New control box for the Whitfield

Ditto that. I know who's brain to pick should I ever get back to doing circuit building! I'd really like to redo the controls for the 50F.

 

I got a couple of ex-coworkers in mind for a user friendly board if needed. There's a DIY board kit which you can expand on it. The safeties on the stove is important but the drawback is it will not be CSA(UL) approved so no Insurance Co. will touch it unless you have it CSA(UL) approved($$$$$$)
Snowy is a bundle of knowledge

 

A very much overdue update

With several things going on that drained my budget of cash to fool with and time to fool the NEW PANEL got set on the shelf.

The other day I dragged out the box of goodies (Relays and timers) and started going over the schematic.

The long Sojourn left things a tad foggy as to what I had originally planned to do, but some careful scrutiny and a review of the complete details that I typed up brought it all right back into focus.

The stove is running fine and doing what it is supposed to do (Heat the shack) so my timeline is still sketchy.

Just did not want this to die and go away.... so to add hope, things will move ahead.

A failed well pump and a deck that seriously needed rebuilding sucked up over $10K last summer and left my fun projects on the back burner.

With the exception of some rolls of 16ga colored wire (SEVERAL ROLLS TO MEET COLOR CODES)
I have about everything needed to get this thing going.

The panel currently has all of its switches, buttons, meters, lamps and other controls installed so the needed work is all inside with the installation of the relays, timers and wiring.

Thinking about getting the panel set up in a spot that I can work on it and installing the parts.

Once I get things moving again I will post some pix and add more info.

 

Another much overdo update.
I have posted in the pellet forum on whats going on...but will get this thread updated a bit more.
The old factory control board finally started giving trouble...the room air fan speed control (Triac) died the other day, so I wired in a stand alone speed control from an Avalon stove.

Works fine.

I did a complete huuuuuuge schematic of the new control and have gotten back into the build in a big way.

All the relays and timers are in the box as it the main cable is attached.
I still needed a couple bus bars to route common circuits and ordered those yesterday.

The plan is looking good.
Sadly I have been quite happy to use the factory control, but push came to shove in a big way, so I gotta get this thing done sooner than later.

I will try to be more diligent and finish this thread up.

 

More pictures.

The bulk of the components are installed in the enclosure now.

A few wires left to run and we are real close to TESTING TIME.

I have extra fans and other goodies to hook up to run "REAL TIME" tests on the controller.

The plan is to test it for a week or so running a room air fan, a draft fan and an auger motor (Or possibly an LED light just to indicate when the feed operation is occurring )

Some tech stuff

I switched to INFITEC for the timers and SSAC (Now little fuse co.) for the power relays and the Phase speed controllers.

Phase speed controls for the Draft and Room air fans are SSAC PHS120A6 units
The specs suggest a 1M ohm pot to connect to the unit to vary the speed.

I tested a PHS120A6 with the 1m ohm pot and it nearly useless.
The pot is too large, and it only takes about 1/4 turn from full on to reduce the voltage to 80 V AC
Anything below 80 volts is pretty much useless.

The 1 Meg pot will allow a full spectrum of voltage from 1 to 120 vac
80 volts to 120 gives the room air fan a nice spread and the low speed is usable as well as having a good full speed.

Having the potential to accidentally switch the voltage below where the fan can turn is just not good.

I am actually thinking about using a selector switch to select a resistor from a few sizes to give optimum speeds on the fans rather than the potentiometer ????

Jury is still out.

More as it happens

 

Nicely done!

 

DA BEOTCH BE DONE..
Finished the wiring this afternoon.....going to swap out the 1 Meg ohm pots on the fan speed controls and use 30 K ohm pots instead.

Getting all the wiring IN DA CAN ...WAS A REAL RICHARD...

Thanks for the thumbs up

 

Unit fired up and being tested.

A couple minor glitches, but mostly a stellar result.

Will be replacing one SOLID STATE RELAY as these type of relays leak current as a mater of fact, and it was causing anomalies.

All systems function perfectly

 

Panel complete now...
New relay installed and the unit functions perfectly.

HEAT SETTINGS all tweaked into the sweet spot (for us anyway)
7 sec...6 sec...5 sec. 4 sec...3 sec and prime (constant on)

The number 3 setting is 5 seconds burn time and is perfect.

Some pix of the final fit and finish

New relay is on the left side of the piccy.... the SSR was not the answer in this app.

 

I wanted to finish up this post (Long overdue)
A final release of the schematic.
Detailed wiring connection spec sheet.
Relay description and usage.
The completed unit has all the original safety systems as well as a few extras (just because safety is a good thing)
I hope these items can provide some useful information.