Flow Controller Mk 2

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bobsbeer

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I have rather been hijacking Stevela's thread, but as this version doesn't incorporate an Arduino I felt it better to have it's own thread.

This controller was made up of a control unit from E-Bay with added flow meter, thermometer, and solenoid valve which I then housed in a craft box.



A view of the insides:



And the display:



To make this I used

The controller - From Ebay HERE
G4fen_3in1-11.jpg

As you can see it came with a solenoid valve and flow meter. However this unit can also monitor the temperature of the liquid being transferred so I added a NTC temperature sensor, which I need to get a micro connector for, so is waiting to be connected. Also from E Bay HERE

TEMP_sensor-11.jpg


To mount the temperature I used a 15 mm brass compression repair connector and drilled and threaded the M8 thread. Fitted perfectly and the probe is sitting in the path of the liquid.

15mm-x-15mm-x-80mm-Compression-Burst-Repair-Coupling_medium.jpg


To either end is a 1/2" female straight threaded connector.

0041217_340.jpg


The plumbing bit were all from B&Q

As luck would have it the made up length just fitted a spare craft box I had. To the outside there will be Camlock male fittings, but these haven't arrived yet, so for testing purposes I fitted hoselock on the inlet and jg on the outlet as that's all I had to hand.

The unit can be set to a required volume, and stops when the volume is reached by the meter, which shuts the valve. The valve is a bit slow to close, so on testing it ran over by about 200-300 mls. This was the same for 1 lt or 5 lt tests, so is fairly consistent. To some extent the overrun is dependant on the flow velocity, but a test run and you can regulate the inlet pressure as this is shown on the display in Liters per minute. On stopping it reads the total volume metered. And later measurements showed this to be fairly accurate, so you know the overrun amount. I mounted the flow meter down stream but I don't think it matters which way round it is as the flow volume should be the same.

The unit is powered from a 24v DC transformer which I recycled from an old printer. At the moment the wire goes through a hole in the back, but I plan to tidy this up by fitting a DC plug socket. Now all I need to do is get a brew on, which will be a kit as my MT is out of action having an upgrade. But it should be able to measure the volume required by just pressing a couple of buttons, and letting it fill my bucket. The real intended use is to fill the HLT and measure liquor going into the MT and sparge.

A big thanks to Stevela who had the original idea, and that thread is continuing as it uses an Arduino to do the same job. That will be project number 2......or is it 7 by now. :lol:
 
You can't really see very well in the photo, but the power is connected using the connector taken off the end of the temp probe as it was the same as the inline power socket on the controller. The temp probe needs a micro connector rather than the one supplied. I emailed the seller and he is sending me a conversion lead, so hopefully that can be connected soon.

I also ordered another flow meter and temp probe for my arduino project. So this version may only be used to fill the HLT/MT, as Mk3 will have the motorised ball valve rather than the solenoid valve, and that has a 5 second closure time, so may be a problem calculating the over run, but that isn't critical for transfer to boiler and FV.
 
Bob can you set the flow rate? If so you could use one to control the flow rate out of the sparge as well for fly sparging. I always aim for 1L/minute for maximum extraction of the sugars. :hmm: :hmm:

I am seeing a control panel with lots of buttons and screens :hmm: :hmm:
 
graysalchemy - please see Stevela's original flow control thread for evidence of a very slow realisation that solanoid controled valves need a wee bit of back pressure measured in mpa to work..

the minimal 0,02mpa needed to open most solanoid valves equates to greater than 2m of head...whoops!!
 
This unit measures the flow rate, and I can see what it is, but does not control it, except on and off after a specified volume has passed. I would need to adjust the flow manually via the mains tap. With MK3 I may be able to reduce the flow if I use a manual valve out of the HLT, but I still don't think I can set it at a particular flow rate automatically.
 
That would be interesting to be able to set flow rate out and it be controlled, Mind you even monitoring it would be an advantage, but you would still need to be there controlling the tap on the mash tun :lol: :lol: .
 
The new valve I have ordered is a motorised ball valve rather than the solenoid one I have now. Whether it can be hacked to be controlled to open partially I don't know. I think it would need to be hacked, but it may be possible. The flow sensor could possibly control it. If that was possible there is no reason a similar unit could not be used to control the outflow to the boiler. :hmm: :hmm: I can see another unit being built. :lol: This time incorporating the pump.
 

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