Electric Brewery's

[Scott H]

We spoke about creating a discussion so people who have or people who are thinking about and/or building can share pic's info and pitfalls to avoid.

Just about finished building my bench and hopefully will have a chance to start wiring it up this weekend. Pics to follow shortly.

[Scott H]

Not sure where to get them locally, I think most of us here have order ours from Auberins http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=20_15 and selected the appropriate cable length options, the cables from them are excellent and having the disconnects on them is a huge bonus.

[Barry]

I got mine from Auber, because at the time the only ones I could find on aliexpress were in lots of 10 and I couldn't find anyone to share.

The detachable couplers at both ends of the Auber deluxe cables are worth their weight in gold. I can highly recommend them. Solder free installation in a control panel and removable for cleaning. So awesome.

There are now cheaper options though on aliexpress if you don't mind doing a bit of soldering at the panel end:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/RTD-PT100-Temperature-Sensors-1-2-NP...

[Hamish Jones]

thanks guys, I purchased the Sestos + SSR + PT100 combo and have noticed they all have the wrong sensor, so a warning to guys buying these on eBay be wary.

off to Auber site now to purchase some now, cheers for getting me pointing back in the right direction

[Chris Banks]

The 2 wire sensors that come with that package are PT-100 but just in the raw form and require extending (depending on your application) and converting to 3 wire (which is very simple) as Brett has described above.

But as everyone else has pointed out its far easier to go with the pre made alternative than coming up with a thermowell , wires , plugs , sockets , soldering etc to convert the raw sensor.

The most recent Auber deluxe cables have a plastic coating over the braiding which makes them much less likely to kink or snag than the previous ones which makes them more appealing than ever.

[mattd2]

For short lengths of cable the 2 wire probes should be fine. The 3 wire probes allows you to go up to 600 m of cable IIRC. But the plane sensor are a pain to mount and you'll likely spend nearly as much money on the hardware to be able to thread it into a pipe fitting compare to buying a premade probe.
As for the sensor - check you have it wired correctly as per the sticker on the unit. (not the manual) as I have seen a few cases where the 2 are opposite. And try it first without any additional jumpers.

[DMAC]

Extrapolating Matts point. If they are 2 wire RTDs then a 3m cable would create about 0.5C error (assuming 0.5mm diameter wire with a total length of 6m).

The probe itself will have a similar error due to tolerances on the sensor. The controller will have an error though how big i dont know.

If your lucky these errors will cancel each other but you'd be lucky to get that.  But if you calibrated it to another thermometer by adjusting the offset you'll get your accuracy back.

To use the two wire RTD (maybe just as an interim measure if you have already ordered a replacement) you would have to jumper one connection on the controller if it is set-up for three wire mode. Maybe it has a two wire mode as well?

[Hamish Jones]

I just ordered the 2m detachable ones as my control panel is mounted on the wall away from the rig, then that way I can remove them and hang them up all tidy like, I am all for the easier pre-made approach as it would likely cost me more to make them

[Barry]

Very wise, you won't regret it.

[Hamish Jones]

Still ordering bits for my new brewery so before I order the wrong thing does anyone have a source for decent temperature display that's the same size as the Sestos and Auberins PID's,

I am trying to keep everything standard and want to keep an eye on multiple points on the new system I am building that don't have a PID temp sensor close enough to them, or would it be easier just to get an extra few PID's and just wire power and the PT100 sensor up to display temps

[Barry]

The sestos PIDs are cheap enough, personally that's what I'd use (my mash tun one does exactly that)

[Peter Smith]

Totally agree pid without a SSR for temp only.....just need  probe, could use for chillor monitors if CF etc

[Scott H]

Yeah I would just use some more sestos.

Hows your setup been going barry?