please be patient with me, I am new to arduino (well I will be new once I pick one up lol). I just wanted to get some input on an idea I have. I want to control a induction heater element that has buttons and an LCD display, something like this:
(see below)
Now here is the question: Since I am planning to get a 240 volt element in a similar design but don't want to electrocute myself taking it apart, is it possible to control the buttons with an arduino? My limited knowledge tells me that when I press the button I close a circuit which tells the processor in the heater to change for example the wattage or turn it off or on. Now if I take the control panel off and conect the arduino with wires and a switch, could I change the settings on the heater with it that way without destroying the insides of it?
What would I need to do something like that? Would I need some sort of switch/relay? Eventually I want to incorperate a temperature control/PID to control such an element.
Any advise would be great and if this has been asked in the past please let me know. I did not know what I should be searching for on the forum.
This is entirely possible, but I would investigate inductive heating and how it works before proceeding. Depending on what you are doing, it might not be as simple as you expect, especially to vary the power level. Also, the components to switch the inductive load might be fairly expensive and could require significant heatsinking. Otherwise, it would be fairly straight forward to at least be able to turn it on and off. And as always, be careful when working with mains voltage. It is dangerous and you could easily hurt yourself and your equipment.
Thanks for the reply. Yes since I am new to this and don't want to fry myself I would only tinker with the buttons that control the unit and not the actual coils etc. I'd assume I would only have to try to make a closed circuit and a switch of some sort to control the on off button or the up and down button (which would control the output wattage of the unit).
hanks for the reply. Yes since I am new to this and don't want to fry myself I would only tinker with the buttons that control the unit and not the actual coils etc. I'd assume I would only have to try to make a closed circuit and a switch of some sort to control the on off button or the up and down button (which would control the output wattage of the unit).
Hello,
I design induction heaters professionally and have examined a number of tabletop induction ranges to see what I could learn. The most important thing for you to know is that all of these ranges (they're almost identical inside) are line operated. That means that there is line voltage on all the buttons. There are only a couple of ways that you could do what you want to do safely.
One would be to use reed relays, one per button. The Arduino should be able to drive a small relay directly.
The second method which MIGHT work is opto-isolators. I say "might" because both the buttons and LEDs are multiplexed at a fairly low rate. You'll also need to read the LED statuses to know what mode the range is in. Because they are also strobed, this could be interesting. I'd probably employ an analog low-pass filter on each LED to smooth out the strobing and present that to the Arduino instead of trying to deal with the strobing in software.
The display will be your biggest problem. You might could avoid trying to decode the display with something clever such as pulsing the "down" button say, 20 times to ensure it is at the lowest setting and then pulse up from there.
Do not try to drive a relay directly with the arduino. Most relays require a lot more current than is wise to drive with the arduino. It will be far better to just use a transistor so you don't risk damaging the Arduino.
and if this has been asked in the past please let me know. I did not know what I should be searching for on the forum.