In a vacuum, the bus master can easily handle 40 devices. The Spark has room for some 80 blocks (this includes non-hardware blocks like Setpoints, PIDs and PWMs).
In reality, we’ve found that the number of simultaneous valves is limited by their power draw and cable interference.
Elco is currently using a setup with 16 pneumatic valves linked to a single spark. This seems to be near the upper bound.
What kind of valves / valve controller boards / OneWire extension boards are you using / planning to use? Do they draw power from the Spark, or do they have an external power supply?
In my previous setup, I used 16 motor valves driven by the valve control board we used to sell.
I had issues with standard phone cable, which is pretty thin. It worked well when I switched to better cables, made from CAT5e. This is what we sell in the store as RJ12 cables.
Because the valve control board (and the motors connected to it) is powered from the RJ12 cables, this can create a high current through the cable for the entire chain. This raises the ground level and can create communication problems.
Another problem with long OneWire networks is bus capacitance, caused by the wires themselves and the input pin of each slave device.
Finally, all wires also act as antennas. OneWire seems to be sensitive to interference if two wires split and form a dipole antenna for the right frequency.
These issues together made me decide to design a new valve control board that can drive 8 valves instead of 2. It will also communicate over Modbus/RS-485 instead of OneWire. This is implemented by the 2 outer pins of the RJ12 ports on the Spark.
In my brewery I am now using pneumatic valves and only toggle the pilot air valves to open the bigger butterfly valves with compressed air. The benefit is that you do not have to run power to many motors. The valves only need an air tube. The board that I am using to toggle the pilot valves is a custom prototype and I still have to design the extension board that we can sell.
Hi
I’m setting up a RIMS system, and to avoid burning I’m planning to split the heating between to elements…
But i cannot figure out how to make one PID drive two PWM’s (or how to split a PWM block on to two actuators).
My plan was to do something like this:
Hi
Yes i have 2x 2500W and a single 16A.
I also had a problem with burnt residue on the element, and i was hoping that splitting it on two would help.
The suggestions from Bob worked great…
The only thing is that it looks like the system is constantly running on 50%
It’s expected that the achieved value of both individual heating elements is 50%. That’s what the balancer is for: you always want to be heating, but not both at the exact same time.
For a more accurate display, you could go into the builder editor, and add another heating element. Flip it, link it to your second PWM, and place it on the right side of your rims tube part.
I’m new to BrewBlox and I am running the Wizardry for the first time. I am running 2 SSR’s attached to an electrical outlet for my heater/cooling. My heat source is a brew belt and my cooling is a chest freezer. The Wizardry put my heat/cooling as spark pins, is there a way to change this after it’s setup to my SSR’s?
Actually you’re right, I was confused. The SSR’s are indeed connected to spark pins. It’s a double outlet so 2 SSR’s connected to spark pins that fire one or the other outlet for heat/cool. I’m coming from the old brewpi/arduino world so I’m adjusting…:-). This is how I have mine setup:
One exception; I did not use a fan in the fridge like in the picture. And just for some commentary, my old brewpi/arduino setup is still working great. I just got a wild idea to do a 4 chamber fermentation chamber and will be using the spark for that project. I have an old data center rack I picked up and some reflective insulating bubble wrap to insulate it with. It’s perfect size for 2 carboy’s on top and 2 on the bottom. It will take me a while to get it built but eventually…
Could you please open the dev console (ctrl+shift+i, console tab), and close and re-open the dialog? If it shows any errors, could you please copy them?
I just checked here, and I get a selection button, so it may be caused by your config. You could try removing and re-adding the part.
Which version of chrome/firefox do you have on your basement computer? A quick check indicates that flatMap() is supported since Chrome 69 / Firefox 62. (If you have a version later than that, something else causes the error)
