On Tue, 08 Aug 2006 07:22:30 +0100, Mike Dodd wrote:

Daft question?, why do you want to circumvent the control system that
should be there to maintain a constant temperature?

Maybe because a cyclic control system has pretty crap short term
temperature control. The long term mean can be quite good but the high
and low excursions whne the power is on/off can be huge.

As to the OPs problem get a hot plate, bypass the built in thermostat and
feed the thing via a suitably rated variac or electronic dimmer (power
controller). There would have to be some trial and error to calibrate the
variac/dimmer to temperature and that calibration would vary with what
ever is on the plate as well but for the same thing I should imagine
fairly repeatable.

There maybe electronic power controllers that have an external temp
sensor that one could bung in the pan but I've not looked.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail