The Brauduino (Matho’s Controller) Buy thread

[Bridges]

G'day Lael,
Love to be in on this as first reserve or what ever.
PM me if you can help or are planning to stretch the buy again
Cheers
Lyle

 

[lael]

Hi All,

Bridges and Cosmic Bertie - numbers 2 and 1 reserve respectively. I've got a v2.0 board constructed that I can send you if you'd like, (first to PM can have it). It doesn't have the snubber, so if you are using a 240v pump you may need to restart the brau if the screen scrambles - from people who have one it sounds like a rare occurence, and the machine picks up from where it left off.

update for everyone:

I've finished the controller and the board and parts work like a charm. I'm just checking the best way to earth the pot and ensure the element switching works fine. The buzzers I ordered aren't up to the job, so I am going to need to order some new ones. Hoping to post this week. If I could get everyone to PM me with your address, that would be great!

Thanks!

 

[rafinus]

Hi guys, first at all, thanks Lael for the updates and the work...

Now I´m design my vessel and the malt pipe to make 40 liters and 20 liters of beer (final). But I have a problem of space in my house (department) then using the sheet of Braumeister Calculation, the diameter of main vessel for this application is 45cm and 65cm height. The diameter of malt pipe for 40l is 35cm and the height is 60cm. To 20l, is 35cm diameter and 35 height. I assume that i´ll use max 8kg of malt in 20l and 12kg for 40l.

Now my question, any consideration or opinions?

PS: I have a friend that will made the vessel/pipes in stainless steel.

Thanks a lot.

 

[lael]

Hi Guys,

Decided to do another 10. PM me your mobile# and I'll send you a message with bank details. Cost will be $45.- (The extra $5 being a 'thankyou' I'd like to pass on to Steve for making this all possible). I'll be away camping the next two days though, so I'll send it through after that. Just reply and add your name on the list.

21. Bridges
22. Cosmic Bertie
23.

Cheers,

Lael

 

[lael]

Hi guys, first at all, thanks Lael for the updates and the work...

Now I´m design my vessel and the malt pipe to make 40 liters and 20 liters of beer (final). But I have a problem of space in my house (department) then using the sheet of Braumeister Calculation, the diameter of main vessel for this application is 45cm and 65cm height. The diameter of malt pipe for 40l is 35cm and the height is 60cm. To 20l, is 35cm diameter and 35 height. I assume that i´ll use max 8kg of malt in 20l and 12kg for 40l.

Now my question, any consideration or opinions?

PS: I have a friend that will made the vessel/pipes in stainless steel.

Thanks a lot.

Hi Judanero,

Your sizes have some problems. I'm going to post a spreadsheet I modelled for you based on the rough sizes you gave. If you have the ability to do custom pot sizes, then I think the dimensions on the sheet I am posting (shorter 20L pipe and 40L pipe) are better as they allow your fluid levels to work more effectively. I think what I've posted is probably my ideal sizing, but I couldn't get custom pots

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/57924-braumeister-nextgen-build/page-56#entry1023693

 

[rafinus]

Hi Lael, thanks. The exactly the same size I planned, maybe the malt pipe for 20l is 5cm tall...

Thanks

Rafael

Hi Judanero,

Your sizes have some problems. I'm going to post a spreadsheet I modelled for you based on the rough sizes you gave. If you have the ability to do custom pot sizes, then I think the dimensions on the sheet I am posting (shorter 20L pipe and 40L pipe) are better as they allow your fluid levels to work more effectively. I think what I've posted is probably my ideal sizing, but I couldn't get custom pots

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/57924-braumeister-nextgen-build/page-56#entry1023693

 

[lael]

PCB construction and Box construction. reposted here from the "I want matho's controller" thread for easy access.

The only real changes for the kits I am sending are: the PCB Headers are not in one stick. You will have one stick of 8 pins, and one of 36 - split this up into 2x6, 1x8, and 1x16. You will also have 1x100 ohm resistor and 1 yellow capacitor. they go at the bottom right hand corner above the relay. I put in the resistor, then the relay, then the capacitor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU4t0Yko9Uk
is a great tutorial on how to solder to a PCB.

I'm waiting on buzzers to arrive, and then will be sending the kits out.

I got thermal paste from here: (jaycar has it as well for a couple of dollars more)
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/190690205736?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

View attachment Brauduino_PCB_assembly.pdf

View attachment brauduino_controller_build1.pdf

 

[lael]

One thing I found really hard at the start was reading through the main Braumeister NextGen thread and trying to find out where and how to buy all the parts required to build a real machine. So I thought I would put together a spreadsheet with all the costings and sources for everyone who is trying to make their own. Take a look and feel free to add suggestions. Most of the 'local' places are in Sydney, as that is where I am

View attachment BraumiserCostingandSources.xlsx

 

[rafinus]

I made a small adjust for the malt pipe, to obtain 20l at final, using a malt 35cm diameter and 25cm H. And for 40l, using 35cm D and 50cm H, according the sheet, until a 1074 OG beer.

Any tip?

Tnx

Hi Lael, thanks. The exactly the same size I planned, maybe the malt pipe for 20l is 5cm tall...

Thanks

Rafael

 

[lael]

I'm so sorry! I just realised I put the wrong name in the spreadsheet name and post! I was switching between sorting out addresses at the time, and must have been working on judaneros. sorry!

That looks really good! You will notice that is almost identical to the Braumeister measurements. The difference to the quantity of malt you are able to put in depends on how low towards the bottom your bottom filter plate is, and how high towards the top of the pot the upper filter plate is. I've allowed 3cm, which assumes the plate is basically sitting on the silicon seal at the bottom, and you are using some sort of reinforcing bar at the top (assuming it is 1.5cm from the bottom of the pot to the bottom plate, and the top filter plate is 1.5cm from the top of the pot.

If I was you, I might be tempted to make the malt pipe slightly taller (53cm?) and add three 10mm bolts in at 3cm from the bottom of the pipe to allow a little bit of space between the seal and the bottom filter plate which would allow fluid to have a little time to circulate before going through the malt pipe.

The other thing to consider is how long it will take to get 40L to the boil / ramp from each rest to the next one. The 50L braumeister uses two elements at a total of 3600w so it can actually accomplish the boil. If you want to do 40L you may want to consider using a 3600w or 4800w heating element. In Australia this causes problems because our standard electrical circuits are 240v 10Amp which allows a maximum of 2400w, meaning you have to pay to get a more powerful electrical circuit installed. It might be worth checking on the situation where you are.

Lael

 

[rafinus]

Thanks for the tips Lael,

Yeah I note that before, its a clone, hehe. Well, I assume that the BM is not so effective for high EG (or i´m wrong). But now I realized that I´ll not produce 50L but 40L, because my room and keg´s availability.

My project is better if I can show, the dimensions here (in green):

How you can see, the exclusions for the filters its around 7cm.

For the elements I´ll planning to use a 4000w (with 2 turns), and 10cm from de botton or 5cm (i think 5cm is better). In Brazil we can adjust the wire for this with no problems.

The heating element to customize here is around USD 80,00. The most expensive thing is the stainless filters. USD 200,00 each, but I looking for alternatives.

Attached the sheet with my sizes. I worried about the max grain bill can I use for 40l is only 11kg, and for 20l is only 4,7kg. Now if I change the malt pipes height and put 5cm more, the min water is too big. Any tip?

Thanks for the help.

View attachment Rafael - Braumiser_Volume_ScenarioTester.xls

 

[lael]

Thanks for the tips Lael,

Yeah I note that before, its a clone, hehe. Well, I assume that the BM is not so effective for high EG (or i´m wrong). But now I realized that I´ll not produce 50L but 40L, because my room and keg´s availability.

My project is better if I can show, the dimensions here (in green):

How you can see, the exclusions for the filters its around 7cm.

For the elements I´ll planning to use a 4000w (with 2 turns), and 10cm from de botton or 5cm (i think 5cm is better). In Brazil we can adjust the wire for this with no problems.

The heating element to customize here is around USD 80,00. The most expensive thing is the stainless filters. USD 200,00 each, but I looking for alternatives.

Attached the sheet with my sizes. I worried about the max grain bill can I use for 40l is only 11kg, and for 20l is only 4,7kg. Now if I change the malt pipes height and put 5cm more, the min water is too big. Any tip?

Thanks for the help.

Rafael - Braumiser_Volume_ScenarioTester.xls

You can still do it with 5cm higher malt pipes, you are just running out of sparge water. in the case of a 1040 beer, it might mean that you throw more grain in, and end up with 25L/ 30L instead of 20L. or just waste a few hundred grams of grain (to increase the sugars in the wort to compensate for the sugar that is retained because you don't sparge.... Not the worst thing in the world.

That said, the best thing to do to maximise grain volume is to reduce the allowance of space at the bottom and tops of the malt pipe. in the Big Beer braumiser thread, people talk about inverting their plates so they can get another 2.5cm of space, and it makes no difference to the beer, as long as the plates don't let out grain.

honestly, you can easily go down to 2.8L/kg fluidisation. just be careful and watch it when you run the machine.

 

[rafinus]

Understood, but how about the min water? Don´t compromise?

Thanks,

 

[lael]

Understood, but how about the min water? Don´t compromise?

Thanks,

The minimum water for the grain bill relies upon two calculations. The first one is - how much water fits in the malt pipe? (col J - we need to make it overflow) and how much water do we need to cover the heating element (col A multiplied by col O). Add those two together and you have the minimum water level.

The water is pumped out of the outside pipe, lowering the water level, and into the malt pipe, raising the water level, until the water overflows out of the malt pipe. If you don't put in enough water - your heating element will be exposed when you start pumping water through the malt pipe during mashing. That will destroy a lot of heating elements (not good. some can handle being boiled dry, but generally have a longer life it they aren't). If you don't put enough water in, there may not be enough to oveflow the malt pipe, which means you get no recirculation. Have you seen a braumeister in action? I can post a youtube video of my clone working if you want?

The only way to save water there, is to reduce the height of the element from the base of the outside pot. At the moment it is set at 10cm, as a lot of diy heating elements have a minimum no-bend zone, meaning it is hard to get the heating element lower, unless you pay for a custom element to be bent for you. If you can do that (I think bigbanko did that with his) then you might be able to get as low as 4cm min water height (first column on the spreadsheet), which would allow you to reduce you minimum water to allow safe recirculation (without exposing the element) by about three litres. That gives you a little more sparge water to play with (which allows you to sparge the grain with more water after you remove the malt pipe, which extracts more sugar from it and gives you higher efficiency (more sugar out of the same grain).

Have you brewed all grain before? I hadn't and had trouble working out why all the numbers were important too.

So the short of the answer is - if you reduce the minimum water level without either changing the malt pipe size (to require less water) or lower the heating element (also means you need less water) then you will be in trouble.

The other thing that is slightly counter-intuitive, but interesting is that grain displaces volume in the malt pipe (from memory it is something like 1.6L, but it absorbs about a L per kg of grain, so actual displacement is about .65L (col C)) which means that the larger the grain bill, the less water you need to overflow the malt pipe and get your element covered with water. Which is why I was saying with smaller grain bills (like 3kg or so for a 1040 beer) you can simply up the grain bill, and increase the volume of beer you produce (eg: make a 30L batch rather than a 20L batch) (unless you are using kegs and are anal about not getting left over beer to bottle ).

Does that help explain how it works a little more?

 

[rafinus]

The minimum water for the grain bill relies upon two calculations. The first one is - how much water fits in the malt pipe? (col J - we need to make it overflow) and how much water do we need to cover the heating element (col A multiplied by col O). Add those two together and you have the minimum water level.

The water is pumped out of the outside pipe, lowering the water level, and into the malt pipe, raising the water level, until the water overflows out of the malt pipe. If you don't put in enough water - your heating element will be exposed when you start pumping water through the malt pipe during mashing. That will destroy a lot of heating elements (not good. some can handle being boiled dry, but generally have a longer life it they aren't). If you don't put enough water in, there may not be enough to oveflow the malt pipe, which means you get no recirculation. Have you seen a braumeister in action? I can post a youtube video of my clone working if you want?

The only way to save water there, is to reduce the height of the element from the base of the outside pot. At the moment it is set at 10cm, as a lot of diy heating elements have a minimum no-bend zone, meaning it is hard to get the heating element lower, unless you pay for a custom element to be bent for you. If you can do that (I think bigbanko did that with his) then you might be able to get as low as 4cm min water height (first column on the spreadsheet), which would allow you to reduce you minimum water to allow safe recirculation (without exposing the element) by about three litres. That gives you a little more sparge water to play with (which allows you to sparge the grain with more water after you remove the malt pipe, which extracts more sugar from it and gives you higher efficiency (more sugar out of the same grain).

Have you brewed all grain before? I hadn't and had trouble working out why all the numbers were important too.

So the short of the answer is - if you reduce the minimum water level without either changing the malt pipe size (to require less water) or lower the heating element (also means you need less water) then you will be in trouble.

The other thing that is slightly counter-intuitive, but interesting is that grain displaces volume in the malt pipe (from memory it is something like 1.6L, but it absorbs about a L per kg of grain, so actual displacement is about .65L (col C)) which means that the larger the grain bill, the less water you need to overflow the malt pipe and get your element covered with water. Which is why I was saying with smaller grain bills (like 3kg or so for a 1040 beer) you can simply up the grain bill, and increase the volume of beer you produce (eg: make a 30L batch rather than a 20L batch) (unless you are using kegs and are anal about not getting left over beer to bottle ).

Does that help explain how it works a little more?

Lael, thanks for the reply.

I also make a ten batches, but not using a BIAB system or Braumeister. I´ll reduce the min water to 5cm with my element.

Thanks for the explain.

 

[lael]

You're welcome! Don't hesitate to ask for more info if you need it. I was super appreciative of all the help I got!

 

[lael]

Hi All, updates below:

rafinus - 1 - paid
Stux - 1 - paid - posted
nickelass - 1 - paid
mattieharding - 1 - paid - posted
DavidP2190 -1 - paid - posted
judanero - 1 - paid - posted
Kezza - 1 - paid - posted
Ramps - 2 - paid - send me your address please?
barrel21 -1 - paid - posted
lachw - 1 - paid - posted
heavy-d - 1 - paid - posted
pat_00 - 1 - paid - posted
zburns - 2 - paid - posted
stevemc32 - 1 - paid - posted
mfleck - 1 - paid - posted
djar007 - 1 - send me your address please?
cosmic bertie - 1 - paid - posted


If anyone else wants in - just PM me and I'll see what I can do.

ok - updates above, nearly all posted today. please let me know when you receive them.

Thanks,

Lael

 

[Judanero]

Cheers Lael solid effort mate!

 

[djar007]

Thanks lael. Very much appreciated mate.

 

[kezza]

Cheers for all your hard work organising this