Lightobject.com Support Forum

Ok i have a small knife heat treating oven i would like to use and have a jld 612 controller. I need a thermocouple , K type to allow for the high temperatures needed to heat treat some steels. I know i need the k type and it must have a ceramic protector. Here is a picture of the opening i need the probe to go through, its around 3/8 of an inch in diameter. I need the probe to be around 3.5 to 4 inches long. i ordered the k type from this site,and it is gigantic. I need to return this one,and see if there is one that is suitable for my application. Thank you..man i wish this company had a customer service number to call.

Clearly none of us have any idea about which probe to use. I suggest you Google "thermocouple" and look at the many manufacturer sites that will show up, then do some catalog searching -- I'm quite sure you'll find an appropriate K-type to use.

Ok i took your advice and i found a k type thermocouple..but all i get when i try to autotune it is the EEE.E on top and an 80 on the bottom..the autotune light is blinking..for several hours now. Am i supposed to input the type of thermocouple i have? i tried to follow the manual but it was confusing to me..thanks Luke

Yes you have to tell the controller you're using the K thermocouple -- the setting is in INTY and looks like a backward 4. The EEEE in the display is trying to tell you that the probe setting is wrong. Download the current version of the manual if you don't have it -- it's clearer about settings.

ok i input the right setting for the thermocouple, and i do have the current manual..i guess i just dont get it..do i have to set the outy also? man now all the lights are on and it reads 29 on top and 800 on bottom. any thoughts later Luke

We need to know your other system components besides the K thermocouple and the JLD612. You may have to make other settings changes. Also tell us what your heat source is, and what temps you typically need to use.

Or you may need a different controller. For example, do you need to slowly cool off the parts after getting them to a certain temp?

Give us all the info you can.

Power source is 220 volt. I need the oven to come up to temperature in a reasonable amount of time. somewhere in the 2000 f range on the high end. After heating i would typically turn off the oven so i wouldnt need it to cool down via programming. Im not sure i can set this controller to hold the temp for an amount of time ,for example some of my steel needs to sit at temperature for 30 minutes to an hour, and again i would just remove it from the heat.
I have a solid state relay, heat sink and a k type thermocouple good to 2000 degrees F. im going to attach the diagram i used to wire it up. Seems like its working right i was able to set the parameter settings after i figured out what the symbols meant. this diagram looks rough but it was drawn out on a legal pad in a knife shop..thanks for the help..much appreciated.

Looks good to me. If the settings are right -- Outy=2 -- then it oughta work fine. Be sure your SSR is on a big heat sink and is rated for high current -- you didn't mention the heater amps or watts, but I usually recommend an SSR rating of at least 4X the actual current of the heater.

got my settings right ..it just blinks at me and doesnt do anything when i set it to autotune..what is the next step in getting the thing to heat up? later Luke

I've got a similar question regarding the autotune. I just finished assembling the device, and set it to autotune.

I'm using a 1000w hotplate with the dial set to "high" as my heat source, along with a s/s pot with glass lid. The output light doesn't light up at all, but I don't know if it's supposed to during autotune. The indicator light isn't turning on either, but I dunno if it would under the pid control.

I'm tracking the temp in ten minute increments, and it is getting warmer slowly (~0.7 degrees in the first ten minute increment), but I don't know if that's due just to warming from the ambient environment. The water was 60 deg F and the room my rig is in is around 73 deg F.

Does the sv value matter during autotune?

FYI, Auto Tune may take 20hrs or even more to finish the simulation. The fastest is a couple hours and the longest I heard was 24hrs. Make sure the system is in 'closed loop' setup, means that all need to be powered up. Some folks just power up the controller without heater connected. If that is the case, the Auto-tune will never complete it's job

To swensonknives, there is a setting for 'C or 'F. Unless you're in winter, otherwise I'll say that you're currently have the controller set to Ceslsius (centigrade) if you saw 29 on the PV.


Marco

Ok, I figured it out.

I had the sv set really low, like 2 degrees F, because I didn't want the ssr to be open while I was testing stuff.

I then turned it off auto tune, and set sv to 100 degs F to see if it would heat normally. It did. So, with the sv still at 100 deg F, I turned autotune back on and it seems to be working. The output light and the hotplate light are both on and seems well on it's way to tuning.

Just noticed the autotune light is off, but it's 1.8 deg over sv. I'm gonna watch and see what happens on it's next heating cycle.

@TinCook -- Please start a new topic so that we can keep your issues and solutions separate from swensonknives'.

Thx

hijack much?

ok so i changed the setting to read in Farenhiet, now it reads 80 and 800...everything is hooked up ..should i just try to run the autotune now? i wish i had known this would be so difficult i would just bought a new oven. later Luke