P.I.D. controller ?

[morkdach]

going to upgrade from older controller to this Auber unit.
? is i want to make this a portable unit i have a K thermocouple probe and a K quick connect but no K wire for the panel box i am going to build.
I do have some J only need 6 inches from controller to quick connect female

.
i only noticed about 1° diff. at low temps using the J extension verses straight connection any thoughts

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[jjwdiver]

My thoughts are I have no clue what K or J mean...but the PID is something I will eventually need to hook up for my fridge conversion. Talk of portable = does that mean there may be a way to "plug & Play", then remove so it is out of the elements???? curious!

 

[morkdach]

yea plug and play is what i am after so its out of elements and used on different units. i will keep ya posted on this build

 

[cheech]

The wires are different calibrations. PM me with your contact info and I will send some out to you.

 

[morkdach]

on its way Thanks

 

[stircrazy]

heres a question.. I have been looking at some of these PIDs and they say they can take multiple inputs. could you rig two K probes up say a 1/4" to read cabnet temp and use a 1/16th as a meat probe for meat temp?

Steve

 

[avj4]

To worry about a 1 degree difference on these things is almost pointless. The thermocouple will get you ballparked.
http://www.omega.com/techref/thermcolorcodes.html
Here is Omega's page and it will tell you the average margin of error on their thermocouples. As far as these P.I.D. controllers go you folks seem to love auber
http://cgi.ebay.com/PID-SSR-TEMPERAT...item4cee0f384e

Ebay has a few cheaper ones for those just getting into this....you don't really need a nice one for this kind of purpose.

As far as multiple inputs go, you'd have to give me a link to tell you what it really means, because if it took two thermocouples then i wonder if both are being used to manipulate the system or is one just as a readout. I am running a P.I.D. controller on my home made smoker but I kinda developed what I found out is called a guru system.

If you have any questions contact me I am a chemical engineer who took a process control class.

 

[stircrazy]

I think I misread it. it supports 18 different inputs. but not all at once.

Now I know there are multi input PIDs out there, just have to find one for a reasonable price. it would be nice to say when the temp of your briskit hits 200, then hold cabnet temp at 200 and sound an alarm. or to set multiple alarms for things that need to happen at specific meat temps like foiling ect.. I have a few friends that play with stuff like this for other things.. maybe i'll run it buy them.

Steve

 

[morkdach]

not worried about 1° the

was using a type K thermocouple with type J thermocouple extension wire as they have different bimetals.
will this effect diff. temp range from 100° to 450°.
one can ballpark with just soldering thermocouple wire togather

 

[fencesitter]

Wow, I just wandered in here after a while away and what do I find?

Somewhere around here I posted how I did my setup. I used two controllers- one with an external trigger controlling the smoker temp and a plain one checking the meat temp.

When the meat comes to temp, the plain one hits the external trigger, which sets it to a hold temp.

The problem here is that you can only set one alarm. Actually, not entirely true- you can use the controllers' alarm functions for other actions, but setting the alarms isn't necessarily a simple one or two step process, not like setting set points.

 

[avj4]

Sorry about that I didn't read your post carefully. But if it's just 6" I wouldn't be too worried but at that point i'd just take apart the quick connect and connect it all directly.

And as for the ones with multiple inputs those could get expensive from what I understand. Unless you go out find an arduino and learn to program....I wish i knew how to program because i would do amazing with an arduino.

 

[morkdach]

Sorry about that I didn't read your post carefully. But if it's just 6" I wouldn't be too worried but at that point i'd just take apart the quick connect and connect it all directly.
now that defeats the plug and play purpose as i want to be able to use this on other units and to keep out of the elements

 

[avj4]

Fair enough. But if you have any way to compare the readouts i'd recommend you do that to see how far off it gets.

 

[morkdach]

ok just one test so far no food involved but looks good for the event

 

[morkdach]

changed the J to K on the wire added a heat sink for the SSR and a clamping MOV test runs have been great.

 

[avj4]

I from the looks of your robust SSR and heatsink i'd say you were gunning to control an electric smoker?

 

[morkdach]

Thats what i'd say