My name is Kevin and I am electronically challenged
To those of you who have posted your designs here to help the electronically challenged of the world (ME) successfully install a PID on my Lee Pro 4-20 all I can say is:
THANK YOU!!!
When I first started casting I did not understand how important pot temperature was and I made OK boolits but I wanted them to be like the ones Swede Nelson posts when the molds are done and I could not get mine to look like that. Worse yet, I could get them looking good once in a while but not always!!! That HURT.
Then I bought a very nice mechanical thermometer for the pot and could see the temperature of the lead but do little to control it except turn that stupid rheostat knob about 20 minutes too late or a half hour too early.
And then I stumbled in here and found this discussion going on.
Interesting but I could never do anything like this..........so I bookmarked this thread.......re-read a day later........re-read a week later......etc.......or could I?
Then a $100 dollar gamble that I would have a box of mysterious electronic junk left over and........
It works and it "learned" and now my pot stays where I put it when I want it to - just like my dog!
*doing that little mysterious electronic jig thing and jumping around*
[smilie=2:
Thank you all! I understand everything except some "situation-thingee" that lead to the *B* word for somebody. My heart felt Thank You to all of you who helped me but never uttered a word!. I'm having a little PID party tonight in honor of that little electronic whoosis next to my pot and you are all invited over to help me "get the lead out" and hoist a couple.
Sincerely,
Kevin
:lovebooli & PID's
Alarm excitation voltage?
I'm almost embarassed to ask any questions here :sad: because I already feel like I copied off of all of your tests or something (I have this image of the people at Auberins scratching their heads and wondering why they keep getting the same order from all over the country). But I really am electronically challenged. I have other talents :-) but I always figured that if people were supposed to understand electronics that we would have been born with multi-meters instead of hands?
Anyway :mrgreen: my question is this. I followed the wiring diagram for the alarm (all two wires) and I think that I purchased the correct alarm LED (FLBuz-120-16) for the 1/16 DIN Controller (SYL-2352). I think that the alarm output is 110V from terminals 1 and 13 of the controller and I bought a 110V input LED/buzzer alarm that does not require a separate (DC) power supply. Am I wrong in the understanding that the controller is sending out a 110V excitation signal to activate the alarm?
I have programmed the controller to activate alarm1 (ALRM-1) in the case of an "over-temperature event" and the alarm event is lighted up on the front face of the controller but not the external buzzer/LED. All that I am attempting to do is provide a secondary notification if something goes south and the pot is going nuclear.
I wired the whole thing up according to Figure 8 in the instructions for the 2352 controller with the exception that I wired a duplex outlet in place of the "heater" that they indicate in the wiring diagram and then I simply plug my Lee Pro 4-20 into one of the outlets and leave all of the Lee wiring as it came from the factory. This means that the warranty will still be in effect and I simply leave the pot rheostat set to "10" and let the controller keep the temperature constant by switching the voltage to the pot on and off. Which is why I want the "over-temperature event" alarm - for when I descend into the "Casting Zone" and forget to check that the pot is still functioning well. In that case, something fails and the pot voltage is simply left on continuously and I am blissfully and obliviously incinerated while laughing maniacally and holding up "THE" perfect Boolit!
Can anybody troubleshoot this mess that I have come up with without being in my shop? You are welcome to come to the shop but it is likely to be a long drive for some of you?
Thanks a priori for any help that you can give.
Kevin
:castmine:
Another stupid question...
There is a discussion going on in the "Casting" forum about which setting on the Lee 4-20 pot corresponds to what temperature etc. I know from here that the rheostat is almost hopelessly incapable of controlling the heat the way that it should be controlled to cast uniform and predictable boolits but there is no way that I was going to jump in and start talking about things that I am only barely mastering now :-).
BUT
Then someone over there, that used a PID in which the "relay" burned out, said that the PID should NOT be used while the pot is coming up to temperature because the SSR does not like the level of switching that is going on then? That sounds more like a mechanical relay to me - not an SSR?
One of them suggested plugging the pot into outlet power until it is "up to temperature" and then plug it into the PID to control the already established temperature to avoid burning out the SSR. In watching my PID it seems like it cycles more in trying to hold the pot once it has reached temperature than during the initial ramp up.
Question to you smart guys and/or gals: Is it true that the PID should NOT be used during the initial ramp up to 650 or so degrees F? Should the pot be plugged into a regular outlet during temperature ramp up?
Thanks in advance and the other discussion is in the "Casting" forum.