Hello,
I'm new to this forum. I have decided to try and make a chocolate tempering machine like this one:
As you can see from the link they are really expensive machines. I have a really good idea about how I can make everything on the cheap (200 - 300 USD), but I struggle with figuring out how I want to make the control of the heating element.
I want to use this heater
It has some really simple electronics, and can be set at 1000 W (which seems comparable with Rev V) and can run the fan without heater, which I will use for cooling the chocolate. My first idea was to use a simple solid state relay and simply turn the heater on an off, to control the temperature, but I thought it would be nice to use an Arduino and use some of the PID libraries to make the temperature control really precise, which is needed for chocolate tempering. Also using an Arduino Mega2560 with a touch screen, I could make a really nice user interface, which is a bonus.
I guess I could make the PID just turn it on an off with the solid state relay, but I thought it would make my device even more precise if I could control the power of the heater from 0 to 1000 W with the Arduino.
But I'm not completely sure how to achieve this. I've found this component:
As I read the datasheet I can use the Arduino PWM 5V signal to control the component, and the just connect the heater element trough the component, thus controlling the power of the heater. That sounds really simple I think, but not sure it would work?
The component is also rather expensive, so maybe there is another solution that is better or cheaper. I found this tutorial 220 V AC PID tutorial, but it seems more complicated than just buying the component, though it is probably cheaper (but maybe I need to put much more time into it, so in the end it is not worth the possible savings).
So hope someone can help me in the right direction. Is the Kemo M240 going to work out of the box? Are there cheaper and just as easy to use components or modules for the Arduino? Is the homemade PID AC controller a better way to go?
By the way, I'm working as a programmer and is a physicist, so I'm not afraid of programming and tingling with the electronics, but I would still like to keep it as simple as possible.
Thanks in advance for any help coming my way.