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.

[Peter Church]

Sparky advice required

Hi all, hopefully a sparky out there can help point me in the right direction

I have two circuits in my controller using power relays similar to the one linked below, mine are 240 v, the HLT one is working sweet as, when i switch the power to the other circuit the relay very rapidly cycles, machine gun style.

http://www.dhgate.com/store/product/jqx-62f-2z-80a-dpdt-ac-12v-coil...

Need some I ideas on what to replace, is the relay shot, SSR or PID issue. Anyone experienced anything similar

The PID is firing an SSR which in turn is controlling the power relay. to me it looks like the light on thee ssr and PID are cycling in time it is just when I switch the power on to the relay that it starts the fast clicking/cycling

appreciate any thoughts on this

[Sam DT]

Not a sparky but am just wiring up my box at the moment...

From the above sounds like the PID switches your SSR and your SSR switches your relay is that right?

From my reading the PID controls the SSR you can then put a contractor/relay in line afterwards but it should be turned on and off by a separate manual switch. This gives you PID control of the element plus a manual on/off. Does that make sense?

If the above is true then perhaps you've got you PID on manual which is flicking it on and off according to a duty cycle which in turn is flicking your contactor on and off? Contactors aren't made for repeated on off cycling so I'd shut it off ASAP if that is the case.

[Peter Church]

your assumptions are correct,

there is a manual switch to power up the element output. I will read up on the PID, its a different model than the one driving the HLT so maybe there is a settings issue. and yes I shut it off as quickly as I could.

[Barry]

Got a wiring diagram?

Sounds indeed like the PID is pulsing the mechanical relay.

The Electric Brewery website details how the mechanical relay should be wired in from the switch to isolate the power out.

Basically,

(1) High amperage circuit should go from mains, to SSR, to mech relay, to power out.

(2) Low amperage circuit should go from mains, to on/off switch, to mechanical relay switch/control circuit.

(3) 12VDC control out of PID should go to SSR switch/control circuit.

[Peter Church]

Thanks Barry, used the electric brewery as the starting point, but put it away for +6months while I did a house reno and now a case of finishing it off

there is a 3 pos switch that is for selecting the heating to Hlt / off / or Kettle

Wiring is as per your description ( will check but that was the plan anyway)

Looks like it is the PID setup.. just wrestling with the engrish but for an Auber 2352 the At parameter needs to be set to 0 is my understanding, rather than the default of 3 will check the setting tonight

[Barry]

PID settings shouldn't make any difference as there should be no wired link between something that will 'pulse' quickly (the PID) and the switch side of the mechanical relay. If the relay is switching/clunking rapidly it's wired to the wrong thing.
Just my guess based on your description.

[Peter Church]

Will have to check it all, my changes fixed nothing, high amps side is right, think something is screwed on the other side

[Peter Church]

So I have opened it up and checked, all wires are as they should be. When the on off switch is set to on the unit throws to the closed possition then bounces straight back and sits there clunking back and forth rapidly, suspect it is a faulty relay. The main relay to power the unit and the hlt circuit both work as they should. 

[Barry]

Yeah that would be my next guess - if something that you know switches on and off fast is nowhere near it then it must be faulty. Maybe wire in the HLT one as a test?

[mattd2]

What's the coil voltage on the relays you got? The link shows 12v dc in the picture, 12v ac in the description - but you mentioned 240v.
Supplying a coil with the wrong ac/dc voltage could give you what you are seeing.

[Peter Church]

Hi Matt, the link was to the first one I found that looked similar just so people knew what i was talking about, I brought 3 in one hit, all meant to be 240v, will check what the cover has on it tomorrow, maybe on to something

[Peter Church]

Got the replacement relay installed last night and everything works as it should, looks like a faulty unit