GeorgeW wrote:That said I still can't get the pid to switch on the heater and I seem to remember that some of your settings on your pid were reversed. I'm now wondering if mine is the same.
George, I would say there are a few possible problems:
1) the pid is not switching. the PID I am using has a cooling option, which would not switch the heater, as it always sees a temperature below the setpoint. On my PID it is just a 1/0 option on the setting menu. The default was heating, but the instructions to set it up wrongly stated to switch it to cooling.
2) the pid is switching but the ssr is not. The first ssr i tried would not swich at the voltage output of the PID.
You really need to set the thing up and have a multimeter chech the dc current across the SSR ouput of the PID (or the input of the SSR). If you see a voltage of around 7-12V when you require heatng then the PID is doing its job. The SSR would then be prime target. Carefully check the AC 240V across the SSR's output terminals. If there is no voltage across the SSR output when the DC input is on then the SSR is not switching. Be careful with that multimeter mind, I heard that Captain_Crema now has a wooden arm, which is not great for drinking espresso. Definately do not check the current across the SSR output unless you like fireworks ( I did by accidently having the multimeter on current mode -oops)