# Jaycar Fridge Controller



## Goat (9/11/07)

I know there are heaps of forum thread about fridge controllers, and I'm sorry if this is a repeat but...

I came across this controller in the Jaycar catalogue today : 

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?I...=&SUBCATID=

It's a lot cheaper than what I paid for my controllers a few years ago.


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## chovain (9/11/07)

It seems like it'd be a pain to set the temperature - it looks like you need to press the little button when the temperature is where you want it...


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## bljpoad (9/11/07)

Nice  One of the guys I work with is down at Jaycar now getting some stuff for work, just asked him to pick one up for me. Looks ok, 4-30 degrees temp control. Crikey, I only picked up my new (secondhand) freezer last night too 
- Berwyck


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## troydo (9/11/07)

youd be better off with a fridgemate for $7 more!!
http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=718


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## bconnery (9/11/07)

I hope it works OK though. I picked one up very cheaply on ebay recently, a lot cheaper than fridgemates go for on there..., so hopefully it is all good. 
Even if it is just good enough for a spare at 10 bucks I won't complain...


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## grinder (9/11/07)

I have one of these operating my brew fridge.
You have to build the bastard first. Then to change the temp you have to shove a small screwdriver into the hole on the side to adjust the resister. (the hole that you have to drill)
There is also no way of accurately setting the temperature unless you pull it apart, put your multimetre leads on pins 2 and 4 of the IC and checking the reading. The only other way is to check the fridge temp at intervals to see wether it is going up or down.
Personally, I would not buy one of these again, Just go with the fridgemates.


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## Rossy (9/11/07)

I just bought a chest freezer for the kegs, as being a sparky I was a bit worried about using anything that removes power totally from the fridge as this would stop the sump heater in the compressor ( depending on cycle time ) and shorten the life of the unit.So there I was allready to build up some control gear but on closer examination of the original thermostat I noticed an adjusting screw, after about 2 hours I had her controlling at about 4 DEG


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## Yeasty (9/11/07)

Rossy said:


> I just bought a chest freezer for the kegs, as being a sparky I was a bit worried about using anything that removes power totally from the fridge as this would stop the sump heater in the compressor ( depending on cycle time ) and shorten the life of the unit.So there I was allready to build up some control gear but on closer examination of the original thermostat I noticed an adjusting screw, after about 2 hours I had her controlling at about 4 DEG



can you do this on any chest freezer, or just the one you had? I can see a lot of guys here interested in the details of this :lol:


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## bljpoad (9/11/07)

Troydo said:


> youd be better off with a fridgemate for $7 more!!
> http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=718



True, but I like building stuff and I have it now  Chances are I will probably buy a fridgemate eventually anyway, this circuit is controlled by a couple of transistors so I am not sure how great it will be. But all the same, all in the name of furthering my brewing experience 
- Berwyck


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## Batz (9/11/07)

A little 'off' topic but I will have a couple of the fridge controllers for sale within the next few days,used but in perfect working order. 







Batz


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## amita (9/11/07)

Batz said:


> A little 'off' topic but I will have a couple of the fridge controllers for sale within the next few days,used but in perfect working order.
> View attachment 15900
> 
> Batz



Hi Batz, how much will they be going for?
amita


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## schooey (9/11/07)

I bought two of theseon the cheap to make a hybrid type controller so I could set one for heat and one for cool. I didnt like the idea of the trimpot that you adjusted through the little hole either, so I spent a grand total of $6 for two of these and two knobs and put them through the front of the case. I wasn't real keen on having to have a 12 DC power supply to run it either so I bought a $6 12V AC centretap transformer and wired it in with a bridge rectifier to convert it to DC so I only needed one power socket to plug it in.

It ended up looking like this..




After I first set it up to run, I just marked the front of the case with a nikko for certain temps I wanted. The linear pots make it easier to judge temps in between. I'd have no problem with using them again and it only took me about an hour to solder two of them together.


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## Vlad the Pale Aler (9/11/07)

schooey said:


> I bought two of theseon the cheap to make a hybrid type controller so I could set one for heat and one for cool. I didnt like the idea of the trimpot that you adjusted through the little hole either, so I spent a grand total of $6 for two of these and two knobs and put them through the front of the case. I wasn't real keen on having to have a 12 DC power supply to run it either so I bought a $6 12V AC centretap transformer and wired it in with a bridge rectifier to convert it to DC so I only needed one power socket to plug it in.
> 
> It ended up looking like this..
> 
> ...



In English please.


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## schooey (9/11/07)

Sorry. I'm no sparky or electronics poindexter, but it didn't take much working out.


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## grinder (9/11/07)

schooey said:


> I bought two of theseon the cheap to make a hybrid type controller so I could set one for heat and one for cool. I didnt like the idea of the trimpot that you adjusted through the little hole either, so I spent a grand total of $6 for two of these and two knobs and put them through the front of the case. I wasn't real keen on having to have a 12 DC power supply to run it either so I bought a $6 12V AC centretap transformer and wired it in with a bridge rectifier to convert it to DC so I only needed one power socket to plug it in.
> 
> It ended up looking like this..
> 
> ...



Are they 2 of the Jaycar controllers, just with the added trimpots? 
What are the digital gismo's on the front? And what do they do??


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## schooey (9/11/07)

They are just two cheapy fridge thermometers. I stick the sensors of those with the sensors from the jaycar controller so I have a display temp. I got my two Jaycar controllers on the cheap, and all up with the box and the bits it cost me abot $ 70 and my time to build it, but it works well for what I wanted and it's in one tidy box. If I had to buy it all retail I would have probably just bought two fridgemates and went that way for the same amount or less money


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## Rossy (10/11/07)

Yeasty said:


> can you do this on any chest freezer, or just the one you had? I can see a lot of guys here interested in the details of this :lol:



Not sure about all, but most mechanical type thermostats should have some way of calibrating them




Hard too see but the allen grub screw is in the middle and down between the brown and white wires ( turn power off), on a side note its these two that should be used with a controller and not the incoming mains :huh:


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## Simon W (10/11/07)

Hiya Goat
There was another thread about this controller, might be worth checking that out too:
Coolmaster


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## cfresh (14/11/07)

I made one of these kits but found the parts supplied when checked with a multimeter varied from the supplied value perhaps due to cheap parts. After setting the temp I wanted I found the temp variation was as much as 12deg so I ditched it and bought a mash master instead. Much better IMHO and barely much more than the kit that you have to build first.


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## Simon W (14/11/07)

> I made one of these kits but found the parts supplied when checked with a multimeter varied from the supplied value perhaps due to cheap parts.



Thats normal. Components have a tolerance value, usually 5% for resistors and 10% for capacitors, tho Jaycar usually supply metal film resistors with a 1% tolerance.
A multimeter will read a percent or two out from the correct value unless you have a very expensive one, particularly with electrolytic capacitors.

I agree tho that the Mashmaster is the better choice.


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## recharge (16/11/07)

I built two of these and didnt find them much chop dont think there is a way to adjust the hysteresis and it kept firing the freezer before my compressor was ready to start up again. There was a whole thread on this somewhere. I ended up just buying two thermostats and building into boxes. I still use one though to control heat belt etc in winter.
Wish the fridgemates were around when i bought mine.

Regards

Richard


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## schooey (22/11/07)

Well.. Today I did my third brew for the week, yeah, it's gonna be a big Christmas at the Schooey household. Anyway, I suddenly found that I needed anothe fermenting fridge because the two brews that are bubbling away in fermenting fridge number one arent ready to come out yet. So I took a mate up on an offer for an oldish fridge he had for a slab of that shite he drinks. Then I thought bugger me! I need a controller. 

With some ringing around, I ended up getting hold of a fridgemate. Took 5 minutes to build, works like a bloody dream, doesn't overload the compressor, has a display included...

Why did I ever bother with these other bloody things?

You live, you learn lesson #44365

If you are considering one of these Jaycar things, forget it and get a Fridgemate


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## yoey (23/11/07)

schooey said:


> Well.. Today I did my third brew for the week, yeah, it's gonna be a big Christmas at the Schooey household. Anyway, I suddenly found that I needed anothe fermenting fridge because the two brews that are bubbling away in fermenting fridge number one arent ready to come out yet. So I took a mate up on an offer for an oldish fridge he had for a slab of that shite he drinks. Then I thought bugger me! I need a controller.
> 
> With some ringing around, I ended up getting hold of a fridgemate. Took 5 minutes to build, works like a bloody dream, doesn't overload the compressor, has a display included...
> 
> ...



Hi Schooey,

Where did you get the fridgemate from? Was it some where local?

Yoey,


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## pokolbinguy (23/11/07)

yoey said:


> Hi Schooey,
> 
> Where did you get the fridgemate from? Was it some where local?
> 
> Yoey,




Yoey,

You can get them from craftbrewer. Ross is a legend, he'll sort you out.

Pok


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## yoey (23/11/07)

pokolbinguy said:


> Yoey,
> 
> You can get them from craftbrewer. Ross is a legend, he'll sort you out.
> 
> Pok



Thanks Pok!

Thats where I was looking but it appears he is out of stock at the moment - so I thought if there was somewhere local I would grab one from there.


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## schooey (23/11/07)

I sort of needed one in a hurry and tried local yoey. I know Mark doesn't usually stock any so i gave the guy over in the brewshop at Charlestown a buzz. He gave me a pretty good deal. Sold me the controller, a box to put it in, lead and plugs for $65. I can't complain for that price.


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## fat terry (22/2/09)

This is an old thread, but I found it after I bought the Jaycar controller. I subsequently bought the fridgemate as well and thought I might be at least partially qualified to comment on their relative merits in case anyone else goes down the same path.
*
Here are the relative advantages of the Jaycar controller :*

(this line intentionally left blank)

*Here are the relative advantages of the Fridgemate :*

It costs less than the Jaycar kit. How so ? Well the Jaycar kit is $40. It needs a 12V plugpack ($17) and jiffy box ($3.50). Approx total = $61 or thereabouts. The Fridgemate costs $47 plus box ($3.50) plus 2M extension laed ($3-50) = $54 or thereabouts. OK, so you may have a local Jaycar dealer but not Fridgemate at $47 dealer, so inclusive of postage ($7.50) the Fridgemate is around $61.50. So let's call it the same price for arguments sake shall we ?

The fridgemate has a temperature display.

The fridgemate has a user specified compressor delay to prevent your compressor cutting in and out too frequently, which it is not designed to do (the hysteresis in a standard fridge thermostat ensures this).

The fridgemate can have its set temperature adjusted in about 5 seconds via the front panel.

The fridgemate can also be set, via the front panel, for cooling or alarm mode should you ever need alarming.

_*Still not convinced ? OK, well here are some distinct disadvantages of the Jaycar kit :*_

It is susceptible to mains spike interference when the fridge compressor turns on. This causes the unit to rapidly switch the fridge on and off, causing further mains spikes and in my case nice interference streaks across your TV screen and who knows what damage to the compressor. Silicon Chip (who designed it) say this only happens rarely and is cured by the addition of a main filter. It is such a rare problem that it happened immediately to me, and to my mate's fridge when I tried it on his. I didnt cost or design an additional mains filter - I bought the Fridgemate instead. I suspect its not such a rare problem you know !

The set point must be adjusted by getting into the box and using a voltmeter to adjust the set point. Same is true if you want to use it for heating. There is no alarm mode.

There is no compressor delay and you will hear your compressor cutting in and out frequently as the unit cuts in and out around the set temperature. The compressor does not do this in a standard fridge, rather it has time to cool off and rest inbetween startup cycles. 

If your kit is like mine it will have a part missing (in my case a mounting stand-off insulator). A trip back to Jaycar, and a short debate (they will not refund money for kits) is required to fix this.

And of course, you have to make the kit, drill the box and wonder why you cant connect the power connector through the pre-drilled hole (its because you mounted the board a millimeter or two too far away from the hole).

The temperature sensor is a simple twisted pair wire with a transistor case (TO92) soldered on the end and protected with heatshrink. (the fridgemate has a nice insulated lead and metal-encased sensor, although neither are waterproof). 

The Jaycar kit must be mounted in a larger box than you can get away with for the Fridgemate.

For those of you who, like me, have the kit you can console yourself with two advatnages that I eventually dreamed up :

1. I think the default hysteresis on the Jaycar kit makes for more accurate temperature control. I didnt measure it but it's much less than +/- 1c. The fridgemate on the other hand will not cut in until 17c and off at 19c precisely for a 18c setpoint for example.

However this advantage needs to be offset by the constant concern of what this rapid cutting in and out is doing to your compressor which is not used to doing this on a normal fridge setup.

2. It will never loose its memory of the setpoint in a power failure. I am unsure if this is true for the Fridgemate - it certainly retains its settings through a power failure but I am not convinced that it would retain them forever as it has no battery backup,although its possible it does it via non-volatile memory but that seems highly unlikely for the price. I would test it over an extended outage but my beer would end up warm !



Much of this information is already in the various replies above. And of course prices have changed since the original posts. But I still thought it might be useful in a single summary as above from someone who has both units. 

Of course you could debate the finer points, like you could use an old plugpack (since any 12VDC or 9V ac pack would do) and save yourself $17. Maybe the jiffy box you like is more expensive. But if you still feel you want to go the Jaycar kit armed with the above info, the very best of luck to you.


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