Help me with my PID please

[jimmeyjack]

Hurry up Raymond its gonna rain sunday!
I can't wait to see yours so I can put mine together

[RaymondMillbrae]

Drats!!

It's Friday, and I just got back home from a crazy work day in Campbell.

I have a mandatory meeting Saturday morning at 0800 hours, and then I'm gonna try to shoot over to Richmond for a few hours of practice.

If all goes well, I will finish everything off after that.

Oooooor if the meeting lasts too long, I will scratch the Saturday Richmond practice, and just dedicate the rest of the day to this PID project.

Boy...44-years old...still running around like a mad-man on crunch time. Where do the hours in a day fly to?!

In Christ: Raymond

[Rock]

The K type probe that I acquired is longer than needed (the probe and the wires).

Is it possible to cut the probe and wires to a shorter length?

If the probe cannot be cut, can it be bent?

Thanks all

[lurch]

My *guess* is that the probe could be bent as long a it's not bent too near either end and the the bend is done with a nice radius so as to not crush the wire inside it. I would definitely not try cutting it. As far as I know, the probe is just a metal sheath around the thermocouple wire. There may be some sort of different insulation material inside the probe as well (again, a guess as I have not pulled one apart). If that insulation is amenable to bending then it should be OK. If not, then...oops... I suggest contacting your vendor and asking to be on the safe side.

As for the wires, there should be no issue at all cutting those. Just be sure to use thermocouple wire all the way to the controller.

[RaymondMillbrae]

But don't cut the thermocouple wire too short, as there are other benefits to this added length.

Yepper-ee...it doesn't have to be "mutually exclusively" used on your casting pot. If you keep it long, you could even use it as a thermometer on your smelting pot when casing your ingots.

In my opinion, don't cut it too short. Leave it longer and just coil it.

In Christ: Raymond

[kbstenberg]

I hope you dont mind me asking another question, If so please have a moderater deleat.
When attatchung the SSR to your project box. Should you cut a hole through the box so that the SSR makes dirrect contact with the heat sink?
Or can the SSR an heat sink just be in close proximitie to each other?
Kevin

[cheese1566]

Ask away!!! We are all here to help...
The SSR needs to be in direct contact, usually the back of the SSR to the flat of the heat sink so the heat from the SSR transfers to the heat sink. Think of the heat sink as a radiator. Wouldn't hurt to apply some silicone heat sink compound (not silicone caulk sealer!) to where the SSR and heat sink touch, helps in the transfer of heat.

[kbstenberg]

Thank you Cheese 1566
Kevin