Today when I got home from my day at the University of Guelph as a PhD student, I was excited to see that the final piece required to complete the third revision of my control panel had arrived. I had been missing a 40a SSR (used for element control) due to a mix up in a parts order. Unfortunately it took a whole month to get here from China. Even more unfortunately, I have been too busy for this delay to have any impact on my brewing schedule.

The main changes to my panel in its third revision were the removal of an untrustworthy, cheap, 8 channel relay module and replacement with high quality solid state relays. While I was at it, I decided to also replace my element SSRs with higher quality ones. In total I have six 25a SSRs, which are used for lower amperage circuits, and the two 40a SSRs for the 5500 watt heating elements. Those six SSRs control keg fridge heating and cooling, fermentation chamber heating and cooling, and two pumps simultaneously by a Beaglebone Black running Strangebrew Elsinore.

Since I now have a wack of SSRs in my panel I decided I should add some ventilation. A 120mm case fan was a good fit. I also now have a temperature probe inside the panel to keep a closer eye on things. While just running my keg fridge and fermentation chamber, the case keeps 2-3F above ambient temperature in my garage. I’m very interested in seeing how it holds up over a full brew day this upcoming weekend!

Lots of pictures on the progression of my panel have been included below: