Browse Tag: sterownik pieca

PIDKiln – my new controller for ceramic kiln

After some experience with controlling my ceramic kiln with Linux over cron scripts, I’ve moved to Chinese PC410 controller. But (probably) because it was knock off, it had removed plenty of useful features (you can read about it, in Polish here) I’ve decided to do my own controller.

PIDKiln v0.2 - screens
PIDKiln v0.2 - main screen

I’ve looked around Internet for existing solutions, and found one – interesting enough, but still lacking very important future for me – Internet connectivity. I need to be able to monitor my kiln overt network, see what’s going on and be able to turn it off.

So this is how it came to life my controller – based on ESP32 chip, feature rich PID controller for kiln, with network connectivity, local LCD display and all possible safety features I needed.

You can download project sources from github and build your own. All required information you will find there. Here I’ll show how to build it in step-by-step process.

What’s done already (updated 19.09.2019):

PIDKiln assembled – all components
  • All common procedures and functions for LCD, input (encoder) and Webserver
  • Program handling like upload, delete, show
  • Program loading to memory and full sanitization
  • Preference handling, information screen, and graphs for WWW a tiny for LCD 馃檪
  • MAX31855 + thermocouple readout and handling

What needs to be done:

  • PID control – now work in progress
  • testing… testing… and 馃檪

Tani sterownik pieca do ceramiki PC410

Robi膮c pierwszy piec do ceramiki, jego sterowanie opar艂em na laptopie, mierniku z odczytem termopary K i portem RS232 oraz listw膮 zasilaj膮c膮 sterowana po Ethernecie. Linux zczytywa艂 aktualna temperatur臋, na podstawie tego po SNMP wysy艂a艂 sygna艂 do listwy zasilaj膮cej w艂膮czaj膮c/wy艂膮czaj膮c grza艂k臋. Zalet膮 rozwi膮zania by艂a mo偶liwo艣膰 zdalnej kontroli (nie trzeba kilkana艣cie godzin dogl膮da膰 wypalania – zw艂aszcza na pocz膮tku do艣wiadcze艅 z piecem), zdalnego odczytu temperatury, tworzenie wykresu temperatur i (w moim wypadku) prostota i tanio艣膰 – musia艂em jedynie naby膰 miernik, kt贸ry i tak intensywnie u偶ytkuj臋.

Sterownik PC410
Sterownik PC410

Pech chcia艂 ze miernik by艂 z portem rs232, kilka lat min臋艂o i ma艂o gdzie s膮 one wbudowane a przej艣ci贸wki usb2rs232 s膮 mocno k艂opotliwe (nie przenosz膮 odpowiednich napiec +/-12v). Dodatkowo zgubi艂em, apke na Linuxa do odczytu miernika a sam miernik najprawdopodobniej (samo po艂膮czenie rs232) si臋 zepsu艂. Continue Reading