electric temp control system build

[fakr]

Well, I'm getting tired of turning my HLT electric element on and off with a breaker switch, and I want more control over temp, with some automation so I've decided to start my temp controller build.  
Thought I'd share what I'm going to put together as I was completely amazed at how cheap the controller is considering what it can do.

I've decided to go with the the Embedded Control Concepts BCS-460 as the main controller because of the following features:

•(6) PID, on/off, Differential, or variable Duty Cycle controlled heat/cool Outputs.
•(48) on/off outputs for Pumps, Valves, etc. (using 4 optional Digi16 expansion boards)
•(4) inputs for float switches, etc. (and an additional 16 with optional Digi16 expansion boards)
•(4) Temperature Sensors
•Onboard Data Logging with interactive charts.
•Save/Restore multiple configurations using config files.
•Browser interface with remote monitoring/control support. (iphone!)
•Flexible State Machine online interface for on-the-fly updates and modifications of programming.

AND the thing is only $187!

http://www.embeddedcc.com/index.php/pro ... ystem.html

Other parts from ECC:

- 40A SSR $13
- SSR heatsink $8
- Temp probe $16
- Power switch tale (to control 120V devices) $25

Altogether the bill is looking to be about $250 before tax and shipping.

The beauty is this controller has a really nice web interface for monitoring and programming your inputsoutputs, and I just so happen to have an older tablet PC with a bad battery (needs to be plugged in) that I could hard wire into this for monitoring and touch screen access to the controller.

Very pumped about this.  I hope to have it all setup and working by mid summer.

Check out the website for screenshots, etc.
http://www.embeddedcc.com/index.php/

[Kyle]

Looks good. I suggest having a maunal override so you can heat, pump, and turn it off easily in case there is some sort of issue with the computer stuff.

[fakr]

Agreed...I'm picturing a Windows blue screen of death half way through the mash!  lol!

I suppose I could pull out the iphone if all else failed.

[Kyle]

The first time I ran my electric system, the element failed when I was recirculating to set the mash temp and I ended up having to use a tea kettle to get it on track... You may want to have extra electric "bits" lying around in case something goes wrong.

[fakr]

When I get things all setup, I plan to do a dry run using nothing but water to make sure everything works as expected.  Definitely don't want to test out the controller in a production environment.

[Kyle]

Oh yeah, I did a water-only test run too. The real caution I have for you is to make sure (every brew day) that heat sources are not firing dry (propane w/ no water, electric with element exposed). HappyHaxor has come up with a failsafe solution to this though:

basically an insulated probe inserted above the required water line via weldless bulkhead, and then set up to shut off the system when continuity between probe and kettle wall is broken (from low water level). HH's design is clever in its simplicity for electric. For gas, you could consider using it with an ASCO solenoid valve as the shutoff for the propane.