Gravitysucks
Well-Known Member
When I started my build last April it was supposed to be a fun project to get back into brewing after a long absence. I decided to go electric to make it more practical to brew year round and converting some of my old equipment turned out to be fairly easy. The biggest problem I had was figuring out how I wanted to control everything. After reading the forums here and watching videos on youtube to get some ideas I bought a build manual from Electric Brewing Supply and settled on using their 30amp BCS layout but replacing the BCS with a RasberryPi. I actually had the panel about 2/3s done when one of those "life happens" things came about.(It amazing how much damage a washing machine flood can do to a house) Anyway, after an 8 month delay I'm finally back working on my build and I'm really rethinking the direction I've taken with my control panel. I've always been into the DIY thing and CraftbeerPi seemed like a great way to go when I started out, but after seeing how it has progressed and how fragmented it seems to have become, I don't think it's for me. Honestly, I'm old and not as sharp as I used to be and after all the frustrations of home repairs I'd much rather throw some money at a problem rather than have to figure out every little detail myself.
That brings me to my question, will BruControl work for me? I have a pretty standard 3 kettle HERMS setup with themowells in each kettle, 2 pumps, a CFC, etc. I'm wired for a 30 amp controller with a 30 GFCI breaker in my main panel so only one element will be used at a time. I don't plan on automating valves or anything of that nature. My original panel has been disassembled since I ruined the plastic enclosure by over tightening the set screws on several of the switches and created a bunch of hairline cracks in the door. My new metal enclosure already has the door drilled to mount switches and LEDs as seen in the Electric Brewing Supply 30 amp BCS layout but the backplane hasn't been touched yet. I have all the components to build a panel other than the "brains". So, basically what I'm asking is what exactly do I need to make BruControl work for my system and can I go to the BruControl site, buy these components, buy the BruControl software, wire everything up, then turn the thing on and be able to set mash temps, adjust power for the boil kettle, monitor temps in all the kettles, etc or am I going to have to source other components and write/ download scripts to get basic things to work? I would really like to do things right this time around so I might actually be able to start brewing rather than sitting around regretting past design choices.
That brings me to my question, will BruControl work for me? I have a pretty standard 3 kettle HERMS setup with themowells in each kettle, 2 pumps, a CFC, etc. I'm wired for a 30 amp controller with a 30 GFCI breaker in my main panel so only one element will be used at a time. I don't plan on automating valves or anything of that nature. My original panel has been disassembled since I ruined the plastic enclosure by over tightening the set screws on several of the switches and created a bunch of hairline cracks in the door. My new metal enclosure already has the door drilled to mount switches and LEDs as seen in the Electric Brewing Supply 30 amp BCS layout but the backplane hasn't been touched yet. I have all the components to build a panel other than the "brains". So, basically what I'm asking is what exactly do I need to make BruControl work for my system and can I go to the BruControl site, buy these components, buy the BruControl software, wire everything up, then turn the thing on and be able to set mash temps, adjust power for the boil kettle, monitor temps in all the kettles, etc or am I going to have to source other components and write/ download scripts to get basic things to work? I would really like to do things right this time around so I might actually be able to start brewing rather than sitting around regretting past design choices.