Green Coffee Buying Club
Coffee Discussion boards => Hardware & Equipment => Topic started by: pwest on November 07, 2010, 12:35:40 PM
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PID controllers offer a lot of flexibility for various types of process control, but for most of our applications (e.g. boiler temp on espresso machines), we often only use the P part. Has anyone considered using an integrated temp controller/SSR solution like the Crydom MCTC2425JLA (http://www.crydom.com/en/Products/Catalog/m_ctc.pdf (http://www.crydom.com/en/Products/Catalog/m_ctc.pdf))? Although it seems like a clean and simple solution, the data sheet is silent on expected accuracy/resolution/precision and it's not a whole lot cheaper than some PIDs: digikey lists these for $106. Also, it doesn't look like there is any way to adjust the loop gain, so overshoot/convergence could be an issue.
-Phil
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I typically get my PIDs for under $50 on Ebay... add a SSR for another $12 and the thermocouple for another $15... and I'm in it for about $75 with full PID control and readout.