PID controllers, temp & humidity: brand? WiFi?

[mrobisr]

Dave in AZ I use PID in my brewing, but for my drying chamber I use this and it is simple and really easy to view and use.

Inkbird Temperature and Humidity Controller ITC-608T Pre-Wired Dual Stage Thermostat 120VAC 15A 1800W ETL Listed

[processhead]

mrobisr said in PID controllers, temp & humidity: brand? WiFi?:

Dave in AZ I use PID in my brewing, but for my drying chamber I use this and it is simple and really easy to view and use.

Inkbird Temperature and Humidity Controller ITC-608T Pre-Wired Dual Stage Thermostat 120VAC 15A 1800W ETL Listed

Not to derail the thread mrobisr, but are you doing electric mashing and boiling? RIMS?

[mrobisr]

processhead I do

[Dave in AZ]

processhead
mrobisr
Dang this is a great place, so many folks with like minded interests!
Well, I haven’t met anyone who knew what RIMS was for 15 years! So, might as well go off topic since I’m kinda excited to find some brewers using it!
I have a RIMS system I built in 1992 or 93 based off original article published in Zymurgy by Rodney Morris. He laid out the circuit board, thermistor setup etc, but not all details. I flew out to college Station where he was teaching and got his full circuit design. My setup uses a surgical mag drive blood pump from Grainger, low heat density folded element in a copper tube w thermistors either end, driven by Morris’s circuit breadboarded up inside a plywood box. All with 16gal straight wall kegs I got from a buddy who owned the Bud distributorship. This was all before anything was available for sale commercially I think.

I sparge in a hmm, 10gal? Gatorade cooler with a false filter bottom and sparge arm they were selling back then. Counterflow coiled copper inside a hose cooler.
Had 2 fridges modified w grainger or White Rodgers thermostats for 30 to 75, <1 deg swings for ferments or storage/serving. Ferment in 6 or 11gal carboys. Then Ive got a bunch of 5 gal Cornelius kegs. Did some yeat work too.

All piled in my casita now, haven’t brewed in 10 years I need to retire, to have more time for these great hobbies! Sooo much easier now with Amazon, internet, and guys like you all to instantly get info and experience from! I guess that circuit I got from Morris was a simple PID, but it’s so much nicer now to just order an Inkbird in 5 min!

[Dave in AZ]

mrobisr thx, I saw that one. Ended up going with the 2 separate ones with wifi controls app that Eric at 2 guys and a cooler details.

[processhead]

Dave in AZ mrobisr
Since we have some brewers here I will post a few pictures of my RIMS system that I build about 12 years ago. I have made a few modifications over the years but the basic design has stayed about the same.

Here is the control panel. The top PID is the temperature control for the RIMS in-line heater.
The middle Inkbird temperature control is a basic on-off control for the hot liquor tank.
The lower left switch is for the RIMS recirculation pump and is interlocked with the RIMS element so the element can’t come on unless the pump is running. This avoids scorching the mash if there is no flow.
The lower middle knob is pulse width modulated control for the electric boil kettle element. It allows rapid heat heat up of the 5500 watt boil kettle element and then throttling back the power after boil is achieved to limit boil overs.
The switch on the lower right is the master power switch.

Panel schematic

Here is the recirculating pump.

Here is the RIMS inline element housing. On the inside is a 4500 watt 220 volt element operated on 120 volts to limit power output to 1125 watts and lower the heat density.

[samspade]

processhead wow! Just Wow!

[Dave in AZ]

processhead yes wow! What a great system! I love the sound of the kettle boil throttle back control! What a nice clean installation! We are for sure going to have to do some brewing threads, and you’re getting me excited to go set mine up again and make improvements! Mine controls pump speed and power to the inline heater to assure a 0.5 degree max increase across element, to avoid scorching wort. I’ve got thermistors embedded on either end of my copper tube, I see you don’t. How do you deal with that for your system, or does it turn out to not be a factor with your element and wort speed?

I’m on a 5day trip but will try to grab a pic when home… being in USAF and moving every 2-3 yrs, and weight limits to Korea etc, I disassembled and packed mine inside keg and box often, taking just the critical parts, then would jury rig it back up on whatever rolling cart I could weld up.

When I made mine, I just copied the circuit and there was no internet, so I couldn’t research the function short of buying a textbook on digital EE controls and reading. I knew just enough EE from a college course to follow his design, and know hiw to get the parts. So it just controls pump speed and power to the inline copper tube element for the mash wort sparge. I don’t have an electric boil, just use propane 100k btu or so under a beer keg with top cut off. I used gravity flow for boil to chiller to primary ferment tank.

Still, being able to accurately replicate timing for alpha, beta amylase rests, lactic, etc, was a complete game changer for me!

[processhead]

Dave in AZ

I don’t do any pump speed control with my system. Just a manual valve on the pump discharge to throttle the flow rate to an optimal l/minute for my system. No issues with scorched wort and the couple of times I pulled the element out to inspect it there were no signs of burned or caramelized sugars on the element, just bare metal. My elements are all ULWD so I think that and the pump/heater interlock helps keep the system idiot proof (good thing).

[mrobisr]

processhead Very nice… my stuff is pieced together and while it works it is not clean looking by any imagination especially compared to yours.