The Brauduino (Matho’s Controller) Build/Advice/Question Thread

[claypot]

Yeah, my builds were painful for the hip pocket. The first time I decided to drill the holes in the plate... A sore arm, three afternoons and something like 500 holes later I decided that was stupid.

Whereabouts are you located?
edit: do you have the new fluted rollers? I've got the knurled ones and tempted to upgrade... The crush I saw come out of some of the fluted ones looked amazing.

Na just the knurled ones, just checked out the fluted ones - I better hurry up and wear out my knurled ones so I can upgrade!
I'm in Adelaide, Hand drilling the perf plate... I bet you have fond memories of that!! I think I'll buy some!
I don't want to commit to much more cash to this build as I want to build a larger one now!

or just wait till Lael does a pot/malt-pipe/perf-sheet bulk buy... i think its planned for 2018

Baa, I was going to ask about that but didn't want to bust his balls after all the good work put in on the kit!
But surly the bulk buy bug has returned.
I'll have a 50 litre kit thanks!

 

[jerchappy]

Hi all. I have shelved this project for the best part of a year despite being largely finished with the purchase of a braumeister malt pipe. This has partially been due to being too embarrassed to fessing up!

I finsihed wiring my controller and whilst patiently waiting for my sparky friend to make some time to come around for a look I, in a moment of insanity/impatience turned the power on. There was intiallly some smoke coming froim the box (not sure where from). Upon examining I found that I had somehow reversed the polarity on the 12v power from the power supply to the board. After correcting, all I get is a flickering blue screen. Also, on disconnecting all other cables other thatn the 12v the flickering blue screen remains.

On powering from 5v usb ARDBIR boots as normal- running automatic mode will turn on both leds as well as the indicator lights on the SSRS

However running in manual mode the green pump light will not turn on despite the letter P appearing on the screen.

I am trying to work out how to trouble shoot this- I would imagine replacing the arduino and maybe the mega will hopefully correct the problem. I am not sure about the rest- I suspect the power supply may need replacing as well?

Does anyone have any thoughts for this goose of a man?

Cheers, Jerome.

BTW my sparky friend did come round later on and was happy with the 240v stuff and gave me a stern lecturing and a laugh at my expense

 

[claypot]

Scrambling screen??

Hey all I have been dragging the chain getting my unit set up but finally have it running.
I have suffered the fateful scrambled screen. First brew I had to power down then back up several times, bugger.
It only happens when the heating is on and pump starts or stops as has been mentioned here.
I am using a chugger 240v pump.
I removed the cover and separated the 240v from 12v and run with the cover off but still same issue.
I am happy to rewire the pump via the second SSR via 12v from the board as I won't need a second element. BUT does anyone know if this is a sure fix for this problem as I am pretty time poor at the moment. Or is the problem likely something else?
Thanks again,
Clayton.

 

[terragady]

are you using any relay which is not SSR? This might cause the problem.

 

[claypot]

are you using any relay which is not SSR? This might cause the problem.

Hey teragady,
I'm using the on-board 12v / 240v relay to power the pump, as it was designed, so you could use 12v or 240v pumps I believe.
cheers

 

[malt junkie]

Yeah your SSR is wired incorrectly, have this checked by sparky. The screen scramble should be sorted with some judicious cable management, also (as pictured) use the bottom power sockets as they are further from the arduino.

cheers

Mike

 

[claypot]

Yeah your SSR is wired incorrectly, have this checked by sparky. The screen scramble should be sorted with some judicious cable management, also (as pictured) use the bottom power sockets as they are further from the arduino.

cheers

Mike

Hey Mike,
Cheers for the reply. Just looked at the pic myself, it's pretty miss leading!
Looks like the wiring is wrong and burnt! Due to poor light. I'll attach a better pic.
I'm confident the SSR is correctly wired.
The only thing I've done different is have the 12v transformer, 240v input come from input of 240v to the SSR. Possibly causing more interference than coming off the main 240v input post.

As mentioned I run the unit with the face plate off as per the attached pic. There was plenty of separation from the 240v and still scrambled. If the proximity of the 240v wiring to the arduino was at fault I wouldn't of expected to get the scrambling when the cover was removed.

I'm wondering if it is due to the chugger pump drawing 1.9amp? I guess most people are using a kegking pump that draws 1.1amp. Still not much as the pump relay is rated to 5amp. But by a percentage it's a lot more draw than the kegking pump.

As mentioned this only happens when the pump is activated or stopped during heating.

Any further help greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Clayton.

 

[malt junkie]

Ahh much better photo! For me I'd prefer to see the power for the 12v come directly from the input, and the power for the pump relay come from the hot side of the SSR. I don't know that this will fix your issue but certainly can't hurt. I wouldn't have either relay between the 12v and the power source(on any circuit). Remember the SSR is switching on and off at a pretty decent clip and may create "noise", pump motor may also create some noise.

The chugger should be fine, Lael uses one and he also tested with the march, and KK. The other solution is to use the second SSR to switch the pump (use the on board relay to switch 12v to the SSR).

Hopefully some tweaking gets you there.

I have one of matho's original boards on a big brauclone and I'm just starting to pull kit together to use Lael's kit on it's little brother using a 20L Braumeister Malt pipe, see how things go.

Mike

 

[zwitter]

Hi Claypot

The scrambling was really sorted in these kits. Generally by separation of wiring and the snubber cap and resistor on the board.

I use a chugger too.

In mine i actually fitted a small SSR and removed the relay from the board. I took photos and documented and posted it on AHB. I have the second big SSR so I can use an over the side element to improve heat up times.

I can dig out that info and send to you if you like or depending on where you are can discuss other options. The SSR came from Jaycar.

You could use the second big SSR and it will work just fine. You,can just use the relay to switch 12v and the t will switch the SSR.

I have never had scrambling since swapping the relay out but dont think ever had it on this controller anyway. I changed to SSR in response for a show and tell on how to do it.

James
Zwitter


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[malt junkie]

Hi Claypot

The scrambling was really sorted in these kits. Generally by separation of wiring and the snubber cap and resistor on the board.

I use a chugger too.

In mine i actually fitted a small SSR and removed the relay from the board. I took photos and documented and posted it on AHB. I have the second big SSR so I can use an over the side element to improve heat up times.

I can dig out that info and send to you if you like or depending on where you are can discuss other options. The SSR came from Jaycar.

You could use the second big SSR and it will work just fine. You,can just use the relay to switch 12v and the t will switch the SSR.

I have never had scrambling since swapping the relay out but dont think ever had it on this controller anyway. I changed to SSR in response for a show and tell on how to do it.

James
Zwitter


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Hey Zwitter,
was that a straight drop in, just in case you understand

Mike

 

[zwitter]

Hi Malt Junkie

Nah, I do not understand....

The SSR was certainly not tough to fit. It has 4 legs and I just connected short lengths of wire and heat shrink to insulate then pulled the relay out of the board and put the wires into the holes where relay used to be. As it is only switching the chugger it does not need a heatsink. I think all up it took about an hour and cost less than $20.

I have an original matho and then purchased several kits since and extra boards etc but only one system. And the original never gave me grief ever.

I have blown up several Arduinos, usually while doing testing for other people but hey I learn something everytime.

I currently have 2 raspberry pi on my home network providing bluetooth connectivity for my brewpi fermentation controller and also another providing 608mhz connection to a power, heat, humidity, voltage monitor. So I am a bit of a electronics nut from way back and still into projects. I buy arduinos in bulk and always have bits on the way from China to mess with.

In the brew controller there was a lot of compromises so it would do more so the market was bigger and simpler to apply to peoples setups. One of those was the relay so it could do 12v and 240v pumps. It does work but some have seen the scrambling. I asked the ArdBir team to insert a screen refresh every so often or after a relay switch but was too hard. That would have solved the issue as well. The controller can be turned off and recover though so was not a complete nightmare when it happened.

I have always offered assistance to repair or diagnose these units. I can not replace components that have died due to negligence etc. every system was powered on and the basics tested before shipping.

Regards

James
Zwitter


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[malt junkie]

every system was powered on and the basics tested before shipping.

I remember I was there, mine was the oaked stout. I still have my original, one of the first ten. Hasn't skipped a beat but the controller is in it's own box with 12v and signals to 3 SSRs running over cat5 so scrambling has never been an issue. I have melted a few SSRs but I think my heatsink may have been a bit under rated. I'm considering a full rebuild of that controller soon so it's rock solid.

 

[malt junkie]

Opps actually I think it was the coffee stout, all that bubble wrap screws and wires who can remember the finer details.

 

[claypot]

Hey Mike and James,
Thanks heaps for the feed back.

Sorry James I did see the post about posting the fitting of the jaycar SSR to the board but couldn't track down the pics.
that's a good idea to just run wires to it from the board. I gather a solder sucker would be required.

I've shortened up the 12v wires on mine now, I had them long to allow the cover to be removed easily.
I haven't brewed with it yet and bench testing seems to be o.k.

I agree this project has been a great learning activity, manually tuning the PID has been a good learning too. Prior I was using Auber auto tune PIDs.

Does anyone know when the screen scrambles, if the controller will continue its process normally?

Thanks again guys.

 

[malt junkie]

A screen scramble only affects the print out on the screen, and if your like me,after mash in, I walk away and mow the lawn or play cricket with my son until it's time to pull the malt pipe, so the info on the screen means little. Arduino are a solid micro controller, I've probably done 100 brews on my original controller and the only stuff ups have been due human error, and nothing to do with the controller.

cheers
Mike

 

[claypot]

A screen scramble only affects the print out on the screen, and if your like me,after mash in, I walk away and mow the lawn or play cricket with my son until it's time to pull the malt pipe, so the info on the screen means little. Arduino are a solid micro controller, I've probably done 100 brews on my original controller and the only stuff ups have been due human error, and nothing to do with the controller.

cheers
Mike

Sweet cheers, Mike. Yep I'm the same.
Yeah I'm pretty happy with it now that I've set up the PID correctly, great bit of gear!
Cheers to all involved!

 

[zwitter]

Hi Claypot
Yep the controller keeps going. Just does not tell you what it is doing.

Yeah sorry Malt Junkie that day was a bit of a blur. A good blur but still a blur. Actually my tape guns are still at Laels.

Mine has never scambled and now with the SSR probably never will. My only issue is flow through the mash. Just keeps blocking up and then bending the top mesh and making a big mess. I plan a brew this sat with rice hulls so will see how it goes, maybe will mod the plumbing a little too.

James
Zwitter



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[malt junkie]

Yeah I've had my 2mm plates starting to flex at times, though I think I've got my crush spot on now so not really an issue unless I really push the malt bill up. Here's hoping the rice hulls help you out. I of course have the advantage of a second huge malt pipe and that one I have never really tried to push buit I'd say 20kg of malt wouldn't be a drama.

 

[zwitter]

Hi Malt Junkie
I have 2 malt pipes too. One is the Big W19 litre and I have a second that is slightly smaller diameter but about 1.5 times taller and probably fit huge amount in that too.
Problem is it just that it all gets compressed at the top and blocks up sometimes I have wort fountains. I plan to increase the gap in the malt mill and add rice hulls and see how it goes as I have plans for a RIS and that will max the grain bill

James
Zwitter



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[claypot]

Hi Malt Junkie
I have 2 malt pipes too. One is the Big W19 litre and I have a second that is slightly smaller diameter but about 1.5 times taller and probably fit huge amount in that too.
Problem is it just that it all gets compressed at the top and blocks up sometimes I have wort fountains. I plan to increase the gap in the malt mill and add rice hulls and see how it goes as I have plans for a RIS and that will max the grain bill

James
Zwitter



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Yep I'm having the same drama.
I've tried running the mash with the flow from the chugger pump choked in on a ball valve - only open 15% or so and have no drama with grain compaction / wort fountains.
I thought that having less flow would mean a drop in efficiency but that doesn't seem to be the case. Every time I try to sneak the flow up it inevitably ends in tears! I've also just started using an Ikea splatter screen as the only top plate, the flow through the bed is awesome but is fraught with danger.
It think it would be good if you could fit a pressure switch to the pump outlet that stops the pump for 2 minutes at a predetermined pressure to avoid blow outs and re settle the grain bed.
The other thing I've noticed is that with the chugger pump at full flow there is no need for a malt pipe seal as the leakage is minimal and there is still enough pressure to push through the bed.