watercooler wrote:
Hmmmmmmm, so Tony don't that unit uses pulse to control voltage? I just think that I could buy or make a circuit that could operate the same, I am still doing some research and came across this Pulse Control Module thats design for SSR take a look
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Omega-SSR-Serie ... 23245d1da9
and here is the datasheet on it,its 2 to 20 mAdc ranging from 0% to 100% I would just need a driver to drive it?
http://www.omega.com/manuals/manualpdf/M0957.pdf
Sorry for being so hard headed but I just think there is a cheaper solution than spending a bunch on a controller and do they sell it separate from their SSR? I will check again and see if they do and thanks to you and everyone input its very valuable.
What that particular Omega module does is switch the load fully on and then fully off once each second.
Ten percent power is on for 0.1 seconds, off for 0.9 seconds.
Seventy percent power is on for 0.7 seconds off for 0.3 seconds.
Ninety four percent power is on for 0.94 seconds off for 0.06 seconds.
It is strictly for controlling an electric heating element, it has no other practical use.
The PID temperature controller you found earlier does the same thing, switches a load either fully on or fully off.
Usually the cycle time is adjustable via the key pad, typically from 1 second to 99 seconds in one second steps.
These are often used with gas burners that cycle on and off maybe once each minute, or electric heating elements that cycle fully on and fully off repetitively with a varying on/off duty cycle.
These controllers are capable of very precise proportional temperature control, but definitely won't work with a motor or lamp load, the slow pulsing would be really objectionable..
What is needed to drive your SCR random fire power module adjusts the proportional on and off time, every half mains cycle, phase and frequency locked to the 50Hz/60Hz mains frequency.
The HB Controls controller switches on and off at 100Hz or 120Hz synchronised to the mains.
That is fast enough that the vacuum motors see it as continuous power.
Another class of controllers altogether are the high frequency PWM motor controllers, for dc motors.
These usually switch at very high frequencies, not synchronised to the mains frequency, and also useless for what we are trying to do.
The HB Controls controller is rather special, it does exactly what we want, and I believe they will sell just the circuit board by itself as a spare replacement part, for less than buying it all complete with the SCR power module and heatsink.