Power controller

[lord groan]

Has anyone tried one of these in the UK, I want to use one to regulate a power drill operated pump and potentially one 2400w boiler element, not at the same time btw
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/High-Power-40 ... 3f2df5f06f
Described as 220v, I emailed one of the vendors asking if it would handle 230-240v, thinking that as China/HongKong use 220v ac as their mains supply they might just be using that description by default. Bless them they replied quickly but I think the summarised reply is 'we don't know, sorry'.

So has anyone given it a shot? Did it burn out, blow or just plain work?
Thanks

[themadhippy]

Apart from the voltage,you may find it aint that effective controlling a drill,proper AC, motor speed controll is rather complex,the other issue is slowing down the motor reduces the cooling of the motor increasing the chance of things overheating

[alix101]

Interesting...it has an scr (thyristor) inside which are used for motor control. ..I'm surprised looking at it that it controls 4kw.
A drill trigger speed controller has a thyristor in it for control just the same.
I would try it at that price...

[themadhippy]

it has an scr (thyristor) inside which are used for motor control.

A proper AC motor speed controler may well have a thyristor or 2 in them,but there used in a slifghtly diffrent way.These power controlers are just "dimmer switches" they turn off part way through each mains cycle resulting in a reduced average voltage,some types of AC motors will work,often making a loud hum ,but he majority require either the frequency of the supply or the number of poles to be changed,as the number of poles is fixed in by manufacter the only "easy" way is to vary the frequency.

[alix101]

Interesting again....maybe not then.
A frequency controller would be expensive. ...hmm probably cheaper to buy a proper pump.

For the element control I wanted a simple control ,turn up and down without pids or cutting out etc.
...The easiest solution for me was a PSR-25 controlled via a pot...sounds complicated but isn't, it's a very effective and durable it's done many brews now my elements are 4kv so I needed something decent...

[Fil]

for flow control of the pump, a valved loop back to divert some of the pump exit back to its source/input side is employed by a lot of brewers with AC non mag coupled pumps.
can be as simple as a T and valve following the pump exit, one exit from the T folowed by a valve and the pipework to the receiving vessel, the other directed back to either the pump source or a 2nd t on the pump input pipework.
closing the valve with reduce the output flow diverting some of the output from the pump back towards the input side not overly taxing the pump.

for element control im playing with a resistance controlled SSR which is working out really well, tho the kit i got off ebay with a sticky back dial, pot, knob and 40A SSR isnt listed anymore

unlike the ssrs ive seen connected to pids which need a small dc voltage to switch, these ones are controlled with a variable resistor bridging the control poles, so far ive tested mine with a 2kw element, its worked a treat and the heatsink connected to the ssr doesn't heat up significantly tho i expect with a higher load it may.

[themadhippy]

A frequency controller would be expensive

not realy,couple of op amps to genarate the sine wave and a pair of power transistors,i did experament with a signal genarator and a 10kw power amp,it worked but was a bit exessive ,also my mate wanted the amp back.

[alix101]

Slightly off the original and I don't want to hijack the post
But (Themadhippy) would that work on a 3 phase motor I'm trying to atchive simple control of 2.2kw motor/pump I have a frequency controller but it's to complicated for what I want in my brewery and something that will definitely go wrong...turn up turn down that's all I want....is it achievable, because I can't find a " cheap" solution.

[themadhippy]

3 phase and cheap dont go together unfortunatley.