Matho's controller

[bigbanko]

Was this happening all the time or only when the unit was in auto mode?

cheers steve

It does it in both manual or auto mode. When measured across the terminals it is pulsing 120v every second. When switched on in manual or auto I have 240v constant across the SSR.

There is no voltage coming from the heater terminals on the board so it appears to be SSR related. The SSR is a FOTEK SSR-25A DA which I purchased from ebay. Both relays are new and both behave the same way.

 

[bigbanko]

Same thing here,
Except my bulb is a dull glow in off, and when i turn it on its a bright glow.

Don't SSR's always have a bit of leakage? was my understanding.
i.e. In the off position they still leak like 0.01 amps which unfortunately is enough to power a bulb / led.

It appears that way. I don't know enough about them to be sure.

 

[glenwal]

It does it in both manual or auto mode. When measured across the terminals it is pulsing 120v every second. When switched on in manual or auto I have 240v constant across the SSR.

There is no voltage coming from the heater terminals on the board so it appears to be SSR related. The SSR is a FOTEK SSR-25A DA which I purchased from ebay. Both relays are new and both behave the same way.

From the datasheet they have a leakage current of 3mA. You need to connect some sort of passive load (eg. an element) in parallel to the light.

 

[Sammus]

Yes to leakage. I was trying to test mine's functionality with a multimeter It was 240V all the time, no matter what the controller was doing!

 

[matho]

as glen pointed out SSR do leak current but pulsing every 1 second doesn't sound right and if it is doing it in auto and manual but not when the unit is in the startup screen would indicate that it is a code issue. It will not damage an element to be pulsed with a little bit of current but I still don't like the idea of a code issue. I'll look into it today.

cheers steve


edit: what wattage is the light bulb?
Also in auto mode you have no control on the output of the heater, the PID could be pulsing the output but in maunal mode you can turn the heater off.

 

[bigbanko]

as glen pointed out SSR do leak current but pulsing every 1 second doesn't sound right and if it is doing it in auto and manual but not when the unit is in the startup screen would indicate that it is a code issue. It will not damage an element to be pulsed with a little bit of current but I still don't like the idea of a code issue. I'll look into it today.

cheers steve


edit: what wattage is the light bulb?
Also in auto mode you have no control on the output of the heater, the PID could be pulsing the output but in maunal mode you can turn the heater off.

Steve, The bulb lights up and flickers from the moment power is turned on to the unit either in startup, auto or manual. The light bulb is a small 15 watt bulb from a desk lamp. When the SSR is switched on by the PID or manual mode it works fine and supplys the full 240v.
The board and code seem to be working fine as there is no voltage across the heating terminals when measured at the board which makes me think yes it is leakage. The reason it pulses on and off could be the fact the bulb is a very low wattage bulb and if it was a bigger wattage would have a dim glow like the others have suggested. I could try a bigger load when I get home from work.

 

[bigbanko]

Yes to leakage. I was trying to test mine's functionality with a multimeter It was 240V all the time, no matter what the controller was doing!

Exact same here. This is what alerted me.

 

[ForkBoy]

Hi all,

I was wondering if Matho's shield would work alongside a wifi shield, or would they compete for pins? I'd be interested in extending it to be controlled via browser/ipad etc.

wifi shield is here:

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11287

Thanks

 

[Sammus]

That is exactly what you need. Nice find and nice price!

Which board and programmer should I choose in the Arduino software for uploading to bonjuino using the programmer I linked before?

 

[matho]

Hi all,

I was wondering if Matho's shield would work alongside a wifi shield, or would they compete for pins? I'd be interested in extending it to be controlled via browser/ipad etc.

wifi shield is here:

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11287

Thanks

Unfortunately not " On both boards, pin 10 is used to select the HDG104 and pin 4 for the SD card. These pins cannot be used for general I/O." the brauduino uses both these pins so it can't be used. I left pins 0 and 1 free which are the uart pins so maybe look for a wifi that talks on serial.

cheers steve

 

[bonj]

Which board and programmer should I choose in the Arduino software for uploading to bonjuino using the programmer I linked before?

You'll need to select "Arduino Duemilanove w/ ATmega328" in the board menu. I'm not sure if the "programmer" menu makes any difference to just uploading code, but I have arduinoISP selected because that's what I use to flash the bootloader onto empty chips.

Hope that helps.

 

[matho]

Hi all,

I was wondering if Matho's shield would work alongside a wifi shield, or would they compete for pins? I'd be interested in extending it to be controlled via browser/ipad etc.

wifi shield is here:

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11287

Thanks

been looking and a Xbee sheild and a RV-XV Wifly module and an antenna? should be able to work

Which board and programmer should I choose in the Arduino software for uploading to bonjuino using the programmer I linked before?

for the bonjuino you need to select " adruino Duemilanove w/ATmega328

cheers steve

 

[ForkBoy]

Thanks Matho, what pins does the shield use?

I am new to arduino, but i see the arduino mega has a lot more pins available. Would this avoid the conflicts? Or can it be programmed around?

 

[bonj]

Thanks Matho, what pins does the shield use?

I am new to arduino, but i see the arduino mega has a lot more pins available. Would this avoid the conflicts? Or can it be programmed around?

scrap that... SPI pins conflict with the shield this can't be programmed around.

 

[bonj]

The Gainspan GS1011 wifi module is capable of using serial comms. You may be able to find a shield that makes use of this and use pins 0,1 (hardware serial) for wifi.

Here are a couple of possibilities...
http://www.linksprite.com/product/showprod...g=en&id=116
http://www.dexterindustries.com/Arduino-WIFI_Shield.html

 

[ForkBoy]

Thanks for the pointers bonj

 

[bigbanko]

Matho

Today I fired my unit up just using water without the malt pipe fitted and went through a complete cycle. The cycle finished ok but I have a few questions.

Why is the default boil temperature set to 98 degrees C? - I had to manually change this to 102c to keep the water boiling. If left at 98 the heater would cut out even though the temp was reading 96 degrees C.

At no time during the boil cycle did my temperature reading go above 96 degrees C, yet the water was boiling and the timer was counting down.

I had the unit set for 3 hop additions at 45 mins, 10 mins and 3 mins and at no stage during the boil did the alarm sound or ask me to add hops. Not sure what happened here.

Other than that all went fine and I will post a couple of photo's of the finished unit soon.

 

[matho]

Hey Bigbanko,

it was set at 98 because that is the temp I found that gave me a nice rolling boil, I found that the DS18B20 was reading 1.5 degs under my spirit thermometer at boil but was the same temp up until about 80 degs (the datasheet says its accurate up to +80 degs). The hop additions alarms depend on the eeprom location to be set to 0 before the start of the boil to work properly, initally I didn't set that to 0 when I wrote the EEPROM.pde so it could be set to anything the first time you brew but at the end of the boil it will be set back to 0 so the next time you brew they should work. I have been looking at the code and have realised that if the boil is stopped and then not resumed and let go to the end then the next time hop addition alarms will not work. I am going to modify the code so that if the boil is entered and its not part of a resume then eeprom address will be written to 0

cheers steve

 

[matho]

here is the fix for the hop additions

CODE

I haven't changed the boil temp but I can if there is a demand for it

cheers steve

 

[bigbanko]

Hey Bigbanko,

it was set at 98 because that is the temp I found that gave me a nice rolling boil, I found that the DS18B20 was reading 1.5 degs under my spirit thermometer at boil but was the same temp up until about 80 degs (the datasheet says its accurate up to +80 degs). The hop additions alarms depend on the eeprom location to be set to 0 before the start of the boil to work properly, initally I didn't set that to 0 when I wrote the EEPROM.pde so it could be set to anything the first time you brew but at the end of the boil it will be set back to 0 so the next time you brew they should work. I have been looking at the code and have realised that if the boil is stopped and then not resumed and let go to the end then the next time hop addition alarms will not work. I am going to modify the code so that if the boil is entered and its not part of a resume then eeprom address will be written to 0

cheers steve

Thanks Matho I will have another try.

I am also boiling 30 liters in a 50 liter pot so am not sure if this has an effect on the temperature.

What temp does the timer start counting down for the boil cycle?

Cheers
Paul