Mission Control

[Vatoe]

I have been waiting at least for 2 months for my sparky to come and put my controller together. I had most of the parts ready thanks to links provided in this forum. In the end, I gave up waiting for him, so I decided to put the thing together myself, with the use of the very helpful circuit diagram provided by punchy and yummy. I have some electronic hobbyist experience when I was a young kid (long ago 8-} ), so I really had the clear the cob webs and just took my time putting it all together. My idea was for a two channel/circuit controller operating in one box with a few extra helpful bits for me - which are revealed below :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I had to get some further parts locally like the box, din rail, flex etc. The little transformer is an old charger i had lying around which I broke open and hard soldered to wires to and from it.

A shot cutting out the front fascia - these were filed for a snug fit of the components

front cut out.jpg

Start on the first circuit and 240 to 6 volt transformer

Circuit 1.jpg

Close up of both circuits and beginnings of tidying it all up

close up.jpg

Close up front powered up:

powered up.jpg

Earning it's keep, providing juice to "Apollo" ;-)

doing the work.jpg

In case it not real clear on the last photo, the 4 temp sensors monitor the following:
top left - still
bottom left = boiler, via thermowell
top right = ambient temperature
bottom right - the internal temp of the controller

The controller is plugged into 2 independent 15 amp circuits which I had a different (someone that actually turned up) sparky install.

[Smbjk]

Very nice mate. Just make sure its all earthed :handgestures-thumbupleft: looks great next to that big fsd mac4 :D

[Brendan]

Mate that is sensational!

I've got all the parts to make the same thing myself, but will leave it for later in the year.

It looks great on the wall behind the setup...now that is a complete distillery that you can be proud of...well done sir :clap:

[flamehawk]

Looks awesome. Looks like its a life support system :D


"quickly nurse, 5000cc of 190 proof"

[1 2many]

That is a great setup Vatoe, :clap: But I am a bit confused as to why most controllers I have seen are duel control, If you are running two elements why would you need duel control. With the the rig you are running I would think that one element would be running flat out and you dial it the temp with one controller, and if that was to much heat you just use the controlled element alone to do the job. :-B

[punchy21]

Nice work vatoe :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Nice boiler too :music-deathmetal:

[Brendan]

That is a great setup Vatoe, :clap: But I am a bit confused as to why most controllers I have seen are duel control, If you are running two elements why would you need duel control. With the the rig you are running I would think that one element would be running flat out and you dial it the temp with one controller, and if that was to much heat you just use the controlled element alone to do the job. :-B

Because some washes need to be heated up slowly, so the less wattage per density the better...

ie. Say you had 2x 2400W elements, but wanted to heat at a lower power where 2400W would scorch or burn it a bit, you could run both elements at 1500W...and you wouldn't get that 3000W heat up without the dual control..did that make sense? :think:

Under normal circumstances, you are right...but it is definitely an extra which opens up a few doors for you in versatility...

edit: To add to that, some people run on circiuts where there are other devices powered off of it (lights/fridges/power points), so running at 100% of the circuit's capability isn't an option....again, the dual control just opens more doors in certain situations...

[1 2many]

That is a great setup Vatoe, :clap: But I am a bit confused as to why most controllers I have seen are duel control, If you are running two elements why would you need duel control. With the the rig you are running I would think that one element would be running flat out and you dial it the temp with one controller, and if that was to much heat you just use the controlled element alone to do the job. :-B

Because some washes need to be heated up slowly, so the less wattage per density the better...

ie. Say you had 2x 2400W elements, but wanted to heat at a lower power where 2400W would scorch or burn it a bit, you could run both elements at 1500W...and you wouldn't get that 3000W heat up without the dual control..did that make sense? :think:

Under normal circumstances, you are right...but it is definitely an extra which opens up a few doors for you in versatility...

edit: To add to that, some people run on circiuts where there are other devices powered off of it (lights/fridges/power points), so running at 100% of the circuit's capability isn't an option....again, the dual control just opens more doors in certain situations...

Yes makes sense mate thanks now I get it, A twin it will be :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Vatoe]

That is a great setup Vatoe, :clap: But I am a bit confused as to why most controllers I have seen are duel control, If you are running two elements why would you need duel control. With the the rig you are running I would think that one element would be running flat out and you dial it the temp with one controller, and if that was to much heat you just use the controlled element alone to do the job. :-B

Initially I thought well the components are cheap so why the hell not. Having a backup/redundant circuit was one option, plus it left room for experimentation. Now having done 2 runs, I have found that you can definitely run with one circuit and get good results re the boil and output at the parrott (so no one needs to panick in this regard), but, I also have found that dropping both circuits to the 120-130 volt mark, I get a very consistent output at the parrott. My guess is that an even rolling boil (in my boiler anyway) is developed by having both elements running at lower power.

[Vatoe]

Mate that is sensational!

I've got all the parts to make the same thing myself, but will leave it for later in the year.

It looks great on the wall behind the setup...now that is a complete distillery that you can be proud of...well done sir :clap:

Thanks Brendan and everyone else for the kind comments. Im thinking this setup should see me happy for many years to come. :-D