Any electronic/electrical wizards in here?

I have this posted in another forum as well. But looking for a little help.
new to me enviro evolution.
The convection blower is locked with the heat setting. 1-5
I can turn the damm fan off but cannot control it seperate from heat levels.

Is there an easy way i can connect a fan speed control with say a dpdt switch? Meaning wire the switch to keep it normal on one side but flip the switch and have full control. ???

Willing to listen to anysuggestions

 

You may want to get in touch with Snowy Rivers, she may be able to help you.

 

OK
I am understanding you can not control the fan speed, as in it has finite settings tied to the heat settings ??????

The way this is done is there is a phase controller on the control board and the variable speed is controlled by resistors that tell the phase controller what voltage to send to the motor.

If you want to have complete control of the fan, you will need to go to a junction where you can draw off the L1 LINE (120 VOLT)

From here, connect in a good quality CASABLANCA fan speed controller.

Unplug the fan from the harness and then tap into the L1 with one end of the controller and connect it to the fans black lead (If both are black or the same color then pick one) the other lead off the motor, or the whit one if there is a black and white connects to the neutral buss or wherever the whit wire from the power cord connects.

Mount the unit in the cabinet and you will have complete control of the fan speed.

Remember, you are dealing with lethal voltage inside the cabinet.

Follow good safety protocols

Hope this helps

 

I appreciate the help. I am no newbie around electricity or the use of quality speed controllers. The blower only increases in speed as the heat setting goes higher yes. Now i would like to add the controller but i dont want to disable the blowers board control completely. A 3 way switch of sort? Thats why i meantioned a dpdt switch. I usually just play until i find a solution but figured someone may have been there done that..?
Reason for not wanting to disconect the board and prefer a switch is when on thermostat the fan regulates high/low as well and i like how that works. But would be nice to flip a switch and run the blower higher at times.

 

Use the DPDT switch and just break the line that feeds the fan.

Use a analogue meter to see which line is actually the hot lead (Unless the are White and Black)
Connect one side of the DPDT switch to the added fan controller the other side to the line currently feeding the fan (From the board) Connect the common lug on the DPDT to the fan itself.

You now have a way to have it your way
Flip it to one side and have what you want, flip it the other way and it will be as it came from the factory

 

BTW Millertime, welcome. Love the name. It's my favorite beer.

 

So it really is as simple as i thought it would be? Thanks Snowy

Oddly enough i dont care for it :-/

I have read snows posts a while ago. I was hoping to see a buy here button but guess not ;-)

 

Welcome Millertime! I'm in the Hudson Valley near Poughkeepsie.....where are you "upstate"?

 

I have family near poughkeepsi.

I am 20 minutes from vermont and 20 minutes from canada. The true meaning of "upstate" ;-)

 

Welcome Millertime to the FHC. You're close to the great white north so good beer isn't too far away

 

Welcome aboard Millertime , like Ivan said good beer or good white rum.
Hey everybody its Millertime
Old Fart

 

The beauty of this is that when the stove is running normally you can set it and forget it.

Just be sure to remember that most fan controllers you buy have an off position in them.

DON'T fire off and forget to turn the fan on.

I had considered these for my new controller going on the Big Whitfield, but I don't like the off switch and the ability of the Casablanca controls to get the voltage too low.

My preference is an SSAC brand phase speed control.

Here are some pix taken during recent evaluation and testing.

The black 2x2 "puck" is the solid state controller.
These are rated at 6 amps (Available in 10 or 20 amp)
The puck connects into a 120V line going to the fan (load) and the 100 K ohm potentiometer is connected to the 2 spades as marked on the puck.

I found the lowest speed that I was willing to accept, then measured the resistance across the pot.
Next I selected a fixed resistor and soldered it parallel to the pot terminals.

This can be seen in the piccy.
When the system is complete I will have a plug in block with the resistor in it instead of the soldered one.

To explain the function.
You do not want the voltage to be toooooooo low and or turned off.

The fixed resistor running in parallel will stop this.

Basically its like having a large water pipe with a valve in it (The pot) and this can go from full on to off.

If we install a branch line with say a 1/8" diameter that runs from upstream around the shutoff and connects downstream of the valve then no matter what you do with the valve you will always have some flow.

This assures that the fan will always run and never go below the minimum even if the pot is cranked all the way to its low point.

I chose a 24000 ohm resistor and soldered it in and this gave me a minimum of 75 volts to the fan.

The puck requires a 100 k ohm pot as per the manufacturer

These will allow voltages from about 12 to about 114

The 24k ohm resistor gives 75 volts
The lower the resistance the higher the voltage to the fan.

JUST SOME IDEAS.

You could mount one of these little units in the stove chassis and drill a hole in the side panel and mount the Pot and your DPDT switch.

Run an L1 line to the puck and then to the switch as we discussed earlier.

Connect your Pot to the puck and good to go.

The resistor can be done like the one I have in the piccy labeled RESISTOR BLOCK.

The Pot connects across the spades and then each line from the control spades on the puck connect.

This was a cleaner way to put the resistor in parallel with ease of access should I want to changes it.


Hope this helps

The phase controls are an SSAC PHS120A6 (can use 120A10 OR A20) JUST HIGHER AMP RATING

 

You might want to measure the voltage going to the fan on the stoves factory low setting and see waaassssup.

I would not recommend going below the factory low voltage setting, as the motor may not like is and remember, as the voltage goes down, the amperage draw goes UP and so does the heat.

My Whitfield spec calls for a minimum of 60 volts on low, but the motor starts making annoying wa wa wa noise down there.

Find a sweet spot when you go low and then fix it with a resistor.


Have great fun

 

Yes the true meaning of upstate! Welcome Millertime!


BTW you're not a temporary resident there are you?

 

Temporary? Been here my whole life... but technically speaking life is only temporary isnt it?

 

So how do accept payment?? Just kidding i read before you wouldnt sell them. Or has that changed???
My stove is apparently designed to run without the blower. That is only control on the pad for blower control.. on/off button. Not sure if the board over rides the off button if temps go high or not tho.
Thanks a bunch for that post. I am sure you had better things to do. I think i am just going to go simple with dpdt switch and good control. Never know, have to see how it goes. Thanks again

 

ahhh......no.....people modifying their units!

Good luck with the re-work, Miller, good advice as always from Snowy!
BUUT, I feel I have to say: it might be important to point out that modifying a UL-listed appliance effectively negates any listing, and you *may* have issues with your insurer, and mostly likely *will* have issues with them if there is a fire. We wont work with modded units, its just to iffy from a liabilities standpoint.

Good luck!

 

I am not familiar with that stove, buuuuuuutttttttttttttttt many times there is a snap switch in the heat bonnet that will turn the fan on at full line voltage when the stove gets up to a high enough temp and will cycle on and off.

Without some sort of blower the stove would overheat and shut down

 

What LW says is or can be true.

That said, as long as there has not been any safety devices removed or rendered inoperative you should be fine.

The rub comes when you remove safety devices that prevent an overfire or a vacuum/pressure switch that prevents the stove from causing issues.

It is your call.

The liability issue is why I don't build and sell controllers.

All my stuff adds safety items to make the thing safer, but again it's a judgement call.

We have had some issues before with things that caused smoke in the house, and I added a vacuum switch that will shut off the feed if the draft fan stopped.

We see folks jumpering around failed snaps switches and this is a no no.

Good luck