Pid controler for new forge

JTknives

JTknives

Joined
Jun 11, 2006
Messages
8,651
So you all know I can’t leave well enough alone. That being said I will blame Salem completely for instilling in me this ribbon burner insanity. Last night I spent hours and hours hunched over a metal box full wires and this is what I came up with.

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As someone that used to build switching cabinets this sent a shiver done my spine :D Why would you have a manual mode in the system and not use the PID permanently? Also: emergency stop?
 
I'm not clear what it is that you are actually controlling. The PID and SSR suggests a time-proportioning discrete output.

Are you cycling the gas solenoid and blower together, running the blower continuously and cycling the gas solenoid, or something else?
 
first up the reason there is a manual and automatic mode is because i dont like starting a forge up when in automatic. in automatic mode the gas control is completely out of your control. so flip it into hand and the pid shows the temp but thats all. you can then get everything running and up to temp and get the air and gas flow rates adjusted so it holds temp just over what you really want. then flip to auto mode and the pid takes over the gas solenoid and brings the temp to where you have it set. the problem is when tuning the gas and air to the right mix its hard when the pid keeps cycling on and off. The hand mode alows you to get the optimum amount of btus out of the gas before the pid takes control. also if you have a thermal couple or pid go out, you can still run the forge on hand mode.

The pid only controls the gas solenoid. It cycles the gas solenoid on and off to regulate the temp. The bower stays on at all times. i have found through all y testing that for me its the best and smoothest way to control the temp.
 
Thanks JT! You’ve convinced me that I don’t want to undertake doing this on my own.
 
This is way more complicated then a basic system. It can be as easy or hard as you want it to be. If you decide to try building one let me know and I can help you with it.
 
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