BeasileyBub Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 I think i'm going to take a hack at designing a temperature controller that but was wondering what people like about their current temperature controllers. I've only used temperature controllers and I feel like they were way too expensive for what the unit actually does. I want to be able to regulate any heater I decide to attach to it. Programmable for varying temperature ranges. LCD screen All of you have a lot of experience and can articulate features that could be improved upon for a Temp Controller. I'd just like some feedback if there isn't something super cool I thought of that could be incorporated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 If you are going the DIY route, these are hard to beat, 13 bucks. There are lots of threads out there with people using them, I have no experience personally but one sitting in my stack of fishy stuff somewhere... http://www.ebay.com/itm/10A-110V-Digital-Temperature-Controller-Thermocouple-58-194-Fahrenheit-US-/121314210967?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c3ee3f497 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeasileyBub Posted December 5, 2014 Author Share Posted December 5, 2014 Yeah, I have seen those. My friend and I pulled one apart. 13 bucks is pretty cheap but the components are really cheap and we both decided that it had a high failure rate but maybe in actuality it works just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badxgillen Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 There you go,now that should lessen the costs.The main thing I like about my controller is the extra long probe,other than that most of them have the same features...Off topic but I have that gorgonian frag for you still BB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 One cool feature would be PID support. Rather than on/off repeatedly, use variable output to ramp the heaters up/down. Supposedly way better for the heaters and more accurate temperature control. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 Interesting topic! Last thought. The controller listed below is a big step up but only 20 bucks. http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Universal-Digital-PID-Temperature-Controller-SSR-Control-output-1-alarm-/110862594914?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19cfecf362 We use it to control the cheap electric smoker. The smoker is now elite class, it can now hold temp +- 2 degrees in the drafty garage, pretty amazing. Smoking comes out perfect since the temperature is so dead on. The old thermostat was all over the place. The algorithms in this thing are really good, it uses good old calculus (rate of change/derivative) to know to turn off before setpoint etc.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeasileyBub Posted December 5, 2014 Author Share Posted December 5, 2014 OOoo that's something I didn't think of. That's a fantastic idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeasileyBub Posted December 5, 2014 Author Share Posted December 5, 2014 That last one looks pretty fantastic. I feel like I should buy one, tear it apart, and reverse engineer it. When you say the older thermostat was this for an older model or on the smoker itself? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeasileyBub Posted December 5, 2014 Author Share Posted December 5, 2014 There you go' date='now that should lessen the costs.The main thing I like about my controller is the extra long probe,other than that most of them have the same features...Off topic but I have that gorgonian frag for you still BB.[/quote'] {I'm text or PM you to come grab it} Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pontus Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 There are many commercial rated controllers already out there. The picture below is of a two stage, so you can control both heat and cooling. I used them for years until I bought an APEX. In fact I still have a one and a two stage controller if you have an interest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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