The Controller - Part 2 - Wiring and Hook Up
Introduction
When it comes to wiring, you can make things as neat and clean as you would like to. A word of caution though if you are ok with a rat’s nest – if you have any sort of problem, you are going to have one hell of a time troubleshooting it. You also may encounter electromagnetic interference issues with the thermocouple (data) wires. Best practices are to keep the data separate from power. We aren’t using shielded wires, so we need to do our best to keep them separate. Anywhere that they do cross should be done at a 90 degree angle to minimize potential EMI problems. EMI is caused by the field generated by the AC power running through the wiring, it basically creates a field that runs around the wire. Think of two “O”s, the little one being the wire and centered in the middle of the big one. The big one is the field generated and runs the length of the wire. If you put another wire adjacent to it, the generated field will induce a current in the parallel wire. For power, this isn’t really a problem. For data, especially thermocouples that operate on millivolts, this can cause mayhem.
With that out there, we have our cabinet built up and nothing wired to it. For the power side, we will use black (hot), white (neutral), and green (ground) 14 gauge THHN wiring. For the data side, we will use 20 gauge red and black solid core hook up wiring. For the transformer secondary circuit we use blue (hot) and yellow (neutral) 16 gauge THHN wire. There is no ground on the secondary circuit. I got the 14 and 16 gauge wiring from HD or Lowes, and the hook up wire from Radio Shack. If you are using XLR connectors, you will need a soldering iron and solder. Here is also where we will be using the wire crimper. To ground to the enclosure, you will need to pick up some ring terminals, size depending on the stud in your enclosure. Don’t worry if you need to get a ring terminal for 10-12 gauge wire if that is all that is available with a ring diameter that will fit your stud – it’ll crimp down on your 14 gauge wire.
For where the wires transition from the inside of the enclosure to the back of the door, you are going to need some sort of flexible conduit to put around the wire bundle to prevent chafing damage when the door is opened and closed. Once it’s all built up and in use, you aren’t going to be going in and out of the box, but it is enough of a concern for when you are doing the wiring to need it. I picked up some of the split black plastic stuff from Home Depot, just make sure that it is big enough to get all of your wires in it.
Prep work
I ran the hot wires first, then the neutrals, then the grounds, then the data wiring. There are 4 main bundles that go from the enclosure to the door. One for hot/neutral to the computers up top, one for data to the computers, one for the secondary wiring, and one for hot wiring at the bottom that runs to and from the circuit breaker, on/off switch, and pump switches.
Since I did the data wiring last, I did all of my soldering last. This worked for me as the data and gas valve connections are kind of on their own at the bottom right of the cabinet.
Other than that, there isn’t much prep work. So let’s get started with the wiring. Please see the various wiring diagrams I drew up for connections. One is the overall and it’s pretty busy. I broke out various ones for the hot, neutral, ground, secondary, and data connections to make it a little clearer. Anywhere that there is a connection, you will see a circle around the intersection. If two lines cross, and there isn’t a circle, they are not connected.
Build out
If you are using a 3 pin 110VAC receptacle, ignore this paragraph. If you are using a 4 pin 220VAC receptacle, this is for you. I used a 4 pin 220VAC receptacle as my main power in. This will do 110VAC just fine, you just hook up the hot to one phase of the 4 pin 220 VAC connector. If you use this 4 pin connector, pick either X or Y as your hot. Silver will remain neutral and green will remain ground.
Start with going from the main power in hot to the circuit breaker. The breaker doesn’t care what way the current flows thru it, so you can go from the main power receptacle to either leg of the breaker. From the other leg of the breaker, run a wire to the normally open (NO) contact on the main power switch. Again, in/out doesn’t matter to the switch. The switches I used had to contacts on them. They are the actual switching mechanism. The knob you turn just pushes the little button on the contact, which either electrically connects the two terminals on the switch (NO) or electrically opens them (NC). So, NO means that with the switch in the OFF position, there is no electrical contact between the two hook ups. NC means that with the switch in the OFF position, there is electrical contact. When turned ON, a NO will provide continuity, while a NC will break continuity. For all of the switches, we will be using the NO contacts (except for the start interlock circuit, which will use the NC contacts, but we will get to that later).
Also from the leg of the breaker that runs to the switch, run one wire to the contactor (not the coil, you want one of the main terminal lugs). Select which barrier bar will be your “hot bus”, and run a wire from the other main contactor terminal to one of the screws on this bar (I will refer to these as a bus or busses from here on out). Grab one of the jumper strips and put it on the bus bar so that all of the lugs are electrically connected. To attach, unscrew all of the 8 screws on one side, slide the jumper under all the screws, then tighten all of the screws down. While you are doing this, you can do it on the neutral bus, the alarm bus (if you are using a 6 terminal barrier bar you can just cut the jumper down from 8 to 6 using diagonal cutters, aka dykes), the ground bus, the neutral bus on the door, and the secondary busses. Since the secondary busses only need a couple connections, I took an 8 lug barrier strip and an 8 lug jumper, and cut the jumper into two jumpers, one 3 lug and one 4 lug. You don’t have to, I just didn’t want to run back to Radio Shack and buy more barrier bars.
So, now with the basics down, go thru and wire up the rest of the hot and neutral wiring for the 110 VAC circuits. For the grounds, there are a few important steps. The door and enclosure both have studs on them. You need to run a wire from the door stud to the enclosure stud, then one from the enclosure stud to the ground bus. From the main power receptacle, run a ground wire to the ground bus. The transformer needs to be grounded to the ground bus – there is a stud on it for this purpose. Both pump receptacles need to have ground wires run back up to the ground bus. Lastly, connect the neutral bus to the ground bus. At the circuit breaker panel in your house, both the ground and neutral wires connect to the same bus, and doing so within the box is just good practice. It will provide for a dual ground path in the case that either the neutral or ground connection is broken.
Now that you have the 110 VAC wiring done, move on to the secondary wiring. The transformer will have a black wire and white wire that come off of it, these are the power in connections that need to go to the hot and neutral busses, respectively. On the side of the transformer, there will be two screws, these are the secondary outputs. Some transformers may be marked with 24V and COM, some may have various letters or other labels. Hook from the 24V terminal to the secondary hot bus, and the COM to the secondary neutral bus. From the secondary hot bus, run a wire to the HLT PID. Refer to your hook up data for your PID to determine which terminal this goes to. From the output terminal of the PID, run a wire to the burner status lamp (24VAC lamp you installed on your enclosure door). From the other terminal on the lamp, run a wire back into the enclosure and down to the XLR connector for the associated gas valve (remember you will have to solder to the XLR connector so leave yourself enough wire to do so). All of these wires should be blue. Repeat for your BK PID and associated lamp and XLR connector.
For the secondary neutral, all you have to do is run a yellow wire from one of the gas valve XLR connectors (remember you will have to solder to the XLR connector so leave yourself enough wire to do so) to the secondary neutral bus. Run another for the other XLR connector. It is important that you do not run these wires to the 110VAC neutral bus. It won’t work if you do. Think of the transformer as a completely separate power supply for these components, totally isolated from the 110VAC stuff. Because it is a completely separate power supply. If you are interested in how a transformer works the internet is plentiful with such information. No need to transpose it here.
One thing I did not put in but have been mulling over is a set of balk or override switches for the burners. Upon power up, with the thermocouples plugged in, the PIDs will see that the actual temp is below the commanded temp and will command both burners on. The balk switch would electrically go between the PID output and the associated status lamp. You can install one for each burner, or you can just keep the gas valve in “pilot” setting until you are ready to use the associated burner, then you turn the valve to “on”. I may do the balk switches after brewing if I find this to be annoying. Note that you would need two switches (I am thinking simple metal toggle switches), one for each burner. The BK burner would need to be off while you are heating strike water, mashing, etc, and the HLT burner would need to be off when you are boiling, so independent control is a necessity.
Ok, now our 110VAC wiring is run, our secondary 24VAC wiring is in, it’s time to wire up our start interlock circuit. So this circuit works in the following way. You run power to the NC contact of pump #1 switch, then run from the output of that contact you go to the NC contact of pump #2 switch. This then runs down to the 8 pin relay coil. The coil energizes, closing the relay. Across the contact of the relay goes power to the coil for the main power contactor, causing it to close, providing power into your hot bus, and out to all of your components. If either of the pump switches are in the ON position, the NC contact will be open, preventing power from getting to the 8 pin relay coil, preventing the relay from closing and keeping your box from powering up. How does it stay on when you use the pumps you ask? Well, the way it is wired will actually back feed the relay coil to keep it energized until you turn off the main power switch OR the circuit breaker pops OR you unplug the box from the wall. The interlock only prevents turning the box on and will be 100% transparent to you unless you try to turn on your box with one of the pump switches on.
There are various 8 pin relays out on the market. The one I used has a rectangular base (vs the other type with a round base). There is zero difference between the two. They are both DPDT type relays. Mine is a HH52P relay with a DYF08A base. Under $6 on Amazon or eBay. If you go with this setup, you are in luck – I have a diagram showing what wiring goes to which number contact on the base. Basically, a DPDT (double pole double throw) relay is a stack of two mechanical switches, each with a common contact, and a NC contact and an NO contact. So, 3 contacts per switch, 2 switches makes 6 contacts. The relay has 8. The other 2 are for the relay coil. A relay works the same way as the contactor does. Put voltage on the coil, it energizes and becomes an electromagnet, and moves the internal parts to put continuity from COM to NO. When the relay is depowered, continuity goes from COM to NC. It’s just a switch that is controlled by electric instead of you flipping a lever.
Wire up the relay using the wiring diagram. All of the wiring to this should be black, with the exception of the white wire running back to the neutral bus from one of the coil contacts.
Now that I have told you how simple and cheap the start interlock circuit is, I will tell you that you don’t need it to make the box work. If you don’t want to use it, instead of wiring from the main power switch thru the NC contacts on the pump switches to the 8 pin relay, just wire from the main power switch to the coil on the main contactor. If you hook up this way you have zero protection for your pumps at start up. Saving less than $10 bucks and about 20 minutes here can cost you $100 or more in pump replacement down the road. This is again something that is up to you – the interlock circuit is HIGHLY advised.
Okey dokey, onto the data. The PIDs can use either thermocouples or RTDs. RTDs are the better option, they are more responsive, more accurate, and since the data provided is a difference of resistances, wire length between the box and the sensor isn’t an issue. Thermocouples work by producing a small (millivolts) voltage which varies based on temperature. They can be slow to respond, and wire length is of critical importance, as the longer the wire, the greater the resistance, and the greater the voltage drop between the sensor and the computer. You will be adding about 2 feet of wire from the XLR connector to the computer inside the box, so you would really want to limit added wire between the box and the sensor lead outside the box if you go the thermocouple route. Frankly, they both cost the same, so for the first time on here I’ll tell you which option to choose, just buy the damn RTDs.
RTDs are three wire. Two of one color and one of a different color. For ease here I will use 2 reds and a white. The reds are interchangeable. Take a look at your PID hookup data to determine what goes where. If you are using the same PIDs I used, I have included this info in the wiring diagram (the directions were horrendous and it took some research and trial and error to get it right). Run your wires from the PIDs to the XLR connectors (remember you will have to solder to the XLR connector so leave yourself enough wire to do so). If you take a look at the photos, you will see how I did it to stand them off the bottom back of the PIDs to keep the data wiring as far from the power as I could. I did this with the self-adhesive cable mounts stuck to the PIDs.
Of note here – I wanted a digital temp sensor to show my wort outlet temp from the wort chiller. That is the big thing in the middle of the cabinet. This is not necessary and most people just plumb a mechanical thermometer to the outlet plumbing of their plate or counterflow chiller to get temperature. If you are using the digital set up, wire it up using the same principles as the PIDs. If you aren’t, omit any wiring related to it.
Last thing to do as far as the wiring goes is to solder your wiring to the XLR connectors. If you don’t know how to solder, its easy, just get some scrap wire and practice by soldering the wiring into spade terminals (take the plastic off first so it’s just the metal piece left). The important thing here is to avoid hitting wires where you don’t mean to with the hot soldering iron, it will go thru the insulation like a hot knife thru butter. It will also burn you, or can start a fire if you place the hot iron on something like paper, a towel, plastic, etc. Be careful and mindful of your surroundings.
All of the XLR connectors should have 3 pins. They will be numbered 1, 2, and 3. The plugs that you will attach to your lead wires and be inserting into the panel connectors also have 3 pins that are numbered 1, 2, and 3. The numbers should correlate to each other, so if you put a blue 24V wire to pin 1 on the panel receptacle, you will be putting a blue wire on pin 1 of the correlated connector.
There is a fourth connection point on the connectors, and that is the metal housing. In the audio world, these connectors are used for microphones and other equipment. The signals created by this equipment needs to be shielded to prevent distortion or EMI, so the wire has a metal shield wrapped around it. At either end of the wiring, they connect it to that fourth connector, and inside the panel that the receptacle is mounted on, the fourth connection goes to ground. We aren’t using shielded wiring, so we don’t need to use the connection. If you for some reason elect to use shielded wiring, go ahead and hook it up.
All done!
When it comes to wiring, you can make things as neat and clean as you would like to. A word of caution though if you are ok with a rat’s nest – if you have any sort of problem, you are going to have one hell of a time troubleshooting it. You also may encounter electromagnetic interference issues with the thermocouple (data) wires. Best practices are to keep the data separate from power. We aren’t using shielded wires, so we need to do our best to keep them separate. Anywhere that they do cross should be done at a 90 degree angle to minimize potential EMI problems. EMI is caused by the field generated by the AC power running through the wiring, it basically creates a field that runs around the wire. Think of two “O”s, the little one being the wire and centered in the middle of the big one. The big one is the field generated and runs the length of the wire. If you put another wire adjacent to it, the generated field will induce a current in the parallel wire. For power, this isn’t really a problem. For data, especially thermocouples that operate on millivolts, this can cause mayhem.
With that out there, we have our cabinet built up and nothing wired to it. For the power side, we will use black (hot), white (neutral), and green (ground) 14 gauge THHN wiring. For the data side, we will use 20 gauge red and black solid core hook up wiring. For the transformer secondary circuit we use blue (hot) and yellow (neutral) 16 gauge THHN wire. There is no ground on the secondary circuit. I got the 14 and 16 gauge wiring from HD or Lowes, and the hook up wire from Radio Shack. If you are using XLR connectors, you will need a soldering iron and solder. Here is also where we will be using the wire crimper. To ground to the enclosure, you will need to pick up some ring terminals, size depending on the stud in your enclosure. Don’t worry if you need to get a ring terminal for 10-12 gauge wire if that is all that is available with a ring diameter that will fit your stud – it’ll crimp down on your 14 gauge wire.
For where the wires transition from the inside of the enclosure to the back of the door, you are going to need some sort of flexible conduit to put around the wire bundle to prevent chafing damage when the door is opened and closed. Once it’s all built up and in use, you aren’t going to be going in and out of the box, but it is enough of a concern for when you are doing the wiring to need it. I picked up some of the split black plastic stuff from Home Depot, just make sure that it is big enough to get all of your wires in it.
Prep work
I ran the hot wires first, then the neutrals, then the grounds, then the data wiring. There are 4 main bundles that go from the enclosure to the door. One for hot/neutral to the computers up top, one for data to the computers, one for the secondary wiring, and one for hot wiring at the bottom that runs to and from the circuit breaker, on/off switch, and pump switches.
Since I did the data wiring last, I did all of my soldering last. This worked for me as the data and gas valve connections are kind of on their own at the bottom right of the cabinet.
Other than that, there isn’t much prep work. So let’s get started with the wiring. Please see the various wiring diagrams I drew up for connections. One is the overall and it’s pretty busy. I broke out various ones for the hot, neutral, ground, secondary, and data connections to make it a little clearer. Anywhere that there is a connection, you will see a circle around the intersection. If two lines cross, and there isn’t a circle, they are not connected.
Build out
If you are using a 3 pin 110VAC receptacle, ignore this paragraph. If you are using a 4 pin 220VAC receptacle, this is for you. I used a 4 pin 220VAC receptacle as my main power in. This will do 110VAC just fine, you just hook up the hot to one phase of the 4 pin 220 VAC connector. If you use this 4 pin connector, pick either X or Y as your hot. Silver will remain neutral and green will remain ground.
Start with going from the main power in hot to the circuit breaker. The breaker doesn’t care what way the current flows thru it, so you can go from the main power receptacle to either leg of the breaker. From the other leg of the breaker, run a wire to the normally open (NO) contact on the main power switch. Again, in/out doesn’t matter to the switch. The switches I used had to contacts on them. They are the actual switching mechanism. The knob you turn just pushes the little button on the contact, which either electrically connects the two terminals on the switch (NO) or electrically opens them (NC). So, NO means that with the switch in the OFF position, there is no electrical contact between the two hook ups. NC means that with the switch in the OFF position, there is electrical contact. When turned ON, a NO will provide continuity, while a NC will break continuity. For all of the switches, we will be using the NO contacts (except for the start interlock circuit, which will use the NC contacts, but we will get to that later).
Also from the leg of the breaker that runs to the switch, run one wire to the contactor (not the coil, you want one of the main terminal lugs). Select which barrier bar will be your “hot bus”, and run a wire from the other main contactor terminal to one of the screws on this bar (I will refer to these as a bus or busses from here on out). Grab one of the jumper strips and put it on the bus bar so that all of the lugs are electrically connected. To attach, unscrew all of the 8 screws on one side, slide the jumper under all the screws, then tighten all of the screws down. While you are doing this, you can do it on the neutral bus, the alarm bus (if you are using a 6 terminal barrier bar you can just cut the jumper down from 8 to 6 using diagonal cutters, aka dykes), the ground bus, the neutral bus on the door, and the secondary busses. Since the secondary busses only need a couple connections, I took an 8 lug barrier strip and an 8 lug jumper, and cut the jumper into two jumpers, one 3 lug and one 4 lug. You don’t have to, I just didn’t want to run back to Radio Shack and buy more barrier bars.
So, now with the basics down, go thru and wire up the rest of the hot and neutral wiring for the 110 VAC circuits. For the grounds, there are a few important steps. The door and enclosure both have studs on them. You need to run a wire from the door stud to the enclosure stud, then one from the enclosure stud to the ground bus. From the main power receptacle, run a ground wire to the ground bus. The transformer needs to be grounded to the ground bus – there is a stud on it for this purpose. Both pump receptacles need to have ground wires run back up to the ground bus. Lastly, connect the neutral bus to the ground bus. At the circuit breaker panel in your house, both the ground and neutral wires connect to the same bus, and doing so within the box is just good practice. It will provide for a dual ground path in the case that either the neutral or ground connection is broken.
Now that you have the 110 VAC wiring done, move on to the secondary wiring. The transformer will have a black wire and white wire that come off of it, these are the power in connections that need to go to the hot and neutral busses, respectively. On the side of the transformer, there will be two screws, these are the secondary outputs. Some transformers may be marked with 24V and COM, some may have various letters or other labels. Hook from the 24V terminal to the secondary hot bus, and the COM to the secondary neutral bus. From the secondary hot bus, run a wire to the HLT PID. Refer to your hook up data for your PID to determine which terminal this goes to. From the output terminal of the PID, run a wire to the burner status lamp (24VAC lamp you installed on your enclosure door). From the other terminal on the lamp, run a wire back into the enclosure and down to the XLR connector for the associated gas valve (remember you will have to solder to the XLR connector so leave yourself enough wire to do so). All of these wires should be blue. Repeat for your BK PID and associated lamp and XLR connector.
For the secondary neutral, all you have to do is run a yellow wire from one of the gas valve XLR connectors (remember you will have to solder to the XLR connector so leave yourself enough wire to do so) to the secondary neutral bus. Run another for the other XLR connector. It is important that you do not run these wires to the 110VAC neutral bus. It won’t work if you do. Think of the transformer as a completely separate power supply for these components, totally isolated from the 110VAC stuff. Because it is a completely separate power supply. If you are interested in how a transformer works the internet is plentiful with such information. No need to transpose it here.
One thing I did not put in but have been mulling over is a set of balk or override switches for the burners. Upon power up, with the thermocouples plugged in, the PIDs will see that the actual temp is below the commanded temp and will command both burners on. The balk switch would electrically go between the PID output and the associated status lamp. You can install one for each burner, or you can just keep the gas valve in “pilot” setting until you are ready to use the associated burner, then you turn the valve to “on”. I may do the balk switches after brewing if I find this to be annoying. Note that you would need two switches (I am thinking simple metal toggle switches), one for each burner. The BK burner would need to be off while you are heating strike water, mashing, etc, and the HLT burner would need to be off when you are boiling, so independent control is a necessity.
Ok, now our 110VAC wiring is run, our secondary 24VAC wiring is in, it’s time to wire up our start interlock circuit. So this circuit works in the following way. You run power to the NC contact of pump #1 switch, then run from the output of that contact you go to the NC contact of pump #2 switch. This then runs down to the 8 pin relay coil. The coil energizes, closing the relay. Across the contact of the relay goes power to the coil for the main power contactor, causing it to close, providing power into your hot bus, and out to all of your components. If either of the pump switches are in the ON position, the NC contact will be open, preventing power from getting to the 8 pin relay coil, preventing the relay from closing and keeping your box from powering up. How does it stay on when you use the pumps you ask? Well, the way it is wired will actually back feed the relay coil to keep it energized until you turn off the main power switch OR the circuit breaker pops OR you unplug the box from the wall. The interlock only prevents turning the box on and will be 100% transparent to you unless you try to turn on your box with one of the pump switches on.
There are various 8 pin relays out on the market. The one I used has a rectangular base (vs the other type with a round base). There is zero difference between the two. They are both DPDT type relays. Mine is a HH52P relay with a DYF08A base. Under $6 on Amazon or eBay. If you go with this setup, you are in luck – I have a diagram showing what wiring goes to which number contact on the base. Basically, a DPDT (double pole double throw) relay is a stack of two mechanical switches, each with a common contact, and a NC contact and an NO contact. So, 3 contacts per switch, 2 switches makes 6 contacts. The relay has 8. The other 2 are for the relay coil. A relay works the same way as the contactor does. Put voltage on the coil, it energizes and becomes an electromagnet, and moves the internal parts to put continuity from COM to NO. When the relay is depowered, continuity goes from COM to NC. It’s just a switch that is controlled by electric instead of you flipping a lever.
Wire up the relay using the wiring diagram. All of the wiring to this should be black, with the exception of the white wire running back to the neutral bus from one of the coil contacts.
Now that I have told you how simple and cheap the start interlock circuit is, I will tell you that you don’t need it to make the box work. If you don’t want to use it, instead of wiring from the main power switch thru the NC contacts on the pump switches to the 8 pin relay, just wire from the main power switch to the coil on the main contactor. If you hook up this way you have zero protection for your pumps at start up. Saving less than $10 bucks and about 20 minutes here can cost you $100 or more in pump replacement down the road. This is again something that is up to you – the interlock circuit is HIGHLY advised.
Okey dokey, onto the data. The PIDs can use either thermocouples or RTDs. RTDs are the better option, they are more responsive, more accurate, and since the data provided is a difference of resistances, wire length between the box and the sensor isn’t an issue. Thermocouples work by producing a small (millivolts) voltage which varies based on temperature. They can be slow to respond, and wire length is of critical importance, as the longer the wire, the greater the resistance, and the greater the voltage drop between the sensor and the computer. You will be adding about 2 feet of wire from the XLR connector to the computer inside the box, so you would really want to limit added wire between the box and the sensor lead outside the box if you go the thermocouple route. Frankly, they both cost the same, so for the first time on here I’ll tell you which option to choose, just buy the damn RTDs.
RTDs are three wire. Two of one color and one of a different color. For ease here I will use 2 reds and a white. The reds are interchangeable. Take a look at your PID hookup data to determine what goes where. If you are using the same PIDs I used, I have included this info in the wiring diagram (the directions were horrendous and it took some research and trial and error to get it right). Run your wires from the PIDs to the XLR connectors (remember you will have to solder to the XLR connector so leave yourself enough wire to do so). If you take a look at the photos, you will see how I did it to stand them off the bottom back of the PIDs to keep the data wiring as far from the power as I could. I did this with the self-adhesive cable mounts stuck to the PIDs.
Of note here – I wanted a digital temp sensor to show my wort outlet temp from the wort chiller. That is the big thing in the middle of the cabinet. This is not necessary and most people just plumb a mechanical thermometer to the outlet plumbing of their plate or counterflow chiller to get temperature. If you are using the digital set up, wire it up using the same principles as the PIDs. If you aren’t, omit any wiring related to it.
Last thing to do as far as the wiring goes is to solder your wiring to the XLR connectors. If you don’t know how to solder, its easy, just get some scrap wire and practice by soldering the wiring into spade terminals (take the plastic off first so it’s just the metal piece left). The important thing here is to avoid hitting wires where you don’t mean to with the hot soldering iron, it will go thru the insulation like a hot knife thru butter. It will also burn you, or can start a fire if you place the hot iron on something like paper, a towel, plastic, etc. Be careful and mindful of your surroundings.
All of the XLR connectors should have 3 pins. They will be numbered 1, 2, and 3. The plugs that you will attach to your lead wires and be inserting into the panel connectors also have 3 pins that are numbered 1, 2, and 3. The numbers should correlate to each other, so if you put a blue 24V wire to pin 1 on the panel receptacle, you will be putting a blue wire on pin 1 of the correlated connector.
There is a fourth connection point on the connectors, and that is the metal housing. In the audio world, these connectors are used for microphones and other equipment. The signals created by this equipment needs to be shielded to prevent distortion or EMI, so the wire has a metal shield wrapped around it. At either end of the wiring, they connect it to that fourth connector, and inside the panel that the receptacle is mounted on, the fourth connection goes to ground. We aren’t using shielded wiring, so we don’t need to use the connection. If you for some reason elect to use shielded wiring, go ahead and hook it up.
All done!
I am not going to get into specific details of how to run the wires here. What I decided would be best would be to just put up a few pictures showing all of the wiring and hook ups in the controller so you can use it as a guide. Nothing is unique or weird - it's just a lot of cutting, stripping, crimping, and securing wires. Take your time, be careful, and verify all connections against the wiring diagram. Remember, on the wiring diagram when two wires cross and there is no circle around the intersection, they do not connect. When there is a circle, it is an electrical connection. In this build, everything terminates at something, and there is no splicing wires to each other, so it is pretty easy to decipher. Enjoy!
