Wiring Check- CBPi Controller

[BreakingBarley]

Hi all,
I'm finally coming around to electric brewing and am starting off with a 3-vessel E-HERMS setup wiith the following features:
-20 Gal HLT, 5500W 240v element, HERMS coil
-SS Brewtech insulated MLT, no direct heat
-Direct fire BK
-2 pumps, TC everywhere feasible
-CraftBeerPi controlled element & pumps w/manual pump override switches
-5-10 gal batches typical, surge to 15 gal periodically

With that in mind, how does my wiring & overall setup look? Any protections missing or unintuitive wiring?

Thanks in advance!

-BB

 

[doug293cz]

Looks reasonable, but didn't do a complete "circuit correctness" check. I would recommend adding an indicator lamp in parallel with the element output. It's the easiest way to detect a malfunctioning SSR.

In your three way pump switches, make sure the common terminal is connected to the incoming power. That's not how it's drawn.

Seems a bit odd to me to have a standalone timer box in a computer controlled panel. I would think the timing would be done on the RPi.

Brew on

 

[BreakingBarley]

Looks reasonable, but didn't do a complete "circuit correctness" check. I would recommend adding an indicator lamp in parallel with the element output. It's the easiest way to detect a malfunctioning SSR.

In your three way pump switches, make sure the common terminal is connected to the incoming power. That's not how it's drawn.

Seems a bit odd to me to have a standalone timer box in a computer controlled panel. I would think the timing would be done on the RPi.

Brew on

Thanks for the reply!

I'm planning on using the Auber LED toggle switches, so I'm hoping I can wire each of them to illuminate when power is actually going to the pump or element respectively, but that's likely going to be tough with three way switches & when the element switch controls the contactor, not the SSR. More planning/thought on that as I build the panel.

Good point on the timer! I envision using the CBPi largely for the mash & HERMS, going more manual for the direct fired BK. It gives me a timer to keep the boil more simple instead of juggling CBPi, Beersmith, & a timer on my phone to plan out hop additions, etc. So I hope it helps me.

Also:
-Where is the ideal place to get volt & amp reading on a panel like this?

-Is it feasible to remove the master switch & just use the E Stop as the main switch that controls the coil on the main contactor?


-BB

 

[doug293cz]

Thanks for the reply!

I'm planning on using the Auber LED toggle switches, so I'm hoping I can wire each of them to illuminate when power is actually going to the pump or element respectively, but that's likely going to be tough with three way switches & when the element switch controls the contactor, not the SSR. More planning/thought on that as I build the panel.

You can't use a single indicator lamp for both sides of a two way toggle. You can't connect the voltage input to the lamp to both sides of the toggle, or both options are connected for either "on" position of the switch. You have to pick one side or the other.

You should ideally have two indicator lamps on the element circuit. One controlled by the same switch that controls the element enable contactor, and the other in parallel with the element. The first tells you that power to the element is enabled, and the second tells you what the SSR is actually doing (which is very helpful under SSR fault conditions.)

Good point on the timer! I envision using the CBPi largely for the mash & HERMS, going more manual for the direct fired BK. It gives me a timer to keep the boil more simple instead of juggling CBPi, Beersmith, & a timer on my phone to plan out hop additions, etc. So I hope it helps me.

Also:
-Where is the ideal place to get volt & amp reading on a panel like this?

The voltage inputs to the meter should be connected to the switched terminals on the main power contactor. The placement of the current sensing coil depends on whether you want to measure all current use (pumps + element) or just the element current. Which do you want to do?

-Is it feasible to remove the master switch & just use the E Stop as the main switch that controls the coil on the main contactor?

Yes, but it's more intuitive to just leave the E-stop switch out and use the NO functionallity of the main power switch. What is the purpose of an E-stop if you already have a switch in basically the same location that also cuts off all power? In industrial situations, E-stops are placed remotely from the control panel, in locations easily accessible to the operators.

-BB

Brew on

 

[BreakingBarley]

Thanks for the reply!

The volt/amp meter make sense, and the E-stop as well, though I'll likely try it as the only master switch & see how it goes

About the led on these auber switches, I updated the wire drawing to what I envisioned. Using just the led on the switch, could this work on the two pump switches and the element switch? Position indicates power to the relay, except for the 'on' position overriding the relays for the pumps, and an illuminated led indicates power to the pump or element in all cases.

-BB

 

[doug293cz]

Yeah, this looks like it should work.

Brew on

 

[jangevaa]

I just commented this on another RPi brewery controller thread... You should be aware CBPi is no longer actively developed or maintained. You can still use it of course and it works for many people but there are uncorrected bugs, outdated dependencies and it uses an outdated language even.

There are other options for brewery control with RPi but AFAIK they currently aren't as plug-and-play for brewery control specifically as CBPi is (e.g. node red). Programming exp is helpful.

 

[BreakingBarley]

I just commented this on another RPi brewery controller thread... You should be aware CBPi is no longer actively developed or maintained. You can still use it of course and it works for many people but there are uncorrected bugs, outdated dependencies and it uses an outdated language even.

There are other options for brewery control with RPi but AFAIK they currently aren't as plug-and-play for brewery control specifically as CBPi is (e.g. node red). Programming exp is helpful.

Great point!
I have a working CBPi 3.x that I don't plan on pushing updates to. Similarly, there's undoubtedly a number of brewers out ther still using horsehead or strange brew without any meaningful support in recent history. So, it should work for a while, but is definitely a snapshot in time.

With that said, this drawing/plan can be used in conjunction with BruControl or other similar software leveraging microcontrollers w/wifi to do the switching. Node-red looks interesting from my amateur linux/python POV, but if I strike out with CBPi in the future I'll likely try some of the older software to run a basic setup in lieu of PIDs & expand from there.

Cheers!

-BB