pahpah-cee
Well-Known Member
It’ll work. It’s the same thing just looks a little different.
Thermoelectric wine cooler drying and curing - DIY
- Thread starter Hook Daddy
- Start date
gooshpoo
Well-Known Member
What you are looking at is a dual peltier The white plastic is insulating the hot side and diverting the heat out. the two heat sinks exposed are ur cold side this is whats going to be collecting the moister. this is going to work fine. they probably have a big heat sink for the hot side instead of there being 2, 1 for each chip. So if you want to remove the plastic shroud expect a large HS in there. Keep in mind that they could be using thermal paste under the HS on either side. so if you want to remove the plastic see if you can do so without separating the heat sinks and chips.
Wiring is the same Cut the Red and black wire from the Circuit board and wire directly to a 12v power supply. connect to a humidity controller .
Hook Daddy
Well-Known Member
I agree with everyone else, should work just fine, perhaps even better. As mentioned you don’t want to separate the heat sinks from the TEC chips and there is probably a couple fans as well, leave all that together. Other than that remove as much plastic that just unscrews off until you just have the dehumidifier itself. The cooling side still has the pointed fins to collect condensation, those go in the drip trough in the bottom of the cooler. Easy, you got this!
Nugnewbie
Well-Known Member
Just a quick update. I was thinking that I could seperate the heat sinks from the chips to get ALL the plastic off. Then apply some thermal paste I had from when I put an all-in-one cooling on my computer cpu. But, the recommendations from Hook Daddy, and gooshpoo to not seperate them, plus, in my understanding of the peltier, the plastic acting to help separate the hot and cold sides, I took off what I felt was extra from both unscrewing and shaving the rest off with a Dremel cutting disc.
I was also able to drill my 1/2" hole, and file edges, and grabbed a couple rubber grommets to further protect the wires.
Then I may have made a mistake in hindsight. I couldn't manage to get the housing off of the inkbird sensor, or was close to mangling it to do so. So, I decided to cut the wires, and then try to splice them back together afterwards. Alot more work, but I just figured I was going to completely destroy the sensor housing, and maybe the sensor itself by trying to open it up. I'm not completely sure I messed up, but wondered to myself afterward if by cutting, then splicing the wires back together I would alter the amount of resistance in the wires, thus throwing the accuracy of the sensor out of kilter. Of course, there is an ability to calibrate the Inkbird, so I figured I would do so after testing it out.
Will have to finish it another day.
I was also able to drill my 1/2" hole, and file edges, and grabbed a couple rubber grommets to further protect the wires.
Then I may have made a mistake in hindsight. I couldn't manage to get the housing off of the inkbird sensor, or was close to mangling it to do so. So, I decided to cut the wires, and then try to splice them back together afterwards. Alot more work, but I just figured I was going to completely destroy the sensor housing, and maybe the sensor itself by trying to open it up. I'm not completely sure I messed up, but wondered to myself afterward if by cutting, then splicing the wires back together I would alter the amount of resistance in the wires, thus throwing the accuracy of the sensor out of kilter. Of course, there is an ability to calibrate the Inkbird, so I figured I would do so after testing it out.
Will have to finish it another day.
TCH
Well-Known Member
Looking good, man!!
Nugnewbie
Well-Known Member
So, I hate filling other people's threads with MY problems, but I am going to continue to do so here because I don't want to fry anything, or cause a fire. The other aspect of sharing my difficulties is that they may help others who are as inept as myself in trying to build their own thermoelectric drying/curing device. I considered DM'ing Hook Daddy, but then others wouldn't benefit from seeing how to approach the build from with shaky electrical, or fabrication skills.
So, with that out of the way, here is the issue I am facing now, and hope someone will be able to enlighten me on a solution.
In Hook Daddys initial description of how he stripped the dehumidifier of most of the electronics, which were unnecessary, he stated in post #3 of his thread:
I first opened the Inkbird and removed the humidity sensor connector from the circuit board. It is smaller than the sensor itself so you can drill a smaller hole in the fridge later. Here’s what it looks like inside the Inkbird with the connector on, then removed.
Connector removed.
Then I stripped all the useless stuff off the dehumidifier leaving just the unit itself. Here’s with the front of the case removed.
Here’s the rest removed.
There is a small circuit board you can leave if you want. I removed it just putting the humidifier and fan power together with the power wires from the small plug in transformer, of course positive to positive, negative to negative. If you don’t know about wiring get help or just leave it as is. I only remove the case and junk to save space. Oh I ditched the water collection bin as well, the water will drip from the fins of the dehumidifier into the channel in back of the fridge made for draining.
To the bolded: I understand connecting the power wires from the dehumidifier part, to the fan on it. My question though relates to wires from the "small plug-in transformer". I will include pictures of the other electronics so maybe someone can point out where the transformer is in the dehumidifier I am using in my build.
I am assuming that if I connect 110 ac power to the fan and dehu without the transformer, I will fry something as the purpose of the transformer is to step down and rectify the 110v ac to 12v dc? Am I right? If so, do I need to include the transformer? If so, how do I connect to it? I don't see the transformer in Hook Daddys build. I am confused. Here is the circuit board i removed, but still have:
Gooshpoo said," Wiring is the same Cut the Red and black wire from the Circuit board and wire directly to a 12v power supply. connect to a humidity controller ." So, I'm not sure how to connect to a 12v power supply is my question I guess.
Also, I'm kind of a hack when it comes to fabricating, or understanding how things work. But, I'm sure I'm not necessarily alone in that regard. Hope my questions help someone else too.
So, with that out of the way, here is the issue I am facing now, and hope someone will be able to enlighten me on a solution.
In Hook Daddys initial description of how he stripped the dehumidifier of most of the electronics, which were unnecessary, he stated in post #3 of his thread:
I first opened the Inkbird and removed the humidity sensor connector from the circuit board. It is smaller than the sensor itself so you can drill a smaller hole in the fridge later. Here’s what it looks like inside the Inkbird with the connector on, then removed.
Connector removed.
Then I stripped all the useless stuff off the dehumidifier leaving just the unit itself. Here’s with the front of the case removed.
Here’s the rest removed.
There is a small circuit board you can leave if you want. I removed it just putting the humidifier and fan power together with the power wires from the small plug in transformer, of course positive to positive, negative to negative. If you don’t know about wiring get help or just leave it as is. I only remove the case and junk to save space. Oh I ditched the water collection bin as well, the water will drip from the fins of the dehumidifier into the channel in back of the fridge made for draining.
To the bolded: I understand connecting the power wires from the dehumidifier part, to the fan on it. My question though relates to wires from the "small plug-in transformer". I will include pictures of the other electronics so maybe someone can point out where the transformer is in the dehumidifier I am using in my build.
I am assuming that if I connect 110 ac power to the fan and dehu without the transformer, I will fry something as the purpose of the transformer is to step down and rectify the 110v ac to 12v dc? Am I right? If so, do I need to include the transformer? If so, how do I connect to it? I don't see the transformer in Hook Daddys build. I am confused. Here is the circuit board i removed, but still have:
Gooshpoo said," Wiring is the same Cut the Red and black wire from the Circuit board and wire directly to a 12v power supply. connect to a humidity controller ." So, I'm not sure how to connect to a 12v power supply is my question I guess.
Also, I'm kind of a hack when it comes to fabricating, or understanding how things work. But, I'm sure I'm not necessarily alone in that regard. Hope my questions help someone else too.
Last edited:
Nugnewbie
Well-Known Member
So, is that fairly simple? Can I just buy locally, or order online for a 12v power supply? Do I need to be aware of current parameters also? If so, how do I determine what the current requirements might be? Thanks for your response BTW.
gooshpoo
Well-Known Member
so here is a simple power supply 5 amps should be enough to run both peltier and fans.
and some connectors to wire it all simply
gooshpoo
Well-Known Member
you are going to take the 2x red and 2x black from the unit use the lever connectors to attach the same colors together. Then run wire from the lever connectors to the screw terminal connector for the power supply. Red for + black for - plug the power supply into the humidity controller.
Nugnewbie
Well-Known Member
Thanks gooshpoo! No longer confused! (about this particular problem, heh) Parts ordered.
Dboybudz
Well-Known Member
Thanks bud would of been me asking
tstick
Well-Known Member
I can see that some of YOU people on this thread, are that same types who COULD start up a small business and tap into a new frontier of manufacturing these curing chambers so that we could all be able to get them instead of currently just this one company that seems to have a monopoly going at the moment.
SO...GET to it! heh heh
SO...GET to it! heh heh
bluemoon 65
Member
If space is not much of an issue (small crop), can you just put the whole dehumidifier inside the cooler, without having to break it down?
TCH
Well-Known Member
I see no reason that wouldn't work. It's just quite bulky compared to just the guts. The other thing I would consider is that if the tank fills, it will shut off. You'll be shocked at the amount of water that comes out of a plant. So I'd keep a really close eye on it.
bluemoon 65
Member
Cheers, I thought this https://www.amazon.com.au/Spector-Dehumidifier-Moisture-Absorber-Office/dp/B0CFTYN6SJ/ref=asc_df_B0CFTYN6SJ/?tag=googleshopdsk-22&linkCode=df0&hvadid=649963468536&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7917974696710776198&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9071488&hvtargid=pla-2266299949819&psc=1&mcid=36990d3eadef3c9f93850620e5648085 would be suitable, it has a outlet hose and is small.
gooshpoo
Well-Known Member
Does anyone here use Aliexpress I have never used them but i found this and its perfect just couldnt pull the trigger on it.
Dehumidifier
Dehumidifier
these little ones everyone's disassembling are only like 25w so if you're gonna do that, save $10 and go with the 40w version
If the controller works, that's way less money and less hassle than the inkbird