As some of you know, I have recently been investigating the feasibility of controlling both brew temperature AND steam temperature on a PIDd Silvia. I know many others have done this, and it may be old hat, but I was unable to find a simple recipe for the project that also accomplished my objectives.
I needed the steam mod (just like a standard PID mod for brew temperature) to be totally transparent to the user. This ruled out the simple method of temporarily changing the SP on the controller. It also meant that the switch lamp on the steam switch needed to illuminate when the switch was flipped.
Randy G now has a wiring schematic on his http://www.EspressoMyEspresso.com pages (clink the link for How a Silvia Works) for exactly the mod described above. After working with him on a couple of minor revisions, that scheme is what I decided to use.
Today I finally installed this mod on a Silvia for the first time. Although the wiring changes are not that complicated, it is a very tedious job. Access to the steam switch requires a pretty extensive disassembly of Silvia - and even then my short, stubby fingers were nearly useless in the tight quarters.
Fortunately, I can report that the wiring schematic on Randys site works quite well. When you turn on the steam switch, the switch lamp illuminates, mains voltage is supplied to a mechanical relay, which in turn closes a set of contacts. The contact closure generates a "lo" event at the controller (Watlow in my case), which causes it to select its "event set point."
Completely transparent to the user. The only visual indication that something has happened is the immediate change in SP from the normal SP to the event SP (on this US machine, from 228F to 300F). The PID instantly energizes the heater, and then brings it to farily quickly to SP. In short, it works.
This mod was done for a customer (who has been patiently waiting for several weeks) - and I will be shipping it out Monday. That is not going to give me much time to evaluate how much of an improvement the PID control makes in steaming performance. About all I am going to have time to do is make sure everything works reliably before I send it along.
Once you have a controller with an event input, the additional cost to add the steam control is only around $8US for the mechanical relay. I used an IDEC model (RHB series) because it was sized perfectly and because it has tabs sized to fit push-on connectors. The job also requires 2 additional control wires to be run out of the back of Silvia into the external PID enclosure, 2 short high voltage leads from the steam switch to the relay coil, a short jumper across the old steam tstat, and capping a wire that has to be removed from the steam switch and abandoned in place.
If anyone is interested in more details, check Randy Gs site, or reply here on CS.
-- JGG
I needed the steam mod (just like a standard PID mod for brew temperature) to be totally transparent to the user. This ruled out the simple method of temporarily changing the SP on the controller. It also meant that the switch lamp on the steam switch needed to illuminate when the switch was flipped.
Randy G now has a wiring schematic on his http://www.EspressoMyEspresso.com pages (clink the link for How a Silvia Works) for exactly the mod described above. After working with him on a couple of minor revisions, that scheme is what I decided to use.
Today I finally installed this mod on a Silvia for the first time. Although the wiring changes are not that complicated, it is a very tedious job. Access to the steam switch requires a pretty extensive disassembly of Silvia - and even then my short, stubby fingers were nearly useless in the tight quarters.
Fortunately, I can report that the wiring schematic on Randys site works quite well. When you turn on the steam switch, the switch lamp illuminates, mains voltage is supplied to a mechanical relay, which in turn closes a set of contacts. The contact closure generates a "lo" event at the controller (Watlow in my case), which causes it to select its "event set point."
Completely transparent to the user. The only visual indication that something has happened is the immediate change in SP from the normal SP to the event SP (on this US machine, from 228F to 300F). The PID instantly energizes the heater, and then brings it to farily quickly to SP. In short, it works.
This mod was done for a customer (who has been patiently waiting for several weeks) - and I will be shipping it out Monday. That is not going to give me much time to evaluate how much of an improvement the PID control makes in steaming performance. About all I am going to have time to do is make sure everything works reliably before I send it along.
Once you have a controller with an event input, the additional cost to add the steam control is only around $8US for the mechanical relay. I used an IDEC model (RHB series) because it was sized perfectly and because it has tabs sized to fit push-on connectors. The job also requires 2 additional control wires to be run out of the back of Silvia into the external PID enclosure, 2 short high voltage leads from the steam switch to the relay coil, a short jumper across the old steam tstat, and capping a wire that has to be removed from the steam switch and abandoned in place.
If anyone is interested in more details, check Randy Gs site, or reply here on CS.
-- JGG

Wiring has gone back to stock standard and the PID is working fine controlling the brew temperature. Hopefully this will help someone out in the future...
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