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Heat blanket / Cartridge Heater Controller
Responses
Thanks for posting this Dave! I never bought the heating controller. I made my own a few years back, and these things are very easy to get lost on.
I don’t see a heatsink on the SSR. Those are important to prevent overheating.
Perhaps the heat sink is there but not visible at the angle of the photo. A few things I added to the one I built a few years ago.
A second switch to enable the output power to the blanket. After completing the bend I can cut power to the blanket and still use the PID to monitor the temperature.
I also added a fan that runs whenever power is being supplied to the blanket to keep the components of the controller cool.
Thanks for your feedback Rob. You bring up some good points.
I didn’t use the heat sink included with the PID controller. I’m using the aluminum case as my heat sink. The heater controller is meant for heat blankets in the 25W-40W range which means the current through the SSR is very low. As a precaution though, I used heat sink grease between the SSR and the case. You can see the white heat sink grease at the bottom edge of the SSR in the second photo. The original post included this in the parts list:
#heat sink grease (for solid state switch)
https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Thermal-Grease-Compound-Heatsinks/dp/B005VULWLA/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=1V1HWI6EUBAAB&keywords=heat+sink+grease&qid=1697291951&sprefix=heat+sink+grease%2Caps%2C94&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=
I’ll ask Ian to include this link with the Amazon parts list, and see if I can add a few words to the post to point out that detail. The Inkbird controller SSR heat sink will fit in the case, and by all means I would say go ahead and use it as an extra precaution.
Your switch on the output is a nice addition, and also brings up another good point. If you build a heater controller box like this one, before using it test that it is working correctly by just plugging in the thermocouple to make sure it is reading about room temperature. Then plug in the heat blanket. The “OUT” light on the front panel of the PID controller should go off when the displayed temperature (red digits) measured by the thermocouple reaches the set temperature (green digits). If not something is wrong and the heat blanket should be unplugged until the problem is identified.
I have added these observations to the post. Please let me know if they need tweaking.
Thanks Ian.
In case someone doesn’t look at the comments, maybe we should add a “Testing the Heater Controller” section with these words:
Before using the controller test that it is working correctly by just plugging in a K thermocouple to make sure it is reading about room temperature. Then plug in a heat blanket. The “OUT” light on the front panel of the PID controller should go off when the displayed temperature (red digits) measured by the thermocouple reaches the set temperature (green digits). If not something is wrong and the heat blanket should be unplugged until the problem is identified.
I’m printing, testing and tweeking the front and back panels. Should have something to send to you soon. Should I just send the files in .f3d format to ian.davlin@gmail.com, or do you want them in a .zip file?
David, on the old LMI controller there was a button that you could press and hold which would change the controller from thermocouple setting to just percentage of max. The thermocouple would still tell you the temperature, but it wouldn’t adjust the blanket based off of that reading. I found this to be super useful as those LMI thermocouples would break and then dime out the blankets burning them out and gooing up the project. Is there a way to do this with the inkbird ?
To Ian’s comment about the LMI controller –
Here’s a link to a description to set the Inkbird controller to % of max:
https://community.inkbird.com/t/itc-106-is-there-a-way-to-set-the-output-power-percentage/461
Thanks to Chip Tait (Brooklyn Fretworks) who has updates for a couple of the parts URLs:
The switches:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SMGLD8F?ref=fed_asin_title&th=1
The aluminum enclosure:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08VN59KJL?ref=fed_asin_title