Whitfield Profile 30 fs control

[tractorman1960]

I am retrofitting my obsolete Waterford Emerald with a Whitfield control board I bought cheap on Ebay. I'm studying the board and the wiring schematic from the Whitfield manual. Naturally there are some details I can't discover because I don't have a Whitfield stove. Maybe someone could kindly shed some light on a this. A four-pin connector on the back of the controller is labelled "Power Select" What is that for and what plugs into it? Thanks! Chris.

 

[Mr Whitfield]

I don't think its going to work on your stove.. Whitfield control boards are designed for their stoves. Their boards match certain stove with model number and S/N.

 

[imacman]

.....Naturally there are some details I can't discover because I don't have a Whitfield stove. Maybe someone could kindly shed some light on a this. A four-pin connector on the back of the controller is labelled "Power Select" What is that for and what plugs into it? .......

PM sent

 

[tractorman1960]

I don't think its going to work on your stove.. Whitfield control boards are designed for their stoves. Their boards match certain stove with model number and S/N.

I know it's not going to work without a bit of effort. I'm an engineer and an electrician. I selected this control because the Profile 30 and my Waterford have similar specifications and the Waterford board was originally made by Whitfield to begin with. Most of the stove components are similar and I can easily wire them to the new control. Any specific inputs the control needs (ie: optical flame sensor) I can add as a retrofit to my stove.

The 4 pin connector I'm referring to go to the primary side of the board's transformer. Two of the pins are in parallel with the board's 110vac circuit. The other two pins are looking for something else. If I knew what plugged into this I'd be able to move forward. My guess is that the transformer can work on dual voltage and the connector goes to a device that switches between the two voltage sources (?)

Thanks!

 

[jtakeman]

Is there a wiring harness available for the stove that your using the control panel from?

I rewired an older Breckwell to the never digital control for a friend. They sold a kit but it was pretty pricey. So I ordered a control panel and a wiring harness. Besides needing a 1 RPM auger motor. Everything else worked like a charm. Although I thought the analog control was more adjustable, They have been discontinued. So he had no choice but to upgrade to the newer control.

 

[Wood Heat Stoves]

the Waterford board was originally made by Whitfield to begin with. !

no,
ssac and icm made the controls, not whitfield
and the emerald wasnt the model with whitfield guts, the erin was
a whitfield prodigy board would prolly be easier to adapt, but is twice as expensive


keep us posted, interesting project!

 

[tractorman1960]

Dave, thanks for the input. Just this morning I purchased the Profile 30 service manual from you hoping it would help, but it didn't. Both the service manual and the owner's manual point to this four-pin molex connector and call it "Power Select" But neither manual otherwise refers to it. I've traced it on the circuit board to the transformer primaries. If you or anyone else can answer specifically what this connection does, what connects to it, and how I can satisfy the circuit I'd sure appreciate it!

 

[tractorman1960]

There is a wiring harness available for something like $120. I'm hoping I can figure this out without piece-meal purchasing parts (if you know what I mean...)

Is there a wiring harness available for the stove that your using the control panel from?

I rewired an older Breckwell to the never digital control for a friend. They sold a kit but it was pretty pricey. So I ordered a control panel and a wiring harness. Besides needing a 1 RPM auger motor. Everything else worked like a charm. Although I thought the analog control was more adjustable, They have been discontinued. So he had no choice but to upgrade to the newer control.

 

[Delta-T]

I just looked at a Profile 30 thats in my shop for service and it looks like those 4 are jumped to each other (left top pin to left bottom pin and right top to right bottom). I have no idea what this is supposed to accomplish, but thats what I see back there.

 

[Wood Heat Stoves]

Dave, thanks for the input. Just this morning I purchased the Profile 30 service manual from you hoping it would help, but it didn't. Both the service manual and the owner's manual point to this four-pin molex connector and call it "Power Select" But neither manual otherwise refers to it. I've traced it on the circuit board to the transformer primaries. If you or anyone else can answer specifically what this connection does, what connects to it, and how I can satisfy the circuit I'd sure appreciate it!

shoot, you should have just asked me for a copy of the svc book,
i always give them out upon request//

i will pm you a tech # to call

 

[tractorman1960]

Thank you! That confirms what I suspected. The four pins go to the board's transformer primaries. I looked up the transformer's specs and found that the primaries must be connected either in series or in parallel resulting in x or 2x volts at the secondary. Guessing wrong may have smoked the board. I'll jump them as you describe. Thanks again, Chris

I just looked at a Profile 30 thats in my shop for service and it looks like those 4 are jumped to each other (left top pin to left bottom pin and right top to right bottom). I have no idea what this is supposed to accomplish, but thats what I see back there.

 

[tractorman1960]

The jumpers worked. All the Christmas lights I wired to the auger, blowers, igniter all lit up as expected. The auger light went dark after 1min 50 sec because no "flame detected." I probed the fame sensor plug and read 5vdc. I don't yet have the optical sensor...I wonder if a standard furnace thermocouple type flame sensor would work. That's the next step along with an igniter that might fit my Waterford. Any suggestions on an igniter? The Waterford Emerald manual makes reference to an igniter option. My local stove shop (Frizelle Enos in Sebastapol, CA) doesn't remember about an igiter for Waterford although he (Tony) has lots of knowledge about the Waterford Emerald.

 

[Don2222]

Hello

Here is a Westford Emerald pellet stove for sale. Looks like a nice unit?

http://newlondon.craigslist.org/hsh/1994450689.html

For sale Waterford emerald pellet stove nice dark brown porcelain in color( works well) will heat a 1200SF home no longer needed 950.00 OBO thanks don

 

[Wood Heat Stoves]

Hello

Here is a Westford Emerald pellet stove for sale. Looks like a nice unit?

http://newlondon.craigslist.org/hsh/1994450689.html

For sale Waterford emerald pellet stove nice dark brown porcelain in color( works well) will heat a 1200SF home no longer needed 950.00 OBO thanks don

I'd pass, parts/support not avail

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Just a note here.

I am in the process of reworking the controls on a Whitfield Prodigy II

I decided to use a programable and adjustable Mosfet relay setup to control the on and off time of the feed motor.
The relay allows me to adjust the on time span of the feed motor and tweek it right in where the factory board had
Also I can vary the off time (heat range of the stove) from 1 second to 10 seconds

(factory settings were the same)

The start up sequence is accomplished by the use of a one shot timer that will power the feed motor until the low side snap switch is engaged.

The rest of the stuff is basic wiring 101 Use a a standard HD dimmer control to vary the blower fan depending on whats needed.

The exhaust fan (depending on the stove) can either run full speed or be set up so you can control it.

The factory boards were built to try and keep the operation as simple as possible BUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Unfortunately many of these older boards were not all that well made and as you already know, hard to find now and $$$$$$$$$ when you do find them.

As long as you keep all the original safeties in place with a door switch, pressure switch and the high and low snap switches you set and safe.

As I depend on my stoves for heat in the house and not just asthetics, I want easily replaceable parts that I can get "Off the shelf"

I contacted Precision timer company and spoke with Jim

I am using a model 646 solid state controler for the on and off cycles and a model 644 timer for the start up

These are all built to whatever spec you choose from the list of options.

Basic type
Voltage
On time specs
Off time specs
and several other options

These are about 2 inches square and an inch thick and have standard 1/4" spade connections
They come with a full schematic to wire them in with too

My bigg issue with most of the control boards is that they are made overseas and when the die you are SOL and have to replace the whole board.

Many of these boards can and do fail if the fan motor dies and or the feed motor goes south.

The components are in many cases extremely sensative to voltage ups and downs (power outages)

The Industrial cycle timers are designed to be very robust and caome in Amperage ratings of 5-10-15 amps or more.

Having the cycle timers only running the feed motor and not intertied with other components will lessen the problem of failure greatly.

Here is a link to Precision timer http://www.precisiontimer.com/


Just a FWIW

Good luck with your rewire and keep us posted.

Snowy

 

[Mr Whitfield]

The timer blocks is what Lopi stoves (Travis Industry) use to control their pellet stoves.

 

[tractorman1960]

My project is progressing nicely, I'm working on an igniter now, am waiting on some parts then will do the control change-out to the Waterford. Can anyone please explain something about the Profile 30? The service manual says that "proper air to fuel ratio is electronically controlled by the software within the control panel." What is actually being controlled? I don't see any thing in the wiring diagram or parts list that would indicate any sort of motorized or solenoid operated damper adjusting device connected to the controller.

Thanks!

 

[Snowy Rivers]

The software is written to control the draft fan speed at any given fuel setting.

So for example, lets say at the number 1 or low setting the thing drops X amount of pellets per minute, the draft fan speed is set to Y .

As the fuel amount is increased, the draft fan speed increases some.

The larger amount of fuel will need more air though the fire pot.

With a small fire, too much air will either burn it out too quickly or Blow it out when it gets down low.

The tech manual makes it sound far more technical than it really is.

This is done to eliminate the need for the operator to fool with a damper.

Whitfield had a damper control on their stoves along with the fan speed being moderated by the board. This allowed the operator to fine tune things to suit whatever was being burned.

I have adjusted my stove some as the nut shells I use burn slightly different than pellets.

Snowy

 

[tractorman1960]

Thanks, Snowy. I understand the need to vary the air with different size fires. When you say "draft fan" I assume you mean the combustion exhaust blower? The only other fan that I know of is the room convection blower. And the damper control you mention...the part isn't referred to in the tech manual or the wiring diagram. Did Whitfield elminate it at some point? Do you think it's necessary to add this or will the fan speed control do the trick?

Chris

 

[tractorman1960]

I'm wrapping up my project and I'm pleased with the results. My Waterford is now running with the Profile 30 controls. Only hitch was on start-up. The 20% feed rate for the first 4 minutes after 'flame detect' was insufficient even after adjusting the auger trim all the way up. I solved this with a timer and some relays to by-pass the controller for the 4 minutes and divert auger control to an adjustable flasher (Grainger.com) which gives me a 50% feed rate. After the 4 minutes times out the relays flip control back to the control board for normal operation. Also, I decided not to try the photo eye for flame detection and instead used a N.O. snap switch L130/15 mounted on the exhaust blower housing. This seems to be working well.

Snowy, how's your project coming?