Stc1000 Wiring

[Brown_hound]

was one of those have to build it now kind of things and HPM was all Bunnos had in slimline GPO's

always thought if i go and do a trade sparky will be the one...

if i was still living in sydney i'd be 'hounding' you on that offer....

at 34 years old, i'm sitting tight for a few years in current job, once the parenting stuff is a bit further done i might do a really mature age apprenticeship!

Well good onya brother...

There's no age limit on education... And a trade? Brilliant..

Awaiting the PM bout that job... Don't worry, I'll still be lurking (spending every waking ((non-brewing)) hour on these forums). :lol:


Keep up the good wiring work, and if not sure- make sure with a sparkie...

 

[milob40]

hey, finished it and all works ok.
i set up a fridgemate with the jiffy box previosly but wasn't sure if it was approved method.
the bug bear at the moment is trying to get the settings right with the stc.
i am using it on a chest freezer and it seems to chill 4 or 5 degrees belowed set temp (temp keeps dropping after compressor has stopped)
can anyone recommend the best settings? i.e. compressor delay and differential start settings for a chest freezer.
the one on my fridge works without a hitch staying within 1 degree but the freezer has about 6 degrees diff. 5 -, 1+
may work better with a wet probe perhaps?
using as a brew fridge during peak demand / storage :icon_drunk: and a normal fridge for crash chilling.

 

[Ben Crossman]

Your excessive temp drop issue is likely caused by the sensor placement.
If you place it in the freezer in a more open location I think you will have better results.

For example, while the fridge is on to chill a fermenter, with the probe inside the fermenter, the pump will run untill the wort is at the correct temp, but the air temp in the fridge will ahve dropped heaps to acheive it, therefore it keeps cooling the wort.

A thermostat in a regular fridge measures the air temp, not the temp of a particular item in the fridge, if the air temp is say 2, eventually all contents will be 2

Compressor delay wont fix this problem, that is just a feature to prevent damaging the compressor frpm regular startups.
Also, start differential wont fix it, as it only turns off when it hits your target temp. The differential just affects when it turns on again. Having said that, perhaps a smaller differential would be of a benifit...

Hope that makes some sense....

 

[Brown_hound]

Your excessive temp drop issue is likely caused by the sensor placement.
If you place it in the freezer in a more open location I think you will have better results.

For example, while the fridge is on to chill a fermenter, with the probe inside the fermenter, the pump will run untill the wort is at the correct temp, but the air temp in the fridge will ahve dropped heaps to acheive it, therefore it keeps cooling the wort.

A thermostat in a regular fridge measures the air temp, not the temp of a particular item in the fridge, if the air temp is say 2, eventually all contents will be 2

Compressor delay wont fix this problem, that is just a feature to prevent damaging the compressor frpm regular startups.
Also, start differential wont fix it, as it only turns off when it hits your target temp. The differential just affects when it turns on again. Having said that, perhaps a smaller differential would be of a benifit...

Hope that makes some sense....

+1...


Pop onto Mashmaster at the top of the page...

They have a stainless steel probe for sale which is designed to be placed into the fermentor... Giving a Wort reading rather than a fridge reading...

Note: Although you will have big swings between the fridge vs wort temperature to begin with, they'll eventually stabillise, after a day/day and a halfish... Just don't put the probe near the cool air outlet inside the fridge though....


Cheers.

Hound

 

[mje1980]

Box it in something like this:

Brown hound, in this pic, there are two white leads going into the box. Is this an extension cord that has been cut in half and used to wire it up?. Is it simply a case of plugging the unit into the wall, and then yor fridge into the female end of the ext cord?.

Cheers, a lot of questions, but i am a fitter so this electramacal stuff is tricky to me!

 

[white.grant]

Brown hound, in this pic, there are two white leads going into the box. Is this an extension cord that has been cut in half and used to wire it up?. Is it simply a case of plugging the unit into the wall, and then yor fridge into the female end of the ext cord?.

Cheers, a lot of questions, but i am a fitter so this electramacal stuff is tricky to me!

You're scaring me MJE, if you want a hand wiring one up let me know.

cheers

grant

 

[Amber Fluid]

You should take Grant up on his generous offer. Nevertheless, here are a couple of links that might interst you.


Another AHB discussion Wiring and diagram

 

[mje1980]

You're scaring me MJE, if you want a hand wiring one up let me know.

cheers

grant

Thanks grant, i have sparkies at work, but im getting impatient ( i go back on saturday ), as my bloody keg fridge is freezing my kegs haha. THey'll do it for me, but i was gunna try it myself and get them to check my work. It sucks not having beer for so long!

 

[Brown_hound]

Brown hound, in this pic, there are two white leads going into the box. Is this an extension cord that has been cut in half and used to wire it up?. Is it simply a case of plugging the unit into the wall, and then yor fridge into the female end of the ext cord?.

Cheers, a lot of questions, but i am a fitter so this electramacal stuff is tricky to me!

Yeah mate, that's exactly what it was.. One single extension lead, cut in the middle, and wired into the unit.

Male plugs into the wall, and the freezer/fridge plugs into the female.

That was the first rendition..

Since then I've re-done it so the male cord runs into the housing, and then the outputs wire into 2 separate architrave type switched GPO's mounted externally on the box. One for the heating output, and one for the cooling output. This basically gives you greater flexibility in switching your heater/fridge on or off without physically disconnecting the power cord.


As per the advice above mate, any work you do should be checked by a sparkie before powering up.

Be safe.

Hound.

 

[kyleg]

Your excessive temp drop issue is likely caused by the sensor placement.
If you place it in the freezer in a more open location I think you will have better results.

For example, while the fridge is on to chill a fermenter, with the probe inside the fermenter, the pump will run untill the wort is at the correct temp, but the air temp in the fridge will ahve dropped heaps to acheive it, therefore it keeps cooling the wort.

A thermostat in a regular fridge measures the air temp, not the temp of a particular item in the fridge, if the air temp is say 2, eventually all contents will be 2

Compressor delay wont fix this problem, that is just a feature to prevent damaging the compressor frpm regular startups.
Also, start differential wont fix it, as it only turns off when it hits your target temp. The differential just affects when it turns on again. Having said that, perhaps a smaller differential would be of a benifit...

Hope that makes some sense....

So what you're saying is that by having the probe in the fermenter, your fridge temp may be 5-10 degrees lower than the wort temp, since it is the ambient air around the fridge that brings the temperature of the wort down. So once your sort gets to say 18, that fridge will turn off, however the ambient temperature may still be 5degrees or so below the wort temp.

How long would the fridge ambient temp stay at that temp and would that then end up reducing your wort temp by much?

So where would be the ideal place for the temp probe?

 

[Yob]

on the side of the FV insulated with foam or bubblewrap and elastic to hold it in place.. works a treat

[rdit] piccie

 

[Truman42]

Pop onto Mashmaster at the top of the page...

They have a stainless steel probe for sale which is designed to be placed into the fermentor... Giving a Wort reading rather than a fridge reading...

Is this the one your talking about

temp probe

 

[Yob]

drilling holes in the FV? sounds like trouble to me... $33 and the risk of infection + 1 more thing to clean and worry about seems to me to be folly...

or

Free foam and 20c worth of elastic..??

I know I wont be running out and drilling holes in my fermenters..

The elastic and foam method, shown above, quite often reads different from the ambient temps so I know it's reading the wort temp... Its suggested that the "middle" of the wort is only going to be a fraction of a degree different to what the probe on the side is reading.

Yob

 

[Fourstar]

drilling holes in the FV? sounds like trouble to me... $33 and the risk of infection + 1 more thing to clean and worry about seems to me to be folly...
or
Free foam and 20c worth of elastic..??
I know I wont be running out and drilling holes in my fermenters..
The elastic and foam method, shown above, quite often reads different from the ambient temps so I know it's reading the wort temp... Its suggested that the "middle" of the wort is only going to be a fraction of a degree different to what the probe on the side is reading.
Yob

Pretty true although you can get thermocouples with pretty big stainless probes on em these days, that way we could properly utilise the hole in the top of the fermenter for once!

Example: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Temperature-Con...=item5ae34074be

 

[Muscovy_333]

Excited...just recieved my stc-1000 in the mail.
And realised that i will probably need to purchase a temp probe to go with it.
I need to do some more research prior to wiring in, when i can find the time.
Thankyou for the excellent discussion on this thread re-set-up.

One quick question.....I am going to mount a probe in the fridge, not in or on the fermenter.

Can anyone recommend where i might find a decent probe? ( i actually thought it would come with the stc unit)

 

[stux]

BeerBelly Fermenter Thermowell
http://www.beerbelly.com.au/ferment.html

Fits the STC-1000 sensor or the Tempmate one

Go in through the top not the side. I installed mine so the probe was half way between the center of the fermenter and the wall of the fermenter

 

[Howlingdog]

Pretty true although you can get thermocouples with pretty big stainless probes on em these days, that way we could properly utilise the hole in the top of the fermenter for once!

Example: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Temperature-Con...=item5ae34074be

At the moment I have two fermenting fridges on the blink and using the old two litre milk bottles of frozen water to regulate temp. As I am only using one fridge atm, I am using two fridgemates to monitor temp - one in the air and the other through a modified outlet tube as a thermocouple through the fermenter top.

I have observed that there is a lag between the air temp and wort temp. Once stabilised the wort remains fairly steady but the air temp fluctuates widely higher and lower than the wort temp.

HD

 

[Yob]

Can anyone recommend where i might find a decent probe? ( i actually thought it would come with the stc unit)

it should have come with one... :blink: all 4 that I have certainly did.. I use one to monitor HLT temps so they can be immersed as well B)

Yob

 

[Muscovy_333]

it should have come with one... :blink: all 4 that I have certainly did.. I use one to monitor HLT temps so they can be immersed as well B)

Yob

Bugger! No probe with my unit...


Ta

 

[stux]

Bugger! No probe with my unit...


Ta

Should probably email the supplier