Ready to program my ECC system - Words of Wisdom?

[gbrewer]

I have all my components for my brewing system and am ready to begin the programming portion of the ECC control. I would appreciate any ideas of what works well and what hasn't worked well. I have toyed with some of the current system examples but this is still my first actual controller. Here is a run down on what I want to try to accomplish.

I currently have a three kettle system which sits on a brewing sculpture. The system is typical in containing an HLT, MLT, and Boil Kettle. My system contains two pumps, a float switch, and a Heat Exchanger.

The HLT is fired by propane and controlled by a Honeywell 24 volt gas valve. The HLT containes an immersion temperature probe.

The MLT contains an immersion temperature control in the kettle. The mash process recirculates through the pump, heat exchanger, and back into the MLT.

The Boil Kettle is standard and fired up manually by a propane jet burner. Nothing fancy in bringing liquid to a boil.

Here are the ECC processes / States that need to be completed.

HLT - Heat my strike water temperature to 165.1 degrees. Once the strike water is heated, Mash In. (This needs to happen after pressing a continue button (WIN BUTTON) to verify the hoses are hooked up properly)

Mash in - pump the strike water from the HLT to the MLT using pump #1. There is a float switch inside the HLT which needs to turn the pump off when the float switch in triggered (on or off - not sure) Once completed, maintain mash temperature for 1 hour or 75 minutes depending on recipe.

Mash - Once the float switch is tripped showing that the Mash In has been completed, Maintain Mash Temperature at 150 degrees for 60 - 75 minutes. If the mash drops below the mash temperature, turn on the heat exchanger and pump #2. Heat exchanger should never activate without pump. The temperature of the mash comes from a temperature probe placed in the lower portion of the kettle.

Heat Sparge Water in the HLT... Verify that Sparge Water has been added to the tank via a win button. Once done, heat the sparge water to 168 degrees and wait for the mash to complete. Might recirculate sparge water inside HLT while heating via pump #1 to heat faster depending on size of batch.

Mash out - Heat mash via exchanger / pump to 168 degrees and hold for 10 minutes which recirculating. Sparge with water from the HLT as follows. Pump #1 pumps water from the HLT to the MLT. Flow rate is manually monitored for now. Pump #2 pumps from the MLT to the boil kettle. (Heat Exchanger is off)

Boil - Heat to a boil. This is a manual process but perhaps I could have a process (or state) which just starts a timer. Perhaps the timers are done in states under a process which signal an alarm to tell me when to add my hops? The boil process really is not a big deal and will not contain and controls from the ECC Unit and only use the timer function at best.

Any thoughts or ideas?

[mpilchuk]

wow, sounds like you are ready to "BCS" it.

Do you have the necessary SSRs and power needs met?

I took my brewery and chose to automate each step one at a time. This way I learned to use the BCS in small steps. I also didn't want to drastically change my brewing equipment. I'm not all the way there yet. Just have my HTL and fermentation temp 'BCS'ed. Next is my mash temps.

[ECC]

I agree, sounds like your ready to go! Cool system.

One thing that people have found helpful is to start out using Manual Mode to get a feel for it. Just check the Manual Mode checkbox on the lefthand side, and you can control all of the outputs directly. Turn on a pump, hold a temp via PID at a specific temperature setpoint, etc. Once you understand Manual Mode, then it's easy to make the jump into states/processes because Manual Mode IS just a state. String a couple of states together, and you have a Process.

But it sounds like you already have a good handle on states/processes. Quick question: Can you describe your heat exchanger? Is that a separate output (element), like a RIMS chamber? You mention turning the pump on/off, have you thought about recirculating during the entire mash?

[gbrewer]

I currently have 4 SSR's. I was running my process with Love controls. The switch over process was fairly simple. The most difficult part was running the seperate 24 volt for the gas valve. It wasn't difficult, just an extra step. I spent a year as an apprentice electrician so that part was simple.

I appreciate the advice of using manual until I get used to the process of running things. I will try a batch using this method and see how it works. I plan on running several "trial" batches of just water through the unit so I don't need to waste anything.

Perhaps heat exchanger is a poor term for Rims Chamber. It really is simply a copper pipe with a water heater element in it. This is new to my process as well. I currently recirculate using my pump during the mash process. (Without the RIms Chamber) Maybe recirculating during the entire mash is the way to go and then use the element only when appropriate.

[ECC]

Great description. Here's how I read your process, which should be very straight forward to program. I threw in a 'start delay' state, just in case you ever want to put it on a timer.

First thing to do is to go to the Systems Setting page, and name all of your inputs/outputs, and enable them for use. Associate your temperature probes with outputs, HLT element w/ HLT probe, RIMS element with probe, anywhere that you want to have an output control temperature.

Code: Select all

Process0: "Brew HLT"
  State0: "Delay Start"
		- Timer count up = 0:00:00
		- Exit Condition Timer >= 6:00:00	->  goto "HLT Strike"
		- Exit Condition Win "Continue"		->  goto "HLT Strike"
		
  State1: "HLT Strike"
  		- Output "HLT Heat" PID Controlled, temp setpoint = 165.1
  		- Output "Pump #1" Direct Controlled = ON
  		- Exit Condition Win "Continue"		->	goto "Swap Hoses"
  		
  State2: "Swap Hoses"  
  		- Exit Condition Win "Continue"		->	goto "Mash In"
  				
  State3: "Mash In"
  		- Output "Pump #1" Direct Controlled = ON
  		- Exit Condition Din "HLT Float Sw" is ON -> goto "Swap Hoses Back"
  		
  State4: "Swap Hoses Back"  
  		- Exit Condition Win "Continue"		->	goto "Sparge Water"
  		
  State5: "Sparge Water"
  		- Output "HLT Heat" PID Controlled, temp setpoint = 168
  		- Output "Pump #1" Direct Controlled = ON
  		- Exit Condition Win "Continue"		->	goto "Proc off"		
  
  
Process1: "Brew MLT"
  State0: "Mash"
  		- Timer "Mash Time" countdown = 60:00
  		- Output "RIMS Heat" PID Controlled, temp setpoint 150
  		- Output "Pump #2" Direct Controlled = ON
  		- Exit Condition "Mash Time" <= 0	-> 	goto "Mash Out"
  		
  State1: "Mash Out"
  		- Timer "Mash Time" countdown = 10:00
  		- Output "RIMS Heat" PID Controlled, temp setpoint 168
  		- Output "Pump #2" Direct Controlled = ON
  		- Exit Condition "Mash Time" <= 0	-> 	goto "Proc Off"  
  

Process2: "Boil"
  State0: "Bittering Hops"
  		- Timer count down = x:xx:xx
  		- Exit Condition Timer <= 0:00:00	->  goto "Addition1"
  		- Alarm on exit
  State1: "Addition1"
  		- Timer count down = x:xx:xx
  		- Exit Condition Timer <= 0:00:00	->  goto "Addition2"  
  		- Alarm on exit	
  ...	
  

I also added a "Swap Hoses" state before mash in so that the pump/heat are off when you're swapping hoses. You could also just pause the process to get the same effect.

So you would start the "Mash HLT" process first, and after you were done mashing in, start the "Mash MLT" process.

I think it would be possible to do this all in one process, and I actually started out that way, but there are a few subtleties between the interactions of the MLT/HLT where it made more sense to break it out into 2 processes. Mainly because you want to be mashing before and during the time when you fill and start the sparge heating. But, no worries. We have plenty of processes to use.

Is this close to what you were thinking? What do you other guys think, any tweaks/suggestions?

[gbrewer]

Thanks for the help. I will give this a shot testing the process with water. Looking foward to letting people know how it worked.

[bsfixit]

Nice system ! I will be looking for your results.

[mpilchuk]

I'd like to see some pictures of your RIMs Chamber.

[bsfixit]

Adam, since you showed several processes in your example for gbrewer, is there a way to have it automatically or manual imput besides Win buttons, go to another process, not just a state?
Based on timer or Din button input for example? I know if you have it on a network all the time you just click the processes in the GUI. But you can add that option to the BCS in a new version?
Something like this in proc1, state1

State1: "Mash Out"
- Timer "Mash Time" countdown = 10:00
- Output "RIMS Heat" PID Controlled, temp setpoint 168
- Output "Pump #2" Direct Controlled = ON
- Exit Condition "Mash Time" <= 0 -> goto Proc off ADD THIS TO THE DROP DOWN MENU goto Proc 2 . Or Din0 = ON goto Proc 2
Process2 :"BOIL" etc. -
TIA
Brett

[ECC]

Hey Brett.
I think your asking for inter-Process communication. There is a simple way to have one process kick off another. Just loop back an output to a din. One process sets an output, and the other process waits for a Din to turn on before starting. That process could be continuously running, waiting for the Din to kick it off, and returning to a wait state when the Din is off.