Upgrade possibilities for SABCO BrewMagic RIMS

[artbrau]

Howdy! I have recently pulled my first gen SABCO RIMS out of mothballs and am looking to upgrade it. It has single orifice jet burners for heat boost under three tanks and a simple temp. controller and water heater element to stabilize mash recirc. temps. The gas burners and valves that redirect flow through the single pump are all manual ball valves. I have always wanted to have a programmable mash capability.


I have gone IP device crazy in my house and put everything on the web. Lights, audio, security video, climate. So, naturally, when I look to what electronic upgrades I might do, the BCS-460 rises to the top. Here is my plan:

1. Have a homebrew.
2. put in nice impinged jets in place of the single jets.
3. shoehorn the BCS-460 into the existing wiring to control the heater and the pump.
4. put solenoid valves and starters on the burners under BCS control (3 burners)
5. put solenoid fluid valves on under BCS control (5 valves)

Here are the existing guts:

Three position switch (off, pump, heat+pump), temp controller (Omron E5CS, which they still make), mechanical relay and GFCI switch. All controlling the water heater element and a 1.65 amp little giant pump.

I have more questions than answers now and I'll beg your indulgence as I move down the road with this. For starters, how compatible is the BCS with indeterminate thermocouples? Here http://www.brew-magic.com/bm_part_thermo_kit.html is the SABCO sanctioned upgrade. It's a bit pricey but alternatively I could either stick with my existing temp probe (which is farther from the mash outlet) or use the BCS sanctioned one. Can I calibrate to an aribtrary temp. probe?

Thanks for your help!

-- Art

[ECC]

Hello Art, and welcome!

The BCS-460 only supports type NTC thermistor based probes. Unfortunately thermocouples are not supported electrically. However, since you are able to program the temperature coefficients of the probe, you are free to use any 10k NTC thermistor probe.

Looks like you have a great plan. The valves might put you over the 6-output limit, but usually valves don't need to be controlled individually, i.e., there are only a couple of predetermined valve configurations. You can check out this thread for an example of how one person plans to control 6 valves, plus elements and pumps.

But its probably best to start with what you already have. I love the idea of having a burner heat boost, as well as a RIMS chamber to maintain temps. We can make these different states in the control process and it will transition beautifully for fast automated steps.

Do you know what the coil voltage is of the mechanical relay? I'm guessing its 120vac, you'll probably have to replace it with 5v BCS compatible SSRs.

Looking forward to seeing your system progress! Feel free to ask any questions.