PID

[sabu386]

I am new here just looking at interesting stuff. I notice pid controllers are not the heat controller of choice. I have used them on heat treat ovens and they hold temp at +- 1 degree at 1700 degrees and cost almost nothing. Also cook stove switches are available for cheep on amazon but nothing or little is written about them. I have searched and read but have found little. There has to be a good reason they are not liked or do not work. Just wondering?

[rad14701]

Greetings, sabu386... Please stop by the Welcome Center for a proper introduction...

As for your views on controllers, with an azeotropic miscible mixture of water and alcohol you cannot control the temperature of the vapor, only the amount produced... The vapor temperature regulates itself based on the ratio of water to alcohol... You'll learn more about this during your research here...

A PID controller is of little use unless you use multiple sensors and write the required code to monitor, interpret, and act upon the values returned... A simple phase angle controller is cheaper and easier to build and serves the same purpose... Adjustments are only made when required throughout a run... I only make a few adjustments throughout an entire run regardless of heat source... Plus part of the fun of running a still is monitoring it and making any required adjustments as long as we need to be paying attention for safety reasons anyway... Distilling isn't a "set it and forget it" task... Bad things can happen fast and it would take a vastly complex controller to monitor everything... Plus they can't taste, smell, or feel, in order to make proper cuts... The KISS concept is alive and well in this hobby...

Hope this helps...

[MuleKicker]

Some pids have a manual control function in which you can control the % dutycycle output on a very small time base. The watlow SD works great for this. A few guys here have my digital series controller. It has a stainess temp probe with a temp reading that displays to .1deg, F or C. and gives a digital % reading that you control from 0 to 100. so, if you are running a 5000w element, and you have the pid set at 50%, you are putting 2500w to your keg. But to use the pid, the way a pid is generally used, is worthless in this hobby.