Hatches PID

[Wolfdog91]

Quick question. When you run the auto tune with this you put it in the pot turn the pot as wide open as you can and just start the tun and leave it alone till it stops blinking right ? How long does it usually take ? I know the instructions I downloaded said anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. I think I'm on the few hours deal lol

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[GregLaROCHE]

You can always try sending a PM to Hatch for more information.

[Rickf1985]

When I run the auto tune on my 20 lb. Lee pot it generally takes about 30-40 minutes from start to finish. And yes, you need to have the heat control maxed out so the pot thermostat is not kicking in. I found that on mine the first time I ran the auto tune the pot thermostat kicked in a couple times and that kind of prolonged the time it took but I ran the auto tune again a couple days later and it was much faster that time. I bypassed the pot thermostat at one point and had a thermocouple failure and luckily I was there to see it but the temp on the PID started dropping quickly so the unit went into full heat mode. At first this didn't register in my not yet coffee filled brain but it did not take long to realize something was wrong and I put a mechanical thermometer in the pot and it was 1050 degrees and rising!!!! Take that you people that say a Lee pot can't reach 1,000 degrees! Unplugged it quickly and swapped out the thermocouple for another I had and plugged it back in and sure enough the temp in the PID was at 950 and dropping. It all settled out at the 700 I had it initially set at but I shut it down anyway and hooked the pot thermostat back up again so this way I have a back up. I leave that one set on the top setting so it is way above the 700 max I will be casting at and it does not interfere with the PID at all. BUT, If I ever have another thermocouple failure the pot thermostat will hold it at around 850-900. Those thermocouples are made in China so always have redundancy! Just to note, this was no fault of the PID in any way, it saw a temperature drop and reacted just as it should.

[osage]

I can't say how long mine took to auto tune as I didn't time it. I do like Hatch's PID. Much better than WAG method of setting the temperature I had been using, lol.

[Mike W1]

[QUOTE=Wolfdog91;5404477]Quick question. When you run the auto tune with this you put it in the pot turn the pot as wide open as you can and just start the tun and leave it alone till it stops blinking right ? How long does it usually take ? I know the instructions I downloaded said anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. I think I'm on the few hours deal lol


The time depends on what you're controlling. The PID has to go through 3-4 complete cycles of highs and lows to determine what settings the the P,I and D values need to be set at. When the AT lamp goes out it's all done then. For that load only. Not a bad idea to record those values in case you use the unit to control other units. Then you can just input the values in manually and don't have to go through the AT process again. Each unit/load would have their own values.