Hi Clive , I've used one of these very modules to switch 2x 5” silent pc fans in the compartment behind the fridge vents in my caravan. The fridge works very well unless the outside temperature is too warm , summertime, so I've got the fans to provide forced air cooling over the cooling fins, temp sensor clipped to them set to trip at 50°c and it works beautifully, keeps the fridge working all through summer in the caravan. Mine came with a neat clear self assembly case made of laser cut polycarbonate excellent value for money.
I've been using one of these on my convection propane heater, once the unit reaches 38c, it switches on 3 computer fans below the wall unit to quietly circulate the air. Once the heater cycles, it's set for 8c hysteresis, so the fans stop when it hits 30c, to pull out the dregs. It's been working great for almost a year, and it and the fans are easily powered by an SLA 12v batt, when the juice goes out, sometimes for many hours. Funny, 'cause just a few days ago, I ordered a couple more, easy way to monitor the freezer and refer when the power goes, letting me know to hook up the backup juicer. Man, some of these super cheap Chinese gadgets are amazingly useful, and well designed. As long as mains aren't involved, at least... Keep up the cool work, Clive. Enjoy your stuff! Blowing up or not. Any time I get a cheap mains P/S from China, it's apart, first thing. Don't need any fires in a drought area! (Or anywhere, for that matter.) at least I've only 120v to sweat. Enjoy! Stu
I found this bit of info on the net: Setting the high temperature alarm parameter P6: Setting a value for this parameter will cause the relay to switch off when the the temperature reaches this setting. The seven segment display will also show '---' to indicate an alarm condition. The relay will not re-energise until the temperature falls below this value. The default setting is OFF.
I just received one with no instructions at all so this video is wonderfully timed (or rather it popped up exactly when I needed it). Published parameters are often poorly translated from original Chinese. I asked the eBay seller if the relay was NO or NC and they told me to check the parameters on their site... which had the same faults as those on the eBay listing. I had no clue the thing had "Hot" and "Cold" modes until I saw this video. These sellers often have no idea what they're selling but the price is so low it's often worth a gamble, especially with free shipping.
I am having a lot of fun watching your videos, Your style of tinkering is exactly how I like to learn and research things, I love how your not scared to attempt things even if the end result is letting out the magical blue smoke that makes all electronics work. Very impressed by the flow of the commentary and the range of things you "Take to bits" I especially enjoy seeing the oddities that come from across the sea's and the differences in the standards and protection circuitry that we find over here in north america. Keep doing what your doing it's great!
Bought one for two dollars and am going to be experimenting with attaching it to a heat cable; I plan to control the temperature in my terrarium. This video was super helpful, THANKS
Thank you for posting this video. It is without a doubt, the best description of the features of this little inexpensive unit. Your explanations are very well thought out, I particularly like your logical thought processes. The accompanying text description is a real asset. I took a screen snapshot of the text and posted it directly to my desktop folder on Temperature Controllers. Thanks Clive, top job mate. Kind regards.
I just picked up a pair of these on Amazon for under 8 bucks. Already used one to activate a pair of heat lamps to keep the fresh water in my camper from freezing. Great little units.
+EnhancedNightmare They`re easy to work out mate _ Press the set and the required up / down button. There also tend to be around a 4 degree delay on the settings as well. If you set it to 30C it will activate at 30C on the way up but wont retrigger( A tank heater for instance ) till 26C. While this may be only a 4 degree difference if it is used as a tank heater controller some fish etc may not like this variation. I currently use one to control a heater in a rat cage. Rather cheap at $3.92AU each with free postage ( I bought 6 )
EnhancedNightmare I get mine from a site in china called aliexpress. Like alibaba but not quite the same. I cant build these and many other things for the price I pay for many items already constructed. They aren't real good on supplying instructions though. Ive had to email then a few times and have only once had to wait till the next day for information. They even answer emails on the weekend and often within the hour. Quite common to get a response within 10 minutes.
Well I'm glad to see that 5 years later they still in abundance in the market. I use this on a solar generator and pretty much any electronic project that I want to have a temperature-controlled PC fan for cooling
Many thanks! I have a couple of these modules (also could not resist the ridiculously low price). I planned on using one to control when a fan goes on near my wood-burning stove. Naturally, no directions included. Yours was the first video that came up, and let me get this setup quickly. I would imagine the other to monitor my freezer in the basement, to warn me that it is getting too warm. At this kind of price, I cannot imagine why the freezer manufacturers do not put them on now. It is not like it would really increase price much. Once mine is out of warranty, I will probably install it in the freezer and have the display visible. They actually sell cheesy plastic cases that also fit this one for next to nothing. Goes to show you how much money that middlemen are making with this stuff!
Thank you so much, I'm just starting in electronics and have several of these modules that you review from China. Thank you for taking the time and explaining their intended use and function.
Thank you for the helpful video and the information about the programming. You can use P7 to set the P6 temperature limit for the over-temperature (default is 50C). P8 is LED display on/off.
The handiest thing for the time delay is reducing or eliminating refrigeration compressor stalls. It gives time for the refrigerant to go through the capillary/restriction, and equalize the pressures. Therefore, the compressor is not fighting really hard to get its first volume of refrigerant into the high pressure side, it just goes in "naturally."
You're a bloomin superstar for doing this video !!!. I've been racking my brains trying to work out the control mudule works on a set of heated leather seats I'm fitting to my van. I have stripped it down to its component parts and found a seat base and backrest heating element and also 2 wires coming from the seat base heat pad that show decreasing resistance when heated. I will now get a couple of these switches and try them with the seats own thermister hopefully being able to calibrate it to the switch. Thanks very much for taking the time to share this info. Cheers.
Amazing cheap and very usable product. Im going to use it in my DIY PCB eching tank, this module, 100W heater, and air pump to keep water circulation. Case/tank will be made from 4mm policarbonate sheets and glued by universal thinner(use acetone with plexy).
Excellent - just ordered one for a massive £2.30 odd, this will be perfect for controlling the fans in my shed which has a rack of various pieces of computer equipment running in it.
I have a similar product. Based on that i'd encourage everyone who would like to use these thermostats around its lowest and highest temperature to check how it's working while reaching those temperatures. Mine has a programming error, if it is in cooling mode, the temperature is set to start cooling at 100C, when the temperature exceeds 110C (maximum temperature) the display goes to HHH _and it immediately switches the relay off_ therefore shutting your cooling off! Ps: i would put w1209 to the video title, so people with the same tepmerature controller coud easily find this video
Absolutely marvelous .. I only figured out the Standard Temperature setting and I was disappointing that I couldn't change the Hysteresis setting... bravo... now I can.. thanx Man...
I’ve now got three of these. They’re reliable, accurate and easy to use. I derive the 12 VDC supply from a tiny 450 ma power supply buck converter. The only shortcoming I’ve found is the sensor lead length, is a bit short for my needs. However I’ve successfully soldered on an extension. I use them for seeds germination and brewing temperatures control.
P06 is the high temperature alarm setting it to zero effectively puts it into a dead short loop. As you found out. Reset may also be done by holding either the + or - key after turning off the power.
terrific video, these are used a lot when making homemade egg incubators as I have been looking at them and favored the one's with the face plates, but with your explanation I will save a bit of money, thanks
Thanks. Great timing as I ordered a couple yesterday. Good hint about the relay, was going to use it for 20A work. Edit... Just realised how old this video is. Must be UA-cam peeking at my Amazon purchases. Hmmm. Shades of big brother.
I had the same issue with the instructions.... google translate allowed me to take a picture, translate from Chinese to English.... a little error in translation but made sense enough to get through things. Good video, Thank You.
This is a great review and I am a fan of your channel. After using dozens of these units it is a minefield to choose from the many manufacturers what is reliable. Taking most aspects into account including the clarity of the display, my favorite has HW-557 written in very small print just below the display. Also people complain about interference showing itself in the display. This is caused by coiling the thermistor lead to shorten it.
This have some memory to save the configuration? or when you disconect the power they reset and need to configure again? i want to use it in the car, but just when i turn on the key to control the motor temperature. Thanks ; )
+vicesat Even if it doesn't have memory, you should have a +12v constant line in your car. You'll have one connected to your stereo to keep it from losing all your station presets.
if you remove the terminal strip, relay and thermalsistor socket from the board, and re-solder them on the other side of the board. ( you must drill a tiny hole for the relay pin, which will still be on the copper pad) this makes mounting the board easier ( nothing is now taller than the readout & switches) . These were built with all parts on one side to make them cheaper to make, invest some of your time, and they're easier to use.
I did this to the one I bought, cut a piece of red lexan to cover the front and drilled some holes for the switches and it looks great. Too bad the thing was designed with all the connectors and relay on the front. This config is typical for Chinese devices.
I have one of these also. Mine has the power block on the left instead of the bottom. I use it on my small "dormitory" refrigerator. I plan to get one to put on my chest freezer and attach some sort of noise generator to the relay to warn me if my freezer stops freezing. Not a bad little item.
I have 240v one in a case its clever enough to not instantly turn on when used in a freezer but has a wait state stopping it thrashing the compressor .Our freezers are very old and now the thermostats are not sold anymore others can be used but ofcourse need putting in boxes away from prying fingers so the boxed ready made units make sense . The module isnt that great its probe never agrees with the one in the freezer door .We set the temp at -19 off and -14 on and it hovers at -18 which is great ,its saved our freezer from land fill and when our 1957 fridges thermostat eventually fails hopefully keeps that going aswell.We have another one in the shed in heating mode it switches on a heater whose 'frost stat' never comes on even sitting well under freezing! As you say you cannot build one for the price and i recommend the timers as well we have one on our reverse osmosis which flushes the membrane avoiding having it continually wasting water left to its own devices as most do ,its programmed to come on for a minute go off for a minute then come back on for a minute then switch off this lets the flush valve operate twice then switch off
Just in case anyone buys these and tries to use these. The K0 and K1 terminals act like a switch. The do not output any voltage from the 12V supply going into the the module, so you can't connect positive to K0/K1 and negative to K1/K0, and is also why doing a voltage test across K0 and K1 says 0.00. To test the relay works, use continuity with a multimeter instead. It should beep when the LED is on. For example, running a 5V fan from USB: Connect the 12V power supply to the module. Connect the fan's negative (black) to the negative (black) of the USB cable Then connect the positive (red) of the USB to K1 Connect the positive of the fan to K0 Then plug the USB cable in to a power bank or another USB power source, and plug in the 12V supply. I made a quiet fan from this method using a standard 6" PC case fan and an Anker 20000mAH power bank. It can supply 19, 16 and 12V in addition to 5V. Another example, running the fan from the single 12V supply. Connect the negative from the power supply and the negative to the fan to the same GND terminal. Connect the positive from the power supply to the +12V terminal Get a little bit of wire and connect the ends to K1 and +12V so they're bridged. Then plug the fan positive to K0, then power the module on. Set your settings and the fan should run when appropriate.
+Joey Nebulous No I didn't know eigher Joey, and you've saved me a fair bit of Googleing thinking my thermostat is broken. that's why it isn't running my fan then as they isn't any current their? Is their a diagram that shows me better what I have to do? cheers.
I just bought this and it had no manual. I saw one of these in another youtube video and with a Peltier unit. that is what I wanted to use it for. Thanks to for the video it was very helpful.
I believe the tone setting is for the XH-W1315 temperature controller, it has a buzzer alarm that you can set. They're very similar units and probably use the same software. Just my opinion, I could be wrong. Maybe check out the one I mentioned above and see what you think. Also, thanks for your videos, I love how much detail you go into with these electrical items. You are a legend. Cheers mate.
These things are for Peltier cooling modules. Got one, and one of these controllers for it, haven't done anything with it yet though. Was going to make a mini fridge, but my 12v 100w peltier would be a bit much for the foam containers that i have.
I'm happy that you reviewed this small unit in your video. I am currently using it on my peltier car fridge. the relay is good enough to drive 2 tec...06 peltiers at around 6 amps but when you add another one it draws aboud 10 amps and gets quite hot. What i did is I took out the relay and added the same generic type 12v 10ish amp relays and made them parrallel. relays themselves loads about 120 mA which is not a big deal and drives 4 peltier modules. Had no problems yet for 2 months. Fridge fans and peltiers are running in cycles until they reach the desired cold temperature. quite handy. thanks for the video
+Samet Teke I actually messed up the video because I was still playing with it and hadn't quite sussed all the features. The video description has been written with a lot more experimentation and has more accurate data.
+bigclivedotcom yeah you spent quite long time to write that description I assume. what I found on my user manual comes with the circuit is that p6 is high temp alarm. there is some English in it and it says ""LL indicates open circuit of the sensor, HH indicates exceeding the measurement range. at this moment the controller will forcibly disconnect the relay and "- - -" indicates high temp protection" when you pulled down the P6 to 0, circuit shut it down as high temp protection and waited the temperature to get below 0 to continue normally. but yeah. there is no description on the users manual about how to reset it. I'm glad that you used your investigation skills and found it out for me and probably for others.
+bigclivedotcom You can also recover from an inadvertent adjustment of the P6 setting to zero by unplugging the probe, which does display LLL but also fools the unit into thinking the temperature is below zero and gives access to the menu again.
I'm modifying my ps4 console with a huge heatsink and one of these controlling the fan, hopefully with a big enough heatsink the console should be able to run completely passively cooled most of the time, at least in winter.
Thank you I used one for a 12v heated seed propagator to works well. Thank you i didn't know about all them settings i'll have to have another play now.
Love your videos, thank you for taking the time and expense to share them. I had purchased one of these thermostat units and had to do a bit of research, as you, I received the manual in Chinese. I found an English version manual listing P6 as a high temperature alarm. Maybe not "bricked" but alarm/protection mode maybe?
I bought 2 of these things and they are quite versatile. On thing I did notice as an aside, the display reads all "L",s if the temperature sensor is not plugged in. The circuit board is sturdy but desoldering things like the relay caused a problem with wrecked vias.
I don't need one but my god these things have moved on and for 2 quid, cant be bad...actually I can think of a use for such a device now ....open and close the greenhouse door !. Another great video Clive.
Dear Clive I mentioned that the minimum differential on both is 5C. The possible adjustment is not 1C but 5 C denoted by the temperature Max and Min adjustments that will not allow more than 5C differential. The delay is 0 C...... I conclude that whoever made these did not test them as is the norm for yonks.... ie new digital programmers with no supply out to terminals !
I have one of these in my computer cabinet, running the vent fan, as the computer's ventilation is rather restricted. Has it running 24/7 for several years at this point.
Temperature range : -50 to 110 ℃ Dimensions: 48.5 * 40mm Temperature control mode: ON / OFF Resolution：When temperature is 0.1℃, the resolution is -9.9~99.9, other temperature segment is 1℃ Control accuracy: 0.1 ℃ Hysteresis accuracy: 0.1℃ Refresh rate: 0.5S High temperature protection： 0-110℃ Supply voltage: DC 12V Static current: ≤ 35MA, attract current ≤ 65MA Output voltage: DC 12V Output power: 20A relay Measurement input: NTC (10K 0.5%) Waterproof Sensor Environmental requirements: -10 ~ 60 ℃ ，Humidity 20% -85%
I've bought this module (w1209) some months ago for my peltier project and I say it's a good one, does what it says. The only downside I see here is the placement of the components. Having the relay with the buttons mounted on the same side of the pcb makes your aesthetics harder to design. Even if you buy the acrylic case for this model or bought this with the case, it still feels in convenient. Try to look at the model W3230 and see what I mean.
I just bought a couple of these that have 12VDC input for controller power, and a couple that have 9VDC-15VDC. I bought a couple of small electric heating pads from Adafruit (10cm x 5cm) to use with these controllers to keep LIPOs warm in my airplanes during freezing weather. I will be able to fly around with the current battery temperature visible as the plane flies by in slow flight - is that considered telemetry??? Great vid, thanks for all the info. I am ready for when these show up, now.
Going to buy one of these for my desktop PC since it can't adjust the fans itself, so they're on 100% all the time (which at night is quite annoying). I'm going to adjust it so that when it's in idle or just streaming a movie, it is quiet, and when some load such as games or rendering heats it up above 40/45 degrees, the fans turn on. This means that in normal use, the PC is very quiet. Thanks to large heatsinks it won't go up to 45 degrees that fast.
The relay rating mentioned is a rating of breaking capacity. This is not continuous current rating. The relay will succeed to break a current of this magnitude, higher currents might cause the contacts to continue to arc till destroyed. Continuous rating is usually 1 amp or less.
The 1 amp rating is quite conservative. I am switching about 3 amps though it to a full size refrigerator compressor and the relay just gets a little warm. The compressor stays on for about an hour or more so no problem with this type of load.
I wish I had taken pics but I'm using one of these with polyimide heating films to keep a harddrive warm in an unheated garage..... been working great...... temp outside has been -4c and the drives never dropped below 34c:)
The pin arrangement on that relay must make designing something that looks reasonably safe pretty hard. I bet there a good few of these hooked up directly to 2KW heating loads. I wonder how they hold out!
The other issue i have with these is they have a single pole relay and no segregation of the LV and ELV terminals. Remember, they are selling these to people thst have trouble putting a battery in the right way around.
P6 is to break the controller at any temperature on Heat or cool. Lets say for instance if you cool below 0°C as you set it will automatically turn back on once temperature drops or increases
Yes, relays that size can be 20 amps. Look at boards out of Miele appliances. However, with Chinese stuff always remove a couple of zeros. The issue with those is the 125 volts. When they sell them, they just chsnge the external label.
It just happened to me. I suspected it was P6 setting! And you have confirmed it to me. I had to return the device back to Amazon as I couldn’t make it work again after many tries pressing +-
If this is the "W1209" board which i think it is, I used one to convert a cheep Halfords 12/24/240volt cool box to run on a thermostat in my van (that i live in) only one word of warning; These boards don't like voltage above 12 volts and leisure batteries charged from solar pannels can go up above 14 volts which will kill the relay. With my basic knowledge of electronics i found what i needed was a buck voltage dropper that i set to a constant 10 volts so now the new board i had to buy runs quite happily without killing the relay. So now for not many £'s i have a thermostatic cool box fridge.
P6 is meant to be an over temperature alarm, but as there's no buzzer or sounder, it just does that flashing lines thing with the display. I know this from watching another video, by Robojax. He didn't mention it locking you out of the settings menu if you set it too low though.
I got one to run my Egg Hatching Incubator and it is working version good!! just got to set it up first time, and the settings stays there forever!! of course if you do not resset it...
I need some of those but these with an adjustable hysteresis (analog, no display..) retail around 40 Euros here. It didn't even cross my mind to search ebay for a cheap chinese version and so I decided to build a crappy version of this with an OpAmp, an NPN, two potentiometers and a handful of resitors as a comparing circuit by myself...but it's much easier and actually way cheaper (2.91 Euros incl. shipping thats insane) to get this thing ready to use from China. Although I'm losing the fun part of building stuff..thanks for saving me a lot of time and a lot of money.
+CptHirni Try this instead - I bought 6 of these for $3.92AU each. www.aliexpress.com/?aff_platform=link-c-tool&sk=Z7aQrbiQr%3A&cpt=1462691802240&aff_trace_key=9e63926a13004899bd5ea8ba89459499-1462691802240-00164-Z7aQrbiQr Sometimes the delivery is a bit slow but I haven't had any hiccups yet and ive been ordering for over a year.
Cool video. I’m still trying to see how it works as a speed controller for a cpu fan so it can go back and forth between low and high speed depending on the temperature.
Just found this out. I have a half dozen of these just for temp readout and feed a uno at camp. Just bought another one and in playing with it, I can't get it to remember any settings after power is removed. Even that if it is heating or cooling. Don't know if this is true for all of them. I've tried everything. That can make it pretty useless.
A review of the W1209WK would be nice. It seems to perform the same functions, but is in a nice, presentable black box and is much smaller. It also retains temperature settings when powered down. I use one to control the electric radiator fan on my car :-)
I need something like this for converting a freezer to refrigerator. Would this work for that? 120v and maybe 10amp in rush. I guess it would require a heavy-duty relay? I just need to shut it off before my mayo freezes! Great video Clive!
It would work for that, although I would recommend using it to drive a beefy external relay. This common unit is also very good:- ua-cam.com/video/9zymx2xgTmk/v-deo.html
Purchased one of these after seein your vid and the board does seem rather nice for the insane price , I was thinking of rigging up the raspberry pi in the same function but for the price and power consumption this is the better option :-O
Hi Clive , I've used one of these very modules to switch 2x 5” silent pc fans in the compartment behind the fridge vents in my caravan. The fridge works very well unless the outside temperature is too warm , summertime, so I've got the fans to provide forced air cooling over the cooling fins, temp sensor clipped to them set to trip at 50°c and it works beautifully, keeps the fridge working all through summer in the caravan. Mine came with a neat clear self assembly case made of laser cut polycarbonate excellent value for money.
we need more people, that review things like you, thanks.
I've been using one of these on my convection propane heater, once the unit reaches 38c, it switches on 3 computer fans below the wall unit to quietly circulate the air. Once the heater cycles, it's set for 8c hysteresis, so the fans stop when it hits 30c, to pull out the dregs. It's been working great for almost a year, and it and the fans are easily powered by an SLA 12v batt, when the juice goes out, sometimes for many hours. Funny, 'cause just a few days ago, I ordered a couple more, easy way to monitor the freezer and refer when the power goes, letting me know to hook up the backup juicer.
Man, some of these super cheap Chinese gadgets are amazingly useful, and well designed. As long as mains aren't involved, at least... Keep up the cool work, Clive. Enjoy your stuff! Blowing up or not. Any time I get a cheap mains P/S from China, it's apart, first thing. Don't need any fires in a drought area! (Or anywhere, for that matter.) at least I've only 120v to sweat. Enjoy! Stu
I found this bit of info on the net:
Setting the high temperature alarm parameter P6:
Setting a value for this parameter will cause the relay to switch off when the the temperature
reaches this setting. The seven segment display will also show '---' to indicate an alarm condition. The
relay will not re-energise until the temperature falls below this value. The default setting is OFF.
Good to know
I just received one with no instructions at all so this video is wonderfully timed (or rather it popped up exactly when I needed it). Published parameters are often poorly translated from original Chinese. I asked the eBay seller if the relay was NO or NC and they told me to check the parameters on their site... which had the same faults as those on the eBay listing. I had no clue the thing had "Hot" and "Cold" modes until I saw this video. These sellers often have no idea what they're selling but the price is so low it's often worth a gamble, especially with free shipping.
I am having a lot of fun watching your videos, Your style of tinkering is exactly how I like to learn and research things, I love how your not scared to attempt things even if the end result is letting out the magical blue smoke that makes all electronics work. Very impressed by the flow of the commentary and the range of things you "Take to bits" I especially enjoy seeing the oddities that come from across the sea's and the differences in the standards and protection circuitry that we find over here in north america. Keep doing what your doing it's great!
Bought one for two dollars and am going to be experimenting with attaching it to a heat cable; I plan to control the temperature in my terrarium. This video was super helpful, THANKS
Thank you for posting this video. It is without a doubt, the best description of the features of this little inexpensive unit. Your explanations are very well thought out, I particularly like your logical thought processes. The accompanying text description is a real asset. I took a screen snapshot of the text and posted it directly to my desktop folder on Temperature Controllers. Thanks Clive, top job mate. Kind regards.
+mijodo2008 I should really re-record this video, since other information subsequently came to light as mentioned in the video's description.
Bought one and it's running the cooling fans for my 'data shed' now - can't believe the price! :)
I just picked up a pair of these on Amazon for under 8 bucks. Already used one to activate a pair of heat lamps to keep the fresh water in my camper from freezing. Great little units.
Jesus man you are a godsend. I bought this little baby but it came alone with zero paperwork! not even in Chinese!
+EnhancedNightmare Make sure you check out the video description for the updated operation guide.
bigclivedotcom Thanks!
Cheers.
+EnhancedNightmare They`re easy to work out mate _ Press the set and the required up / down button.
There also tend to be around a 4 degree delay on the settings as well.
If you set it to 30C it will activate at 30C on the way up but wont retrigger( A tank heater for instance ) till 26C.
While this may be only a 4 degree difference if it is used as a tank heater controller some fish etc may not like this variation.
I currently use one to control a heater in a rat cage.
Rather cheap at $3.92AU each with free postage ( I bought 6 )
Noevilea Thanks mate, 4 degree difference is fine with my application but it might be too big for other.
EnhancedNightmare
I get mine from a site in china called aliexpress.
Like alibaba but not quite the same.
I cant build these and many other things for the price I pay for many items already constructed.
They aren't real good on supplying instructions though.
Ive had to email then a few times and have only once had to wait till the next day for information.
They even answer emails on the weekend and often within the hour.
Quite common to get a response within 10 minutes.
Well I'm glad to see that 5 years later they still in abundance in the market. I use this on a solar generator and pretty much any electronic project that I want to have a temperature-controlled PC fan for cooling
Many thanks! I have a couple of these modules (also could not resist the ridiculously low price). I planned on using one to control when a fan goes on near my wood-burning stove. Naturally, no directions included. Yours was the first video that came up, and let me get this setup quickly.
I would imagine the other to monitor my freezer in the basement, to warn me that it is getting too warm.
At this kind of price, I cannot imagine why the freezer manufacturers do not put them on now. It is not like it would really increase price much. Once mine is out of warranty, I will probably install it in the freezer and have the display visible. They actually sell cheesy plastic cases that also fit this one for next to nothing.
Goes to show you how much money that middlemen are making with this stuff!
Thank you so much, I'm just starting in electronics and have several of these modules that you review from China.
Thank you for taking the time and explaining their intended use and function.
Thank you for the helpful video and the information about the programming. You can use P7 to set the P6 temperature limit for the over-temperature (default is 50C). P8 is LED display on/off.
Un-bricking buttons are a great discovery. I have noted it in the manual, just in case. I have a dozen of these modules. Thank you.
Marvelous, it does look like you get a decent amount of functionality for such a low price. Thanks for sharing Clive
The handiest thing for the time delay is reducing or eliminating refrigeration compressor stalls. It gives time for the refrigerant to go through the capillary/restriction, and equalize the pressures. Therefore, the compressor is not fighting really hard to get its first volume of refrigerant into the high pressure side, it just goes in "naturally."
You're a bloomin superstar for doing this video !!!. I've been racking my brains trying to work out the control mudule works on a set of heated leather seats I'm fitting to my van. I have stripped it down to its component parts and found a seat base and backrest heating element and also 2 wires coming from the seat base heat pad that show decreasing resistance when heated. I will now get a couple of these switches and try them with the seats own thermister hopefully being able to calibrate it to the switch. Thanks very much for taking the time to share this info. Cheers.
Amazing cheap and very usable product.
Im going to use it in my DIY PCB eching tank, this module, 100W heater, and air pump to keep water circulation.
Case/tank will be made from 4mm policarbonate sheets and glued by universal thinner(use acetone with plexy).
Excellent - just ordered one for a massive £2.30 odd, this will be perfect for controlling the fans in my shed which has a rack of various pieces of computer equipment running in it.
I have a similar product. Based on that i'd encourage everyone who would like to use these thermostats around its lowest and highest temperature to check how it's working while reaching those temperatures. Mine has a programming error, if it is in cooling mode, the temperature is set to start cooling at 100C, when the temperature exceeds 110C (maximum temperature) the display goes to HHH _and it immediately switches the relay off_ therefore shutting your cooling off!
Ps: i would put w1209 to the video title, so people with the same tepmerature controller coud easily find this video
Absolutely marvelous .. I only figured out the Standard Temperature setting and I was disappointing that I couldn't change the Hysteresis setting... bravo... now I can.. thanx Man...
Thank you SO much! I had "bricked" mine, but NOBODY could tell me how to fix it. I REALLY appreciate your videos.
I’ve now got three of these. They’re reliable, accurate and easy to use. I derive the 12 VDC supply from a tiny 450 ma power supply buck converter. The only shortcoming I’ve found is the sensor lead length, is a bit short for my needs. However I’ve successfully soldered on an extension. I use them for seeds germination and brewing temperatures control.
I bought one of these a while ago for a project but never knew it had programs on it.. I will have to play about with it now.
Yay thank you big clive, I got mine all set up on my coolbox and then couldnt work out how to set the settings till I watched this.
P06 is the high temperature alarm setting it to zero effectively puts it into a dead short loop. As you found out. Reset may also be done by holding either the + or - key after turning off the power.
After watching several videos, yours cleared it up for me. Thanks. Great job.
terrific video, these are used a lot when making homemade egg incubators as I have been looking at them and favored the one's with the face plates, but with your explanation I will save a bit of money, thanks
This circuit is simply amazing. I use it to automatically switch from 50% to 100% on my computer's intake and exhaust fans.
Thanks. Great timing as I ordered a couple yesterday. Good hint about the relay, was going to use it for 20A work.
Edit... Just realised how old this video is. Must be UA-cam peeking at my Amazon purchases. Hmmm. Shades of big brother.
Thank you. I had one for years... I just put it on my diy thermoelectric fridge and had no idea how to use it until I yt'd you.
I had the same issue with the instructions.... google translate allowed me to take a picture, translate from Chinese to English.... a little error in translation but made sense enough to get through things. Good video, Thank You.
Thanks clive. Ive just grabbed one of these to run a 12v pc case fan powered by a solar recharged car battery in my greenhouse :)
That is the one i was looking for last night. Thanks. They are pretty cool units.
This is a great review and I am a fan of your channel.
After using dozens of these units it is a minefield to choose from the many manufacturers what is reliable. Taking most aspects into account including the clarity of the display, my favorite has HW-557 written in very small print just below the display.
Also people complain about interference showing itself in the display. This is caused by coiling the thermistor lead to shorten it.
This have some memory to save the configuration? or when you disconect
the power they reset and need to configure again? i want to use it in
the car, but just when i turn on the key to control the motor
temperature. Thanks ; )
+vicesat They store the settings.
+vicesat Even if it doesn't have memory, you should have a +12v constant line in your car. You'll have one connected to your stereo to keep it from losing all your station presets.
I love that module, I have used it in many projects and it works great.
The delay seems really nice for people who are slow witted when it comes to closing doors next to radiators or refrigerator doors.
This is the most important module I have seen......... I am using it and you can program it...........
if you remove the terminal strip, relay and thermalsistor socket from the board, and re-solder them on the other side of the board. ( you must drill a tiny hole for the relay pin,
which will still be on the copper pad) this makes mounting the board easier ( nothing is now taller than the readout & switches) . These were built with all parts on one side to make them cheaper to make, invest some of your time, and they're easier to use.
I did this to the one I bought, cut a piece of red lexan to cover the front and drilled some holes for the switches and it looks great. Too bad the thing was designed with all the connectors and relay on the front. This config is typical for Chinese devices.
And if you replace the relay entirely with a solid state relay it will actually work for long time.
Hi Clive, thanks for the video, helped a lot. have linked this with a DIY chiller for my CO2 Laser.
I have one of these also. Mine has the power block on the left instead of the bottom. I use it on my small "dormitory" refrigerator. I plan to get one to put on my chest freezer and attach some sort of noise generator to the relay to warn me if my freezer stops freezing. Not a bad little item.
I have 240v one in a case its clever enough to not instantly turn on when used in a freezer but has a wait state stopping it thrashing the compressor .Our freezers are very old and now the thermostats are not sold anymore others can be used but ofcourse need putting in boxes away from prying fingers so the boxed ready made units make sense . The module isnt that great its probe never agrees with the one in the freezer door .We set the temp at -19 off and -14 on and it hovers at -18 which is great ,its saved our freezer from land fill and when our 1957 fridges thermostat eventually fails hopefully keeps that going aswell.We have another one in the shed in heating mode it switches on a heater whose 'frost stat' never comes on even sitting well under freezing! As you say you cannot build one for the price and i recommend the timers as well we have one on our reverse osmosis which flushes the membrane avoiding having it continually wasting water left to its own devices as most do ,its programmed to come on for a minute go off for a minute then come back on for a minute then switch off this lets the flush valve operate twice then switch off
Just in case anyone buys these and tries to use these. The K0 and K1 terminals act like a switch. The do not output any voltage from the 12V supply going into the the module, so you can't connect positive to K0/K1 and negative to K1/K0, and is also why doing a voltage test across K0 and K1 says 0.00. To test the relay works, use continuity with a multimeter instead. It should beep when the LED is on.
For example, running a 5V fan from USB:
Connect the 12V power supply to the module.
Connect the fan's negative (black) to the negative (black) of the USB cable
Then connect the positive (red) of the USB to K1
Connect the positive of the fan to K0
Then plug the USB cable in to a power bank or another USB power source, and plug in the 12V supply.
I made a quiet fan from this method using a standard 6" PC case fan and an Anker 20000mAH power bank. It can supply 19, 16 and 12V in addition to 5V.
Another example, running the fan from the single 12V supply.
Connect the negative from the power supply and the negative to the fan to the same GND terminal.
Connect the positive from the power supply to the +12V terminal
Get a little bit of wire and connect the ends to K1 and +12V so they're bridged.
Then plug the fan positive to K0, then power the module on.
Set your settings and the fan should run when appropriate.
+Joey Nebulous
All that was already obvious when Clive said "they are voltage free contacts.
+Azzy M well not exactly, I didn't know what volt free contacts were and how they worked until I did a fair bit of googling
Joey Nebulous Good for you. Now you know more.
+Joey Nebulous No I didn't know eigher Joey, and you've saved me a fair bit of Googleing thinking my thermostat is broken. that's why it isn't running my fan then as they isn't any current their? Is their a diagram that shows me better what I have to do? cheers.
+Joey Nebulous no don't need the diagram, I just did what you said and now its working fine. thanks a lot!! its running the fan.
Thanks for the list of commands.
I probably never found out.
And certainly not as fast as now. Top Man,
I just bought this and it had no manual. I saw one of these in another youtube video and with a Peltier unit. that is what I wanted to use it for. Thanks to for the video it was very helpful.
Great video, I made notes on my Chinese instruction sheet for future reference!! That's why the Scottish folks are such great inventors!!
I have a few of these modules that have been running for three years now (Non-Stop) I use it with a 24v relay and works nice....
Oh thanks you Big Clive. Life saving guide there. I have the same unit and it's baffling.
This is working. All u need to do before using is. Calibrate. U can use thermometer.
You can use these to switch on-off electric fans in vehicles when used with a switching relay.
Hmm would make a nice way to control heat in a rack system. Nice Clive, good find.
It has been 7 YEARS!
Damn I feel old.
I believe the tone setting is for the XH-W1315 temperature controller, it has a buzzer alarm that you can set. They're very similar units and probably use the same software. Just my opinion, I could be wrong. Maybe check out the one I mentioned above and see what you think. Also, thanks for your videos, I love how much detail you go into with these electrical items. You are a legend. Cheers mate.
These things are for Peltier cooling modules. Got one, and one of these controllers for it, haven't done anything with it yet though. Was going to make a mini fridge, but my 12v 100w peltier would be a bit much for the foam containers that i have.
Good explanation, Other videos haven't been as complete, thank you.
Thanks, this happened to me and I recovered the configuration thanks to your instructions. SSA-Bahia-Brazil
I'm happy that you reviewed this small unit in your video. I am currently using it on my peltier car fridge. the relay is good enough to drive 2 tec...06 peltiers at around 6 amps but when you add another one it draws aboud 10 amps and gets quite hot. What i did is I took out the relay and added the same generic type 12v 10ish amp relays and made them parrallel. relays themselves loads about 120 mA which is not a big deal and drives 4 peltier modules. Had no problems yet for 2 months. Fridge fans and peltiers are running in cycles until they reach the desired cold temperature. quite handy.
thanks for the video
+Samet Teke I actually messed up the video because I was still playing with it and hadn't quite sussed all the features. The video description has been written with a lot more experimentation and has more accurate data.
+bigclivedotcom yeah you spent quite long time to write that description I assume. what I found on my user manual comes with the circuit is that p6 is high temp alarm. there is some English in it and it says ""LL indicates open circuit of the sensor, HH indicates exceeding the measurement range. at this moment the controller will forcibly disconnect the relay and "- - -" indicates high temp protection"
when you pulled down the P6 to 0, circuit shut it down as high temp protection and waited the temperature to get below 0 to continue normally. but yeah. there is no description on the users manual about how to reset it. I'm glad that you used your investigation skills and found it out for me and probably for others.
+Samet Teke I've just tested that and you're right. I think I may have to remake that video from scratch now I've sussed out all the other things too.
I appreciate what you do there so no worries. We'll watch it anyway. Cheers!
+bigclivedotcom You can also recover from an inadvertent adjustment of the P6 setting to zero by unplugging the probe, which does display LLL but also fools the unit into thinking the temperature is below zero and gives access to the menu again.
Thanks for the explanation. Hysteresis confused me. The only hysteresis I've ever known had to do with magnetism in a transformer.
I'm modifying my ps4 console with a huge heatsink and one of these controlling the fan, hopefully with a big enough heatsink the console should be able to run completely passively cooled most of the time, at least in winter.
Thank you I used one for a 12v heated seed propagator to works well. Thank you i didn't know about all them settings i'll have to have another play now.
Love your videos, thank you for taking the time and expense to share them. I had purchased one of these thermostat units and had to do a bit of research, as you, I received the manual in Chinese. I found an English version manual listing P6 as a high temperature alarm. Maybe not "bricked" but alarm/protection mode maybe?
+electrode74 If you read the description for the video it has some follow-up data.
+bigclivedotcom I see that it does, should have looked first. Thank you for the reply.
I bought 2 of these things and they are quite versatile. On thing I did notice as an aside, the display reads all "L",s if the temperature sensor is not plugged in. The circuit board is sturdy but desoldering things like the relay caused a problem with wrecked vias.
I don't need one but my god these things have moved on and for 2 quid, cant be bad...actually I can think of a use for such a device now ....open and close the greenhouse door !. Another great video Clive.
Dear Clive I mentioned that the minimum differential on both is 5C. The possible adjustment is not 1C but 5 C denoted by the temperature Max and Min adjustments that will not allow more than 5C differential. The delay is 0 C...... I conclude that whoever made these did not test them as is the norm for yonks.... ie new digital programmers with no supply out to terminals !
I have one of these in my computer cabinet, running the vent fan, as the computer's ventilation is rather restricted. Has it running 24/7 for several years at this point.
Temperature range : -50 to 110 ℃
Dimensions: 48.5 * 40mm
Temperature control mode: ON / OFF
Resolution：When temperature is 0.1℃, the resolution is -9.9~99.9, other temperature segment is 1℃
Control accuracy: 0.1 ℃
Hysteresis accuracy: 0.1℃
Refresh rate: 0.5S
High temperature protection： 0-110℃
Supply voltage: DC 12V
Static current: ≤ 35MA, attract current ≤ 65MA
Output voltage: DC 12V
Output power: 20A relay
Measurement input: NTC (10K 0.5%) Waterproof Sensor
Environmental requirements: -10 ~ 60 ℃ ，Humidity 20% -85%
0 Hz frequency is awesome! Love bricking flawful designs!
Like your work clive. Very helpful
I've got a few of these inside my radiator covers to activate a silent 200mm fan to move warm air around the roomworks really well
Just got a couple off Amazon and they came with no instructions. Searched UA-cam and found your great video, now I know how to set it. Thank you.
I've bought this module (w1209) some months ago for my peltier project and I say it's a good one, does what it says.
The only downside I see here is the placement of the components.
Having the relay with the buttons mounted on the same side of the pcb makes your aesthetics harder to design.
Even if you buy the acrylic case for this model or bought this with the case, it still feels in convenient.
Try to look at the model W3230 and see what I mean.
I just bought a couple of these that have 12VDC input for controller power, and a couple that have 9VDC-15VDC. I bought a couple of small electric heating pads from Adafruit (10cm x 5cm) to use with these controllers to keep LIPOs warm in my airplanes during freezing weather. I will be able to fly around with the current battery temperature visible as the plane flies by in slow flight - is that considered telemetry??? Great vid, thanks for all the info. I am ready for when these show up, now.
That's an amazingly good little unit
Awesome Video. Thank you. Keep up the great work. Nick.
I have 3 of these coming. They decided to wait 10 days to put it in the mail. Argghhhh. Thanks China!
Going to buy one of these for my desktop PC since it can't adjust the fans itself, so they're on 100% all the time (which at night is quite annoying). I'm going to adjust it so that when it's in idle or just streaming a movie, it is quiet, and when some load such as games or rendering heats it up above 40/45 degrees, the fans turn on. This means that in normal use, the PC is very quiet. Thanks to large heatsinks it won't go up to 45 degrees that fast.
The relay rating mentioned is a rating of breaking capacity. This is not continuous current rating.
The relay will succeed to break a current of this magnitude, higher currents might cause the contacts to continue to arc till destroyed. Continuous rating is usually 1 amp or less.
The 1 amp rating is quite conservative. I am switching about 3 amps though it to a full size refrigerator compressor and the relay just gets a little warm. The compressor stays on for about an hour or more so no problem with this type of load.
I wish I had taken pics but I'm using one of these with polyimide heating films to keep a harddrive warm in an unheated garage..... been working great...... temp outside has been -4c and the drives never dropped below 34c:)
The pin arrangement on that relay must make designing something that looks reasonably safe pretty hard. I bet there a good few of these hooked up directly to 2KW heating loads. I wonder how they hold out!
The other issue i have with these is they have a single pole relay and no segregation of the LV and ELV terminals. Remember, they are selling these to people thst have trouble putting a battery in the right way around.
P6 is to break the controller at any temperature on Heat or cool. Lets say for instance if you cool below 0°C as you set it will automatically turn back on once temperature drops or increases
Yes, relays that size can be 20 amps. Look at boards out of Miele appliances. However, with Chinese stuff always remove a couple of zeros. The issue with those is the 125 volts. When they sell them, they just chsnge the external label.
It just happened to me. I suspected it was P6 setting! And you have confirmed it to me. I had to return the device back to Amazon as I couldn’t make it work again after many tries pressing +-
I use myn for my small spraying booth,hasnt been a prob for several years,works great.
I love these things - but I use fake 12 volt OMRON relays to drive fairly small mains loads - not least to keep the mains a long way away.
If this is the "W1209" board which i think it is, I used one to convert a cheep Halfords 12/24/240volt cool box to run on a thermostat in my van (that i live in) only one word of warning; These boards don't like voltage above 12 volts and leisure batteries charged from solar pannels can go up above 14 volts which will kill the relay. With my basic knowledge of electronics i found what i needed was a buck voltage dropper that i set to a constant 10 volts so now the new board i had to buy runs quite happily without killing the relay. So now for not many £'s i have a thermostatic cool box fridge.
P6 is meant to be an over temperature alarm, but as there's no buzzer or sounder, it just does that flashing lines thing with the display.
I know this from watching another video, by Robojax. He didn't mention it locking you out of the settings menu if you set it too low though.
Saved the mini fridge with one of these little bastards. 1/4 the cost of even the cheapest mechanical replacement.
Thanks for this awesome explanation Clive, just ordered these and the listings dont have much information at all
I got one to run my Egg Hatching Incubator and it is working version good!! just got to set it up first time, and the settings stays there forever!! of course if you do not resset it...
I need some of those but these with an adjustable hysteresis (analog, no display..) retail around 40 Euros here.
It didn't even cross my mind to search ebay for a cheap chinese version and so I decided to build a crappy version of this with an OpAmp, an NPN, two potentiometers and a handful of resitors as a comparing circuit by myself...but it's much easier and actually way cheaper (2.91 Euros incl. shipping thats insane) to get this thing ready to use from China. Although I'm losing the fun part of building stuff..thanks for saving me a lot of time and a lot of money.
+CptHirni
Try this instead - I bought 6 of these for $3.92AU each.
www.aliexpress.com/?aff_platform=link-c-tool&sk=Z7aQrbiQr%3A&cpt=1462691802240&aff_trace_key=9e63926a13004899bd5ea8ba89459499-1462691802240-00164-Z7aQrbiQr
Sometimes the delivery is a bit slow but I haven't had any hiccups yet and ive been ordering for over a year.
Cool video. I’m still trying to see how it works as a speed controller for a cpu fan so it can go back and forth between low and high speed depending on the temperature.
It could switch between two levels by bypassing a resistor.
Just found this out. I have a half dozen of these just for temp readout and feed a uno at camp. Just bought another one and in playing with it, I can't get it to remember any settings after power is removed. Even that if it is heating or cooling. Don't know if this is true for all of them. I've tried everything. That can make it pretty useless.
A review of the W1209WK would be nice. It seems to perform the same functions, but is in a nice, presentable black box and is much smaller. It also retains temperature settings when powered down.
I use one to control the electric radiator fan on my car :-)
I need something like this for converting a freezer to refrigerator. Would this work for that? 120v and maybe 10amp in rush. I guess it would require a heavy-duty relay? I just need to shut it off before my mayo freezes! Great video Clive!
It would work for that, although I would recommend using it to drive a beefy external relay. This common unit is also very good:- ua-cam.com/video/9zymx2xgTmk/v-deo.html
bigclivedotcom thanks so much for your time. I have been binging on your videos today. Thanks again...
Purchased one of these after seein your vid and the board does seem rather nice for the insane price , I was thinking of rigging up the raspberry pi in the same function but for the price and power consumption this is the better option :-O
Hey Clive. Are you using this module now or is it sitting on a shelf? New update video on it perhaps?