In view of the last paragraph, taking into account the limited financial resources we have, I think the most accurate option is to ask a company to cure us of our piece in your oven. This summer, I want to put into practice such a ablative materials experiment will perform together with Mattias Lampe From: tyoung489@xxxxxxxxx Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 11:00:38 -0700 Subject: [SS2S-Main] Re: temperature controller with arduino To: sugarshot@xxxxxxxxxxxxx My best advice is to use the BCS-460. This will give you everything you originally wanted in the controller. If that's not possible your existing PID will work for providing the temperature control. By control I mean it will sense, via your Type-K thermocouple, the temperature at the "tip" of the probe & provide this signal to the controller. The controller will provide an output signal to the heating device. The PID feedback loop in the controller will monitor the sensed temp compared to the set point temp and adjust the output so that you don't radically overshoot the set point. It will then maintain the set point temp within the accuracy of the heating "System". I don't know if your REX-C700 PID has any built in programming abilities that would allow you to program a temperature curve some of the low cost one do but most don't. Your controller can not directly handle a large output amperage so the output signal is normally wired to a SSR Solid State Relay. Most PID controllers can't directly control the heater. You would also need to use SSR(s) with the BCS-460. The PID's signal will modulate the electric heating element. Most PID could also use an electrical mechanical contactor (relay) but the this is not ideal for several reasons. 35 years ago SSR were just starting improve in reliability (you had a 50/50 chance of them lasting 1-year) but they were high priced. Today's SSR's have low price & good reliability. Since you only have 1 sense point with your existing PID ( the BCS-460 has 4) you will not be able to sense both the oven temp and the product temp with the same thermocouple. I expect that there will not be a point on the nosecone where you could insert the tip of the thermocouple into the construction to sense it's temperature during the curing process. I would recommend that you make some separate pieces that are representative of the construction that you could insert the tip of the thermocouple. While this will not be an exact indication of the temperature of the nosecone it will be close enough. Again sensing the oven air temperature will not be sufficient to properly monitor the temperature of the nosecone. If you plan on using a hair dryer (or any consumer heater device) you will probably need to remove the high temperature cut-off device. Also the fan motors in these devices expect to see 100% ambient (cool) air, not recycled heated air. Normally in ovens the fan motors are located outside of the heated space with only the fan blade or wheel actually seeing the heated air. Convection ovens rely upon high velocity air (high hundreds to thousands of feet per minute velocity) to both maintain uniform oven temperature & to eliminate the insulating boundary layer of air at the surface of the part. When this boundary layer is eliminated the thermal energy in the air is transferred to the part much more efficiently. Therefore the air temperature in the oven needent be a great deal higher then the desired temperature of the part. Unless you plan on doing many curing runs it may be worth a few phone calls or emails to local Universities or Business to see if they will donate some oven time to this project. Solid State Relay SSR-40DA 40A /250V W I/O 3-32VDC/24-380VAC & Heat Sink US $8.73 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Solid-State-Relay-SSR-40DA-40A-250V-W-I-O-3-32VDC-24-380VAC-Heat-Sink-/330924166119?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d0c9e0be7 On Mon, Jun 30, 2014 at 7:08 AM, James Fackert <jimfackert@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: mine too. an hour or two learning to program a $50 temp controller (maybe $100 with multiple ramps and usb with pc based programmer ) is much cheaper than the hours and learning curve to program and to properly interface an arduino that will cost at least $100 with box and interface circuitry. jim fackert On Jun 30, 2014 9:17 AM, "Vicente Alvero Zambrano" <vicente_alvero_14@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: Your opinion is to use the existing PID device? > Subject: [SS2S-Main] Re: temperature controller with arduino > From: waaslandwolf@xxxxxxxxx > Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 14:21:03 +0200 > To: sugarshot@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > > I agree with Peter. Trying to save a mere 180$ by developing a solution that > already exists isn't good use of resources. > > > Op 30-jun.-2014 om 00:52 heeft Peter Johansson <rockets4kids@xxxxxxxxx> het > > volgende geschreven: > > > > On Sun, Jun 29, 2014 at 6:36 PM, Vicente Alvero Zambrano > > <vicente_alvero_14@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > >> My idea is to use an old oven heater like the picture. > >> With respect to the PID controller, maybe it is cheaper to do it manually, > >> without writing code. > > > > One option to consider -- and an advantage to going with a homebrew > > solution -- is to simply read a configuration file containing the > > temperature profile and PID tunings over over the serial port. > > > > This way you get the maximal possible control with the minimal > > hardware cost and minimal software development time. > > > > -p. > > >