Amp meter malfunction?

jphussey · Joined: 17 Oct 2012 Posts: 171

Twice today my amp meter seems to be freaking out. The display just changes to what looks like a -1 for no apparent reason. I had just bumped up the HLT to 170 for mash out.

Any idea what's up with this? The first time was after transferring strike water to the MLT. I powered off the panel and back on again and it worked fine until this 2nd time.

**kal** · Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2016 9:50 pm Post subject:

Just for my own notes (for context): This is a 30A control panel assembled from a kit

What's the DC power supply voltage going into the amp meter?

Today it's the first time it started?
How long has it been working prior to today? (Approximately)

Kal

jphussey · Joined: 17 Oct 2012 Posts: 171

Strangely enough, it appears to have just started functioning normally again. Any ideas on this? Loose wire?

jphussey · Joined: 17 Oct 2012 Posts: 171

This is my first brew, so no historical data. The kit was a DIY purchased from your site, and I think the DC voltage was preset to 4.7, right?

**kal** · Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2016 10:09 pm Post subject:

jphussey · Joined: 17 Oct 2012 Posts: 171

Just do that with a voltmeter across the two posts on the transfomer? While it's running, right?

jphussey · Joined: 17 Oct 2012 Posts: 171

Both of them read ~4.8V (it was negative, which I think means I have the probes backwards from polarity, right?). This is on the wires that run to the amp meter.

**kal** · Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2016 11:43 pm Post subject:

jphussey · Joined: 17 Oct 2012 Posts: 171

Yes, 4.74V DC and 4.81V DC respectively. The negative was just because I had the probes of my multimeter flipped around.

The amp meter probably flipped back and forth between that weird -1 thing in the attachment above and normal function about a dozen times during the brew day. The first time I just reset the panel and it started back up normally, but after that I just let it go because everything seemed to be functioning fine. That's when I noticed it was just changing back and forth by itself.

I couldn't really discern any pattern to it. For instance, I had the boil going and it probably went through this cycle 2 or 3 times in that 90 minute span. I wasn't changing anything on the panel, etc.

**kal** · Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2016 3:06 pm Post subject:

Sounds like it may be a loose connection somewhere. If you can't find it, here's something to try: Flip the 2 power output wires on the DC power supplies so that the DC power supply + transformer that used to power the volt meter now powers the amp meter. See if the problem moves over to the volt meter.

Kal

jphussey · Joined: 17 Oct 2012 Posts: 171

Ok, will do!