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STC1000 Temperature Controller (a beginner's guide)

Started by mrmeindl, January 17, 2015, 01:56:27 PM

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mrmeindl

January 17, 2015, 01:56:27 PM Last Edit: December 07, 2020, 10:22:07 PM by johnrm
Got hold of a free fridge on freecycle and just had a look into it for the first time when I got it home - big fock off bulge in the back of it may render it useless as a fermentation chamber thingy... My fermenter has gone walkies and I'm waiting on a 33L one from the homebrew company but it doesn't look good! Having some arduino gremlins with the brewpi set up so I bought an STC to use in the interim. Does anyone have the rough dimensions of a 33L fermenter handy or could they measure theirs?


mrmeindl

Quote from: johnrm on January 17, 2015, 03:08:47 PM
It's not working out for you, is it?
On the fridge, cut some wood to make a shelf, well your fermenter fit then?...[

Haha yeah not working out so far anyway :P, my fermenter wont fit with our without a shelf I think, took a look in tesco and there's a rectangular storage box that's food grade polypropylene that's the same volume more or less and will fit with a shelf so I'll just get one of them I think.  I don't like the lid but it'll have to do! http://www.tesco.com/direct/wham-crystal-24l-underbed-storage-box-with-lid/777-6650.prd

mrmeindl

Quick q guys; for my heater inside the fridge I'm going to use a old fashioned light bulb but they only seem to have a live & neutral - do I just remove the earth from the plug or do I connect the earth to the body of the fridge somehow?

admin

Quote from: LordEoin on January 25, 2015, 10:09:05 AM
no need to bypass the fridge thermostat.

Unless it's faulty as a lot of Beko ones are. Easy way to check though is set it to max cold and if it won't go below 7 or 8oC then it's faulty (or there's no gas). This was my own personal experience.

admin


admin

One of the benefits of not nailing down your heat source is you can move it. I've opted for a 100w bulb. Cost me 40 cent and I can easily replace it if it fails (no waiting for an ebay order to arrive). It generates no UV light so it's not bad for the beer. I was recently having trouble heating some stuff to 40C so I had to move everything to the top of the fridge.

LordEoin

February 07, 2015, 06:23:33 PM #6 Last Edit: February 07, 2015, 07:45:46 PM by LordEoin


You could incorporate it into your STC1000 enclosure, but you'd probably need a heatsink and a fan also. in that case the phone adaptor would probably be best replaced with a 12vdc adaptor so it can run the fan also. But at that stage you're just getting too complicated and only messing around for the sake of it.
At that stage you'd probably be better off checking if the 2 parts marked below could be replaced with higher rated parts. I haven't looked to see if a 25amp relay is available to fit but I presume you can get them for small change from china with some googling.
You'd probably need something for cooling with a 25amp relay.


mrmeindl


Bought another STC on ebay and I obviously wasn't paying attention when ordering; it's different to the one featured in the how to here. Anyone have any idea how I should wire it? I presume it can only cool or heat not both.


mrmeindl

Quote from: LordEoin on April 28, 2015, 02:24:10 PM
both of those will only heat or cool.
in the winter you can use it to control a heater, in the summer you can use it to to control a cooler.

connectors 1&2 for the heater/cooler, 3&4 for the mains, last 2 for probe. not sure what the willhi 5-7 (signal) connectors are for

Excuse the terrible mspaint-ing

I think this is what i've to do, i'll try it and see if I die or not!


mrmeindl

Quote from: Will_D on April 28, 2015, 11:30:58 PM
What you have there is a temperture and humity controller. It looks a lot like this:

https://www.will-hi.com/digital-humidity-controller-wh8060.html

So pins 5,6,7 look like they are the humidity sensor and 8,9 are the thermistor.

Did you get the two sensors?

Its not a humidity sensor, just a variation on the stc1000. It only has 6 pins - I have it wired up and temperature controlling now. Interface on it is different you set a low and high temp limits and it keeps it in between.

mrmeindl

Quote from: Will_D on April 29, 2015, 08:50:35 AM
Quote from: mrmeindl on April 29, 2015, 12:52:00 AM
Quote from: Will_D on April 28, 2015, 11:30:58 PM
What you have there is a temperture and humity controller. It looks a lot like this:

https://www.will-hi.com/digital-humidity-controller-wh8060.html

So pins 5,6,7 look like they are the humidity sensor and 8,9 are the thermistor.

Did you get the two sensors?
Its not a humidity sensor, just a variation on the stc1000. It only has 6 pins - I have it wired up and temperature controlling now. Interface on it is different you set a low and high temp limits and it keeps it in between.

I meant the one varademo photographed!



Oops!

LordEoin

Ah, very practical!
And if it breaks you can easily fill it with dry white rice to cover the STC, and overnight it will attract Asians who will then fix any problems.

marinali29

 ;D
I'm a fan of inkbird temperature controller and I knew inkbird from home brew talk. If anyone do not know to wire STC1000, you can buy ITC-308 from them on amazon, there're US UK EU version. Easy to use just plug in. And I was informed that they will have 10-15% off this week for christmas promotion.

Temperature Control output max. 10A, 100V ~ 240V AC
High and low temperature alarms are present;
Heating / Cooling differential function can be set to protect separately for cooling and heating for temperature control of violent change.

marinali29

Hi, you can set target temperature, and differential temperature value. For example if you set target temp at 20C,differential temp at 3C, it will heat when temp reach 23C and cool when it drop to 17C.

For a more easy way, you can buy a pre-wired temp controller. I recommend ITC-308, there're UK EU US version sale on amazon. You can set TS (temp set vaule),HD(heating differential value), CD(cooling differential value),PT(compressor delay). Eg, when you set TS =20C, HD =3C, CD= 2C, PT value=3 mins, when temp is equal or higher than 22C, it cools, when is equal or less than 18C,it heats, it will stop working when it's 25C. When temp is higher than TS+CD,the equipment won't cooling immediately,but wait for a delay time(PT value as you set),just to protect your device.






Quote from: Richie71 on January 23, 2015, 04:37:41 PM
Well I decided to give this a bash - great instructions btw - and I made a boo boo at the very first step.  I went and got a 'Digital Temperature Controller' instead of an STC 1000.  Serves me right for going for the cheapest option!!  The unit only has 6 wire connectors instead of 8; 2 marked 'load' 2 marked 'power' and 2 marked 'sensor'.  I assume this means I can only either heat or cool at once.  Is there a simple way to allow it to heat and cool?

I only wanted to connect it to a brewbelt for now anyway but was going to put the extra socket on in case I ever got a spare fridge for cooling so no big deal if it can't be done.