I am by hobby a reptile breeder, and I have spent thousands of dollars over the years buying temperature controllers to maintain propper temps in my cages, and incubators.

I have a background in electronics and would like to try to replicate these circuits that boast "Pulse proportional technology to continuously adjust the temperature with great accuracy."

The long version of that is. I want to be able to read a temp and adjust the power output accordingly to maintain a temp set by myself. there are many types of these on the market with many additional bells and whistles

for example
http://www.kingsnake.com/gcsreptiles...%20controllers

or
http://www.hatchchondro.com/rept48.htm

Im not looking to compete with these people. I would love to be able to build my own stuff like these so i could then customize it to my liking.

If anybody could point me in a direction to obtain schematics, or circuit diagrams for even the proportional control part of these devices at least that would be a start.

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Stupidity should be Painful!

 

I am always tinkering with a number of things and like you, I try the do-it-yourself approach when I am able. I've come to a point where I've convinced myself that by learning how to use PICs (microcontrollers) I will open some doors to simpler or more easily customized projects. Your application sounds like it might match with PICs (or BASIC STAMPS) - at least for the proportional part. There will certainly be an investment in learning required on your part but it seems (I've no direct experience) that the programmability allows an amount of flexibility. Once you've come up the learning curve you can put your skills to work - or will know how to ask for help. It appears that the cost of parts is relatively low - nice in my opinion.

With temperature control it is nice to have integral and/or derivative modes in addition to proportional - in some applications. I do not know if the "math" to implement these will fit on or run on a PIC. I'd appreciate hearing from someone who knows more. I'd like to think that this has already been done so that you can borrow from the work of others.

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stevez

 

Hello

I too am a herp breeder and I have been looking for a proportional temperature controller schematic.

I found a suitable IC and have been working on it lately.

I just have to finish it off today.

The IC is a Motorola UAA2016 zero voltage controller.

The thread is in the general section, here is a link:

http://www.electro-tech-online.com/viewtopic.php?t=4343

Hope this helps

luke