Where did the wires of the fridge go?

Hardware fridge-build
1

In an ambitious mood, I ordered the brewspark, couple of sensors and some SSR’s.
Went to MediaMarkt, for the Dutch among us, bought the cheapest fridge (OK OFR34026A1) they had and shelved the whole thing for about a year. Per my usual MO…

Cut to today, and lo and behold, when using the fridge hacking guide, it seems my compressor is missing a couple of wires…
Now, according to the wiring diagram on the fridge, the starter relay, the capacitor, and the wiring for the light is all there. I suspect the manufacturer tucked it all neatly away into the side of the fridge.

The thing I am most anxious about, is the live feed to the compressor from the thermostat, and the L feed from the power cord.
From what I can tell, there is just one (1) pair of wires going to the compressor. The blue/neutral from the power cord, and (what I suspect) the feed from the thermostat.

fridge compressor connection
The top connection is coming from the thermostat, the bottom one is neutral.

powercord coming in

The current relay they are connected to, looks similar to this one.

Fridge wiring diagram

My main question is:
Am I correct in assuming that the grey line, is the one I need to attach to the SSR to control the compressor?
That would be the “C” in the guide diagram.

Any and all help is appreciated.
//JP

2

You should connect the SSR between L and C, replacing the thermostat in the schematic.

I think the grey wire is probably the wire coming back from the thermostat.
I can’t really see it in the photo, but my guess is your compressor has 3 wires:

  • Protective Earth (PE), aarde in Dutch, yellow-green.
  • Neutal, blue, connected directly to power cord.
  • Grey, live after being switched by the thermostat.

So brown -> thermostat -> grey at compressor.
You now want brown -> SSR -> grey at compressor.

3

Hi Elco,
Thing is… What is “C” when looking at the pictures?
I have detached the wires from the compressor, as shown below at the following url:
wires decoupled from compressor

The complete detached wiring looks like:
This

In the previous photo, I suspect, the grey connector on the right, perpendicular and behind the blue connector is “C”.

4

Hmm, I missed a good deal of your reply before writing mine…

You are correct in your guess.
And I was under the same impression, and I must admit: that’s pretty reassuring!

5

I edited my answer for clarity. Sounds like you figured it out.

6

Hijacking my own post here, on Mother’s Day no less…
Heck, let’s give the sweet woman some quiet time. Why not!?

Connecting the spark to SSR’s, it just dawned on me: the GND mentioned in the fridge guide (https://www.brewpi.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/brewpi-fridge-conversion-42.jpg), that’s probably the GND of the one-wire, not as I imagined the ground coming from the wallplug.

(Last few steps, and then it’s Miller time!..)

7

You linked a picture of two SSRs. If that’s correct, OneWire should not be involved at all.

8

Hi Bob, yes correct, I have installed two SSR’s per the guide.
The description of that photo is: “Top: LIVE to compressor, LIVE in, LIVE in, LIVE to heater. Bottom: GND, cooler control, GND, heater control.”

In all my inexperience, I just connected the GND designated wires to the ground (green/yellow) of the fridge. But now I suspect, they should be the return of the wiring to the spark (in combination with the cooler/heater control wires).

Any thoughts on that?
‘Cause if what you state is true, I really have no idea on what to do…

9

On the fridge side of the SSR, you interrupt the live wire. The neutral and ground wires aren’t connected, and function as before.

On the Spark side of the SSR, the two wires go to the two slots of a green connector. This includes the GND referred to in the description.

OneWire is its own protocol. The green ports are just IO control pins.

1 Like
10

Aah, okay. Than I’m on the right track!

Thanks again for the swift reply on this special day! :+1: