange |Red | **Orange |** See below
* I soldered 6 connectors to the red Cat 5 cable. That way I only need to run one Ground wire to the alamode instead of 6
** Same as above. I soldered all the power wires to the same wire so I only have to run one power wire to the alamode.
I started out using a breakout board but ended up discarding it and just plugged the male pins directly into the plugs. There are a lot of connections (18) on the flowmeter side but only 8 on the alamode side (which is great since the Cat 5 has 8 wires). I connected all the connectors and used a ty wrap for strain relief. Since there isn't going to be any movement I decided the breakout board was overkill.
The male to male jumpers use very thin wire so when you solder them to the cat 5 be sure to use some heat shrink tubing to add some strain relief to the connections. I actually double the jumper wire back onto itself in a half loop and then put the shrink tubing on. That way I get even more security and no strain on the actual connection.
Since my kegerator sits outside in the Texas heat I need a lot of air circulation to keep the foaming down. What you see it some plastic grate used in ceiling light fixtures. It is strong enough to support the beer lines and keep them out of the way and still let air circulate. I have multiple computer fans in there too.
If you are going to put all the meter cables in a nice neat bundle be sure to use a marker and label each on near the connector. I marked pieces of masking tape initially until I knew all the meters were working.
Hopefully the pics will do a better job of explaining than this text does. If there are any questions I'll try to monitor the thread and answer if I can.
