# Stc1000 Wiring



## milob40 (4/1/11)

hi, does anyone have pics of an stc-1000 temp controller wiring set up,
i have searched but only find the fridgemate version.
thanks heaps in advance.


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## Brown_hound (4/1/11)

milob40 said:


> hi, does anyone have pics of an stc-1000 temp controller wiring set up,
> i have searched but only find the fridgemate version.
> thanks heaps in advance.




Does this help?


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## Brown_hound (4/1/11)

The brown cable going into the same terminal as the red cable (left hand side of pic) is the hard or unswitched active.. This is the side of the extension lead which plugs into the wall.

The other brown is going into the terminal next to the red (right hand side of image). This brown is for the female side of the cord and is what the fridge will plug into..


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## Brown_hound (4/1/11)

If you can avoid cutting the earth, keep it intact.

If you're not that good with a pair of pliers, make sure you join them back together with a 2x Screw BP connector..

Remember, this is all 240V stuff so make sure it's all enclosed in a box rated to those voltages...


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## unrealeous (4/1/11)

Try the instructions for the unit. They often help.

http://mashmaster.com.au/UserFiles/2321-Fi...le/brewmate.pdf

http://free-beer-recipes.blogspot.com/2010...ow-to-wire.html


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## Brown_hound (4/1/11)

Box it in something like this:


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## Brown_hound (4/1/11)

2x BP:


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## Brown_hound (4/1/11)

unrealeous said:


> http://free-beer-recipes.blogspot.com/2010...ow-to-wire.html




Fantastic link for what it's worth!


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## kuzzy (4/1/11)

My 2c worth - Check the wiring 3 times over *without noticing any faults* before plugging it in!


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## Brown_hound (4/1/11)

kuzzy said:


> My 2c worth - Check the wiring 3 times over *without noticing any faults* before plugging it in!




Or do all the work yourself, and if you know a sparkie? Just get them to have a quick look at it for you.. Some of us give advice for free!

Why don't you wire it up and post the images on AHB?

Keep us all posted how it goes, and if you have any doubts at all, stay away from the outlet.


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## milob40 (4/1/11)

unrealeous said:


> Try the instructions for the unit. They often help.
> 
> http://mashmaster.com.au/UserFiles/2321-Fi...le/brewmate.pdf
> 
> http://free-beer-recipes.blogspot.com/2010...ow-to-wire.html


thanks everone who replied very helpful pics on the above link.
the wiring is a bit different to my fridgemate. 
the reason i needed it is "the dog quite literally ate my homework" .
the instructions blew off the table in my shed. 
i will get my sparky mate to give it the tick of approval as per usual


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## milob40 (4/1/11)

Brown_hound said:


> If you can avoid cutting the earth, keep it intact.
> 
> If you're not that good with a pair of pliers, make sure you join them back together with a 2x Screw BP connector..
> 
> Remember, this is all 240V stuff so make sure it's all enclosed in a box rated to those voltages...


so the is the black jiffy box that craft brewer or jaycar sell ok?


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## kuzzy (4/1/11)

I've used the Jajcar one - worked out great with the STC1000


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## Brown_hound (4/1/11)

milob40 said:


> so the is the black jiffy box that craft brewer or jaycar sell ok?



Yeah mate, they'll do the trick for sure.. I just used a bigger one to give it a bit of room to breathe..

Another important note: 

Maintain double insulation all the way into the box.. You can see what this is when you cut the extension cord. One layer of insulation around the copper conductors themselves, and another surrounding those. 
You want that top layer to go all the way into the box.

If you do decide for whatever reason to put it in a metal box, thats not a problem, however you must must must earth the box also.. 
That way if an active cable inside the box breaks away, and touches the box itself, rather than livening upto 240v, it will trip you RCD/Circuit Breaker or blow the fuse back at the board.


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## woodwormm (4/1/11)

unrealeous said:


> ffp.
> 
> 
> 
> http://free-beer-recipes.blogspot.com/2010...ow-to-wire.html



that's almost exactly how i set mine up and i'd never seen a setup like it before... funny how people have the same ideas independantly,

mine's got switched gpo's on the sides so i can easily isolate heating or cooling as i wish... 

the only hassle i had was actually fitting the stc1000 into the front panel... it seemed like the orange clip didnt' want to go down the thickness of the box i used... weird, anyways it's superglued in now! worked fine, still going strong...


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## Brown_hound (4/1/11)

printed forms section said:


> mine's got switched gpo's on the sides so i can easily isolate heating or cooling as i wish...




A credit to you sir. Very very clever.


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## woodwormm (4/1/11)

Brown_hound said:


> A credit to you sir. Very very clever.



just took some pics 









probe goes into thermowell in the fermenter...

heat belt and probe wires just go through the door opening, the fridge seal forms around them ok...


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## Brown_hound (4/1/11)

printed forms section said:


> just took some pics
> 
> View attachment 43070
> 
> ...



And HPM GPO's too??

Want a job?


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## woodwormm (4/1/11)

Brown_hound said:


> And HPM GPO's too??
> 
> Want a job?



was one of those have to build it now kind of things and HPM was all Bunnos had in slimline GPO's

always thought if i go and do a trade sparky will be the one...

if i was still living in sydney i'd be 'hounding' you on that offer....

at 34 years old, i'm sitting tight for a few years in current job, once the parenting stuff is a bit further done i might do a really mature age apprenticeship!


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## QldKev (4/1/11)

nice calendar :wub: 

QldKev


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## Brown_hound (4/1/11)

printed forms section said:


> was one of those have to build it now kind of things and HPM was all Bunnos had in slimline GPO's
> 
> always thought if i go and do a trade sparky will be the one...
> 
> ...


Well good onya brother...

There's no age limit on education... And a trade? Brilliant..

Awaiting the PM bout that job... Don't worry, I'll still be lurking (spending every waking ((non-brewing)) hour on these forums). :lol: 


Keep up the good wiring work, and if not sure- make sure with a sparkie...


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## milob40 (4/1/11)

hey, finished it and all works ok. 
i set up a fridgemate with the jiffy box previosly but wasn't sure if it was approved method.
the bug bear at the moment is trying to get the settings right with the stc.
i am using it on a chest freezer and it seems to chill 4 or 5 degrees belowed set temp (temp keeps dropping after compressor has stopped)
can anyone recommend the best settings? i.e. compressor delay and differential start settings for a chest freezer.
the one on my fridge works without a hitch staying within 1 degree but the freezer has about 6 degrees diff. 5 -, 1+
may work better with a wet probe perhaps?
using as a brew fridge during peak demand / storage :icon_drunk: and a normal fridge for crash chilling.


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## Ben Crossman (6/1/11)

Your excessive temp drop issue is likely caused by the sensor placement.
If you place it in the freezer in a more open location I think you will have better results.

For example, while the fridge is on to chill a fermenter, with the probe inside the fermenter, the pump will run untill the wort is at the correct temp, but the air temp in the fridge will ahve dropped heaps to acheive it, therefore it keeps cooling the wort.

A thermostat in a regular fridge measures the air temp, not the temp of a particular item in the fridge, if the air temp is say 2, eventually all contents will be 2

Compressor delay wont fix this problem, that is just a feature to prevent damaging the compressor frpm regular startups.
Also, start differential wont fix it, as it only turns off when it hits your target temp. The differential just affects when it turns on again. Having said that, perhaps a smaller differential would be of a benifit...

Hope that makes some sense....


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## Brown_hound (6/1/11)

Ben Crossman said:


> Your excessive temp drop issue is likely caused by the sensor placement.
> If you place it in the freezer in a more open location I think you will have better results.
> 
> For example, while the fridge is on to chill a fermenter, with the probe inside the fermenter, the pump will run untill the wort is at the correct temp, but the air temp in the fridge will ahve dropped heaps to acheive it, therefore it keeps cooling the wort.
> ...




+1...


Pop onto Mashmaster at the top of the page...

They have a stainless steel probe for sale which is designed to be placed into the fermentor... Giving a Wort reading rather than a fridge reading...

Note: Although you will have big swings between the fridge vs wort temperature to begin with, they'll eventually stabillise, after a day/day and a halfish... Just don't put the probe near the cool air outlet inside the fridge though....


Cheers.

Hound


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## mje1980 (23/6/11)

Brown_hound said:


> Box it in something like this:




Brown hound, in this pic, there are two white leads going into the box. Is this an extension cord that has been cut in half and used to wire it up?. Is it simply a case of plugging the unit into the wall, and then yor fridge into the female end of the ext cord?. 

Cheers, a lot of questions, but i am a fitter so this electramacal stuff is tricky to me!


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## white.grant (23/6/11)

mje1980 said:


> Brown hound, in this pic, there are two white leads going into the box. Is this an extension cord that has been cut in half and used to wire it up?. Is it simply a case of plugging the unit into the wall, and then yor fridge into the female end of the ext cord?.
> 
> Cheers, a lot of questions, but i am a fitter so this electramacal stuff is tricky to me!



You're scaring me MJE,  if you want a hand wiring one up let me know.

cheers

grant


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## Amber Fluid (23/6/11)

You should take Grant up on his generous offer. Nevertheless, here are a couple of links that might interst you.


Another AHB discussion Wiring and diagram


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## mje1980 (23/6/11)

Grantw said:


> You're scaring me MJE,  if you want a hand wiring one up let me know.
> 
> cheers
> 
> grant



Thanks grant, i have sparkies at work, but im getting impatient ( i go back on saturday ), as my bloody keg fridge is freezing my kegs haha. THey'll do it for me, but i was gunna try it myself and get them to check my work. It sucks not having beer for so long!


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## Brown_hound (23/6/11)

mje1980 said:


> Brown hound, in this pic, there are two white leads going into the box. Is this an extension cord that has been cut in half and used to wire it up?. Is it simply a case of plugging the unit into the wall, and then yor fridge into the female end of the ext cord?.
> 
> Cheers, a lot of questions, but i am a fitter so this electramacal stuff is tricky to me!




Yeah mate, that's exactly what it was.. One single extension lead, cut in the middle, and wired into the unit.

Male plugs into the wall, and the freezer/fridge plugs into the female.

That was the first rendition..

Since then I've re-done it so the male cord runs into the housing, and then the outputs wire into 2 separate architrave type switched GPO's mounted externally on the box. One for the heating output, and one for the cooling output. This basically gives you greater flexibility in switching your heater/fridge on or off without physically disconnecting the power cord.


As per the advice above mate, any work you do should be checked by a sparkie before powering up.

Be safe.

Hound.


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## kyleg (7/11/11)

Ben Crossman said:


> Your excessive temp drop issue is likely caused by the sensor placement.
> If you place it in the freezer in a more open location I think you will have better results.
> 
> For example, while the fridge is on to chill a fermenter, with the probe inside the fermenter, the pump will run untill the wort is at the correct temp, but the air temp in the fridge will ahve dropped heaps to acheive it, therefore it keeps cooling the wort.
> ...



So what you're saying is that by having the probe in the fermenter, your fridge temp may be 5-10 degrees lower than the wort temp, since it is the ambient air around the fridge that brings the temperature of the wort down. So once your sort gets to say 18, that fridge will turn off, however the ambient temperature may still be 5degrees or so below the wort temp. 

How long would the fridge ambient temp stay at that temp and would that then end up reducing your wort temp by much? 

So where would be the ideal place for the temp probe?


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## Yob (7/11/11)

on the side of the FV insulated with foam or bubblewrap and elastic to hold it in place.. works a treat

[rdit] piccie


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## Truman42 (7/11/11)

Brown_hound said:


> Pop onto Mashmaster at the top of the page...
> 
> They have a stainless steel probe for sale which is designed to be placed into the fermentor... Giving a Wort reading rather than a fridge reading...



Is this the one your talking about

temp probe


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## Yob (8/11/11)

drilling holes in the FV? sounds like trouble to me... $33 and the risk of infection + 1 more thing to clean and worry about seems to me to be folly...

or

Free foam and 20c worth of elastic..??

I know I wont be running out and drilling holes in my fermenters..

The elastic and foam method, shown above, quite often reads different from the ambient temps so I know it's reading the wort temp... Its suggested that the "middle" of the wort is only going to be a fraction of a degree different to what the probe on the side is reading.

Yob


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## Fourstar (8/11/11)

iamozziyob said:


> drilling holes in the FV? sounds like trouble to me... $33 and the risk of infection + 1 more thing to clean and worry about seems to me to be folly...
> or
> Free foam and 20c worth of elastic..??
> I know I wont be running out and drilling holes in my fermenters..
> ...




Pretty true although you can get thermocouples with pretty big stainless probes on em these days, that way we could properly utilise the hole in the top of the fermenter for once! 

Example: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Temperature-Con...=item5ae34074be


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## Muscovy_333 (8/11/11)

Excited...just recieved my stc-1000 in the mail. 
And realised that i will probably need to purchase a temp probe to go with it. 
I need to do some more research prior to wiring in, when i can find the time. 
Thankyou for the excellent discussion on this thread re-set-up. 

One quick question.....*I am going to mount a probe in the fridge*, not in or on the fermenter. 

Can anyone recommend where i might find a decent probe? ( i actually thought it would come with the stc unit)


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## stux (8/11/11)

BeerBelly Fermenter Thermowell
http://www.beerbelly.com.au/ferment.html

Fits the STC-1000 sensor or the Tempmate one

Go in through the top not the side. I installed mine so the probe was half way between the center of the fermenter and the wall of the fermenter


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## Howlingdog (8/11/11)

Fourstar said:


> Pretty true although you can get thermocouples with pretty big stainless probes on em these days, that way we could properly utilise the hole in the top of the fermenter for once!
> 
> Example: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Temperature-Con...=item5ae34074be



At the moment I have two fermenting fridges on the blink and using the old two litre milk bottles of frozen water to regulate temp. As I am only using one fridge atm, I am using two fridgemates to monitor temp - one in the air and the other through a modified outlet tube as a thermocouple through the fermenter top. 

I have observed that there is a lag between the air temp and wort temp. Once stabilised the wort remains fairly steady but the air temp fluctuates widely higher and lower than the wort temp.

HD


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## Yob (8/11/11)

Muscovy said:


> Can anyone recommend where i might find a decent probe? ( i actually thought it would come with the stc unit)




it should have come with one... :blink: all 4 that I have certainly did.. I use one to monitor HLT temps so they can be immersed as well B) 

Yob


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## Muscovy_333 (8/11/11)

iamozziyob said:


> it should have come with one... :blink: all 4 that I have certainly did.. I use one to monitor HLT temps so they can be immersed as well B)
> 
> Yob




Bugger! No probe with my unit...


Ta


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## stux (8/11/11)

Muscovy said:


> Bugger! No probe with my unit...
> 
> 
> Ta



Should probably email the supplier


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## Muscovy_333 (8/11/11)

Stux said:


> Should probably email the supplier




Good idea, will do.
Musc


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## Nicko_Cairns (8/11/11)

thanks gents, gold this post is, goldy gold gold..


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## PhilipB (10/11/11)

Brown_hound said:


> Fantastic link for what it's worth!



http://free-beer-recipes.blogspot.com/2010...ow-to-wire.html

This link does not work now


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## Amber Fluid (10/11/11)

You might find THIS discussion worth while and the following link is a wire diagram for the STC 1000 http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...st&id=41054


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## benno1973 (10/11/11)

PhilipB said:


> http://free-beer-recipes.blogspot.com/2010...ow-to-wire.html
> 
> This link does not work now



Hey Phillip - just press stop on your browser before the page redirects you. The original page is still there, but it tries to redirect you to a page that doesn't exist...


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## Siborg (10/11/11)

Just having a read of the guides. doesn't seem as hard as I thought so I might have a go myself. I got my second controller in the mail last week, but it's still sitting in the box.

Just one question: what do you use to connect the wires to the terminals on the unit? Do you just strip the wire and are they held in with a plate or screw setup? Do they need to be soldered?


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## Nick JD (10/11/11)

Siborg said:


> Just one question: what do you use to connect the wires to the terminals on the unit? Do you just strip the wire and are they held in with a plate or screw setup? Do they need to be soldered?



You just need one of those little flathead jewelers' screwdrivers. A lot of $2 Shops have a whole set of them for, well two bucks. 

Cut and strip the wires with 10mm of copper and then twist the copper into a tight coil, and fold it back on itself - then poke 5mm in the hole and screw it down tight. Tug on it (the wire) lightly to test it is all good.

When you're all done, give the wired STC to anyone with half a brain - and hand them the wiring diagram. Don't tell them anything, just ask them to compare both. Sometimes you don't see the bottle opener in the drawer, even though it's there, and someone else picks it right up..


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## Yob (10/11/11)

never soldered mate, bang rm right on in there with a bit of a twist to them... 

if ya want/need a hand let me know.. I just used some connectors but I know some just wire right to the point.... 

Yob


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## Fish13 (19/1/12)

i got my stc-1000 back as it became a too hard basket for someone but speaking with a fridgie yesterday. he gave me the impression that this should be wired in to replace the existing thermostat? but i dont understand why or if it should as the uni controls the temp and not the fridges thermostat. or am i ass about face here?


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## Fish13 (19/1/12)

i got my stc-1000 back as it became a too hard basket for someone but speaking with a fridgie yesterday. he gave me the impression that this should be wired in to replace the existing thermostat? but i dont understand why or if it should as the uni controls the temp and not the fridges thermostat. or am i ass about face here?


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## stux (19/1/12)

fish13 said:


> i got my stc-1000 back as it became a too hard basket for someone but speaking with a fridgie yesterday. he gave me the impression that this should be wired in to replace the existing thermostat? but i dont understand why or if it should as the uni controls the temp and not the fridges thermostat. or am i ass about face here?



I don't know a lot about fridge thermostat, but I would think it *could* be wired in to replace the existing thermostat. 

Whether it should be is a different question.


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## Yob (19/1/12)

fish13 said:


> i got my stc-1000 back as it became a too hard basket for someone but speaking with a fridgie yesterday. he gave me the impression that this should be wired in to replace the existing thermostat? but i dont understand why or if it should as the uni controls the temp and not the fridges thermostat. or am i ass about face here?



No need, the probe will regulate when the fridge turn on and off, the probe effectivly becomes the fridge thermostat. just plug the fridge into the STC1000, attach probe to side of fermenter and come back in a week.

Yob


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## Fish13 (19/1/12)

knew it! damn fridgies!


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## stux (19/1/12)

iamozziyob said:


> No need, the probe will regulate when the fridge turn on and off, the probe effectivly becomes the fridge thermostat. just plug the fridge into the STC1000, attach probe to side of fermenter and come back in a week.
> 
> Yob



And turn the fridge to maximum cold


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## gravey (19/1/12)

Here's a couple of pics of how I wired mine up


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## sponge (19/1/12)

Stux said:


> And turn the fridge to maximum cold



You took the words right out of my mouth....


Sponge


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## muthead (19/1/12)

gravey said:


> Here's a couple of pics of how I wired mine up



Your housing for the unit must be almost as big as your fridge!!!


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## gravey (19/1/12)

wire is bendy bro you can fold it up, I spread everything out for the photo - here it is installed in the jiffy box






got a bit scratched on one side as I forgot to put some cardboard down on the ground when I was filing out the holes


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## HBHB (19/1/12)

QldKev said:


> nice calendar :wub:
> 
> QldKev



Bloody Hell Kev, you've got sharp eyes............ :lol: 

Martin


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## stux (19/1/12)

Alternate way of doing the wiring

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...st&p=824333


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