PID controller

[silicon]

Hi

I own a isomac venus and think about a PID.
I looked on ebay, and there is PID from 14$ to one or two hundred $ (+-)

Is there any difference  in quality ? or only the price change
I know I need a ssr one, the other problem is most of them are 3A output, a venus is 1200 watts ; is 3A enough  ?

Any particular suggestion in a model.

Thank's

MG

[milowebailey]

I like CAL controls, Fuji and Watlow.... they are all about the same. 

[Ascholten]

Watlow is a well established name.  but you do get what you pay for, be wary of the cheap ones.

Aaron

[silicon]

Thank's , what I understand is I am better to pay more and buy a good one
Did you try to insulate the boiler , if yes does it change something ??

[GC7]

I have a Love controller that came with my espreso machine that has functioned well enough for about five years now. I auto tune it occasionally and it works just fine.

That said, I have ten temperature controlled incubators and baths that are part of my genomics instrumentation in my lab that have Watlow PID's and they are totally rock solid. If I needed reliability and a narrow band of temperature variation that is what I would purchase.

[sea330]

I use a Watlow SD series controller with RS 232 communication link easy to set up, Also I use Watview Software for data logging plots and trends and save profiles, whats nice is I can change set points on the fly, very nice  feature. This software a kinda expensive but a little hint if you stop the run under 30 min, software won't time out. If you let it go over you will be locked out, then you need to buy the key/dongle to use it again. Hope sharing this little tid bit of info won't screw us all. One more thing the software is a free down load.

Rich

[jano]

Do they make small PID controllers?  Everything I've seen is bulky.  I want slim, sexy, supermodel skinny.  Or maybe one with a round display.

[Burner0000]

I was almost going to dish out $260 for the Auber PID for my Silvia but the cost was too high just to eliminate temp surfing.. I was then going to buy and build myself but I can't get my hands on a good wire diagram.. Auber sells a P.I.D that is small and will allow for brew and steam temp control for under $50

[milowebailey]

Do they make small PID controllers?  Everything I've seen is bulky.  I want slim, sexy, supermodel skinny.  Or maybe one with a round display.

These are not very big...

It is the size of the display plus a little room for the buttons..  1 7/8" x 7/8" to be exact...

[milowebailey]

I was almost going to dish out $260 for the Auber PID for my Silvia but the cost was too high just to eliminate temp surfing.. I was then going to buy and build myself but I can't get my hands on a good wire diagram.. Auber sells a P.I.D that is small and will allow for brew and steam temp control for under $50

I PIDed a Silvia for B|Java.... here is the photo



Here is how you hook it up

Silvia Schematic attached.

[jano]

Do they make small PID controllers?  Everything I've seen is bulky.  I want slim, sexy, supermodel skinny.  Or maybe one with a round display.

These are not very big...

It is the size of the display plus a little room for the buttons..  1 7/8" x 7/8" to be exact...

Almost $400?  OUCH.

A round one would be ideal, then one could replace manometers in older machines and keep the look

[milowebailey]

You can find them on ebay for much less.... well under $100, and then a SSR for about $20 and a Thermocouple for $20

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cal-Controls-3200-Series-Temperature-Controller-/390545576315?pt=BI_Control_Systems_PLCs&hash=item5aee54917b

[Burner0000]

I was almost going to dish out $260 for the Auber PID for my Silvia but the cost was too high just to eliminate temp surfing.. I was then going to buy and build myself but I can't get my hands on a good wire diagram.. Auber sells a P.I.D that is small and will allow for brew and steam temp control for under $50

I PIDed a Silvia for B|Java.... here is the photo



Here is how you hook it up

Silvia Schematic attached.

Does this control steam temp as well?

[milowebailey]

Does this control steam temp as well?

Since it's the same boiler, it could if you change the temperature on the PID.   But it was wired so you could still just flip on the steam switch and it would work normally