RIMS fiacso

With the PID controller all wired up, I connected the temperature probe to the DIP unit to discover that it doesn't work. There are some possibilities for this issue.

Firstly the probe may not be wired to the controller correctly. There are, after all 4 ports on the DIP and 3 wires from the probe. My first attempt was following the wiring diagram shown in the directions. Nothing. So I switched the wires because the probe didn't say at all what the wires it has are. The assumption is that every one who is using this temperature probe already knows how it is wired up internally.

So with 4 ports and 3 wires, two of which are the same color so, there are 12 possible arrangements of the wires. If the single wire is to be jumped to the empty port, as the diagram implies, there are 24 combinations. I didn't have it all worked out in a spreadsheet when I was testing it, but I have a pretty logical mind and was able to go through the various combinations. None of them worked, some less wrong than others. I then went online to get advice from those who have used these two items before me. The consensus was the went wires were to connect top and bottom and the white wire to the second port. There was some differences in opinion as to if the white wire should be jumped or not.

With all that in mind I thought it might be a bad probe, so I purchased another one. Same result, which implies something is wrong with the PID controller. After purchase research, which was much more in-depth than pre-purchase research, revealed that these particular controllers often have a live span of less than one year. To my mind this implies inferior craftsmanship which lend credence to the defective PID controller theory.

So now I am left with wondering if I should purchase another PID and try again, or just cut my losses and let this project go. Considering how much time and money I have in this I am loath to let it go. In hind sight it would have been cheaper to just buy an already built RIMS unit.

Live and learn. At least that's the theory, but I find that often its live and repeat often until learned.

Sláinte!