Rod Wuetherick on thu 12 may 05
Attention Clay Art members.
An Engineer friend and I have begun to build oxyprobes. There will be
several enhancements over the currently available models.
We have completed the development of our first set of probes and we are now
waiting for our next set of zirconium pellets to arrive from our supplier.
What we are looking for is folks with a fair amount of experience, who fire
frequently to test some probes for us. We would like to send out about 8
probes for in field testing.
If you only fire once a month etc. please don't offer to test. We are
looking for people who fire often perhaps several times a month. Schools,
etc. will be given first priority.
Before you jot off a letter to us saying "YES" you would like to test one
out please be advised that we will be asking for a small deposit on the
probe.
We want to mention that the main difference that will be found in our probes
is going to be found in the meter. As many of you who own probes either AOC
or Axners you will find that the meter is simply a rebadged multimeter.
The development of the probe was the easy part. What we are doing is
developing a meter that will be "intelligent" as far as probe use. As we are
building the meter from scratch I don't want to say too much about what it
will do but I will tell two things;
One thing about our probe is that we as opposed to the other probe makers
will include a instruction manual on how to replace the outer .020 (24 AWG)
platinum wire when it becomes necessary. We have made a tiny design change
that will allow a complete wire change to be made without sending to a
repair depot. Please note that the demo version that we send out will not
include the change as simple as it is as we don't want our competitors to
see the simple but clever change we will be making in production models.
Also our probe will come equipped with a thermal sensor in the head that
will cause our new meter to "yell" loudly if the temperature exceeds 70C
(158F). This will we hope keep some folks from melting down the wiring
within the probe head.
This will be the first probe in the "potters" price range that the meter
will do auto calibration on the zirconium pellet each time it is used. There
will be no "drift" in accuracy of this probe. It will give you as accurate
of readings on your 150'th firing as it did on your 1'st. Industrial
strength probes have calibration facilities and now so will potters.
The meter will have a USB port on it. Use your imagination the USB port
won't just be used for downloading data about a firing it will also be able
to control things. Gotcha thinking didn't I? Very, Very good chance in the
next two years or so there will be some add on products for things like gas,
damper control, etc.
Obviously we are doing this because um, mmmm we are geeks and it's fun ;) We
don't expect to get rich to soon but with the more intelligent features we
hope to be able to sell outside of the pottery market as well. We will
see...
please send inquires, comments etc. to;
intelli-probe@redironstudios.ca
Please be aware that the next batch of probes won't be prepared until we get
more pellets from our supplier. Our estimated time to complete the meter
will be about 18 months. Which is how long we want our "TEST" probes out
being used. This way when we release the entire package we will know of any
problems, etc. We believe most people will be saying, "Worked as advertised
for entire test period."
Thanks everyone,
Rod
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