Problems with ebay 12v Relay Board

[kevmo]

Did this get resolved? I have the same board and same ball valves and am having a similar, if not the same, problem.

I followed the instructions above but I haven't been able to control the valve from the bcs. If the yellow wire is in the NC slot, it opens up. If it's in the NO slot it closes. But once in the default state, I can't change it using the bcs. The LED is always faint unless I connect the blue wire to a separate ground, then the light is bright (and the relay will energize and click) but then the valve will not open or close regardless of whether I use the NC or NO slot.

[MeLoveBeer]

Did this get resolved? I have the same board and same ball valves and am having a similar, if not the same, problem.

Unfortunately I haven't fixed mine yet. I ordered a replacement relay board about 3 weeks ago and have been waiting for it to arrive.

Edit: actually, now that there are two of us, could someone please validate the following? Reckon it must be something simple...

relay wiring.jpg (42.22 KiB) Viewed 7148 times

[gbrewer]

Does the ball valve work outside of the relay board? 12 volt to red and blue constant power needs to stay applied. The yellow wire is the switch essentially.

[ECC]

The wiring diagram looks good. Note that it is essential that the BCS GND is connected to the 12V power supply ground. Its also essential that PS Gnd is connected to the valve gnd, so they all have to be tied together (which is shown in your diagram).

What kind of 12v power supply supply are you using? Is it rated to supply all of the current that you are requesting of it? A few amps should be plenty. If the power supply is underpowered, the current required to energize the relay and valve might be more than it can handle (the dimming led seems to support this).

clearwaterbrewer had outlined a good experiment earlier. Have you tried that? Also, I'll add a few more steps to that:

1. Disconnect the BCS green connectors. Measure the 5VDC pin and outputs with respect to its own ground. You can use stick the multimeter probe right in the connector housing (be careful not to bend a pin) This isolates the BCS from the rest of the system, so if everything checks out here you know that the problem is with the relay board or wiring.
2. Disconnect the BCS out from the CH-1 pin. Jumper over 12v to the CH-1 control, which should force the relay to energize, and actuate the valve. You should be able to repeatedly turn it on and off by connecting the wire. If this works as expected you know that the board/valve/power supply are good.

If both of those experiments check out then you've validated all of the components separately, so the issue must be in the interaction between them. Again, I can't stress how important it is to connect all grounds together, BCS GND, 12v PSU GND, valve GND.

Connect the BCS back to the relay board CH-1 and GND. Now, if the BCS is reading less than 5v on the output (between BCS OUTX and BCS GND), then the relay board input is pulling more current than it should. Its spec'ed at 0.35ma, so that shouldn't cause any measurable voltage drop (remember, you've already measured 5V above with no load, so this should be the same). Now measure between CH-1 and relay board GND. They should be 5V as well, just the other side of the wire.

[kevmo]

Glory of all glories - I just got it to work. MeLoveBeer,I'm not sure if your diagram colors correspond to the valve wire colors, if so, the only change I have is that yellow should be switched to N0x and red should be Cx - at least that's when it started working for me.

Here's a quick picture:



FWIW, the power supply is 12v 1a. It only works with the striped PS wire in the VDD slot. I was under the impression that striped meant it was negative.

Thanks for all the help!

[JonW]

FWIW, the power supply is 12v 1a. It only works with the striped PS wire in the VDD slot. I was under the impression that striped meant it was negative.

1A is plenty for the valves. Striped is usually positive.
This is why you need to use a multimeter!!

[ECC]

Way to go!

[Arian Schuessler]

This thread was just what I needed. I was just about to climb a nearby fire escape and jump, but now my valves are humming away. Thanks!

[striker1976]

I bought one of those boards and it didn't work for anything. You are lucky yours did. I wouldn't buy them again. Find another manufacture.

[JonW]

I bought one of those boards and it didn't work for anything. You are lucky yours did. I wouldn't buy them again. Find another manufacture.

What's the issue with them? How did you hook them up? The operation of the board is very simple. Each relay is separate, so if none of them worked, then you may have miswired it.

I've bought a couple of them and several of my brewing friends have them. Absolutely no issues at all.