I used one of these to fix an expensive portable fridge that was going to cost me hundreds of dollars to repair the board. Fortunately the compressor still ran continually with emergency bypass. I just tapped into the power cable with an automotive relay. Works perfectly. Has no lower power disconnect though. I reckon the Chinese might have one of those modules for a couple of bucks. Thanks for this video it helped me a lot.
I got the same thing, only in 220V, so yes, it can be made in different voltages. On the back it says 12V 110V 220V where mine is marked. Great educational video.
This will do nicely for my computer desk fan setup. The always on during a fault issue will actually be a plus in that usage and any other case when used to cool vital components.
I had a lot of fun with this item! So glad you made this video as my fridge is 20+ years old and I fear one day I would awaken to a puddle in the floor from the unit dying overnight. I ordered four of these, 4 12v wall warts, 4 female power jacks, and 4 intermittent sounders. Wired the sounder in to the relay, drilled a hole for the power jack, drilled 6 holes for the sound to escape, put the sounder inside, tight fit but it worked, super glued a magnet to the base, stuck it to the side of the fridge, set it up to monitor the freezer temperature! I used one as a proof of concept, one as a prototype and gave the other two to my brothers. I used the prototype for my personal one and threw the proof of concept one in the junk drawer for future experiments. Only problem was waiting weeks for the components to arrive from China!
buy the thermostat version for 110-220v and its easy (3 wires) replacement for your fridge thermostat. if the fridge dies its either thermostat or the varistor disc thats on the rear of the compressor. both are janky old crap. best fix them both with modern controls instead of waiting for them to fail
I just purchased one of these for controlling a home made solar powered roof (attic) fan setup and came across your very useful demo on how to set it up and adjust it, many thanks. Tomorrows and the following two days peak temp is 40+C so the roof extractor should continuously operation if this has been correctly followed i.e. Well into the red zone NSW in Oz
cheers clive. i got one on aliexpress for a quid fifty but no instructions. yesterday my 7 month old fridge died because of the thermostat. i now have installed this gadget and have a digital fridge! i also removed the motor start varistor and built a circuit with a capacitor and 2 relays to give the start winding a fraction second pulse when needed. where i live there are lots of powerline issues where the power can drop for just long enough for a motor to stop but not long enough for a varistor to cool off, leaving the compressor to cook until the overtemp cutout trips. i recommend both these mods to anyone capable. it also cures the problem with keeping a deep freeze in the garage in the cold then having it self defrost on a cold day and ruin your food. in my case i still had 2 year guarantee but taking it back to the shop would cost in petrol 4x the price of this thermostat i had on the shelf. i get really pissed off as an electronics engineer when i see the jenky way cars and domestic appliances are wired just to save a penny per unit.
I purchased one to fix a 1500W heater. One version is given for 220V 10A. Must say that for 3.35€ including shipping, it is rather competitive! Just installed it and works well. No clue about long term reliability. But for this price...Thanks for the clear video explaining how to set "heating"/"cooling mode" which is not straightforward on the website. Hope the coronavirus was not in the parcel :-)
I bought a 120v sous-vide temp control module for my vodka/brewing setup (it controls the heat mats I use to warm the fermenters) and it's been one of my best e-bay purchases yet. Very reliable and quite versatile for brewing with 0.1 deg precision and all sorts of alarm conditions and stuff I don't even need. It was around $25 CAD and a comparable unit here was something crazy like $125 or higher. When they care to, Chinese factories can turn out some very well-engineered stuff for not a lot of money.
I reckon the "on when thermistor shorted" feature/weakness is actually intentional design and not an oversight. Consider how you could use a switch to override the controller by placing it in parallel with the thermistor. The advantage of this over having an external bypass switch, is that the controller will indicate an override is active on its display. Also, the switch doesn't have to be capable of switching the 'high' current passing through the load. I suspect the load on/off state for a short and open circuit thermistor will reverse if you set it to "cooling mode".
Thanks Clive. I bought one on E Bay and there were no instructions. I couldn't work out how to set it using trial and error. Your video saved the day. I've used it with my slow cooker to do some sous vide cooking. (These are available to control a 250 volt supply.)
I bought 3 of these. Installed one on my RV, over the range fan. Seems the small brains can’t remember to turn on the fan when cooking. This is great in that it now turns it on automatically when it detects heat.
Picked this up to add a couple old PC fans to my hen house. When it gets too warm in there a couple fans will start circulating air and turn on a light as a warning. Very simple and nice. Thanks for the video.
Hello Sir, I don't know what I have been doing wrong, mine reads 12v 110v 220v but I keep on short-circuiting them. Kindly assist me out on how to regulate the amount of power needed. Thank you
@@sharonkwamboka-xf8ro They are marked on the back with a marker for the voltage. They only come in two voltage types. Yours is either 12 volts or 110 thru 220 volts
The difference between set point and reset point is normally called "deadband". Hysteresis is usually used to define the difference between in a continuous output when the signal is rising or falling.
I bought one for 220V/1500W and it principally works the same, though it is not as intuitive to use as the one you are demonstrating, it does not flash when the settings are ready to be changed. Does the job, heats up a silicon heating pad within the range. My only comment would be the in/out wiring which seems to be rather flimsy for such high voltages and wattage, the heating pad is 750W and there are 2 of them, seems to work fine. Thanks for helping with figuring out how to set the controller, difficult when it comes with no instructions.
This controller was used on our incubator. It started to overheat and this was just the solution. Thank you. I hope the quail eggs will be alright from. The moment it overheated...
I built myself a refrigerator using a 100W peltier plate and I'm powering it with the +12V rail of a ATX PSU. The current issue I have is it just runs as cold as the room will let it get. Which is causing large amounts of ice to build up on the heatsink inside the unit which is causing cooling effectiveness issues. Not to mention the ice buildup is stopping the fan from circulating the cold air inside the unit. This seems like the perfect "legos for adults" component to regulate the internal temperature more effectively if it can run off +12V and deliver up to 100W.
THANK YOU MUCHLY FOR THIS VIDEO, as my purchase came without instructions...You have made things very clear, and make the wiring job a sinch. Using this gizmo to trigger exhaust fans on my liesure battery bank underneath the passenger double seat of our Sprinter Campervan. Thanks again. :)
Vinyl wrap it in pink, get a big enough frame and add some lights! It'd make for a pretty cool video IMHO. After that, restore it to its original condition and hang it pretty in your home, as a reminder to yourself of how someone (you) from the Isle of Man can make such a big impact on the lives of so many people around the world!
Thank you so much. I have a 220V AC version of the exact same device. Using what I could see in your video I modded mine to run on 12V DC. Works like a charm.
I've found most of these controls work fine (for hobby use only of course) but it never drive more than an amp or so directly. It's always a good idea to drive and nice name brand relay.
An even-cheaper version of the DIN modular thermostat packages from Willhay Electronics. Mind you theirs were 240V rated, with everything programmable, alarm contacts, o/p changeover contacts, etc for a rather measly $20 AU! If you don't need sophistication, this would be great - idea as a fridge thermostat, or fishtank heater stat. That PCB has a lot of space and markings for added components, so its probable that there is a 240V version out there. Well worth looking for, and I'll be buying a few to play with. Thanks Clive!
I suppose when theres a fault or disconnection of the temperature probe its pretty much 50/50 whether it would be preferable for it to default to on or off depending on the application, especially since it can be used in both directions. like you say you need an extra failsafe mechanism. but the thing is probably intended to a just a part of a wider control system so thats fair enough
Thanks indeed for your insight Clive. I had to find a circuit diagramme for the same item that I have just received. As always you are very helpful... Excellent review. My app is for controlling a heated box with a terrarium heater lamp for bread prooving and fungi culture. Let's see how the 240 V version goes with the relay etc.
Waterproof probe and ability to handle mains voltage, and you could use an improved version to control a cheap slow-cooker for use as a sous-vide water bath.
Aww damn, wish I knew these things existed when I built my new computer, a bunch of those with the thermistors gooped onto the various heat syncs would be great fan controls
yes it comes in various voltages i got 1 that is 220 v ac and it has check marks where they indicate voltage when built / made . there is 12v dc, 24 v dc and 220 v ac choices available mine is 220 v ac to control my air conditioner here in the philippines Thank You very informative video v
Thanks Clive I know I've paid for uk models maybe 60-100 quid in the past , some of these however had proportional band setting and other offsets etc..Interesting unit
Hi I guess if it's used for keeping something cold it's better to default to ON. However a second layer of protection is always advisable. Great videos by the way.
Thanks for this, I learned quite a bit. Well presented video. I purchased this for my 12 volt cooler on Amazon. I didn't like that the peltier cooler was on all the time when plugged in, will see if this can minimize my solar electric charged battery consumption on my DIY stepvan tiny home. Cheers from Canada.
I am looking to use a 220v version to control tube heater in a fermentation chamber, but I am unsure what to do about the neutral wire on tube heater and on the mains in plug? Very clear description for the 12v version !
The fact that the load doesn't switch off if the thermistor is disconnected or at fault means that it has probably been designed for cooling applications as opposed to heating applications. Not necessarily a fault depending on what the application it is used for.
The microcontroller is an STM8003F3 series with 8KB of flash memory. If you have an ST-Link V2 programmer and can access the programming pin (pin 18), you could reprogram it with some custom firmware to fix the output staying on when the sensor gets disconnected.
Hi Clive. I have a similar thermostat to control my 12v fan in my greenhouse. The fan is meant to be rated to 220w. It’s an improvement from the 80w that was there b4. My question is: as it was a £40.00 car rad eBay fan, when measuring current x volts I get 100+ watts at best. A wee review on output of car fans would be great. Also how to build your own 12v temp control circuit. Tried to build one once, then purchased on lol. Keep up the content mate, it’s enlightens plus entertains!greating from the East Neuk of Fife!! 👍
Would love to see a comparison and your general take on what is practically the default option for temperature control in home brewing; the STC-1000. It's only around £8 on ebay and almost everyone that builds a fermentation chamber or kegerator seems to be using it.
One thing the XH-W3001 it doesn't appear to have is a Fahrenheit mode. Living in the US I never think in Celsius. Usually require an online converter to figure Fahrenheit. Most of the other W series thermostats you're able to switch between Celsius and Fahrenheit.
Excellent video. Need to think about the potential issue with a thermostat failure. Im using it to run a 10w heat pad for bee hives, so dinnae want them cooked.
I'm sure there are scenarios where keeping something at temperature would necessitate the failure mode to be keeping the load on. I.e. I'd rather have a fridge cool too much and freeze things (unless its compressor required a certain off time) than to suddenly cut off and have to throw everything out, suppose it just depends on the application.
That would work great for a heated bed on a 3D printer as a secondary controller rather than going through the circuit board. It would have to be used as a sending signal only though. The heatbeds usually draw around 10 amps while heating at 12 volts. Maybe going through an SSR or something might work.
I got that other temp controller you were messing with, and it's been great! This one is real nice lookin though, would have been way quicker to use, not that I mind making an enclosure though.
Hi. Your video is very instructive and I wonder if I want to build something similar to a chicken eggs incubator. It is enough to use this thermostat with an incandescent lightbulb or I need an SSD relay as well?
Thanks big Clive. You’ve helped me. I needed to know if it would remember the settings when the power was removed as I plan to use it to turn on a diesel water heater to keep a circuit from freezing
Thank you for the clear explanation, it's great not having a Yank hoping for an Oscar. I have a positive pressure ventilation unit in a loft of a home that I let. It doesn't shut off when the loft temperature falls low. I can now control it to shut off when it falls too low.
Nice video showing how this works. Thank you. I have question in regard to temperature setting. In the event of a power failure, will the unit restore back to the last set temperatures for the "Start" and "Stop" Or it will reset back to the factory default value?
How can you stand temperatures _that_ cold? Anything under 26c feels like freezing for me.! I can't wait for the Summer to come back, God I miss it so much right now you have no idea
I usually have it at about 15C. 12C at night. I only crank it up to 20C if I have visitors. I'm also a Scot. I guess it depends on the type of climate you're used to. Also the cost of energy where you are. 26C would have me panting on the floor!
+dalriada842 I'd melt at 26. I'm comfy at 15 (if I'm just sitting), less if I 'm doing something. But I'm a Scot Canadian. I imagine CoolDude is from somewhere a bit hotter. It is funny watching new immigrants from Africa coming here and putting parkas on when it's 20 out ;)
also easily reprogrammed (just get ST Visual Develop (free) and a $2 ST-Link clone) , those STM8's are pretty nice MCUs in a lot of ways; using that very chip on a project right now - terrific value for money
hey, im trying to use this to switch a heat cartridge, i have the 12v 120w model. So what i did is, i hooked up a Lipo 3 cell 12v battery to the input, and a 12v 40 watt 3d printer heat cartridge on the output, i set it up just like he did in the video to heat, but even when the output light is on, the heat cartridge does not heat up, anyone has an idea what could be wrong ? is it the lipo ? only thing i could imagine being the problem is the heat cartridge being broken :/ please help :(
+bigclivedotcom I noticed something interesting at about 30 seconds. While you held the piece of paper, the seven segment displays were flickering, but shortly after you moved the paper off screen the flickering stopped. I assume that is the ipad adjusting the white balance. Could you use this to correct flickering in the future? Might be worth a few minutes experimentation.
it may adjust white balance (which should be manually set before filming) but the flicker stopped due to the shutter speed reducing to below the multiplex clock
It would be interesting to know if that unused 4 way connector under the chip is the SWIM programming port for flashing the firmware onto it in the first place. If it is one pin should to pin 18 (data) and the other to pin 4 (reset) of the chip and the other two being power.
what kind of led magnifying glass do you use? it looks quite handy for reading chips, and you seem to have good luck with that. you could do a video on it, or brief about it in your next Q/A video
@Paul D. note that this is only IP22 protection class and only for indoor use. If you use it in a greenhouse it might not last long and is also not very safe. I would at least put it into a hefty plastic bag or plastic box and seal it. and use a solid state relay to switch the load if it's more than 30-40 Watt. these little relays are not designed for high resistive loads.
Question: I'd like to distill some vodka (I need reasonably pure ethanol as a solvent). I'd tried freeze distilling (putting the vodka in a 2 litre pop bottle and freezing it) then taking the cap off and holding it upside down over a jug and collecting 40cL (from 1L of 40% vodka) that drips out. This yielded about a 75% solution :(. How about if I get one of these things, a SSR and a cheap electric cooking hob. Use the module to turn the hob on and off at around say 85C, that should be enough to boil the ethanol without boiling the water. Then just channel the vapour through a simple condenser and collect? Would that beat 75% do you think?
Well I need it as pure as possible, like I mentioned I need it as a solvent so I'm essentially trying to turn a 40% solution (vodka) into 95% (rectified spirit). I tried the oil separation method too, but that only yielded about 75% again, I think once the density becomes low enough to float on the oil that's the best it can do. Using a glass bead column I did read about too, but I'd still need some control over the heating to keep the fractioning point of the water stable.
+Eden, yes I think this is the way to go after reading about it. So if I follow you here. The vapour (which is a stronger concentration than the liquid being distilled) starts to condense on the beads in the bottom of the column, the condensate is naturally a stronger concentration, this then re-vapourises forming an even stronger concentrated vapour which again condenses further up the column and the process repeats getting stronger and stronger each time?
Surely there has to be some alternative, easier to obtain solvent? What are you trying to do with this solvent? Rubbing alcohol / Methylated spirits etc would probably be an ok subsitution for most cases.. if it does need to be drinkable woulnd't it be easier to get a bottle of everclear 190 if you're in the states or rectified spirits if your in the rest of the world?
Back when we had an immersion heater for hot water the thermostat failed a couple times. For some stupid reason it's fail condition was on. So we found out by turning the tap on and steam coming out instead of water :/ So yeah potentially quite dangerous but fortunately no one was injured. It did fill the whole of the upstairs with steam though.
Yep thats simple with bugger all to go wrong, should be very reliable :-D That same setup could be used to keep a soldering iron at the correct temprature with software tampering and a different sensor.
thanks for your video. i got mine working to come on at 18c and go off at 24c. found today the power out light does no longer come on. probe is still reading accurately but as i say no power output no longer comes on. any ideas please?
Nice video. I am looking at getting this to control the fan on my solar hot air heater to replace the snap disc fan control, greater range oe adjustment. Will I be able to power this with a 12v wall wort?
Thanks BigC I have placed a order, also I noticed that that morning there had been 4 of these sold and that afternoon it had jumped up to 22 pcs. sold so you are a great SALESMAN lol.
This is why I always buy more of a particular product I like before I release the video. And bizarrely, even products I give terrible reviews to, end up selling more.
Did it switch on when you shorted the terminals because you didn't short them completely and thus 'measured' a resistance on the thermocouple socket that would be in the 'on' range? You briefly got 27.4ºC on the display when you shorted it and it turned on. A 'proper' short would probably have left the light off and an intermittent one would have the light randomly flashing? Even if this is the case, it's still not ideal that it's just remembering the last setting.
Hello you test was very usefull thank you. Could you please do the same for XK-W1099 dual temperature and humidity control? I am not sure I understand how to program it.
Mine shows 1,5 degrees more than it actually is, but I can't seem to find a way to calibrate it... I have it for 1 year now in my incubator and im setting it to 39 degrees (Celsius) to actually get the 37.5 that I need). Big negative for this device the absence of calibration option.
It looks like it might not be too hard to hack that into a dry contact relay. But since you can get a near-identical unit for the same price that is already dry contact, there wouldn't be much point in doing so.
Can you do one of those Chinese PID controllers? Would be interesting to see if they are any good. What we have as a industry standard in Norway is more or less 10 times more expensive.
just a quick thank you for this video. i've just got one of the mains controllers and it works well.... now i know how it works! ;) You have great channel too, you've got a new sub today :)
If this was used in a cooling application, say running a fan on hot electronics, wouldn't you want the failure scenario to turn on the fan? Seems to me that might have been the logic behind turning on the output if the thermistor fails. Would be nice to have the failure state configurable, but I guess you can't ask for much given the cost.
I think those two zero ohm resistors jumping the slot could be bridging the 12v to the relay? So your model actually has 12v on the relay, but remove those two resistors and you just get the bare relay contacts? That would explain why it's jumping the anti-tracking slot.
This actually looks like a really handy unit. I have no real use for one of these, and if I did, I'd just use an Arduino, but seems like a good buy nonetheless. Props to Chinese eBay sellers!
HI I have the 230V variant and for some reasons when it reaches the setted temperature the red light keeps blinking and the relè turns on and off repeatedly. Any advise? thanks
I bought almost the same looking controller that you have in your hand in that video. It's xw- w300 to it has three buttons on it and when I press the three buttons the first saw the buttons I get P1 P2 P3 and then the two other buns offer up and down but I'm not sure how to program this unit the one that you have is so much simpler maybe you can give me some pointers how to program the one that I have I appreciate it if you get back to me
You can extend the existing one and pot it in resin. If you measure the resistance at around 20 degrees Celsius it will indicate which type of thermistor it is. Often 10K (10,000 ohms).
I use a 230mm, 12v case fan as a cooling fan in my bedroom window when it is too chilly outside for AC but too hot for heat. My current method of "my lord it is cold in here, better unplug the fan" just went out the window (no pun intended) I think.
I used one of these to fix an expensive portable fridge that was going to cost me hundreds of dollars to repair the board.
Fortunately the compressor still ran continually with emergency bypass.
I just tapped into the power cable with an automotive relay. Works perfectly.
Has no lower power disconnect though.
I reckon the Chinese might have one of those modules for a couple of bucks.
Thanks for this video it helped me a lot.
I got the same thing, only in 220V, so yes, it can be made in different voltages. On the back it says 12V 110V 220V where mine is marked. Great educational video.
This will do nicely for my computer desk fan setup. The always on during a fault issue will actually be a plus in that usage and any other case when used to cool vital components.
Except it only wen't always on when he shorted it. If it's off when it fails and then it gets hotter...
I had a lot of fun with this item! So glad you made this video as my fridge is 20+ years old and I fear one day I would awaken to a puddle in the floor from the unit dying overnight. I ordered four of these, 4 12v wall warts, 4 female power jacks, and 4 intermittent sounders. Wired the sounder in to the relay, drilled a hole for the power jack, drilled 6 holes for the sound to escape, put the sounder inside, tight fit but it worked, super glued a magnet to the base, stuck it to the side of the fridge, set it up to monitor the freezer temperature! I used one as a proof of concept, one as a prototype and gave the other two to my brothers. I used the prototype for my personal one and threw the proof of concept one in the junk drawer for future experiments. Only problem was waiting weeks for the components to arrive from China!
buy the thermostat version for 110-220v and its easy (3 wires) replacement for your fridge thermostat. if the fridge dies its either thermostat or the varistor disc thats on the rear of the compressor. both are janky old crap. best fix them both with modern controls instead of waiting for them to fail
I just purchased one of these for controlling a home made solar powered roof (attic) fan setup and came across your very useful demo on how to set it up and adjust it, many thanks. Tomorrows and the following two days peak temp is 40+C so the roof extractor should continuously operation if this has been correctly followed i.e. Well into the red zone NSW in Oz
cheers clive. i got one on aliexpress for a quid fifty but no instructions. yesterday my 7 month old fridge died because of the thermostat. i now have installed this gadget and have a digital fridge! i also removed the motor start varistor and built a circuit with a capacitor and 2 relays to give the start winding a fraction second pulse when needed. where i live there are lots of powerline issues where the power can drop for just long enough for a motor to stop but not long enough for a varistor to cool off, leaving the compressor to cook until the overtemp cutout trips. i recommend both these mods to anyone capable. it also cures the problem with keeping a deep freeze in the garage in the cold then having it self defrost on a cold day and ruin your food.
in my case i still had 2 year guarantee but taking it back to the shop would cost in petrol 4x the price of this thermostat i had on the shelf.
i get really pissed off as an electronics engineer when i see the jenky way cars and domestic appliances are wired just to save a penny per unit.
I purchased one to fix a 1500W heater. One version is given for 220V 10A. Must say that for 3.35€ including shipping, it is rather competitive! Just installed it and works well. No clue about long term reliability. But for this price...Thanks for the clear video explaining how to set "heating"/"cooling mode" which is not straightforward on the website. Hope the coronavirus was not in the parcel :-)
I bought a 120v sous-vide temp control module for my vodka/brewing setup (it controls the heat mats I use to warm the fermenters) and it's been one of my best e-bay purchases yet. Very reliable and quite versatile for brewing with 0.1 deg precision and all sorts of alarm conditions and stuff I don't even need. It was around $25 CAD and a comparable unit here was something crazy like $125 or higher. When they care to, Chinese factories can turn out some very well-engineered stuff for not a lot of money.
I reckon the "on when thermistor shorted" feature/weakness is actually intentional design and not an oversight. Consider how you could use a switch to override the controller by placing it in parallel with the thermistor. The advantage of this over having an external bypass switch, is that the controller will indicate an override is active on its display. Also, the switch doesn't have to be capable of switching the 'high' current passing through the load. I suspect the load on/off state for a short and open circuit thermistor will reverse if you set it to "cooling mode".
Thanks Clive. I bought one on E Bay and there were no instructions. I couldn't work out how to set it using trial and error. Your video saved the day. I've used it with my slow cooker to do some sous vide cooking. (These are available to control a 250 volt supply.)
I bought 3 of these. Installed one on my RV, over the range fan. Seems the small brains can’t remember to turn on the fan when cooking. This is great in that it now turns it on automatically when it detects heat.
Picked this up to add a couple old PC fans to my hen house. When it gets too warm in there a couple fans will start circulating air and turn on a light as a warning.
Very simple and nice.
Thanks for the video.
Hello Sir, I don't know what I have been doing wrong, mine reads 12v 110v 220v but I keep on short-circuiting them. Kindly assist me out on how to regulate the amount of power needed.
Thank you
@@sharonkwamboka-xf8ro They are marked on the back with a marker for the voltage. They only come in two voltage types. Yours is either 12 volts or 110 thru 220 volts
I purchased one to use to cool my power supply when loaded. Works fantastic!
The difference between set point and reset point is normally called "deadband". Hysteresis is usually used to define the difference between in a continuous output when the signal is rising or falling.
I bought one for 220V/1500W and it principally works the same, though it is not as intuitive to use as the one you are demonstrating, it does not flash when the settings are ready to be changed. Does the job, heats up a silicon heating pad within the range. My only comment would be the in/out wiring which seems to be rather flimsy for such high voltages and wattage, the heating pad is 750W and there are 2 of them, seems to work fine. Thanks for helping with figuring out how to set the controller, difficult when it comes with no instructions.
This controller was used on our incubator. It started to overheat and this was just the solution. Thank you. I hope the quail eggs will be alright from. The moment it overheated...
Hello. I am planning to put it in my incubator so my question is " How many degree do you put ON - OFF time?
@@jlopezleonoff 38.0
On 37.2
It's incredible how soothing & therapeutic I find your videos haha
I built myself a refrigerator using a 100W peltier plate and I'm powering it with the +12V rail of a ATX PSU. The current issue I have is it just runs as cold as the room will let it get. Which is causing large amounts of ice to build up on the heatsink inside the unit which is causing cooling effectiveness issues. Not to mention the ice buildup is stopping the fan from circulating the cold air inside the unit. This seems like the perfect "legos for adults" component to regulate the internal temperature more effectively if it can run off +12V and deliver up to 100W.
THANK YOU MUCHLY FOR THIS VIDEO, as my purchase came without instructions...You have made things very clear, and make the wiring job a sinch. Using this gizmo to trigger exhaust fans on my liesure battery bank underneath the passenger double seat of our Sprinter Campervan. Thanks again. :)
Another thermostat for converting freezers to energy efficient refrigerators! Quite popular with the off-grid crowd.
sounds nice
Surprising how often you see the little Songle relays, and how tough the little buggers are.
I can't wait till you get your Silver Play button, just think of the LED modifications you can make to it to make it extra awesome!
There should be a clive-special play button, in pink and made with something suitably dangerous... :P
It finally arrived. I've not decided what to do with it yet. In fact it's still in its box.
Vinyl wrap it in pink, get a big enough frame and add some lights! It'd make for a pretty cool video IMHO.
After that, restore it to its original condition and hang it pretty in your home, as a reminder to yourself of how someone (you) from the Isle of Man can make such a big impact on the lives of so many people around the world!
It needs a capacitor dropper.
Neon Pink!
Thank you so much. I have a 220V AC version of the exact same device. Using what I could see in your video I modded mine to run on 12V DC. Works like a charm.
How you mod that to run on 12v please let me know
How you mod this to run on 12v
Seems a solid little unit.
Could easily power a larger external relay to power heavier equipment.
Help me plz...how do I convert this to 12v to 110-220v
I've found most of these controls work fine (for hobby use only of course) but it never drive more than an amp or so directly. It's always a good idea to drive and nice name brand relay.
yes, not even the cables are ready for 10 A
An even-cheaper version of the DIN modular thermostat packages from Willhay Electronics. Mind you theirs were 240V rated, with everything programmable, alarm contacts, o/p changeover contacts, etc for a rather measly $20 AU! If you don't need sophistication, this would be great - idea as a fridge thermostat, or fishtank heater stat. That PCB has a lot of space and markings for added components, so its probable that there is a 240V version out there. Well worth looking for, and I'll be buying a few to play with. Thanks Clive!
I got this exact product & model in my mail today......so I'm glad I found this video to see how it really works..... cheers! :D
Is it still working?
I suppose when theres a fault or disconnection of the temperature probe its pretty much 50/50 whether it would be preferable for it to default to on or off depending on the application, especially since it can be used in both directions. like you say you need an extra failsafe mechanism. but the thing is probably intended to a just a part of a wider control system so thats fair enough
Thanks indeed for your insight Clive. I had to find a circuit diagramme for the same item that I have just received. As always you are very helpful... Excellent review. My app is for controlling a heated box with a terrarium heater lamp for bread prooving and fungi culture. Let's see how the 240 V version goes with the relay etc.
Waterproof probe and ability to handle mains voltage, and you could use an improved version to control a cheap slow-cooker for use as a sous-vide water bath.
markiangooley that's what I did! The unit controls a contactor->1000w immersion heater, best stakes I've ever cooked 😀
Aww damn, wish I knew these things existed when I built my new computer, a bunch of those with the thermistors gooped onto the various heat syncs would be great fan controls
Mort OOPz you're more better of using it for the air inside the case than the heatsinks
yes it comes in various voltages i got 1 that is 220 v ac and it has check marks where they indicate voltage when built / made . there is 12v dc, 24 v dc and 220 v ac choices available mine is 220 v ac to control my air conditioner here in the philippines
Thank You very informative video
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Thanks Clive I know I've paid for uk models maybe 60-100 quid in the past , some of these however had proportional band setting and other offsets etc..Interesting unit
the 4 button models have offset and hysteresis settings and only a quid more.
Hi I guess if it's used for keeping something cold it's better to default to ON. However a second layer of protection is always advisable. Great videos by the way.
Excellent instruction. Thank you for your detailed examination of the module.
Thank you Clive . Educational as always. Keep up the excellent work
Thanks for this, I learned quite a bit. Well presented video.
I purchased this for my 12 volt cooler on Amazon. I didn't like that the peltier cooler was on all the time when plugged in, will see if this can minimize my solar electric charged battery consumption on my DIY stepvan tiny home. Cheers from Canada.
I bought a 240V one, I'm going to use it to turn on a fan on a solar heater. Thanks for this information, mine came with nothing.
Thanks !!! I couldn’t set it up and this video help me a lot 👍 👏 😊
I have a ptcheater fan for an enclosure I'm building. The ptc fan module was pulling 10amps even when it was off
Great little device for running an over temp siren for our server room.
I am looking to use a 220v version to control tube heater in a fermentation chamber, but I am unsure what to do about the neutral wire on tube heater and on the mains in plug?
Very clear description for the 12v version !
The fact that the load doesn't switch off if the thermistor is disconnected or at fault means that it has probably been designed for cooling applications as opposed to heating applications. Not necessarily a fault depending on what the application it is used for.
The microcontroller is an STM8003F3 series with 8KB of flash memory.
If you have an ST-Link V2 programmer and can access the programming pin (pin 18), you could reprogram it with some custom firmware to fix the output staying on when the sensor gets disconnected.
I'm wondering if the empty 4 pin connector under the STM8 chip is the SWIM programming connector making this even easier to do.
I've been looking all over the place for the microcontroller used. Thanks for the info!
I have 1 connected to my DIY solar hotwater pump (aquaponics) and it works perfectly
handy device, it could be good for controlling venting fans in a camper van to keep it cool
Hi Clive. I have a similar thermostat to control my 12v fan in my greenhouse. The fan is meant to be rated to 220w. It’s an improvement from the 80w that was there b4. My question is: as it was a £40.00 car rad eBay fan, when measuring current x volts I get 100+ watts at best. A wee review on output of car fans would be great. Also how to build your own 12v temp control circuit. Tried to build one once, then purchased on lol. Keep up the content mate, it’s enlightens plus entertains!greating from the East Neuk of Fife!! 👍
Would love to see a comparison and your general take on what is practically the default option for temperature control in home brewing; the STC-1000. It's only around £8 on ebay and almost everyone that builds a fermentation chamber or kegerator seems to be using it.
Great video and really useful info, just what I am looking for to control a fan in a small network cupboard, thanks Big Clive.
One thing the XH-W3001 it doesn't appear to have is a Fahrenheit mode. Living in the US I never think in Celsius. Usually require an online converter to figure Fahrenheit. Most of the other W series thermostats you're able to switch between Celsius and Fahrenheit.
Awesome pronunciation of frosty beverage.
Excellent video. Need to think about the potential issue with a thermostat failure. Im using it to run a 10w heat pad for bee hives, so dinnae want them cooked.
You could add a traditional bimetallic thermal switch chosen for a higher temperature. An inline thermal fuse could be used as a last resort.
I'm sure there are scenarios where keeping something at temperature would necessitate the failure mode to be keeping the load on. I.e. I'd rather have a fridge cool too much and freeze things (unless its compressor required a certain off time) than to suddenly cut off and have to throw everything out, suppose it just depends on the application.
You Have been a great help. Thank you :)
Nice price! I have one on order as a remote low temperature alarm for my orchard. Thanks! Oh, AC/DC current clamp arrived and is working wey.
That would work great for a heated bed on a 3D printer as a secondary controller rather than going through the circuit board. It would have to be used as a sending signal only though. The heatbeds usually draw around 10 amps while heating at 12 volts. Maybe going through an SSR or something might work.
I got that other temp controller you were messing with, and it's been great! This one is real nice lookin though, would have been way quicker to use, not that I mind making an enclosure though.
Hi. Your video is very instructive and I wonder if I want to build something similar to a chicken eggs incubator. It is enough to use this thermostat with an incandescent lightbulb or I need an SSD relay as well?
subscribed an hour ago and here is new video
new vids just about every day/night hes a night owl
I just bought mine from shopee. Received today. 220v 1500w version. I saw relay is for 120vac support 7A.
Thanks big Clive. You’ve helped me. I needed to know if it would remember the settings when the power was removed as I plan to use it to turn on a diesel water heater to keep a circuit from freezing
Thank you for the clear explanation, it's great not having a Yank hoping for an Oscar. I have a positive pressure ventilation unit in a loft of a home that I let. It doesn't shut off when the loft temperature falls low. I can now control it to shut off when it falls too low.
Nice video showing how this works. Thank you.
I have question in regard to temperature setting. In the event of a power failure, will the unit restore back to the last set temperatures for the "Start" and "Stop" Or it will reset back to the factory default value?
It should store the settings.
How can you stand temperatures _that_ cold? Anything under 26c feels like freezing for me.! I can't wait for the Summer to come back, God I miss it so much right now you have no idea
CoolDudeClem holy shit, I have the air on way before it gets to 26C (79F).
I usually have it at about 15C. 12C at night. I only crank it up to 20C if I have visitors. I'm also a Scot. I guess it depends on the type of climate you're used to. Also the cost of energy where you are. 26C would have me panting on the floor!
+dalriada842 I'd melt at 26. I'm comfy at 15 (if I'm just sitting), less if I 'm doing something. But I'm a Scot Canadian. I imagine CoolDude is from somewhere a bit hotter. It is funny watching new immigrants from Africa coming here and putting parkas on when it's 20 out ;)
26 that shorts and no shirt weather!
20C would be a warm summer's day here. :)
Hi, do you think that a small plug can be mounted on the probe wire without affecting annything? I need to mount the probe in a remote battery pack.
This actually has some good uses. May have to get one.
It falls into the category of cheap, useful module that might come in handy one day.
I'm looking for something that controls both temperature and humidity. They seem to be quite a bit more expensive. :(
also easily reprogrammed (just get ST Visual Develop (free) and a $2 ST-Link clone) , those STM8's are pretty nice MCUs in a lot of ways; using that very chip on a project right now - terrific value for money
hey, im trying to use this to switch a heat cartridge, i have the 12v 120w model. So what i did is, i hooked up a Lipo 3 cell 12v battery to the input, and a 12v 40 watt 3d printer heat cartridge on the output, i set it up just like he did in the video to heat, but even when the output light is on, the heat cartridge does not heat up, anyone has an idea what could be wrong ? is it the lipo ? only thing i could imagine being the problem is the heat cartridge being broken :/ please help :(
+bigclivedotcom I noticed something interesting at about 30 seconds. While you held the piece of paper, the seven segment displays were flickering, but shortly after you moved the paper off screen the flickering stopped. I assume that is the ipad adjusting the white balance. Could you use this to correct flickering in the future? Might be worth a few minutes experimentation.
it may adjust white balance (which should be manually set before filming) but the flicker stopped due to the shutter speed reducing to below the multiplex clock
It would be interesting to know if that unused 4 way connector under the chip is the SWIM programming port for flashing the firmware onto it in the first place. If it is one pin should to pin 18 (data) and the other to pin 4 (reset) of the chip and the other two being power.
what kind of led magnifying glass do you use? it looks quite handy for reading chips, and you seem to have good luck with that. you could do a video on it, or brief about it in your next Q/A video
I have a module almost exactly like that as a fan controller. Its mains voltage though and just the board.
Hi its a great unit, i use it for an alarm if my freezer temp comes up and a red light comes on.
Thank you for this nice review.
I will be ordering one for my little greenhouse.
You really deserve that ice-cold beverage ;-)
@Paul D. note that this is only IP22 protection class and only for indoor use. If you use it in a greenhouse it might not last long and is also not very safe. I would at least put it into a hefty plastic bag or plastic box and seal it. and use a solid state relay to switch the load if it's more than 30-40 Watt. these little relays are not designed for high resistive loads.
Question: I'd like to distill some vodka (I need reasonably pure ethanol as a solvent). I'd tried freeze distilling (putting the vodka in a 2 litre pop bottle and freezing it) then taking the cap off and holding it upside down over a jug and collecting 40cL (from 1L of 40% vodka) that drips out. This yielded about a 75% solution :(. How about if I get one of these things, a SSR and a cheap electric cooking hob. Use the module to turn the hob on and off at around say 85C, that should be enough to boil the ethanol without boiling the water. Then just channel the vapour through a simple condenser and collect? Would that beat 75% do you think?
SpudHead depends.
If done properly but probably not.
But you can always daisy chain those cookers.
Well I need it as pure as possible, like I mentioned I need it as a solvent so I'm essentially trying to turn a 40% solution (vodka) into 95% (rectified spirit). I tried the oil separation method too, but that only yielded about 75% again, I think once the density becomes low enough to float on the oil that's the best it can do. Using a glass bead column I did read about too, but I'd still need some control over the heating to keep the fractioning point of the water stable.
There's a destillation limit to ethanol. It needs to be dried with chemicals that react with water or it's boiling point has to be altered.
+Eden, yes I think this is the way to go after reading about it. So if I follow you here. The vapour (which is a stronger concentration than the liquid being distilled) starts to condense on the beads in the bottom of the column, the condensate is naturally a stronger concentration, this then re-vapourises forming an even stronger concentrated vapour which again condenses further up the column and the process repeats getting stronger and stronger each time?
Surely there has to be some alternative, easier to obtain solvent? What are you trying to do with this solvent? Rubbing alcohol / Methylated spirits etc would probably be an ok subsitution for most cases.. if it does need to be drinkable woulnd't it be easier to get a bottle of everclear 190 if you're in the states or rectified spirits if your in the rest of the world?
Back when we had an immersion heater for hot water the thermostat failed a couple times. For some stupid reason it's fail condition was on. So we found out by turning the tap on and steam coming out instead of water :/ So yeah potentially quite dangerous but fortunately no one was injured. It did fill the whole of the upstairs with steam though.
Made an order. I might use it as a fan controller.
Yep thats simple with bugger all to go wrong, should be very reliable :-D
That same setup could be used to keep a soldering iron at the correct temprature with software tampering and a different sensor.
thanks for your video. i got mine working to come on at 18c and go off at 24c. found today the power out light does no longer come on. probe is still reading accurately but as i say no power output no longer comes on. any ideas please?
Nice video. I am looking at getting this to control the fan on my solar hot air heater to replace the snap disc fan control, greater range oe adjustment. Will I be able to power this with a 12v wall wort?
A 12V DC wall wart should be fine. The output of the unit will then be that same 12V but switched.
Thanks BigC I have placed a order, also I noticed that that morning there had been 4 of these sold and that afternoon it had jumped up to 22 pcs. sold so you are a great SALESMAN lol.
This is why I always buy more of a particular product I like before I release the video. And bizarrely, even products I give terrible reviews to, end up selling more.
Thanks for another great video, Mr Clive
Did it switch on when you shorted the terminals because you didn't short them completely and thus 'measured' a resistance on the thermocouple socket that would be in the 'on' range? You briefly got 27.4ºC on the display when you shorted it and it turned on. A 'proper' short would probably have left the light off and an intermittent one would have the light randomly flashing? Even if this is the case, it's still not ideal that it's just remembering the last setting.
They are so cheap, just run a few in series to get round this issue!
So clear and helpful!!
Hello you test was very usefull thank you. Could you please do the same for XK-W1099 dual temperature and humidity control? I am not sure I understand how to program it.
Mine shows 1,5 degrees more than it actually is, but I can't seem to find a way to calibrate it... I have it for 1 year now in my incubator and im setting it to 39 degrees (Celsius) to actually get the 37.5 that I need). Big negative for this device the absence of calibration option.
It looks like it might not be too hard to hack that into a dry contact relay. But since you can get a near-identical unit for the same price that is already dry contact, there wouldn't be much point in doing so.
Can you do one of those Chinese PID controllers? Would be interesting to see if they are any good. What we have as a industry standard in Norway is more or less 10 times more expensive.
just a quick thank you for this video. i've just got one of the mains controllers and it works well.... now i know how it works! ;)
You have great channel too, you've got a new sub today :)
Hi Clive. Can you see an easy way to change this unit so it it will go to ground instead of supply + power.
Not sure what you mean by that.
If this was used in a cooling application, say running a fan on hot electronics, wouldn't you want the failure scenario to turn on the fan? Seems to me that might have been the logic behind turning on the output if the thermistor fails.
Would be nice to have the failure state configurable, but I guess you can't ask for much given the cost.
Wow it's very cheap and looks pretty solid
I think those two zero ohm resistors jumping the slot could be bridging the 12v to the relay? So your model actually has 12v on the relay, but remove those two resistors and you just get the bare relay contacts? That would explain why it's jumping the anti-tracking slot.
Thank you so much for this great site, just found it.
This actually looks like a really handy unit. I have no real use for one of these, and if I did, I'd just use an Arduino, but seems like a good buy nonetheless. Props to Chinese eBay sellers!
I ordered a 12v module, and received a 220v version, the funny bit was they supposed to been sold out of everything but the 12v, ha-ha, just my luck!
It would be interesting if you could disassemble a stc-1000 thermostat, a lot of homebrewers buy them from Ali and eBay since they are cheap...
Thank you - much appreciated!
HI I have the 230V variant and for some reasons when it reaches the setted temperature the red light keeps blinking and the relè turns on and off repeatedly. Any advise? thanks
I bought almost the same looking controller that you have in your hand in that video. It's xw- w300 to it has three buttons on it and when I press the three buttons the first saw the buttons I get P1 P2 P3 and then the two other buns offer up and down but I'm not sure how to program this unit the one that you have is so much simpler maybe you can give me some pointers how to program the one that I have I appreciate it if you get back to me
Just came across this video and bought some my question is how do I change the temperature sensor as I need a longer waterproof proof one
Thank you
You can extend the existing one and pot it in resin. If you measure the resistance at around 20 degrees Celsius it will indicate which type of thermistor it is. Often 10K (10,000 ohms).
I use a 230mm, 12v case fan as a cooling fan in my bedroom window when it is too chilly outside for AC but too hot for heat. My current method of "my lord it is cold in here, better unplug the fan" just went out the window (no pun intended) I think.