Stc 1000

[Ghizo]

Wired up my stc 1000 today, at first I got a beeping and error ee2 on the screen, I googled that and it seems to be a probe issue, I checked all my wires and re attached the probe and it worked fine.
As I was testing it I plugged in two reading lights, to test it with, when I plugged it in the light plugged into the heat side turned on, I held the probe to warm it up, eventually the light plugged in the cool side turned on.
I thought great this works well. About 1 minute after that I heard a poof and not working anymore, you can see something has burned out in the unit.
I believe I wired it correctly as it worked well for a good five minutes on both heating and cooling before it died?

Any thoughts?
I have contacted the eBay seller and will see what they say but is it possible I did something wrong?

Tim

 

[MAX POWER]

Is it definitely a 220v model?

 

[Ghizo]

That is what the eBay listing says, I didn't see anything on the unit to say otherwise?

 

[Wapehawi]

Have heard 2 reports of units from ebay seller Mystylecase blowing up after a few minutes.
Not where you got yours by any chance?

 

[Ghizo]

Nope different seller
Am I right in thinking if it was wired wrong it either would not work or blow up straight away?
Thinking about the wiring there is not really a way to wire up wrong ports 1 and 2 are power is does not specify live and neutral? But I had live in 1 neutral in 2. If this was in someway back to front it would have blown up straight away I would assume?

 

[pcmfisher]

It should say on there somewhere 220VAC.

 

[CopperCoil]

It shouldn't matter which wire is live or neutral, for these purposes it is essentially the same.

My STC has a sticker on top saying Power supply 220VAC. It is one of the two from Mystylecase that blew up. I was still working out how to set the temperature when it popped and the smoke came out.

My friend had a spare STC and I wired it up the same way, and it works fine. Definitely seems to be a bad batch out there.

 

[Crusty]

I've wired up 4 of these exactly like this & never had a problem.
Incorrectly wiring it could potentially kill you so do so at your own risk.

 

[Ghizo]

That's how mine was wired, and it is 220vac on the wiring diagram on the case

 

[CopperCoil]

To answer OP's primary question, yes it seems there is a bad batch out there. It has nothing to do with how you wired it.

 

[pcmfisher]

That magic smoke is a bugger....

 

[Wapehawi]

Here is a pic from a bloke from another forum with a dodgy stc1000. Was sold as a 220v unit but if you look close, it's only rated to 110v! No wonder it let the smoke out.

 

[anthonyUK]

According to the STC-1000+ project page, the source of the v1.0 units has been found.
They have an Aliexpress shop - http://www.aliexpress.com/store/1305777

These are reliable units and can be flashed with custom firmware for easier operation and timed profiles etc.

 

[quantum8]

I've had a couple dodgy controllers do this. They were the dual power ones, where you could supple 240v or 12v via two separate terminal blocks.

Both controllers failed on the 240v side within a week (looked like the dodgy rectifier diodes couldn't handle my supply). Luckily since the 12v circuit was separate, it could still be powered from this until I got a better controller. Had them replaced a couple of times for free until I cut my losses due to the seller's bad batch.

 

[Ghizo]

Stc up and running, not a problem this time, currently holding my fermenter at 22c

 

[Kev R]

Is there a PID that has a heat and cool function like the stc?