Controller trouble shooting.

[Signal16]

So after quite a bit of lurking and reading I am stumped. I can’t seem to get my SSR electric controller to work. I have pored over the wiring diagrams on this site and I must be missing something. My switch turns everything on and off, the 240v fan runs, my ammeter/voltmeter turns on and reads, but the element just runs full power without regard to the setting on the potentiometer. I thought maybe I had a dud SSR, so I replaced it but the same thing happened.
My potentiometer consistently measures between 10-500ohm on my multimeter both at the potentiometer legs and across 3 and 4 on the ssr. When I disconnect from 3 or 4 on the ssr, there is no longer power going to the element.

Should this work or am I using wrong components? Do I have dud component? I am using Fotek SSR-40 VA / 500ohm with a 500ohm potentiometer. Any help troubleshooting would be much appreciated. I am using this wiring schematic with the exception of a 240v fan wired in parallel and a different SSR.



Thanks for the knowledge.
Signal16

[shadylane]

Is the pot 500 ohms or 500kilo ohms ?
Sounds like you have the wrong pot.

[Drunk-N-Smurf]

Sounds like the power is feeding the wrong way, try reversing l1 and l2 on your power input plug. kinda like having a switch on the neutral instead of the hot on a 110v circuit.

[Drunk-N-Smurf]

Wait, I just saw it, your meter is connected on the wrong side of the ssr, it should be connected on the same side as the element.

Otherwise it's just going to read the power from both 110v legs coming in.

[Signal16]

Thanks for the input.

Shadylane you nailed it. I knew it was something simple that I was overlooking. I wired a 500 ohm potentiometer but need 500k ohm, small difference huh. No wonder the element is running wide open. I really appreciate the assistance. I will replace the pot and post how how it works.

Signal16

[Soggy Bottom Boy]

Make sure you get a linear taper potentiometer, and not an audio taper(logarithmic) one.

small difference huh. No wonder the element is running wide open.

Only by about a thousand times!

[Signal16]

Changed out the pot and now the controller works great now. Thanks for the help. I see that some people will use 2 pots in series for a coarse and a fine adjustment. Seems like a cool idea, is this necessary or helpful?

Signal16

[shadylane]

Two pots in series would give a little bit more control.
But one 500k pot is good enough

[Drunk-N-Smurf]

I find it usefull, a little easier to dial in, I find with just using the main pot, the voltage jumps pretty big with only small turns, the fine tuning knob let's me dial it back in smaller increments once the main in in the ballpark.