Yesterday was the first brew day on my new system, this will be the third panel I have built and was really happy with the way it came together this time.
I added a few more bells and whistles this time though, and have run into a little bit of a issue that has me scratching my head.
First issue is with the Seven seven segment displays, They work fine but when the system is powered on but when I energize the contractor to select witch element is going to get power (the HLT or BK) the displays turn on and off and reset. Also when brewing and the pumps and elements are on The BCS becomes some that unresponsive if the displays are active. If I turn the displays off the BCS communicates quickly.
I'm thinking this might be due to the 12v DC power supply that powers the displays being on the same neutral bus as the 120VAC coils. I have the BCS and the 12v DC power on a separate 120VAC leg than what is powering the coils, But do I now have to set up an independent neutral bus for that leg too?
The second issue was with the 220VAC kettle element plug, I have this set up that one leg of the element is controlled by a 40A SSR and the second leg is controlled by the 2 pole contractor that both legs run through to get to the outlet. I have a pilot light that branches off the outlet, so therefor It should only be lit when the outlet is energized.
When I was brewing,and was firing the BK element the pilot light was on and the Element was heating but very slowly. I set the BCS to run it 100% but it still seemed to be putting out about 1/2-3/4 power. When i plugged the element in to the HLT outlet (that Is wired the same way) The element worked as I expected and was able to give me a robust boil, where the best I was able to get before was a simmer/light boil.
I checked the DC power controlling the SSR from the BCS and that was 5v, and because the pilot light was on there must have been 220vac power at the outlet. The light was pulsing erratically which leads me to think its the SSR, but I thought when SSR's failed they failed closed, so I should be getting 100% power if that happened and not intermittent power.
Any one have any good Ideas about what to test? I'm probably going to swap out the SSR, and see where that leads me first. Then check my power connections to make sure every thing is tight.
I added a few more bells and whistles this time though, and have run into a little bit of a issue that has me scratching my head.
First issue is with the Seven seven segment displays, They work fine but when the system is powered on but when I energize the contractor to select witch element is going to get power (the HLT or BK) the displays turn on and off and reset. Also when brewing and the pumps and elements are on The BCS becomes some that unresponsive if the displays are active. If I turn the displays off the BCS communicates quickly.
I'm thinking this might be due to the 12v DC power supply that powers the displays being on the same neutral bus as the 120VAC coils. I have the BCS and the 12v DC power on a separate 120VAC leg than what is powering the coils, But do I now have to set up an independent neutral bus for that leg too?
The second issue was with the 220VAC kettle element plug, I have this set up that one leg of the element is controlled by a 40A SSR and the second leg is controlled by the 2 pole contractor that both legs run through to get to the outlet. I have a pilot light that branches off the outlet, so therefor It should only be lit when the outlet is energized.
When I was brewing,and was firing the BK element the pilot light was on and the Element was heating but very slowly. I set the BCS to run it 100% but it still seemed to be putting out about 1/2-3/4 power. When i plugged the element in to the HLT outlet (that Is wired the same way) The element worked as I expected and was able to give me a robust boil, where the best I was able to get before was a simmer/light boil.
I checked the DC power controlling the SSR from the BCS and that was 5v, and because the pilot light was on there must have been 220vac power at the outlet. The light was pulsing erratically which leads me to think its the SSR, but I thought when SSR's failed they failed closed, so I should be getting 100% power if that happened and not intermittent power.
Any one have any good Ideas about what to test? I'm probably going to swap out the SSR, and see where that leads me first. Then check my power connections to make sure every thing is tight.