roaster control widget

[yorel23]

* BUMP *

No news is good news about the Milowidget?

*nudge, nudge*

I think someone is too busy with the new "love" in their life.    (A certain girl named Ambex!)

[milowebailey]

* BUMP *

No news is good news about the Milowidget?

*nudge, nudge*

I think someone is too busy with the new "love" in their life.    (A certain girl named Ambex!)

Ambex dumped me for Diedrich... long story, but Ambex may be next year's prom date...

I've been a bit occupied crabbing... short season and so many crabs

[mp]

Ambex dumped me for Diedrich... long story, but Ambex may be next year's prom date...

I've been a bit occupied crabbing... short season and so many crabs

Careful ... or we'll have to refer to you as Crabby Milo.

 

[Tex]

* BUMP *

No news is good news about the Milowidget?

*nudge, nudge*

I think someone is too busy with the new "love" in their life.    (A certain girl named Ambex!)

Ambex dumped me for Diedrich... long story, but Ambex may be next year's prom date...

I've been a bit occupied crabbing... short season and so many crabs

I caught crabs once on a business trip to New Jersey. Had a hell of a time explaining that one to the 2nd Mrs T!  When did they put a season on that?

[milowebailey]

* BUMP *

No news is good news about the Milowidget?

*nudge, nudge*

I think someone is too busy with the new "love" in their life.    (A certain girl named Ambex!)

Ambex dumped me for Diedrich... long story, but Ambex may be next year's prom date...

I've been a bit occupied crabbing... short season and so many crabs

I caught crabs once on a business trip to New Jersey. Had a hell of a time explaining that one to the 2nd Mrs T!  When did they put a season on that?

not only a season, but a 5 crab limit... get caught with more than that and it's $150 fine for each one and they take your equipment..... ouch!!!

[Tex]

not only a season, but a 5 crab limit... get caught with more than that and it's $150 fine for each one and they take your equipment..... ouch!!!

I must've had millions of the little thingies! And the 2nd Mrs T threatened to take my equipment too, ala Elaina Bobbit. 

[mp]

I must've had millions of the little thingies! And the 2nd Mrs T threatened to take my equipment too, ala Elaina Bobbit. 

 

[milowebailey]

not only a season, but a 5 crab limit... get caught with more than that and it's $150 fine for each one and they take your equipment..... ouch!!!

I must've had millions of the little thingies! And the 2nd Mrs T threatened to take my equipment too, ala Elaina Bobbit.  

that's cuz you were over your limit.... did she get $150 fine for each one too?

[Tex]

not only a season, but a 5 crab limit... get caught with more than that and it's $150 fine for each one and they take your equipment..... ouch!!!

I must've had millions of the little thingies! And the 2nd Mrs T threatened to take my equipment too, ala Elaina Bobbit.  

that's cuz you were over your limit.... did she get $150 fine for each one too?

Oh, she got at least that much in the divorce settlement. But the judge wouldn't let her have my equipment, not matter how hard her attorney tried to get them. 

[yankeeNH]

I'm now the proud owner of the 2 pounder propane model! Woohoo!

Now, about that widget... 

[Tex]

I'm now the proud owner of the 2 pounder propane model! Woohoo!

Now, about that widget... 

Sonofresco? Congrats! Did you buy it factory direct or used? Looking forward to hearing about your experiences after you've used it awhile.

[johnr]

Hey milowe, I know you've probably long since moved on and are probably occupied with the Ambex these days but I was wondering how far you got with controlling the Hottop. I finally got around to interfacing with the control  board on my "B" this weekend and I had a couple of quick questions for you or anyone else who's played with this thing before... first, any luck finding any info or figuring out how to use the INT pin on the newer boards? Also, what PWM period are you using to drive the heater and fans? I'm not sure what the optimal periods are but I'm currently using two seconds and 100ms, respectively. Anything too much over 100ms for the fan and it starts to get choppy... but even at 100ms, there's still a very, very slight choppiness that's not present when driven from the stock controller so I know there's probably a more optimal period (maybe related to the fan rpm or something?). The heater seems to be pretty even/controllable at two seconds. Are you doing PWM through code or does the Arduino board have that built-in (I think I remember reading something about that in the specs on one of the boards)?

[milowebailey]

Hey milowe, I know you've probably long since moved on and are probably occupied with the Ambex these days but I was wondering how far you got with controlling the Hottop. I finally got around to interfacing with the control  board on my "B" this weekend and I had a couple of quick questions for you or anyone else who's played with this thing before... first, any luck finding any info or figuring out how to use the INT pin on the newer boards? Also, what PWM period are you using to drive the heater and fans? I'm not sure what the optimal periods are but I'm currently using two seconds and 100ms, respectively. Anything too much over 100ms for the fan and it starts to get choppy... but even at 100ms, there's still a very, very slight choppiness that's not present when driven from the stock controller so I know there's probably a more optimal period (maybe related to the fan rpm or something?). The heater seems to be pretty even/controllable at two seconds. Are you doing PWM through code or does the Arduino board have that built-in (I think I remember reading something about that in the specs on one of the boards)?

I haven't given up yet.  Still plan to implement it on the Hottop 1st and then the Ambex  

The INT on the hottop board is the "interval" (aka a signal that will allow you to trigger on the AC frequency (60 hz)).  It's a zero crossing decector.  If you use that you can write code to look at that analog imput and trigger the output to the fan you can control the speed of the fan.  You do that by clipping the sine wave vs turning it on and off, but you have to monitor the AC to trigger the logic that clips the sine wave.  That's how hottop does it in the newer machines. 

The heater I turn on or off by monitoring the thermocouple temp.. my monitor frequency is 1 second and I wrote the code for it that if the temp is above my profile... heater off if below my profile heater on.  I calculate the profile based on start temp and final temp vs time.

This website describes the fan control theory

[johnr]

Ok, so let me see if I understand... in a nutshell, you clip the sine wave by employing a 60hz-based PWM period (16.67ms) in which the 'off duty' cycle begins on the zero cross boundary, which is indicated by a distinguished INT input value/range? Do I have that right? If so, I may have to explore hw alternatives as it will be almost impossible to achieve the necessary timing in my non-realtime, software-only setup (I've got 10ms timing granularity to work with under the best of conditions).

[johnr]

Actually, judging by the waveforms in this thread, the PWM period would be based on 120hz if the approach I'm thinking of is correct. Doh.