mel jacobson on tue 2 oct 01
at the heat show a couple of summers ago i saw
many digital pyromoters with at least 5 leads to the
various parts of a kiln...reading many places each minute.
all loaded to a laptop.
averaged the 5 locations.
was not that expensive.
500 bucks or so.
many manufacturers doing the same thing.
a bit of over kill for a 20 cube kiln...but a neat idea.
mel
From:
Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.A.
web site: http://www.pclink.com/melpots
WHC228@AOL.COM on wed 3 oct 01
Mel
Bartlett Instrument Co. has a rig for their controllers that can feed into
you PC. It is simple to install and isn't expensive. You would need to get a
program called KISS and some telephone cable from Radio Shack.
With this installed you can get a time temperature record, program the kiln,
and run it from your desk. It will dump the information into an EXCEL program
that will give you a graph of all three zones and the program that it was
supposed to be firing on the same graph. It is important to have that
information in order to adjust the offset in the different zones in the kiln.
Electric kilns aren't as even as you might expect. I have had to adjust the
offset to get mine to fire correctly. As the elements get older it is nice to
be able to go to the graph and see what changes have taken place so that
further adjustments can be made.
The more complex controllers for gas kilns can be supervised and even
controlled from your desktop too, however that is a bit expensive.
I use a system that will only record time and temperature in my gas kilns and
give me a graphical record of each firing.
Another plus for having this setup is that you an access that information
from any computer that is on line. I use a program called PC Anywhere.
When it is stormy I can look at what is going on with the kilns without
having to drive three miles from my home back to the studio.
Bill Campbell
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