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Welcome back to Prime Stills and today we're going to build a pID controller for two elements. I'm using my pin, although you can use the inkbird. Use just about anyone that you can rely on. That's for two solid state relays. I got a lot going on. We now have a finished product. And this is my P ID, my dual element p ID all assembled. I got my volt amp meter here so I can keep track of that. I could always use the P ID. It has a power output mode that you can track as well. 

But here's how this works. The light goes on and off. That's the accessory from a water pump. The main power for my pa ID. And when I turn that on, I rewired a different sort of fan that would come on, when I turn the P ID on, it's really the only time. And the controls for this is heat irrelevant number one, and  you’ll notice  that it's flashing because it's requiring some heat

or power. 

The number two. So now these lights will indicate every time that element is fired. And every time I pee, it fires, the lights fire. So that's just a visual indicator and it's manufactured and it goes mckool points. But what I wanted to explain in detail was the necessity for two elements and still, when is it required? And when is it just outmoded? When is it optional? When you have a still and we're just going to draw one great big still and without any of the additions on it. We're talking about heater elements. Because you're going to use a pod controller to control the heat. And so normally you'll put it in about two inches, three inches from the bottom. And then that way your element however it is designed, heats able to heat everything inside here. That's with just one element. When you get a little bit higher than that, sometimes you need some additional help. 

And that's only during the heat up process. What we do is two thirds of the way up, we'll put another one. The second one is normally on what we call a static line, or a static circuit. And what that means is that there's a plug here that you plug in somewhere, and then once it's heated up, you disconnect it. The reason for disconnecting it is because if you have two elements working on the same p ID when they're like this, they start to work against each other. we talked about thermal transfer and convection currents and things going on inside the steel. 

If you get really hot, and when it moves up, it's hot. There are ways around this, but why go through that process, this whole static line. And there's another option, we could build a PD controller, where this one plugs in. And this one plugs in. And we put a switch here and a switch here. And these switches control heater element one, heater element two, and we can either turn it on or turn it off. And that's what we're going to build today. Here's the other consideration. When you get up, you're up to like 50 gallons. One of them is larger devices that may require you to have two elements in the bottom. And that's quite all right. So you put 240 500 watts to 5500 watts to 3500. Whatever the case may be, you can put those in there. Still run both to the same controller. You got the on off switches. 

If something should go what I call caddywhompus, you can always turn one of them off, or leave them both on and since they're both at the same level, they don't compete against each other. So you get a much more smooth, much more efficient, much more gentle maintenance of your temperature. Just remember, if you've got one two thirds of the way up, and it's just helping you heat up, because when you get to like 1316 or above about 16 gallons, you need that additional help to save you time. Because that's all it is, is a time saver. So you've got that when you plugged in. 

Once it gets up the temperature is plugged in. It just relies on the one if you've got a really large still put two in the bottom and that'll really help you along the way. Let's get into building the P ID controller for a multiple element circuit. We've got this box. A larger box that I'm using and I've got my fan here got a 12 volt fan. That will move the air through here to circulate the air to make sure that it remains cool because I've got two solid state relays on heat sinks and I've got a to vent holes and I've got to vent holes also I want to do is make sure that my holes, the area of my holes, or at least equal to the area of the fan so I get a constant flow. I'll probably put one more hole, only to make sure that I've got enough surface.

Another area. I'm using the PG 21. And the PG 21 is the size of the gland. For the 10 gauge wire, I got 10 four, and there's a reason why we're using the 10 four as opposed to attending three, because if you've got four wire forwards on a 240 volt system, I can wire 240 volts anywhere in the box, but I can also wire 120 volts for a separate receptacle. And if I only have a three wire system, I'm only left with 240 volts. I don't have that option for that 120 volt receptacle.