Project Clay Oven

[clt1dpw]

larryd:
Then have you tried making timers in C++ ?

larryd:
Then have you tried making timers in C++ ?

Thanks for the idea, looking it up while this post is running. So used to using visual objects in windows, have to change gears and think in C++

[Railroader]

Okey, 120 volt and some amp maybe.
Trim Your code to cut off at a lower temperature, measure the curve and apply more like pulses of heating.
No nead for any high level system. Just find out how much, say 10 seconds, of heating raises the temperature.
Find out the time needed to increase the temp by 1 degree, or what You would like.

[WattsThat]

You need to use PID control. Like everything Arduino, there’s a library for that. You also need a SSR - a solid state relay. It’s relay with no moving parts, just some fancy scr’s with a gating circuit that turn on your heaters on and off from the Arduino 5 volt output and not knock themselves apart from clicking on and off every ten seconds or so. This is how the PID controller will work, it will cycle the heaters on and off at a duty cycle, adding partial heat continuously to maintain the desired temperature.

You’ll need to build a ramp up and down of the temperature into the program to avoid the thermal shock problem. This kind of stuff has already been done a gazillion times, quite similar to what you want to do but with a shorter time frame. Some programming modifications can fix that.

Google “Arduino reflow oven control” and start doing some research. It’s the same concept, same toaster ovens, different use case.