RIMS temperature control

BCS Portland · Post by **BCS Portland** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 11:14 am

My last few brews have had trouble with the RIMS heater holding temps of 153F or so. Yesterday temps dropped into the high 140's. I can switch the RIMS heater on via control panel to manual and it starts to heat up. In auto mode or manual mode on the BCS page the RIMS temps keep dropping. Today I tested the RIMS with a few gallons of water and it is heating up fine in manual mode from the BCS page. I tested the SSR with a meter and it is powered on when it should be.

So I am wondering what the correct settings should be with the PID control? Seems like this might be where I am failing. Any tips?

ECC · Post by **ECC** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 12:58 pm

BCS Portland wrote:Today I tested the RIMS with a few gallons of water and it is heating up fine in manual mode from the BCS page. I tested the SSR with a meter and it is powered on when it should be.

When you say that in 'Manual Mode' it works fine, which type of output control are you using? Are you saying that differential control works fine in Manual Mode? Or that PID control works fine in Manual Mode?

Are you using firmware v2.0, or an earlier revision? A screenshot of your Systems Settings page may help us track down if any settings are incorrect. If everything is fine there, it may be that we just need to play with the PID parameters to tune the PID to your system.

np0x · Post by **np0x** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 1:37 pm

Where are you measuring temperatures? Can you use it not in manual mode and get the temps to work right in your process? (basically, do you have any more information that might help? Maybe screenshot(s) of your processes?)

it might just be the thermal mass of the grain and/or heat loss from your tun?

BCS Portland · Post by **BCS Portland** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 1:38 pm

I think I may have found the problem, won't be sure till next brew day.

I had the RIMS heater associated with the MT probe instead of the RIMS output probe. Do you think that would cause the problem? I did a test with a few gallons of 50F water and heated up to around 150F. Obviously this isn't the same as running 25 lbs of grain and 8 gallons of water so not sure.

As to manual mode, not sure exactly what I did and I have everything shut down and put away. I just clicked on the manual mode button on the front page and did not even think to look to see if it has different parameters - ugh ... need to check that out as well.

I realized that I always yell at my son for being a lazy kid, so I set it up again (took all of 2 minute LOL)