On Nov 13, 7:26*pm, Tim Wescott wrote:
On Tue, 13 Nov 2012 15:29:41 -0800, George Herold wrote:
How about a thermal thing for control loop education?

TEC, air fin heatsink, heater as variable load, maybe a couple of
sensors. *It'd be nice to have variable thermal 'lengths' in the system.
(More than $50 though I'd guess.)

George H.

I'm thinking of doing something like that next. *There's not much visual
interest there (unless I can do something cool with liquid crystal
thermometers), but I think I could get it below $50 and it'd be of
interest to someone who happens to be living and breathing thermal
control when they set out to learn the stuff.

Yeah, I have no 'showy' thermal thing to control. But that's not so
important from my perspective. I’d be more interested in the control
details, different control loops, different source detector distances
(materials) So that thermal diffusion effects could be seen.
It would be really nice to have different cooling sources.
(TEC and air fins and then a heater and some sort of cryogen. But the
cryogen part looks more expensive.. (CFC’s are out), or dangerous,
(boiling water)

Do you mind if I ask whom you think you might sell this to?
Add on labs for your book? Engineering schools?
Does the $50 include all the electronics?
(you can always reply in private... gherold@teachspin (dot) com)

George H.

--
My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook.
My conservative friends think I'm a liberal kook.
Why am I not happy that they have found common ground?

Tim Wescott, Communications, Control, Circuits & Softwarehttp://www.wescottdesign.com