Just Getting Started

[SketchyDog]

I've been homebrewing for a couple years and I am making the move to 20 gallon batches. Due to the increase size, gravity and moving pots is no longer an option. My new setup is a single tier/three burner system, basically a Brutas 10. I bought the honeywell gas valves and pilot lights, 2 March 815 pumps, the bcs-460, and 3 temperature probes. The gas is hooked up and I have an electrician doing the electrical work. All I want to do for starters with the bcs-460 is monitor temperature on three brew kettles and have it shut the gas valve when it reaches a specific temp and come back on when it is outside a set range. Down the road I will hook up pumps etc, but for now that is all I want to do. I assume I hook the three temp probes to the bcs direct and run wires from the gas valves to the bcs. Can someone please provide some basic information on how to do this (wiring schematic would be great) and some basic information on how to get started with the computer program. I hooked the bcs up to my laptop, got the ip address, everything worked well there. Do the three temperature gauges appear after I hook up the temperature probes, do I basically work from the "Main Control" tab using "Manual Mode"? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[clearwaterbrewer]

Congrats on getting a BCS!

Please do not take this as being mean, but you need to do some reading...

http://www.embeddedcontrolconcepts.com/

Read that entire page, then click on the 'Documentation' link at the bottom.
http://www.embeddedcontrolconcepts.com/ ... =Main_Page

You will see that you have the 1st step done, "Accessing the BCS ".. congratulations again, you have a good start. Now read and implement what you find in "Wire the BCS" (someone could give you a wiring diagram, but it will not be exactly for you, and you may not even be able to read it.... I suggest looking through the forum at a few and then drawing your own diagram.... The practice will help more than you can imagine. The next section "Program the BCS" is very helpful, and as you wrote, manual mode is a great place to start.

One other suggestion would be to introduce yourself and say where you are from, there may be someone close that you can see a system in operation....

-mike

[SketchyDog]

I have read a good bit but the terminology can be a bit technical. I know this isn't a plug and play system but I was hoping for a couple high level directions. Such as, "temperature probes wire direct to bcs, whatever you are controlling has to go from bcs to SSR to valve". "Enter manual mode on main screen, once probes are connected, gauges will appear, set target temps on manual page, setting tab has tolerances and where you can name the gauges". I didn't learn to drive a car by reading about it, someone told me where the gas pedal was, gave me a few tips, and I figured it out from there. Thanks for taking the time to link everything, that is real helpful. I am in Florence, SC.