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tjhowse  
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 More options Oct 26 2012, 3:18 am
From: tjhowse <tjho...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:18:26 +1000
Local: Fri, Oct 26 2012 3:18 am
Subject: Upgrading an old electric furnace

My Mum gave me an old electric furnace. It was originally designed for
cooking ceramic glases ont plates, cups and whatnot, but it should easily
be able to hit 1000 degrees and probably above. The controller is kaput,
however. I'm thinking of replacing it with one of these:

http://www.ospid.com/blog/
http://www.rocketscream.com/shop/ospid-kit

Has anyone played with these, or does anyone want to suggest something
different?


 
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Lemming .  
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 More options Oct 26 2012, 3:26 am
From: "Lemming ." <inert...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:26:40 +1000
Local: Fri, Oct 26 2012 3:26 am
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

Everything I've heard about the OSPID has been pretty complementary.

On 26 October 2012 17:18, tjhowse <tjho...@gmail.com> wrote:


 
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tjhowse  
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 More options Nov 8 2012, 11:18 pm
From: tjhowse <tjho...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2012 14:17:53 +1000
Local: Thurs, Nov 8 2012 11:17 pm
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

My osPID arrived today. Pretty nice bit of kit. I'm looking for a safer way
of switching the 240v side of things, rather than wiring to the screw
terminals on the back of the osPID. Jaycar sell this:

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=MS6142

It seems like it would be trivial to plug the furnace through one of those
devices and then drive the buttons on the remote from the relay in the
osPID. Set the furnace's controls to full blast and let the osPID handle
the regulation.

Thoughts?

On 26 October 2012 17:26, Lemming . <inert...@gmail.com> wrote:


 
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Adam Nielsen  
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 More options Nov 9 2012, 12:18 am
From: Adam Nielsen <a.niel...@shikadi.net>
Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2012 15:18:19 +1000
Local: Fri, Nov 9 2012 12:18 am
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

> My osPID arrived today. Pretty nice bit of kit. I'm looking for a safer
> way of switching the 240v side of things, rather than wiring to the
> screw terminals on the back of the osPID. Jaycar sell this:

> http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=MS6142

> It seems like it would be trivial to plug the furnace through one of
> those devices and then drive the buttons on the remote from the relay in
> the osPID. Set the furnace's controls to full blast and let the osPID
> handle the regulation.

> Thoughts?

Is it really any safer using a device of questionable quality, compared
to knowing you did the job yourself properly?

The osPID seems to be happy to switch 240V@10A so there shouldn't be any
problems wiring it up directly (assuming your furnace is less than 10
amps.)  Just add another fuse or something if you're really worried, or
put it in an earthed metal container so if anything comes loose it'll
trip something before it causes problems.

By design the relay load is isolated from the input, and it looks like
there's a sufficient air gap on the PCB, so short of a lightning strike
there's little chance of the mains bridging over to the low voltage side
of the circuit.

Cheers,
Adam.


 
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tjhowse  
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 More options Nov 9 2012, 12:38 am
From: tjhowse <tjho...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2012 15:37:49 +1000
Local: Fri, Nov 9 2012 12:37 am
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

Questionable quality? I'm certain that stuff cannot go up for sale in
Australia without meeting standards.

I'm more concerned about having 240v on little screw terminals. With those
remote controlled modules all of the 240v is inside certified 240v
pluggery, entirely separate to the ELV stuff.

On 9 November 2012 15:18, Adam Nielsen <a.niel...@shikadi.net> wrote:


 
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James Churchill  
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 More options Nov 9 2012, 12:57 am
From: James Churchill <pel...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2012 15:57:22 +1000
Local: Fri, Nov 9 2012 12:57 am
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

You can actually put 240V on surprisingly small connectors, but only for
low currents (which is the real restriction). Instead your best bet is to
drive an appropriately rated SSR from the OSPID digital output, which then
switches your live rail.

Something similar to this should do:
http://au.element14.com/opto-22/z240d10/ssr-panel-mount-280vac-32vdc-...

- James

On 9 November 2012 15:37, tjhowse <tjho...@gmail.com> wrote:


 
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James Churchill  
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 More options Nov 9 2012, 1:11 am
From: James Churchill <pel...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2012 16:11:01 +1000
Local: Fri, Nov 9 2012 1:11 am
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

Apparently the screw terminal block they use is HB611B, which has a claimed
rating of 300V 20A. So you probably could wire directly to the OSPID safely
(as long as it's mounted in an appropriate enclosure.)

- James

On 9 November 2012 15:57, James Churchill <pel...@gmail.com> wrote:


 
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Adam Nielsen  
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 More options Nov 9 2012, 1:14 am
From: Adam Nielsen <a.niel...@shikadi.net>
Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:14:15 +1000
Local: Fri, Nov 9 2012 1:14 am
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

> Questionable quality? I'm certain that stuff cannot go up for sale in
> Australia without meeting standards.

I've seen a lot of things for sale at the cheap end of the market that
were very badly made.  It works, and it probably meets the standards,
but you wouldn't want one in your home.  At that price it's probably
fine, but my point was it's not going to be any better than using the
screw terminals properly.

> I'm more concerned about having 240v on little screw terminals. With
> those remote controlled modules all of the 240v is inside certified 240v
> pluggery, entirely separate to the ELV stuff.

What's wrong with screw terminals?  Lots of stuff uses them, and
providing you do up the screws properly they're pretty reliable.  It
looks like the osPID is meant to mount inside an industry standard
cabinet anyway where the terminals aren't exposed.

If you really don't like them, you could desolder the terminals and
solder some wires up to a power point instead.  Of course the wires
attach to the power point at screw terminals... ;-)

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the remote control idea, it
just seems like a lot more effort than you need.

Cheers,
Adam.


 
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tjhowse  
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 More options Nov 9 2012, 2:53 am
From: tjhowse <tjho...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2012 17:52:48 +1000
Local: Fri, Nov 9 2012 2:52 am
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

I cracked the furnace open tonight and found that there was a gigantic
bakelite contactor in the back of it. I should be able to drive that pretty
safely.

On 9 November 2012 16:14, Adam Nielsen <a.niel...@shikadi.net> wrote:


 
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James Hodgkinson  
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 More options Nov 9 2012, 9:00 am
From: James Hodgkinson <yale...@ricetek.net>
Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2012 00:00:32 +1000
Local: Fri, Nov 9 2012 9:00 am
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

I'd be worried about adding unnecessary complication to a device which can
burn things down - namely a device which requires batteries and a
successful wireless connection to work :S

James

On 9 November 2012 17:52, tjhowse <tjho...@gmail.com> wrote:


 
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Luke Hovington  
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 More options Nov 9 2012, 9:16 am
From: Luke Hovington <lu...@hovo.id.au>
Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2012 00:16:20 +1000
Local: Fri, Nov 9 2012 9:16 am
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

I had a switching Powerboard purchased from Jaycar.
I tossed it out because the transformer started to melt the plastic.
So yes you get what you pay for.

I have looked into getting devices certified under Australian law, unless
you have a endless bucket if money or a good friend don't go there..


 
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Jimmy Bowler  
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 More options Nov 9 2012, 5:20 pm
From: Jimmy Bowler <denomina...@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2012 08:20:36 +1000
Local: Fri, Nov 9 2012 5:20 pm
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

TJ

It depends on how you want to control the heat if you want better control
use a SSR then you can drive it directly from 5vdc and use PID control if
you wish. It would also be quiet. This is how I control the 240v heatbed on
my 3d printer. If you are worried about safety I can have a look at it for
you if you like.

Jimmy


 
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Lemming .  
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 More options Nov 9 2012, 5:57 pm
From: "Lemming ." <inert...@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2012 08:57:13 +1000
Local: Fri, Nov 9 2012 5:57 pm
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

Yeah. I'd replace that contactor with an SSR like Jimmy said. Much quieter
when switching. Much finer grained control and easier to drive with a
micro. Also those old bakelite blocks have a nasty habit if shattering when
you least expect it.

On 09/11/2012, at 17:53, tjhowse <tjho...@gmail.com> wrote:

I cracked the furnace open tonight and found that there was a gigantic
bakelite contactor in the back of it. I should be able to drive that pretty
safely.

On 9 November 2012 16:14, Adam Nielsen <a.niel...@shikadi.net> wrote:

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tjhowse  
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 More options Nov 9 2012, 8:09 pm
From: tjhowse <tjho...@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2012 11:09:32 +1000
Local: Fri, Nov 9 2012 8:09 pm
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

The system has a heap of inertia, and the osPID is designed for bang-bang
control. For the hassle involved in replacing components and writing the
code to do analogue proportional control I don't think I'd see a
commensurate increase in performance of the system.

Thanks for the offer of the safety check Jimmy. I might take you up on that
when I bring it into the space sometime.

On 10 November 2012 08:57, Lemming . <inert...@gmail.com> wrote:


 
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Luke Weston  
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 More options Nov 9 2012, 9:44 pm
From: Luke Weston <reindeerfloti...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2012 18:44:26 -0800 (PST)
Local: Fri, Nov 9 2012 9:44 pm
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

On Saturday, November 10, 2012 12:09:54 PM UTC+11, tjhowse wrote:

> The system has a heap of inertia, and the osPID is designed for bang-bang
> control. For the hassle involved in replacing components and writing the
> code to do analogue proportional control I don't think I'd see a
> commensurate increase in performance of the system.

It's a shame that they keep commonly calling these things "PID
controllers", both osPID and the commercial-off-the-shelf versions, when
they're not.

As the osPID website says:

To decide whether you need to use the on board relay or an external SSR
depends on the following requirements:

   - Do you need the osPID unit and the load voltage to be optically
   isolated?
   - Is the load current exceed that of the on board relay?
   - Do you have some allergy towards relay clicking sound?

If the furnace current is less than 10A @ 240VAC, then you can just use the
internal relay inside the osPID. That's what it's there for. It's
completely safe to use it - but a device like osPID is not intended to be
standalone, it is intended to be inside an enclosure so it's safe.

If you really don't want audible relay clicking, you can use an external
SSR. But it's hard to get SSRs to behave themselves at high load currents
without getting very hot, better to use a relay. Or a higher-current
external relay if the internal 10A relay is not sufficient.

Basically, the very important basic piece of information we haven't yet
established here is the furnace current.


 
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tjhowse  
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 More options Nov 9 2012, 9:47 pm
From: tjhowse <tjho...@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2012 12:47:21 +1000
Local: Fri, Nov 9 2012 9:47 pm
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

What makes you say it's not a PID controller?

On 10 November 2012 12:44, Luke Weston <reindeerfloti...@gmail.com> wrote:


 
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James Churchill  
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 More options Nov 9 2012, 9:51 pm
From: James Churchill <pel...@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2012 12:51:24 +1000
Local: Fri, Nov 9 2012 9:51 pm
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

I think he's claiming that a PID controller is defined by having an
analogue output, which is incorrect. It is running a PID control loop in
the firmware, so it's a PID controller. The fact that there isn't an
analogue output board yet (just a digital bang-bang one) doesn't change
that.

- James

On 10 November 2012 12:47, tjhowse <tjho...@gmail.com> wrote:


 
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Luke Weston  
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 More options Nov 10 2012, 2:18 am
From: Luke Weston <reindeerfloti...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2012 23:18:36 -0800 (PST)
Local: Sat, Nov 10 2012 2:18 am
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

Right, I'd define a PID-controlled-system to have a completely analog
feedback loop between the system that you're controlling (say the
temperature in a furnace, the temperature measure feedback, and the control
of the electrical power input into the heater, for example by phase angle
control of a triac.


 
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tjhowse  
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 More options Nov 10 2012, 2:29 am
From: tjhowse <tjho...@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2012 17:29:09 +1000
Local: Sat, Nov 10 2012 2:29 am
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

So a PID controller can't be implemented in digital logic, by your
reasoning?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PID_control

I don't think you know what a PID loop is or does.

On 10 November 2012 17:18, Luke Weston <reindeerfloti...@gmail.com> wrote:


 
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Hayden Pet  
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 More options Nov 10 2012, 3:31 am
From: Hayden Pet <haydenhattr...@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2012 00:31:01 -0800 (PST)
Local: Sat, Nov 10 2012 3:31 am
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

Wouldn't be a chance you could take a picture of the inside for me. I'm
just interested how they have positioned the heating element into the
chamber, and what heating element they are using.
Not gotten the chance to fiddle with one myself you see ;)


 
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Jimmy Bowler  
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 More options Nov 10 2012, 3:32 am
From: Jimmy Bowler <denomina...@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2012 18:32:07 +1000
Local: Sat, Nov 10 2012 3:32 am
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

PID can have digital input or output :)


 
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Luke Weston  
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 More options Nov 10 2012, 5:03 am
From: Luke Weston <reindeerfloti...@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2012 02:03:10 -0800 (PST)
Local: Sat, Nov 10 2012 5:03 am
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

On Saturday, 10 November 2012 18:29:31 UTC+11, tjhowse wrote:

> So a PID controller can't be implemented in digital logic, by your
> reasoning?

Sure, you can and routinely do have PIDs implemented in digital machines,
of course... with some sort of ADC and DAC between the PID algorithm in the
digital machine and the analog (physical) system.
So all such systems are subject to some (negligible in practice)
discretisation error.

More generally, calculus isn't usually implemented exactly in a digital
machine... only numerical approximation methods.


 
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Jimmy Bowler  
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 More options Nov 10 2012, 6:41 pm
From: Jimmy Bowler <denomina...@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2012 09:41:48 +1000
Local: Sat, Nov 10 2012 6:41 pm
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

Then it wouldn't be a digital input or output then would it. They would be
analog in the physical world. They might not be as accurate as the ones you
describe buy they are still a closed loop system just like a normal house
hold oven is PID controlled in a closed loop.

On Sat, Nov 10, 2012 at 8:03 PM, Luke Weston <reindeerfloti...@gmail.com>wrote:


 
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tjhowse  
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 More options Nov 13 2012, 2:33 am
From: tjhowse <tjho...@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2012 17:33:28 +1000
Local: Tues, Nov 13 2012 2:33 am
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

For those watching from the sidelines: The osPID is not a very mature piece
of kit. It's functional, but barely that. I can't comment too much on the
hardware side of things, as I suspect the problems I'm having are
implementation-specific, but the software is pretty awful in most respects.
Processing might be OK for quickly producing prototypes, but I feel it's no
good for actual applications. If I weren't busy with about three different
projects of my own I would look at writing a head-end in python, ala
pronterface. The firmware running on the unit is a bit flakey, and doesn't
seem to heed new manually-entered setpoints. The buttons are intermittantly
unresponsive.

On 11 November 2012 09:41, Jimmy Bowler <denomina...@gmail.com> wrote:


 
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tjhowse  
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 More options Nov 13 2012, 2:56 am
From: tjhowse <tjho...@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2012 17:56:04 +1000
Local: Tues, Nov 13 2012 2:56 am
Subject: Re: Upgrading an old electric furnace

I guess I should explain why I'm doing all this. Right now I have a test
print, a companion cube about 20mm to a side, embedded in a block of
plaster. I used 200g of PoP, 200g of silica sand and 140g of water. The
sand was quite moist. I attached two sprues to the cube and oriented it
point-down. One sprue went on the top point, another went on the side
point. The side point is for the molten metal to flow in, the top sprue is
for the air to come out.

I've got it in the furnace now with a ceramic pot full of chunks of
aluminium, with a hole in the bottom, positioned over the feeder hole. The
temperature profile I'm using is:

0 -> 450, pause, 450 -> 1000, pause, 1000 -> 0, beep

At 450 the PLA burns away, at 1000 the aluminium should flow. Theoretically
I should have an aluminium companion cube.

Things I suspect will go wrong:

I'm using coloured PLA. Pure PLA burns away to water and carbon dioxide.
Coloured PLA leaves a fine ash of the burned colourant. This will probably
lead to some gunk inside the casting, foul up the surface and at worst:
block the feed hole.

The aluminium mightn't flow into the void. When I'm melting aluminium I
usually have to give it a firm poke to break the oxide coating and release
the molten goodness inside. Since this process is hands-off, the aluminium
might not break out of its oxide crust, or might have too high surface
tension to flow down the 3mm diameter feeder tubes.

I'd like to come and see the new space tonight, but I don't yet trust this
furnace enough to not burn my house down.

On 13 November 2012 17:33, tjhowse <tjho...@gmail.com> wrote:


 
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