Getting ready to start assembly

Builder · Joined: 03 Sep 2017 Posts: 32 Location: Indiana

I've been here drooling over these panels for awhile, and finally came up with the scratch to buy. I thought I'd look in the sale section just to see what if anything was available near me, and lo and behold, there was! An unfinished DIY panel, three assembled 20 gallon Blichmanns, pumps, hoses, etc, almost a complete brewery. I've spent the last few days painting the panel enclosure while also building a toybox for the kids.

Any advice?

**kal** · Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2019 3:50 pm Post subject:

Read/measure twice, cut once! Happy building!

Kal

Builder · Joined: 03 Sep 2017 Posts: 32 Location: Indiana

The member i bought this stuff from had been holding onto it for eight years. The first thing I did was take inventory of the panel parts. I couldn't find the temp probes, parts for the power cable, heatsink compound, interlock parts. As I remember, the panel doesnt come with a power cord, and wasn't listed on the inventory sheet. Heat sink compound I could probably get from work. Not finding the temp probes concerned me a little, since I had everything else for them. Of course, if I had looked closer I would have seen them already installed in the pots. Kal says there are unused contacts on the switches that can be used for the interlock.

The panel was already cut for the heatsink and had all the holes punched, so I bought some paint and went to town. My three year old daughter picked it out.

I wonder if photobucket pulled their heads out of their asses about sharing pictures? Uploading pictures isn't working on my phone.

I painted is glitter blue. I used two cans and could have used a third. It wasnt as easy as regular rattle cans, the glitter liked to clog and then you'd have to mess with the nozzle. Also, it is colored glitter that goes over a base coat, and I didn't realize that, but the industrial grey is a decent base. By itself its dull, but the clear coat really makes it sparkle.

**kal** · Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2019 1:21 am Post subject:

Now that's shiny!

Kal

Builder · Joined: 03 Sep 2017 Posts: 32 Location: Indiana

It looks great! There's a couple little bloobs from the spray nozzle, but other than that it came out pretty good.

I should have double checked the cabinet to make sure everything was done before I painted, but I didn't. That was a mistake. The ground stud was removed from the door, but wasn't welded back on. I'm probably going to end up burning the paint on the other side. Also, there weren't any holes drilled to mount the heat sink or handles. Now either this cabinet was purchased separately from the parts, or somewhere along the line wider cabinets were supplied, because I don't have enough room to mount the front handles. Also the alarm light and buzzer are in a different place, but it's not a big deal.

All the holes in the backplate were drilled and tapped, then I moved on to the heatsink. I broke taps in three places, one on each SSR and one for the heatsink mounting, so my SSR wiring has to wait a few days until AI can get another tap or two. Maybe I'll just take it to work and tap it there instead.

Something else, pay attention to the pics in the wiring diagrams, I likely would have had issues because my main relay and heat element relays were installed upside down from what was shown in the diagram. I turned them around just to avoid future issues when I forget.

Builder · Joined: 03 Sep 2017 Posts: 32 Location: Indiana

I've been putting off another post for various reasons, one being my daughter asked me if I could solve a rubik's cube, so I spent a couple days watching videos and working on it. I can do most of it, but some of the algorithms will take more time to remember.

Wiring the backplane isn't hard, and wiring the door isn't hard, but running the wiring from the door to the backplane one at a time sucks. When pulling wires for the heat element lights I realized that it would be easier to pull multiple wires at a time.

What I did was use colored electrical tape to ID the different wires on each end. Here you can see the red and green tape used to ID the wires

And here you can see white tape on both wires. I pulled two reds and two blacks, so ID'ing jus one of each was ok. I also counted how many power wires and neutral wires I needed, and pulled a bunch of each at once.

I also put my temp probe wires together, what a pain in the butt. By the third and last one I had it figured out. Would I assemble more? maybe, if I was doing them at work like I did these two. Otherwise I think I'd rather just buy ones already made.

**kal** · Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2019 7:16 pm Post subject:

Keep in mind that you don't need to pull individual wires for everything - if there's two or more devices on the door that (say) need wires to go to the HOT bus, just pull one wire and then daisychain the other to the first device. Results in less wires crossing the door threshold. Not each wire needs to be what's called a "home run". You should in theory only need one HOT and NEUTRAL going to the door. See the hints here: http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/control-panel-part-2?page=7

Exception is the ground (green) wires. They should always be home runs for safety reasons. More: http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/control-panel-part-2?page=8

Kal

Builder · Joined: 03 Sep 2017 Posts: 32 Location: Indiana

I considered that. There are two wires for each of the element on lights, two for wort and water pump switches, a hot and a neutral, there's eight, and whichever others I'm missing... I figured it was easier to bundle a bunch or wires to route at once and pull what I don't need later.

The tape idea came to while I was laying in bed, wishing I had some of those electrical wire number stickers. I could get some from work, but didn't want to wait several days to go back to work to get some. Had I used some, it would make troubleshooting easier and I wouldn't mind chaining the hots around the board. :edit: One thing I have been doing is using a highlighter to highlight each wire as I connect them. That way I can easily go back and check that everything was done.

Today I plan to wire the SSRs and volt/amp meters, so I'll have another bundle to pull in. Now, the instructions say to use "telephone wire"

Builder · Joined: 03 Sep 2017 Posts: 32 Location: Indiana

Just about the time I think I'm about done, I realize I've still got a ton more to go.

As mentioned earlier, I was running a lot of wires to the hot bus. I Also had several neutrals run to the door of the panel. With so many wires it was becoming unmanageable, so I looked and thought about it and managed to get down to a single 120v feed and a single neutral. I also used various colors of phase tape to color code the black wires. for instance in this picture there is a white red white, a red green red, red black red, a single white, etc. Both ends and the middle of the wire where is crosses from the door to the box are coded. The middle was done so I know it's being used and what for. |Also, each color code was written on the diagram. (I printed off the diagrams from the assembly instructions)

The big purple wire is the CAT-5 I mentioned earlier. Yes the wires are very small, but considering there is power over ethernet and we aren't trying to run devices, we just need signals, I'm willing to try it.

I also mentioned earlier that I had blindly trusted the layout that someone else had made. Looking at it seemed to make sense, but were I to do another one of these I would place both my doorbell transformers closer to the hot and neutral busses. I had to lengthen the wires for one of them, and committed what I consider to be a wiring sin, but there is perfectly sound logic behind it.

I used a butt connector and heat shrink. The sin is changing the color of the wire. I really really hate when people do that, but I know that it would confuse me to have to remember that this one black wire goes to the neutral instead of the hot. Normally I would just put white tape on it, but with all the other wires with white tape I would still probably mix it up. Again you can see the white red white color code and know that it goes to the element on lamp.

Here is a picture of how I did my bus bars. Rather than making a bunch of tiny jumpers, I stripped about 18 inches of wire and jumped from one to the next. With the jumper wire on top, work from right to left so that as you tighten the screw it pulls the wire tighter. You can see here I used every spot in my neutral bar because I didn't jump from one outlet to another, each has their own return.

An overall shot of where I stopped. I have to find a nut to fit the ground post, wire an outlet, and I'll need to come up with a way to mount it to a wall. Also, I haven't done anything for the safe start interlock yet. I'll get it done, I'm just a bit tired of wiring right now.

If I was going to do this again, I'd read a lot more panel builds and watch some more videos on youtube. Look closely at the pictures posted and consider wire routing. I would start with the door and formulate a plan, just wiring all the stuff that doesn't leave the door. Then run the wires that go from the door to the backplane, and leave them long. (you'll need extra wire for this) Don't connect them yet, and mark them (wire numbers, colored tape, something) so you know where they go. I would build the backplane outside of the box, and lastly put the backplane in and make my connections from the door. I mean, today I honestly considered pulling a lot of it out and rewiring it because I didn't like the way wires were run, or run in a way that didn't make sense, or I had too many wires, etc.
Oh, and as far as the temp probe cables, I would buy them assembled just because it is a pain in the ass to put them together because the braided cover frays so much.

**kal** · Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 3:18 pm Post subject:

Builder · Joined: 03 Sep 2017 Posts: 32 Location: Indiana

I bought this from a member who hought it eight years ago, so you probably didn't have them then. If they were in the box with everything else I certainly would have used them instead.

I powered it up for the first time today. Either my amp meter or my volt meter let the smoke out. I think it was the volt meter. Here I was thinking I should fuse those leads, and decided not to. Oh well. I disconnected those and the doorbell transformers and changed to an automotive style mini ATC fuse, 7.5 amps. Everything appears to work, I can hear the contacts pulling in and out when I turn the element select switch, and all the appropriate lights come on when their switches are turned. With the PIDs set up, they read the probe in the BK and respond to heat from my hand. I'm going to make some room in my garage and set up for a dry run, so to speak.

**kal** · Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 10:18 pm Post subject:

Builder · Joined: 03 Sep 2017 Posts: 32 Location: Indiana

I don't know. This was in the box with the parts. What all is different?

**kal** · Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 11:05 pm Post subject:

We never sold enclosures with a red backplate.
We include all the parts you need including all wiring - no need to supply your own (like the CAT5 you used).

Kal

Builder · Joined: 03 Sep 2017 Posts: 32 Location: Indiana

That's because I painted the backplane. The cat5 was because i didn't have enough phone wire to run all the low voltage stuff

**kal** · Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2019 10:42 pm Post subject:

Ah! That explains it then. Carry on! Wink

(Though that said, we include more than enough wire including the POTS stuff - maybe some was missing?... it's bundled wire so you only need a run or maybe two depending on how you do it).

Kal

Builder · Joined: 03 Sep 2017 Posts: 32 Location: Indiana

That's possible too, the guy I bought it from had been moving it from house to house for eight years.

Initial testing is going well, although I think I will rewire a few things so it makes sense as well as get rid of the cat5. Earlier I said to pay attention, but I dont think I paid enough attention and my PIDs and timer are backward from all the pics on the site, which means my heat elements are backward, and my temp sensor connectors. I did find out that one of my chigger pumps wasn't cleaned well enough after the last time it was used, and wouldn't even turn. I didn't think the magnets were that strong, but it's only 1/20 hp.

**kal** · Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2019 3:54 pm Post subject:

Builder · Joined: 03 Sep 2017 Posts: 32 Location: Indiana

This has me concerned. I left water in the hlt overnight and found this.

This is the bk, and it was not overnight. I pumped the hlt and mt to the bk, brought it to a boil, and then shut it down to cool before dumping it. It was 4-5 hours I'd say.

**kal** · Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:32 pm Post subject:

Your element base is rusting. I take you're not using heating elements that have a stainless base? This is normal if you use something like the popular Camco 02963 (5500W ripple) as it has an iron base.

These iron base heating elements are meant for water heaters that have a sacrificial anode. They were popular in brewing before Camco made heating elements with a stainless base like the Camco 02965 here: https://shop.theelectricbrewery.com/products/stainless-steel-heating-element-5500w-240v-camco-02965-ripple-bare-element

You can leave water in indefinitely with one of those. I often do leave water in overnight (pre-heated the night before).

More info here:

http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28904
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/sacrificial-magnesium-anode
http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24644

Kal