PID question

[scooterism]

For an all in one unit, can you go past a Grainfather controller?

I'm looking for something that will heat up my HLT and be able to do step mashes plus all the other things that it can do = bonus.

So for $200 is a GF Contoller the way to go, or can one do better building their own?

 

[Hermies]

Auber PIDs' can do step mashing . It may be cheaper but that depends on how much you want to tinker.

Cheers

 

[scooterism]

I like to tinker, but which the is most cost effective (outlay) ?.

Plus the GF unit has a fancy App w/ wireless connectivity and a screen which tells me exactly what to do.

I guess I'm just trying to weigh up the different options.

 

[Hermies]

Have a look at the brauduino that's another option .

 

[Adr_0]

I haven't looked at exactly what the GF controller has, but if it has Wifi connectivity and can do step mashes with pump control then that's pretty good for $200.

An Auber PID controller with ramp functions alone is about $120 I think which includes shipping. Still need an RTD on top of this ($30-40), SSR ($20-50), and box, connectors, switches, etc. will not be less than $50 extra on top of this.

An Arduino/Brauduino is probably significantly cheaper than the Auber. For my Arduino controller I got to about $150-170 which included a box, all connectors, glands, temperature probes, relays etc. You need to be comfortable with programming, but not at a level where you write entire routines from scratch. Not sure what the Brauduino costs.

 

[malt junkie]

Brauduino (matho's controller Ardbir) would only be significantly cheaper if you were to build it from scratch, The next board in that line up has wifi and all the bells ( i haven't done final costings for the board) I'm in final development (link to thread) stages however you could box it up with all the bits and bobs for probably $200. Check the first post and you'll see what features it has.

ED: I should make it clear, BrewmaniacEX won't be released for a few months, after initial testing and V2 board has been ordered and tested.

 

[scooterism]