**THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS PLEASE BE PATIENT IT WILL BE COMPLETE SOON! CHEERS**
Ok, just want to get a few points across before I start this guide, I am in no way an expert on PID’s, I’m a tradie and not in a trade associated with electricians, I do however have a mate who is an electrician and quite a few electrical technician friends who helped me figure out the wiring and explained what does what.
The important thing is to make sure you get all the right parts when making your own kit, PID kits supply’s a perfect sleek kit with every single thing you need and it’s all integrated and preset, it takes the worry out of the unknown, his kits are renowned across the world as being the best and cleanest looking kits available for Silvia, and as he is a very valuable site sponsor I would like to extend a congrats to PIDkits on producing a kit second to none, and I hope I’m not stepping on anyone’s toes here, for me the kit was a little too expensive given the current economic climate.
Im sure if you are reading this guide, you have an understanding of the importance of a PID in a silvia, what it does and how it does it, if you are new to the prospect of adding a PID to a Silvia then here is a very helpful little analogy I found on the net:
“Imagine you are driving your car down the street at 60 klm/h. Ahead is an intersection controlled by a stop sign. If you continue to travel at 60 klm/h until you reach the intersection, then slam on the brakes, your car is going to shoot through past the stop sign before coming to rest. If, on the other hand, you gradually apply the brakes well in advance of the stop sign, you can come to a controlled stop right at the intersection.”
Now I “Gronked” my silvia prior to “PIDing”, which basically involves placing a thermocouple on top of the boiler and monitoring boiler temperatures with a Digital Multi Meter(DMM) and manually flushing boiler water through brew head to get it to the right temp prior to pull the shot. This worked pretty well for me, the only disadvantage is one, the time it takes to wait for the boiler to get back down to the desired temp, and two the amount of user interaction required to monitor gets a bit full on for me to produce coffee, I found I was pretty much dismissing anyone talking to my whilst I was making coffee……very anti social! , but it worked well for me to produce more consistent quality shots, and it is a good interim process on the way to installing your own PID as you will need a thermocouple for a pid anyway!
PART 1 - SHOPPING LIST
I will outline the exact products I bought for my install, obviously you can change the basic bits and pieces for alternate brands etc but the CD101 PID has worked very well for me, and its cheap, I cannot guarantee its longevity of life as I have only had it installed for a week, but I will say that my line of work involves satellites, and as you can imagine a lot of $$$ worth of equipment, now the cooling mechanisms in one of our sat larger dishes uses this same exact PID controller, a little simpler I must admit as it only turns on the large cooling fans within a series of cabinets, but it has been in place for years, running 24/7……and still alive! So prolly has earnt its stripes there.
1. CD101 Controller
2. K-type thermocouple
3. Jaycar “Jiffy” enclosure HB-6012
4. 2 meters of Heavy Duty 240v extension cable 15AMP simular to Jaycar WB-1568 but round
5. run of the mil spade connectors times 2(big enough to fit to the HD 240v extension type cable)
6. 25amp Solid State Relay(SSR)
7. a cut off lamp power cable 240v, I used a 2 prong
PART 2 - PRECAUTIONS
Disclaimer: WORKING WITH 240V CAN AND WILL KILL YOU IF YOU COME IN CONTACT WITH IT, EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU APPROACH SILVIA IN ANY STAGE OF DISASSEMBLY THE MACHINE MUST BE UNPLUGGED FROM THE WALL, IF YOU ARE IN ANY DOUBT WHATSOEVER GET A QUALIFIED ELECTRICIAN TO CHECK IT PRIOR TO PLUGGING IN AND TURNING ON, I CANNOT EMPHASISE THIS POINT ENOUGH, I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR INJURY OR DEATH RESULTING FROM FOLLOWING THIS GUIDE IN ANY WAY……YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!
PART 3 - WIRING DIAGRAM
This is a basic wiring diagram (wiring diagram below), as you can see I am not an electrical engineer!, which is prolly a good thing for you as looking at schematics can be confusing at best, with the inset diagram, the wires that are connected to the brew thermostat are simply unplugged and the spade connectors on the wire from the SSR are plugged into the female plugs that come off the original thermostat, that is it! This is a visual guide only, the step by step guide follows:
PART 4 – THE STEP BY STEP GUIDE
Step 1 – Preparation of the Silvia.
Unplug the machine, not just turn it off, unplug it and move it to an area that you can work on it, like a large workbench or dining table(might want to use an old table cloth to avoid flying objects from the other half!)
Disassemble Silvia, place all the parts out of the way completely,
- remove the drip tray cover and drip tray underneath
- remove the portafilter and steam knob by simply pulling out.
- remove the top plate with the 4 phillips screws
- remove water reservoir and shake any remaining water from hoses
- remove the back cover using a small Phillips head screw driver angling it in from the top to gently remove the small screws
- remove the inner splashback that sits beside the water reservoir with 2 phillips head screws
- Remove the front cover by removing the 4 small Phillips head screws, there are holes in the back of the mounting frame to stick your screwdriver through, and then there is one screw holding the front plate on, its inside the cover just in front of the boiler, it screws into the brew head below the cover, you need to now remove all the wires attached to the switches on the front panel, I recommend you do a basic wiring diagram so you can correctly replace them later on, I have provided a wire diagram below but you need to confirm that the colours don’t differ from model to model. Remove the front cover including switches and set aside.
You now have a stripped Rancilio Silvia, looks a little bare doesn’t she!
Step 2 – Preparation of parts.
PID and enclosure – I used the larger enclosure from Jaycar just in case I decide to install something else in the future, like a shot timer, it gives me plenty of room to move with plenty to spare, you could fit the PID into the smaller version with a few millimetres to spare, use the white mounting brace that comes with the pid to trace the size of the hole necessary onto the front of the enclosure, this is where the PID will slide into, remember its better to be a tighter fit than too loose so be gently and careful with the cutout, now, I drilled holes with a drill all the way around the inside of the tracing then pushed out the plastic and squared it up with a Stanley knife and sandpaper until it fit in nice and tight, after you have it mounted in nice and flush, remove it and set the PID and enclosure aside.
Wiring – SSR to Boiler - now this is a little bit of guess work, cut about 60 cms of the 240v cable off and cut the cable to remove the 3 wires by slicing the outer sheath, you must not penetrate the wires inside the outer cable, this WILL make the wire….lets just say a little dangerous! So take care!
Pull the wires out individually by hand, you will only use 2 of the 3 wires, brown and blue, discard the green wire and outer sheath. Bare all 4 ends of the 2 wires but only about 8mm max. The crimp on the 2 spade connectors to one end of both wires as pictured (pic 031).
Wiring – SSR to PID (control cable) – you’ll need to leave about 1 meter for this one, bare one end of the cable by slicing gently to remove the outer sheath and exposing the inner wires protruding about 3 cm’s, bare the brown and blue wires by cutting gently and removing their sheath’s, only expose a max of 1 cm of this wire, and twist the inner wire tight. I cut the green wire at the outer sheath level because I didn’t use it, obviously, as you will only need two of the three wires.
2 Prong Power Lead – power to PID – I found a power lead that plugs into a AA battery charger and simply cut the connection off the end, not the end that plugs into the wall, the other end, you could also use a desk light lead or any other 2 prong power lead laying around the house.
K-Type Thermocouple – PID to boiler top – If you get the K-type with the end to plug into a DMM, simply cut off the connector and bare the metal wires, expose only about 4mm of this delicate wire. (Take note of the polarity of the wire colours).
Step 3 – Install the SSR and Wiring to boiler.
Time to mount the SSR, the best place I found to mount it, needing no modifications was behind the splashback as pictured, I simply removed the screw that holds the Silvia’s power cable on the back of the centre plate and screwed it in from the front side of the centre plate as pictured, this now serves two purposes, it now holds the SSR in place securely behind the slashplate and it still holds the power cable in place behind the plate!, perfect! Make sure the SSR is mounted so that the 2-32VDC input is at the bottom, just thought this would be a good safety measure given the DC voltage closer to the bottom of the splashback, don’t really know if it matters but oh well, it’s a thought!
Now grab your two 60cm wires with the spade connectors on one end, as pictured connect the uncrimped ends to the top side of the SSR as it sits mounted, you can follow my wiring colours if you want, not sure if it makes a difference with this one though as I believe the SSR acts as basically a switch, I placed the brown wire in 1 and the blue wire in 2 as pictured.
continued on next post.........





Ok, just want to get a few points across before I start this guide, I am in no way an expert on PID’s, I’m a tradie and not in a trade associated with electricians, I do however have a mate who is an electrician and quite a few electrical technician friends who helped me figure out the wiring and explained what does what.
The important thing is to make sure you get all the right parts when making your own kit, PID kits supply’s a perfect sleek kit with every single thing you need and it’s all integrated and preset, it takes the worry out of the unknown, his kits are renowned across the world as being the best and cleanest looking kits available for Silvia, and as he is a very valuable site sponsor I would like to extend a congrats to PIDkits on producing a kit second to none, and I hope I’m not stepping on anyone’s toes here, for me the kit was a little too expensive given the current economic climate.
Im sure if you are reading this guide, you have an understanding of the importance of a PID in a silvia, what it does and how it does it, if you are new to the prospect of adding a PID to a Silvia then here is a very helpful little analogy I found on the net:
“Imagine you are driving your car down the street at 60 klm/h. Ahead is an intersection controlled by a stop sign. If you continue to travel at 60 klm/h until you reach the intersection, then slam on the brakes, your car is going to shoot through past the stop sign before coming to rest. If, on the other hand, you gradually apply the brakes well in advance of the stop sign, you can come to a controlled stop right at the intersection.”
Now I “Gronked” my silvia prior to “PIDing”, which basically involves placing a thermocouple on top of the boiler and monitoring boiler temperatures with a Digital Multi Meter(DMM) and manually flushing boiler water through brew head to get it to the right temp prior to pull the shot. This worked pretty well for me, the only disadvantage is one, the time it takes to wait for the boiler to get back down to the desired temp, and two the amount of user interaction required to monitor gets a bit full on for me to produce coffee, I found I was pretty much dismissing anyone talking to my whilst I was making coffee……very anti social! , but it worked well for me to produce more consistent quality shots, and it is a good interim process on the way to installing your own PID as you will need a thermocouple for a pid anyway!
PART 1 - SHOPPING LIST
I will outline the exact products I bought for my install, obviously you can change the basic bits and pieces for alternate brands etc but the CD101 PID has worked very well for me, and its cheap, I cannot guarantee its longevity of life as I have only had it installed for a week, but I will say that my line of work involves satellites, and as you can imagine a lot of $$$ worth of equipment, now the cooling mechanisms in one of our sat larger dishes uses this same exact PID controller, a little simpler I must admit as it only turns on the large cooling fans within a series of cabinets, but it has been in place for years, running 24/7……and still alive! So prolly has earnt its stripes there.
1. CD101 Controller
2. K-type thermocouple
3. Jaycar “Jiffy” enclosure HB-6012
4. 2 meters of Heavy Duty 240v extension cable 15AMP simular to Jaycar WB-1568 but round
5. run of the mil spade connectors times 2(big enough to fit to the HD 240v extension type cable)
6. 25amp Solid State Relay(SSR)
7. a cut off lamp power cable 240v, I used a 2 prong
PART 2 - PRECAUTIONS
Disclaimer: WORKING WITH 240V CAN AND WILL KILL YOU IF YOU COME IN CONTACT WITH IT, EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU APPROACH SILVIA IN ANY STAGE OF DISASSEMBLY THE MACHINE MUST BE UNPLUGGED FROM THE WALL, IF YOU ARE IN ANY DOUBT WHATSOEVER GET A QUALIFIED ELECTRICIAN TO CHECK IT PRIOR TO PLUGGING IN AND TURNING ON, I CANNOT EMPHASISE THIS POINT ENOUGH, I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR INJURY OR DEATH RESULTING FROM FOLLOWING THIS GUIDE IN ANY WAY……YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!
PART 3 - WIRING DIAGRAM
This is a basic wiring diagram (wiring diagram below), as you can see I am not an electrical engineer!, which is prolly a good thing for you as looking at schematics can be confusing at best, with the inset diagram, the wires that are connected to the brew thermostat are simply unplugged and the spade connectors on the wire from the SSR are plugged into the female plugs that come off the original thermostat, that is it! This is a visual guide only, the step by step guide follows:
PART 4 – THE STEP BY STEP GUIDE
Step 1 – Preparation of the Silvia.
Unplug the machine, not just turn it off, unplug it and move it to an area that you can work on it, like a large workbench or dining table(might want to use an old table cloth to avoid flying objects from the other half!)
Disassemble Silvia, place all the parts out of the way completely,
- remove the drip tray cover and drip tray underneath
- remove the portafilter and steam knob by simply pulling out.
- remove the top plate with the 4 phillips screws
- remove water reservoir and shake any remaining water from hoses
- remove the back cover using a small Phillips head screw driver angling it in from the top to gently remove the small screws
- remove the inner splashback that sits beside the water reservoir with 2 phillips head screws
- Remove the front cover by removing the 4 small Phillips head screws, there are holes in the back of the mounting frame to stick your screwdriver through, and then there is one screw holding the front plate on, its inside the cover just in front of the boiler, it screws into the brew head below the cover, you need to now remove all the wires attached to the switches on the front panel, I recommend you do a basic wiring diagram so you can correctly replace them later on, I have provided a wire diagram below but you need to confirm that the colours don’t differ from model to model. Remove the front cover including switches and set aside.
You now have a stripped Rancilio Silvia, looks a little bare doesn’t she!
Step 2 – Preparation of parts.
PID and enclosure – I used the larger enclosure from Jaycar just in case I decide to install something else in the future, like a shot timer, it gives me plenty of room to move with plenty to spare, you could fit the PID into the smaller version with a few millimetres to spare, use the white mounting brace that comes with the pid to trace the size of the hole necessary onto the front of the enclosure, this is where the PID will slide into, remember its better to be a tighter fit than too loose so be gently and careful with the cutout, now, I drilled holes with a drill all the way around the inside of the tracing then pushed out the plastic and squared it up with a Stanley knife and sandpaper until it fit in nice and tight, after you have it mounted in nice and flush, remove it and set the PID and enclosure aside.
Wiring – SSR to Boiler - now this is a little bit of guess work, cut about 60 cms of the 240v cable off and cut the cable to remove the 3 wires by slicing the outer sheath, you must not penetrate the wires inside the outer cable, this WILL make the wire….lets just say a little dangerous! So take care!
Pull the wires out individually by hand, you will only use 2 of the 3 wires, brown and blue, discard the green wire and outer sheath. Bare all 4 ends of the 2 wires but only about 8mm max. The crimp on the 2 spade connectors to one end of both wires as pictured (pic 031).
Wiring – SSR to PID (control cable) – you’ll need to leave about 1 meter for this one, bare one end of the cable by slicing gently to remove the outer sheath and exposing the inner wires protruding about 3 cm’s, bare the brown and blue wires by cutting gently and removing their sheath’s, only expose a max of 1 cm of this wire, and twist the inner wire tight. I cut the green wire at the outer sheath level because I didn’t use it, obviously, as you will only need two of the three wires.
2 Prong Power Lead – power to PID – I found a power lead that plugs into a AA battery charger and simply cut the connection off the end, not the end that plugs into the wall, the other end, you could also use a desk light lead or any other 2 prong power lead laying around the house.
K-Type Thermocouple – PID to boiler top – If you get the K-type with the end to plug into a DMM, simply cut off the connector and bare the metal wires, expose only about 4mm of this delicate wire. (Take note of the polarity of the wire colours).
Step 3 – Install the SSR and Wiring to boiler.
Time to mount the SSR, the best place I found to mount it, needing no modifications was behind the splashback as pictured, I simply removed the screw that holds the Silvia’s power cable on the back of the centre plate and screwed it in from the front side of the centre plate as pictured, this now serves two purposes, it now holds the SSR in place securely behind the slashplate and it still holds the power cable in place behind the plate!, perfect! Make sure the SSR is mounted so that the 2-32VDC input is at the bottom, just thought this would be a good safety measure given the DC voltage closer to the bottom of the splashback, don’t really know if it matters but oh well, it’s a thought!
Now grab your two 60cm wires with the spade connectors on one end, as pictured connect the uncrimped ends to the top side of the SSR as it sits mounted, you can follow my wiring colours if you want, not sure if it makes a difference with this one though as I believe the SSR acts as basically a switch, I placed the brown wire in 1 and the blue wire in 2 as pictured.
continued on next post.........








































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