Digital Thermostats

[Wolfy]

Assumtion being the mother of all mistakes but I am assuming the green tie is cooling and the red tie heating?

That's the theory, but follow the wiring diagram not what I did - I tend to make things up as I go along.
If you look really-really closely to the pictures above, you might notice, I actually had the green-tie-cord attached to the heating circuit - so follow the correct diagram not what I did.

 

[Yeastie Beastie]

That's the theory, but follow the wiring diagram not what I did - I tend to make things up as I go along.
If you look really-really closely to the pictures above, you might notice, I actually had the green-tie-cord attached to the heating circuit - so follow the correct diagram not what I did.

Cheers mate, all sorted....good to see people guessing.

 

[Florian]

Thanks for the pics Wolfy, they helped me a lot. I initially wired it up according to a description for the fridgemate (I think), which is slightly different. worked, but didn't cool when supposed to, so just did it from your pics, and it works perfectly now.
I know that the diagram supplied is all I need, but a real photo says more than 1000 diagrams...

 

[raven19]

Got around to ordering one of these units and it arrived today in the mail.

Its a tiny little unit! Will grab a jiffy box, etc tomorrow.

 

[Maheel]

Hi all, fairly new to the site but have been brewing spirts for years but am going to go back to beer for a while stove top BIAB ...... scored a free fridge and am going to buy one of these controllers to run it.

I have question

when you want it on "heat" do you pull the plug from the cooling side so the fridge does not come on? or does the controller just not turn on any cooling?

eg temp here is around 10-20 if i want it to run +- (1) @ 17 what happens if it's all plugged in.

eg. at night heater comes on a bit, during the day the cooling "might" come on if needed.

thanks
Maheel

 

[Wolfy]

when you want it on "heat" do you pull the plug from the cooling side so the fridge does not come on? or does the controller just not turn on any cooling?

It depends on your temperature controller.
If you had a "Fridgemate" or similar controller, they can only switch on/off heating OR cooling so with those you need to manually swap the plugs and switch it into heating or cooling mode.
However, for these ebay-controllers or a "Tempmate" they automatically switch between heating and cooling, and only one will operate at a time.

I currently have a 'London Ale' fermenting in the fridge, the ebay-type-controller set at 20DegC +- 0.3.
So at night when the temp drops below 19.7 the heat-belt is turned on on, and in the day if it gets over 20.3 the fridge is turned on - only one of those occurs at a given time, and the circuit is switched off when the temp reaches 20DegC.

 

[Maheel]

many thanks Wolfy

that makes it clear, time to buy one of these "ebay" ones and get brewing

 

[raven19]

Got around to ordering one of these units and it arrived today in the mail.

Its a tiny little unit! Will grab a jiffy box, etc tomorrow.

Whipped this up last week - use an IEC plug for power in too.

All bits from Jaycar (no affiliations, etc).

 

[LethalCorpse]

Looks the good, Quoth, WD.

 

[Murdoch]

Great job there Raven ....... looks good
I used the project box next sized down from Jaycar
But I just used extension cords for power in & out ......... not as flash as yours
How did you cut the holes ?
I used a jigsaw but the heat of the blade seemed to "weld" the cut closed again as it sliced through
In the end I just used a hacksaw blade by hand & followed the previous cut that now looked like a plastic weld

 

[Yeastie Beastie]

Great job there Raven ....... looks good
I used the project box next sized down from Jaycar
But I just used extension cords for power in & out ......... not as flash as yours
How did you cut the holes ?
I used a jigsaw but the heat of the blade seemed to "weld" the cut closed again as it sliced through
In the end I just used a hacksaw blade by hand & followed the previous cut that now looked like a plastic weld

Invest in a holesaw, great tool to just have around.

For anyone worried about accuracy, don't. I stood mine along my Fridgemate, dial thermo, and alcohol filled thermo (not me with a wet finger) during a cold and warm test. All read the same but the STC 1000 has 0.5 deg increments of course.

 

[Trusty1]

I've just bought one of these fellas, have knocked up a box for it and will be hooking it up to a mates fridge I am acting as a custodian for as soon as the controller turns up. Bought some used HB gear from a bloke around the corner which included a fermenter and a heat pad that will have a new home in the (mates) fridge.

 

[Drew]

Yeastie and Raven - love the look of the recessed sockets. Where are these from? I had a look on jaycar website but couldn't see any. I assume they come ready to mount? I reckon it's got the style factor that having the 3 cables running out doesn't have. IEC for input power will also be nice

Got my thermostat in the mail and just need to pick up the parts.

 

[gap]

Try CAT PS4094 in Jaycar Catalogue.

Regards

Graeme

 

[Drew]

Thanks - that's perfect!

I bought all my bits - just waiting on the thermostat to arrive. I'm hoping to squash it all into a 20 x 11 Jiffy box but fear it may be too tight, we'll see.

What IEC connector do people use? I picked up Cat PP4003

However the Jiffy box is 3mm thick, but the switch seems to indicate it will only handle 1mm thickness. If I stretch the little tabs perhaps it will work. Has anyone else made this work?

Try CAT PS4094 in Jaycar Catalogue.

Regards

Graeme

 

[pokolbinguy]

However the Jiffy box is 3mm thick, but the switch seems to indicate it will only handle 1mm thickness. If I stretch the little tabs perhaps it will work. Has anyone else made this work?

you can cut the tabs so they are shorter. Just use a pair of side cutters/scissors

 

[LethalCorpse]

The tabs are stepped, and I've used them in boxes up to 5mm thick.

 

[Drew]

The tabs are stepped, and I've used them in boxes up to 5mm thick.

Funny, they don't look stepped... i'll give it a go.

In the meantime I've bought a few different project boxes because I want one that's small as possible without being too small. I'll end up returning half a dozen unused ones once I'm done

 

[raven19]

Yeastie and Raven - love the look of the recessed sockets. Where are these from? I had a look on jaycar website but couldn't see any. I assume they come ready to mount? I reckon it's got the style factor that having the 3 cables running out doesn't have. IEC for input power will also be nice

Sorry I missed your question - I used the IEC Male Chassis Plug. This fixes to the outside of the jiffy box. I also used similar on my Kettle electrics. Part # PP4005

Linky: Here - no affiliations, etc...

I did not bother with the version with a built in switch, as it will always be plugged in and on at my place!

To cut the jiffy boxes, I concur on holesaws - however I had access to a jigsaw also. It does melt, but I found drilling all 4 corners plus some more random holes with a normal drill then linking the holes with the jigsaw worked ok. It still melted, but with a second cut / grinding using the jigsaw blade I got there eventually.

I had a few spare old PC monitor cables hanging around too - so I just needed the male chassis plug.

 

[raven19]

you can cut the tabs so they are shorter. Just use a pair of side cutters/scissors

For sure, or a stanley knife.

I went the plug mounted on the outside to avoid this issue as per the above post. But the included switch units are very tidy!