Feedback on Temp. Controllers

[BeasileyBub]

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.

[TheClark]

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

 

 

 

[BeasileyBub]

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.

[badxgillen]

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.

[TheClark]

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.

[TheClark]

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..

 

 

[BeasileyBub]

OOoo that's something I didn't think of. That's a fantastic idea.

 

[BeasileyBub]

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?

[BeasileyBub]

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}

[Pontus]

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.