Electric Brewery control system

[St. Fursey]

Like a few others on this forum I've been spending a fair bit of time drooling on my keyboard checking out and making plans based on theelectricbrewery.com
I've been chipping away at the vessels and they're almost done so I'm turning my atention to the control syste,.
I can't help thinking that PIDs are a bit old school though and there must be a way of building a more modern control system that wouldn't  cost much more than the PID control system (which can be built for less than €500). Arduino and such look good but my programming experience doesn't extend beyond a FORTRAN.
The NHC has some serious brain power in its ranks, has anyone out there thought about developing a control system? (and do they want to share?  )

[Will_D]

Hi Enda,

The Arduino programming is pretty intuitive. OK its a bit more structured than Fortran but its all free, you can download all the software and simulators so you don't even need the 10€ board and a few leds etc.

It will re-waken the programmer in you!

There are various projects in the "bought all the hardware, got all the bells and whistles and even a 3-d colour touch screen but can't be arsed to start" category"

[Mrs_D:  He speaks from personnal experience  ]

[JD]

PIDs, i.e. devices build around the PID control mechanism have been around a while, that true, but that's because PID is still one of the best ways of controlling a system.

PID is an algorithm for using feedback to control a system. In brewing terms, we use feedback when we have a temperature sensor in the brew and an element heating it. Some people will just stop there and will decide for themselves to switch the element on and off as they eyeball the temperature reading. For someone getting more automated, a controller device would use the feedback from the temperature probe to decide when to switch the heater on or off. There are a few ways to make that choice and PID is by far the most common and, mostly, the best understood.

The wikipedia article is an excellent background on the algorithm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PID_controller
/J

[Ozbrewer]

@St Fursey - was wondering how you are getting on with this build. Any photos?

[St. Fursey]

It's slow going! My main vessels are done and I have most of the lights and switches for the panel; I'll order the last panel parts this month.
That'll just leave the herms pot/coil and chiller to sort out. 
I decided to stick with the electric brewery bases design like yourself. I was tempted by more fancy systems but  for now this will be more than adequate.
I'm moving house in the next couple of months so I have until then to get set up. On the plus side,  the brew shed is starting to look good