BCS 462

[duck]

Hi Guys,

So as you will see, this is my first post. I've been lurking around AHB and other forums since my brother introduced me to brewing not long after I returned from living in the UK (in 2012). I was astounded to see the price of beer in Aus (£1 a pint at the Offie in the UK) and immediately recognised that I would be broke buying a slab or more of good beer a week (I think its a healthy consumption - others may think i'm headed for an early grave)

So being the IT geek that I am and having a father as an engineer I was pretty keen to build a rig that would provide accuracy and enable reasonably repeatable results. Its just a table in the garage I kept telling SWMBO, I dont think she realised how much brew cr@p I had until we moved house to a place with only single car garage. The car now lives outside as the garage houses the brewery - Opps!

Anyhow, I ended up going with a BCS-462 and I have seen others on AHB are using them but couldn't find much of a BCS specific thread, so hear I am (maybe I didnt search hard enough, if thats the case please point me in the right direction)

I'd be interested in seeing how other have implemented their BCS, what they are controlling as outputs and what they are using for inputs (web only or mechanical). Also, I would be particularly interested to see if anyone has had issues with the PID display modules which are currently causing me great frustration. I am running firmware 4.0 beta 3 and so far im pretty happy with the new interface, its much more responsive than V3.x

Over the past 4 months I have been busy rebuilding my rig wherever time permits. Its probably about 85% complete for this iteration, but like many of you know it will never be 100% complete. I've posted a few pics in my profile and will get around to uploading more later in the week. Its a 4 V single tier all electric HERMS rig running BCS for brains.

Cheers Duck

 

[user 35653]

Hi Guys,

So as you will see, this is my first post. I've been lurking around AHB and other forums since my brother introduced me to brewing not long after I returned from living in the UK (in 2012). I was astounded to see the price of beer in Aus (£1 a pint at the Offie in the UK) and immediately recognised that I would be broke buying a slab or more of good beer a week (I think its a healthy consumption - others may think i'm headed for an early grave)

So being the IT geek that I am and having a father as an engineer I was pretty keen to build a rig that would provide accuracy and enable reasonably repeatable results. Its just a table in the garage I kept telling SWMBO, I dont think she realised how much brew cr@p I had until we moved house to a place with only single car garage. The car now lives outside as the garage houses the brewery - Opps!

Anyhow, I ended up going with a BCS-462 and I have seen others on AHB are using them but couldn't find much of a BCS specific thread, so hear I am (maybe I didnt search hard enough, if thats the case please point me in the right direction)

I'd be interested in seeing how other have implemented their BCS, what they are controlling as outputs and what they are using for inputs (web only or mechanical). Also, I would be particularly interested to see if anyone has had issues with the PID display modules which are currently causing me great frustration. I am running firmware 4.0 beta 3 and so far im pretty happy with the new interface, its much more responsive than V3.x

Over the past 4 months I have been busy rebuilding my rig wherever time permits. Its probably about 85% complete for this iteration, but like many of you know it will never be 100% complete. I've posted a few pics in my profile and will get around to uploading more later in the week. Its a 4 V single tier all electric HERMS rig running BCS for brains.

Cheers Duck

20150508_132153 small.jpg

Rig looks great so far! Sorry that I can't offer any advice for the BCS but I'm keen on getting one up and running to replace my current PID setup and will keep a keen eye on your progress. Let us know how you get on.

 

[mb-squared]

hey duck, don't know of any BCS-specific threads (but check homebrewtalk, I think there might be one there). I use a BCS-460 to run two 5500W elements (one in the HLT and one in the BK -- I've posted some wiring diagrams on here somewhere). I've got it setup to run either manually (bypassing the BCS) or via the BCS. Works a treat. But I use the analog displays as I think they look better

 

[Moad]

Great looking rig Duck. If I ever convert my 3v to electric I'd like to do it with bcs and get into controlling ball valves etc with it. Keep us posted on your progress

 

[5150]

Welcome and Awesome looking rig. I love the way you have setup the control panel along the front of the rig. :beerbang:

 

[duck]

Cheers Guys. call me stupid or overly confident, I now have one brew day under my belt doing back to back double batches on the new rig (ESB and Pils SMASH - 46L of each into fermenters). The system worked flawlessly with the exception of the Brewers Hardware hop / trub filter which blocked immediately, but that's another story and likely operator error! I'll be changing some plumbing and altering my process before brewing this coming weekend, hopefully that wont happen again.

This new build enabled me to move from my old KK RIMS tube to Nevs HERM-IT Hex (running 3KW element) which performed beautifully with just over 1C /second ramp times (11kg grain bill). The best part of the day was letting the BCS take care of my Pils step mash programmed via the BCS, I didn't have to intervene at all, just monitor the progress which was nice.

I've followed a number of threads on HomeBrew Talk and ECC forums but I wanted to hear from people locally, maybe even in Melbourne who had BCS experience and wanted to do some knowledge transfer / swap ideas or even brew days.

The decision to build control panel across front was not an easy decision but for me the correct one. I was somewhat limited for space in the garage and ideally didn't want any cabling dangling between the rig and control panel as my toddler often "helps out" on brew day and she is a bit of a klutz at the moment. I was lucky enough to get an old Dell server from work which I gutted and turned into the enclosure mounted under the table out of the way.

Anyhow, the thread is still young so hopefully some of the other BCS users out there will chime in at some point. I chucked a couple more pics into my gallery of the rebuild, I really should have taken more but finishing the build and getting back to brewing was my primary focus.

Cheers

Duck

 

[reckless]

Awesome Rig Duck, ive just ordered my BCS-462 today, Planning an automated 1V set up, hopefuly a bit more compact. I have all the gear now so i just need to go and build it. Ill give myself a decent time frame and aim to be drinking quality beer by the end of the year.

So ill follow this thread and you can get prepared to answer my questions.

Cheers

 

[duck]

No worries Reckless, i'll do my best to answer them but I'm still learning on the BCS myself... I have the physical wiring side pretty sorted now, but the internal logic is still a learning curve, specifically the ladder logic aspects. It will be nice when the final version of Firmware 4.0 is released...

Duck

 

[nathan_madness]

Hey, if you need any info on the BCS just ask.

I've got my 462 running on a 20" Dell touch. It controls the 2 x 5500w BK elements, 2 x 4000w HX elements, 1 x 5500w HLT element, 2 x MLT recirc pumps, 2 x BK recirc pumps, 7 x temp probes and 3 x float switches.

I am running on the old verion 3 firmware but I have been looking at the Beta releases of 4.

Cheers,
Nathan

 

[mb-squared]

ah, I've been wondering if anyone has put two 5500w elements in a BK because I've been thinking of doing it myself. but I'm able to bring 60L to boil more than fast enough with just one so I don't think I'll bother. are you running 150L kettles?

 

[duck]

Cheers Nathan sounds like a beast of a system you have there. My main issue at the moment is getting the PID display modules functioning. Are you running any on your system? I'd also be keen to know how you setup your float switches, are they inline with SSR or used as BCS input for aditional logic?

Cheers

Duck

 

[Mardoo]

FWIW I believe Djar007 and MastersBrewery have BCS experience. Maybe search some of their contributions to threads if you like.

 

[nathan_madness]

Cheers Nathan sounds like a beast of a system you have there. My main issue at the moment is getting the PID display modules functioning. Are you running any on your system? I'd also be keen to know how you setup your float switches, are they inline with SSR or used as BCS input for aditional logic?

Cheers

Duck

Hey Duck,

No, I don't run any PID display modules all of my data is shown on the 20" touch screen.

I have all of my float switches wired directly to the BCS and then use the ladder logic to control them

 

[MastersBrewery]

Hey, if you need any info on the BCS just ask.

I've got my 462 running on a 20" Dell touch. It controls the 2 x 5500w BK elements, 2 x 4000w HX elements, 1 x 5500w HLT element, 2 x MLT recirc pumps, 2 x BK recirc pumps, 7 x temp probes and 3 x float switches.

I am running on the old verion 3 firmware but I have been looking at the Beta releases of 4.

Cheers,
Nathan

ahh now we find out what happened with that massive build, update your build thread, that thing was looking freaking awesome, would love to see how it finished up!

 

[reckless]

Im waiting for my 462 to turn up in the post, can anyone tell me if it is possible to get a water level measument or volume to feed back into it?

I was thinking a pressure transducer on my HLT to give me a water volume or a flow meter on the fill line. This would then control the water supply solinoid valve.

If you have any experience give me everything you have please.

Cheers

 

[Moad]

Hey Reckless, I am about to pull the trigger one a BCS-462 and was thinking of using an adjustable float switch in the HLT. One at the top for filling (sliding up and down to required volume) and one at the bottom to tell sparge to stop (this one would be fixed).

 

[Mardoo]

Where are you finding your sliding float switch Moad? I'm looking for a small one for my HEX but can only find big ones.

Sorry for the off topic.

 

[reckless]

ive got my 462 then i started building a drag car, haven't got into running anything yet but will soon. let me know how you go if you get it.

 

[Moad]

I just came back to this thread looking for info and adjustable floats. My morebeer system has them so figured they wouldnt be too hard to find. I'll let you know what I find.

Edit - what about one of thesehttp://m.ebay.com/itm/Stainless-Steel-Tank-Liquid-Water-Level-Sensor-Horizontal-Float-Switch-/281273710332?nav=SEARCH

Where the nut is you could fix a little tab with a hole that has a vertical tube and can slide up and down. You could mark measurements on the tube.

Actually that is horizontal, needs to be vertical for that to work