Mill Motors

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Grainer said:
Yes I run a bigger Monster Mill 3... Confirmed
ALTHOUGH I HAE NOIW SNAPPED 3 SPLIT PINS.. THAT IS ITS WEAKNESS AND NOW IT HAS A SCREW IN IT !
 
Re Split pins
I use lengths of stainless steel welding wire. Cheap as to replace. Have broken 4 or 5 but never anything else. I could go to a larger diameter wire or change to hardened steel but the whole point is for it to sheer?
James


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
I have connected up the motor/gearbox to my mini mill. Base malt trials are seemingly effortless. From a standing start full of grain it starts like its empty. HOWEVER :) Not sure I have it working how it should . At the moment I have S1 connected to the (red) NO push to Close momentary button (I'm not a sparky so hope it get the descriptions right) S2 to the push to open push to close (green ) button. ( pot and on off switch working as expected)
Once the on/off switch is turned on , and with S2 in the open position motor ramps up to speed empty or under load fine.
If I push S2 motor stops with brake as expected. Then if I press S2 again motor runs. No real problem other than I thought I had to press S1 to reset , before the motor would run again. (I may have that wrong)
On the overload test I jammed the motor. Assumed it had cut out. Unplugged the motor spade connectors to swap them around to reverse the motor and un jam. As soon as I reconnected the motor it started up (in reverse). No need to press S1 to restart. Seemed like it had not tripped out. I did only have it running slow . Didn't like the idea of jamming it at full speed.
Sorry for such a long post. The motor is awesome . I just need to sort out how it's meant to work.
 
Can't help out with the wiring but will definitely be keen on getting a reverse switch set up.
From my experience using a drill that jammed often I found it much easier to swap collection buckets and run the drill in reverse causing all the malt to run through unmilled than to take off the hopper.
My drill setup would never restart with grain in the mill.
 
Yes its supposed to go in reverse after a jam. You then press the red (i think) again and it goes forward again.
 
mckenry said:
Yes its supposed to go in reverse after a jam. You then press the red (i think) again and it goes forward again.
I thought that to. But after re reading posts. I think the reverse option will be in the firmware update.
 
ImageUploadedByAussie Home Brewer1458207356.894843.jpg
I love my new mill setup. Beats the old drill.
 
In my setup, I'm thinking that I may have to wall-mount the power supply and controller box, due to persistent flooding at my place,

Will that make a lot of difference to usable current, if there are longer leads on those components?

I'm sure MD would get tired of my claiming insurance and buying another controller every 3- 24 months. I know I would...
I feel the main issue is to mount the mill above the high level of the flood waters, as well as the electrical bit (of course).
It IS a nice mill , and I would not like to see it damaged.

Otherwise, I can just keep hand-cranking the old girl, and keep it portable.
 
Insurance? Would that mean paperwork? :D
There's nothing worse than paperwork, especially when you have so little time to get everything you need to have done, done.
But no, mostly always happy to help customers out. Only times I ever get frustrated is the customers that wont help themselves which frankly, gets old... fast.

Lots of customers will use excuses to have you hold their hand as they manually wire up the controller while you're stuck waiting for them to do it in real time on the phone. It kills you because you don't have the margins built into the product to offer any kind of extended support except apart from the almighty "Have you actually READ the instructions? They specifically cover the questions you are asking!"

95% of the calls for controllers are 20 minutes and beyond and its almost ALWAYS the fault of something else. Incorrect wiring, poor power supply, Incorrect settings etc...rarely is there ever a fault with the controller because they are thoroughly burn tested before we ship them out. We certainly don't want customers to have issues!

Look at these scenarios...they really do happen

"Haha yes, I'm sure I wired it the correct way, but I'm 86"
"I thought I would just ring you and get you to run through it with me because I thought it would be faster than reading the instructions"
"I can't order it online because I'm 86"
"I don't know how to wire the potentiometer in, I thought this was a ready to go controller, so I'll send it back so you can fix it for me, I'm 86 so I can't do it myself"
"If i come around, can you set it up in this {insert random application here} I bought? I'm also 86"
"Your controller is rubbish and doesn't work! I've followed all the instructions and I'm really disappointed by your Australian Made rubbish, you should be ashamed telling people this is Australian made. Back in my day we sold quality and not rubbish like this cheap Chinese controller, I followed the instructions to the letter and there's no light for the power and its hooked to the battery!" <-- customer forgot to turn the controller power switch on (I added this one because it literally happened just now)

You have no idea how frustrating some customers can be and the ones that throw the age card are the worst, most annoying of all because they wont even try to help themselves no matter how much encouragement you throw their way!
Ahh, what can you do...apart from a nice long cold beer
:chug:
 
Bwahahaha! I laughed out loud. (I'm sure there's an acronym for that but I'm 86)
 
I do tech Support 1 day a week...

The amount of calls that you get and the question is " I dont know what to do.".... did you read the sheet that came with it " No" ... well its all on the sheet .... " yes, but....blah...blah.. "

People dont understand that spending 30mins on the phone sorting out shit costs money...especially when they dont RTFM
 
Camo6 said:
Bwahahaha! I laughed out loud. (I'm sure there's an acronym for that but I'm 86)
It tends to become very un funny after a while

Some people expect to be spoon feed....
 
At work, I feel the need to send out occasional reminders for common problems.

Some people choose not to take my counsel, and they will be the first ones up against the wall, come the revolution.

As for me, I'm the opposite. I will spend time researching and watching How-to videos rather than phone a helpdesk.
Maybe that's my learning method, as I can't stand when helpdesk staff ignore what I'm saying and give me solutions for common problems. If I had a common problem, I would have FOUND the answer already.

I hate phones, and that's why I work in a Call Centre (oops, Smart Centre).

Thanks for the reply John. Insurance issues just means that I have call the insurer again. That's twice in 6 months that the flood/runoff water has come up into my brew space. Then, I'm expected to chase quotes, and they get pissy coz I have better things to do with my time.
 
Ducatiboy stu said:
It tends to become very un funny after a while

Some people expect to be spoon feed....
I was enjoying the humour in Motion Dynamics post, not the scenario.
I don't have the patience for tech support at either end of the handset. I hate to be spoon feed by someone or to have to spoon fed another.
 
I too had a laugh. For me I hate ringing most call centres as they usually have cheat sheets and ask you to do mundane things I know will make absolutely no difference.

I too get calls from customers and right away I can sense what they really want, free XXXXX etc. but when I try and cut to th
E chase I get complaints about being rude. But eventually I do try and point out that my time is much more valuable than what ever free thing will make them happy.

Some people just want some one to whinge at.

Keep up the good work boys I love my Motion Dynamics powered mill works a treat , just hope I never get my finger caught in it......

James
Zwitter


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
I'm sure I read somewhere in this thread about testing the motor with a car battery charger, can't seem to find it now.
Is it safe to just connect the motor wires to the charger terminals?
Just want to see it turn and test the alignment.
Cheers.
 
A battery would be fine and I guess a charger would be as well as long as it is putting out 12V but I wouldn't know if a charger puts that out. If you have a charger surely you have a battery somewhere you could use for a test?
 
Cheers contrarian,
I was pretty sure it would work just wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking something.
I tested it today with really good results, the alignment seems perfect. Now just waiting for the ebay bits to complete the build.
Can't wait.
 
It took me over a year to finally get mine all sorted out but it was certainly a step up from the handle! Although the kids around it make me a bit more nervous than they used to!

I honestly think I am getting a more consistent crush which makes brewing easier. Fantastic investment.
 
Back
Top