Here is a list of part #'s for the components I have acquired so far:
1 x BCS-460
6 x Crydom D2425 SSR's from Brinker Controls
3 x 8-position Barrier Strip + jumper bar for the hot, neutral, and ground
1 x Rocker Switch (main power switch for panel)
For a basic description:
The BCS-460 is attached to constant power. For the panel, I wired the hot (black) from the main power line to the rocker switch. This gives me complete power over the panel (i.e., ensuring it is off). From the rocker switch, the hot runs to the hot barrier strip. This in turn feeds terminal one on each Crydom D2425 SSR. Terminal two on each SSR feeds the black (brass screw terminal) on a standard 110V receptacle with the middle tab removed to isolate each outlet. I chose a receptacle for a couple of reasons: 1) nothing is hard wired to the panel, and 2) most of the equipment I am controlling had a standard male power connector on it. The neutral (white) of each receptacle (silver screw terminal) feeds back up to a barrier strip which in turn is connected to the neutral of the main power line. All lines are connected to a barrier strip connected to the ground (green).
Port 3 (red wire) of the SSR is connected to the output (control port) on the BCS-460, and port 4 (green wire) are all wired together (the blue wire caps in the picture) and then connected to the ground on the BCS-460. In hindsight I would have added one more barrier strip and setup a BCS-460 ground bar.
I used salvaged PC power cords for wiring up the receptacles. The control wires (red and green) for the SSR's are a 20 AWG hookup wire I had laying around. Everything is mounted in a salvaged alarm panel box painted black with a $.99 can of spray paint. Not trying to be a complete tightwad, but it's just the way it turned out.
I am not an electrician, so please do your homework if you follow the steps I've written. If you are more experienced than I and I have missed something, please let me know! I did quite a bit of trial and error figuring it out before hooking it all up, so maybe it will help someone else out.Edit: at the advice of a friend, I relocated the incoming power line to come in on the left side of the box to avoid any possible electrical interference with the temperature probes. Also missing from the picture is the hookup of two additional temperature probes and a couple of float switches that will be installed at a later date.
6 comments:
Great job! I am using your design as the basis for my setup. The detailed wiring description really helped me figure out how to wire my BCS-460.
Awesome. Glad it helped!
I'm literally building the same controller for my breweruy in progress and I just wanted to say thank you for this post! It has helped me a great deal with ordering parts and planning my build. One question: I'm using honeywell gas valves for my burner control and I see alot of talk about transformers on the forums to conver to 24VAC. Did you use any sort of transformer? Any input on this?
Hey Brandon,
Glad it helped.
For gas valves / transformers, I do not use them on my system. Originally I was using rudimentary pilot lights for each burner, but a while back switched over to hot surface igniters (HSI) connected to an SSR and controlled by the BCS to light. A couple of seconds before the gas solenoid opens for the burner, the HSI's power up. As soon as the solenoid for the gas opens, the burners light. The HSI's are 120v, so I did not need to step it down. This configuration obviously doesn't have the features of the gas valve, but I do not and would not ever run it unattended.
--Brian
Is there a reason you didn't go with the Crydom D1210 SSRs? 120VAC with 3-32VDC control.
I wanted the extra capacity to be able to handle larger loads down the road if needed. Plus, at the time, I had found them for something like $10 a piece brand new. For pumps and solenoids, no reason the D1210's wouldn't work though.
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