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Introducing The StillDragon Electric Parrot

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  • @jacksonbrown said: Hi Nardi getting a rough unit going isn't to hard. If you go back through my posts you'll see I've been playing with them for well over a year. Have you had a chance to test yours out yet?

    Hey mate, no it certainly wasn't hard - I've ran it once after a couple of calibrating runs tweaking my algorithm and it seemed to work just fine, matching what my alcometer was recording, compensated. Although mine has no barometer to adjust for altitude as it wasn't built to be sold to others. So it's another data point that gets sent to a virtual machine to log.

  • edited October 2015

    First test run with the new Electric Parrot

    And just to put everything out in the open, I make no assumptions on how well my equipment reads or how accurate my readings are, and I have no doubt the cheap temp meters I have are way off at any given time.

    OK, I have done a run with the new elec parrot, I also had another member over to check it out and confirm readings etc, as well before he also gives it a go. I run electric, he has gas and we run a bit different anyway.

    This run was a 50lt TPW fast strip run with up to 2lt per 6mins timed, all done within an hour, 7200w running.
    I normally would not bother with temps or worry about abv on a strip run.
    Still setup like this, no plates, just pot mode.

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    The sensor was placed in a 2" T just before the condenser, and you can see the thermowell that has a cheap temp meter shoved in it, with thermal paste as well, so only 2" between them at the most.

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    Heat up on full power then cut back to one element to watch the new readout and my column temp probe and this pops up JUST as the parrot started dripping in the fores jar, bit of a shit look at that moment.
    The elec parrot shown with my column temp on the left, the right has a temp probe in the parrot liquid ie output.

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    A little bit later it was this, I was still collecting my fores, I collected 400ml from to bottom valve outlet.

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    then this and I was using the parrot with mt glass alc meter and collecting .

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    and

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    Think I may have turned on the second element at this stage and running 7200w, timed 2lt output in just under 6 mins, so the glass parrot was starting to bob up and down a little with the extra flow, and getting warmer too during the run.

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    Also did a temp reading side by side with the cheap supplied unit sitting in a 90 thermowell just above the digital probe, wow was that different, up to 8c variance.

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    did a test tube check after this snap, empty parrot, filled from the drain valve

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    The digital readout on the parrot, it appears smooth and accurate, and interesting my traditional parrot alcometer(s) reading was almost the same most of the run, but not temp adjusted as output was around 27-30 c . I have not done manual corrections to work out how close.

    Must remember the digital parrot is real time, the glass alc meter is sitting in a mixture of product flowing in and out, expect that to be a delayed average reading.

    The readings seemed to stay on track in right down to 30 % when I stopped, by this time the glass parrot scale is too hard to get a good read, and at over 30 c output temp as well.

    Two of us both commented about the fact it appeared to handle the task with ease and no unstable flickering or weird readouts, and its as bright as hell, could read it from a long distance.

    I would use this on every run including stripping if I owned one.

    I was surprised and must congratulate the guys so far.

    Next up Sunday if work permits will be a proper spirit run, either whiskey on 3 plates 80% or neutral aiming for azero.
    Guess we will see how the lie detector goes !

    I can see a future market for add on features, alarm, auto shut downs, etc

    Fadge

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  • So promising? I'm glad you guys are happy.
    Are saying your stripping take off is 2lt per 6min?!? and with a 2" PC. If it's working that well when getting when getting the shite flogged out of it like that then I'm very happy :D
    I think you'll find your slower spirit runs will be even sharper.

  • edited October 2015

    What temperature is the Dragonfire standardized at? Doesn't look like 60F based on the comparison. edit - Ahh, 68F.

  • Damn.. A fella gets sick for a while, and all hell breaks loose! :)

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  • @DistilliTraK said: Damn.. A fella gets sick for a while, and all hell breaks loose! :)

    You ok??

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  • It was a bad spring and summer...Surgery, several complications, long time to recover - Age/previous abuses came home to roost 8-X - But I can't wait to get one of these parrots!~!

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  • @DistilliTraK said: Age/previous abuses came home to roost 8-X

    Of course you mean abuses of the sexual kind, because everybody here is boozing responsibly, right? >:)

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  • @Moonshine said: Of course you mean abuses of the sexual kind, because everybody here is boozing responsibly, right? >:)

    All I can tell you is a banjo was involved along the way ...for years... Puuurrrty!

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  • Great stuff thnaks Fadge. Very comprehensive looking forward to further instalments.

    Sounds like you guys were fundamentally impressed the same as my neighbour and myself the first time we ran it?
    Also sounds like you had the same realization as we did as to the inaccuracies of the standard parrot that we had relied on for so many years. :)>-

    Looking forward to the oak trials too.

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  • edited October 2015

    Ok Setup with 5 plates and packed section.

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    This

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    Close enough for me as this was a quick snapshot, more tomorrow.

    fadge

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  • :D
    Looking forward to it!

  • Boy that looks pretty damn close.

  • Telling which one is right is the trick. Like i say, i have tested a bunch of those cheap alcometers against each other before and there is a wide variance.

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  • edited October 2015

    Ah, so the "truth" is showing.

    Full run on neutral, everything perfect 96% with a few bounces on the digital readout going to 95, collect heads at 10amp or 2400w start hearts still 95/96 same as the floating alc meter.

    Getting impatient so I up the power to 3000w or a bit more and the float meter steady at 96 with a slight bouncing up and down due to increase output rate, BUT digital readout showing 94/93 . Tested with 2 alc meters, both the same but dragon one is easier to read the lines.

    A check on the output temp was 27 C, I don't have a correction chart near me so perhaps someone can post what it should read.

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    Now a side note, the cheap temp meters are going into the bin, handy for noticing changes in temps or a rough guide on the condenser water outlet temps, but not worth a pinch of shit as a accurate reading. They read at least 8 degrees under at out ranges. We all know this, but the variance has surprised me, as I have 3 "better" digital units that are within 2-4 C @ 100C, they just don't have probes that fit the thermowells!

    I will borrow a calibration unit and get at least one decent unit going forward until I hook up pid units RTD and such. Looks like I will need to hit up ebay again.

    fadge

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  • edited October 2015

    Seem to recall @jacksonbrown saying that the lie detector will shake a few vodka guys up :))

    Fadge, are you saying, like i suddenly was, when you say 'truth' that you are swinging towards believing the electric parrot over the traditional one?

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  • edited October 2015

    Another run today with the electric parrot running with my traditional glass dragonfire unit, and I'm now actually a huge fan. Whiskey run on 3 plates, aim was 90% down to 80% in almost pot mode with very little reflux after fores/heads.

    Run went as expected, only thing I noticed was the e parrot was showing fores for at least 5-10 mins proir to me further adjusting water flow before I actually had product dripping out.

    During the run it went down in very steady from 94-87 collecting down to 80, adjust water back up a bit 82...tails started at 80 within 500ml it was down to 75, collect a jar or two and shut down.

    The display is bright, can be seen at a distance and at angles don't need to be right in front of it.

    Seems almost instant to react to changes, cannot see these on the df unit due to slight movements.

    I personally did not think my output temp was ever a factor in reading the dragonfire (df) unit, but once you see the difference in readings, THEN check the liquid in the parrot, its a lot warmer than it seems, like even today my shed and real air temp was 35 C during the run. I rarely bothered with temp correcting- my mistake now that its comparable.

    However I do always check the abv proir to dilution for either oaking or bottling, just assumed I "lost" a little bit from airing for a day or three, and usually do this at night when everything has cooled down.

    Will pass the unit on to another member to checkout and test., going to miss this little beauty after only a few runs with it.

    During this testing I used several glass float units to compare abv and in my mind its basically reading what it should, and I would have no issue using this as the only unit during runs.

    Finally is it accurate?, I say it is enough for me, but I also have no idea how well the df units are? any better or worse?. BUT I can see changes way before the df units, and with talent like @jacksonbrown I'm more than OK with what he has produced.

    fadge

  • Aww shucks. That's fantastic, cheers :-bd

  • How far are we from a product to buy?

  • A couple of weeks i think till i have some limited stock.

    Your thoughts line up well with mine and with the neighbours fagde. After using it i am the same and would either always use it with the traditional parrot or be happy to use it instead of the traditional parrot.
    If there is a discrepancy between the two i'd trust the electric parrot over the traditional. Neighbour feels the same.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • I bet this is just a tad more expensive? Anton Paar Spirits Monitor (PDF)

  • How much?
    I think if I was going that route I'd just buy a surplus/salvage Coriolis mass flow meter.
    I even looked in to a home made one for a while.
    You'd still have the issue of pooling liquid though. Not such a big deal on commercial sized runs.

  • Brand new, just received the pdf from A-P.. my guess is $10-20k?

  • Yikes!
    How about this and some look up tables

  • that is a flowmeter, not a densiometer... the caliber of density meters that are TTB approved use a u-tube that is vibrated to find the harmonic...

  • I have an addiction, I buy shit.... case in point:

    ANTON PAAR DMA 35 VERSION EX HANDHELD PORTABLE DENSITY METER @ eBay

  • It's a mass flow meter. It's exactly what is required.
    The better ones have temp compensation build in and will easily give you your density.
    I think you'll find the A-P one is doing almost the same thing only with a lot less flexibility.

  • @CothermanDistilling sweet. I'm guessing you were the best offer?

  • Hah I was looking at that one

  • I paid the $750... there looks to be those put out More regularly now.... all that used to be was the 35n's and I think they have less features...

    it is a density meter, density is not mass-flow, it is mass-volume

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