3.5mm jack to xlr temperature probe

[LazyPasta]

Hello,
I recently got the ss brewtech rims element which uses a 3.5mm jack for the temp probe. I currently have an auber controller that uses a 3 prong xlr connection for the temp probe. I got an adapter (3.5mm jack to xlr) but this doesnt work. Does anybody have an idea whats going on here? Ss brewtech said they didnt see why this wouldnt work (but also said they werent sure). This cant be an uncommon scenario.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Vale71]

Ask them if the PT100 probe is 3-wire or 2-wire. I couldn't find this information on their website. If the probe is 2-wire and the Auber controller expects a 3-wire you'd have an open circuit which is an error condition for the controller.

 

[Gravitysucks]

The pictures of the rims element on SSBrewtech's site show the probe with a stereo plug which suggests it's a 3 wire. The problem could be as simple as the adapter, which is likely wired for audio, has the tip and the center contacts wired in reverse which is putting vcc on the center contact rather than the tip where it should be. If you have a multimeter you should be able to figure out how the adapter is wired and Auber has a lot of PT100 probe kits so I expect they probably have diagrams on their site that show how they are wired to XLR plugs.

 

[LazyPasta]

Thanks for the response. If i can get my hands on a multimeter, where do I go from there? Is this as simple as open adapter cord surgery? I bought this adapter:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B073LKRN2M?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

It does say the adapter is for audio

 

[LazyPasta]

Also, I have the DSPR310D. In the manual, it shows how the terminals should be wired. Maybe need to do some work here? I attached the diagram.

 

[Gravitysucks]

Thanks for the response. If i can get my hands on a multimeter, where do I go from there? Is this as simple as open adapter cord surgery? I bought this adapter:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B073LKRN2M?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

It does say the adapter is for audio

Disregard the vcc part of my previous post. That applies to one wire sensors. PT100 sensors work differently and I've not used them. Post #53 of this thread shows how a 3.5mm plug is connected to a PT100:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/inkbird-ipb-16-pid-controller-inquiry.627648/page-2

Hopefully someone can weigh in on the proper way to wire a PT100 to an XLR plug which should give you an idea of what wires should go where on your adapter.

 

[Vale71]

As I said the first thing is to determine whether the SSB RIMS unit uses a 3-wire sensor. The fact that the plug has 3 contacts might be simply due to them using readily available parts, it's no guarantee that one of the wires simply isn't connected to anything.
If you have access to a meter you should be able to determine which ones are the two red wires and which one is the black wire in your wiring diagram. When measuring between the two red wires you should have a very low resistance value (like 0 to 5 Ohms at worst) whereas at room temperature you should read around 100 Ohm between the black wire and any one of the two red wires. As a matter of fact the red wires are interchangeable and it doesn't matter which one goes to pin 3 and 4 in your diagram as long as the black wire is properly connected to pin 5.
If the sensor is a 2-wire you can still use it but you'll need to bridge pins 3 and 4 with a piece of wire to avoid getting an error condition on your PID.

 

[LazyPasta]

I checked and the 2 reds are in 3 and 4, and the ground has continuity to pin 5. It seems like it is worth a shot bridging pins 3 and 4. Is that as simple as loosening a terminal screws, adding the small piece of wire and tightening back up? Does it matter what kind of wire?

 

[LazyPasta]

I bridged 3 and 4 with a piece of wire and there was continuity between them but it still doesnt work.

 

[Vale71]

I checked and the 2 reds are in 3 and 4, and the ground has continuity to pin 5. It seems like it is worth a shot bridging pins 3 and 4. Is that as simple as loosening a terminal screws, adding the small piece of wire and tightening back up? Does it matter what kind of wire?

Sorry I wasn't clear. You have to find out where the 2 reds and the black end up on the XLR side of the adapter. From that you can determine whether your panel-mounted XLR adapter is properly wired to the PID and eventually alter the cabling so that everything matches. I'm assuming you can modify the controller side, if not then it gets tricky...

 

[LazyPasta]

No problem, thanks for responding. Im literally sitting here with my grains milled wondering what to do. Here are a couple pictures. One is at the xlr input (looking at the back of it). You can see two reds and a white. The second is my DSPR terminals where you can see 3, 4, and 5. The white is in 5.

 

[Vale71]

So you got red at 1 and 3 and black (actually white but it's the same) at 2. Now you need to connect your adapter to the cable going to the probe in the RIMS tube and check the XLR side to see if it matches the cabling in your controller. You should have a negligible resistance between 1 and 3 and somewhere around 100 Ohm between either 2 and 1 or 2 and 3.

 

[LazyPasta]

Between 1 and 2 are negligible, and 2/3 and 1/3 are 110 ohms.

 

[Vale71]

Wonderful. You just need to swap 2 with 3. If you can't or don't want to do solder work just trace them to the PID and swap them there.

 

[LazyPasta]

It WORKS!!!!! Thank you so much. You've saved my brew day! Very thankful for people like you looking out for morons like me on this forum!

 

[pvasey]

Wonderful. You just need to swap 2 with 3. If you can't or don't want to do solder work just trace them to the PID and swap them there.

. I have been reading your posts with lazypasta from earlier last year. I have the identical situation with the exact same equipment except that I am using the 3.5mm female panel mount receptacle. Also I am familiar with the continuity tests and here is where I am having a problem. I have checked the readings at the plug coming directly from the RIMs unit and I get 100 ohms at every position. In other words jumping the tip segment with the base segment yields 100 ohms, jumping the tip segment with the center segment yields 100 ohms and the same is the case jumping the center segment with the base segment. This isn't right is it and if it isn't do you have any idea what might be causing it? At first I thought it might be a short in the cable or something is wrong with the probe itself but the exact same situation with the built in probe from the boil coil and that seems just too coincidental. I certainly would appreciate any insight you might have.

 

[doug293cz]

. I have been reading your posts with lazypasta from earlier last year. I have the identical situation with the exact same equipment except that I am using the 3.5mm female panel mount receptacle. Also I am familiar with the continuity tests and here is where I am having a problem. I have checked the readings at the plug coming directly from the RIMs unit and I get 100 ohms at every position. In other words jumping the tip segment with the base segment yields 100 ohms, jumping the tip segment with the center segment yields 100 ohms and the same is the case jumping the center segment with the base segment. This isn't right is it and if it isn't do you have any idea what might be causing it? At first I thought it might be a short in the cable or something is wrong with the probe itself but the exact same situation with the built in probe from the boil coil and that seems just too coincidental. I certainly would appreciate any insight you might have.

I can't think of any way a short could turn what should be a 0 reading to a 100 ohm reading. Nor can I think of how any of the leads/connections being open could lead to all three readings being 100 ohms. Can you post some pics that show the lead connections to the plug?

Brew on

 

[pvasey]

I believe it would if there a couple of bare wires touching. I'll post a couple of pictures tomorrow.

 

[doug293cz]

I believe it would if there a couple of bare wires touching. I'll post a couple of pictures tomorrow.

Can't see how. Bare wires touching could easily drive what should be a 100 ohm reading lower, but shorts cannot add resistance in series, which is required to make a reading go up.

Brew on

 

[Vale71]

. I have been reading your posts with lazypasta from earlier last year. I have the identical situation with the exact same equipment except that I am using the 3.5mm female panel mount receptacle. Also I am familiar with the continuity tests and here is where I am having a problem. I have checked the readings at the plug coming directly from the RIMs unit and I get 100 ohms at every position. In other words jumping the tip segment with the base segment yields 100 ohms, jumping the tip segment with the center segment yields 100 ohms and the same is the case jumping the center segment with the base segment. This isn't right is it and if it isn't do you have any idea what might be causing it? At first I thought it might be a short in the cable or something is wrong with the probe itself but the exact same situation with the built in probe from the boil coil and that seems just too coincidental. I certainly would appreciate any insight you might have.

Are you sure you don't have a thermocouple-type temperature sensor? Thermocouples work differently than RTDs as they generate a current proportional to the measured temperature, their resistance is a construction-dependent value and is meaningless as a test except to check for broken connections.

 

[doug293cz]

Are you sure you don't have a thermocouple-type temperature sensor? Thermocouples work differently than RTDs as they generate a current proportional to the measured temperature, their resistance is a construction-dependent value and is meaningless as a test except to check for broken connections.

Just to be pedantic: thermocouples generate a voltage approximately proportional to the temperature difference between the hot and cold junctions of the two dissimilar wires.

As far as the OP's problem goes, it would be a very low probability that a thermocouple would measure 100 ohms.

Brew on

 

[Vale71]

Just to be pedantic: thermocouples generate a voltage approximately proportional to the temperature difference between the hot and cold junctions of the two dissimilar wires.

As far as the OP's problem goes, it would be a very low probability that a thermocouple would measure 100 ohms.

Brew on

To be even more pedantic, they generate an electric potential differential between the two junctions.

100 Ohms seems rather hight to me too but there's really no other explanation that comes to mind in this case.

 

[Vale71]

Or maybe some sort of normalized signal such 4-20mA or 0-10VDC? But definitely not an RTD.

 

[pvasey]

If you look at the earlier posts in this thread my equipment is exactly the same stuff, a Ssbrewtech RIMs unit and boil coil used with Aubers DSPR 120 and 320 PIDs. In the earlier posts the gentleman got his wires coming out of the female receptacle to the PID mixed up and once they got that straightened out everything worked fine. In my case I am getting 100 ohm readings off of every combination of wires coming out of the female receptacle. I assumed the problem was the receptacle so I began tracing the readings thru the cables and back to the RIMs unit jack but the nothing changed. I will attempt to attach 3 photos, I'm not very good at this. They show the ohms readings taken on the jack between all 3 segments, tip and base, tip and center and center to base which are 100ohms in every case and I'm pretty sure that's wrong. Now I'm no electrician, I can install a low voltage wiring system in a house by following the diagram but that's it so I don't understand all of your comments. In this case I know that it should work if connected properly. The receptacle's don't have to be grounded to the panel do they?

 

[pvasey]

If you look at the earlier posts in this thread my equipment is exactly the same stuff, a Ssbrewtech RIMs unit and boil coil used with Aubers DSPR 120 and 320 PIDs. In the earlier posts the gentleman got his wires coming out of the female receptacle to the PID mixed up and once they got that straightened out everything worked fine. In my case I am getting 100 ohm readings off of every combination of wires coming out of the female receptacle. I assumed the problem was the receptacle so I began tracing the readings thru the cables and back to the RIMs unit jack but the nothing changed. I will attempt to attach 3 photos, I'm not very good at this. They show the ohms readings taken on the jack between all 3 segments, tip and base, tip and center and center to base which are 100ohms in every case and I'm pretty sure that's wrong. Now I'm no electrician, I can install a low voltage wiring system in a house by following the diagram but that's it so I don't understand all of your comments. In this case I know that it should work if connected properly. The receptacle's don't have to be grounded to the panel do they? View attachment 661015 View attachment 661016 View attachment 661017

By the way the probes are pt100 rtd's

 

[pvasey]

Or maybe some sort of normalized signal such 4-20mA or 0-10VDC? But definitely not an RTD.

Or maybe some sort of normalized signal such 4-20mA or 0-10VDC? But definitely not an RTD.

I attempted to respond to your comments but accidentally posted it as a new post rather than a reply so you may not receive a notification.

 

[doug293cz]

Can you unscrew the plastic terminal cover and take some pics of what the connections inside look like?

Brew on

 

[pvasey]

no, it's molded to the pin and if I try it will probably screw it up and I don't want to void the warranty.

 

[doug293cz]

no, it's molded to the pin and if I try it will probably screw it up and I don't want to void the warranty.

Ok. From what I could see in the pics, it looked like it was one of the threaded on ones.

Brew on

 

[Vale71]

From the pics it looks like you get a slightly lower resistance value between tip and number 3. This could be the same colored wires which should give a very low resistance reading, definitely much lower than what you're getting as they're basically shorted at the probe.
If this is the case I can't really figure out what type of failure would give such a high resistance between two shorted wires...

 

[pvasey]

From the pics it looks like you get a slightly lower resistance value between tip and number 3. This could be the same colored wires which should give a very low resistance reading, definitely much lower than what you're getting as they're basically shorted at the probe.
If this is the case I can't really figure out what type of failure would give such a high resistance between two shorted wires...

Actually the reading variance is more my inability to hold the multimeter steady. After re-checking all are 100ohms except the tip to center and that is like 98 or 99ohms which as I understand it should be zero.

 

[Vale71]

Not exactly zero but in any case a very low value. I think we've established that the probe is defective beyond any doubt. I'd definitely involve customer support at this point.

 

[Jtvann]

Bumping this older thread after creating a similar new one. I'm wanting to use a brew boss controller on a Ssbrewtech eKettle. Any ody able to tell me compatibility? Both use a 3.5mm jack, but I dont know if that's enough.