Kiln temp monitor...

[micro007]

I'm a potter/computer builder/computer store owner/ISP owner and I wanted to know if anyone could point me in the direction of building a Pi, which I have two of them now, into a monitoring device for my kiln. I bought a fancy thermometer and when it hits about 1500F it's actually about 1750F. I noticed that adafruit sells a K type probe and add on but it doesn't go up to the temp I need around say 2250F... If I could monitor the temp as it comes up to its top temp that would be perfect. I have a probe that has two wires and will handle the heat. Just worried about connecting it to the Pi and what software to run? Any hints or general direction pointing would be greatful!!!

[franklin97355]

You probably have a thermocouple and they usually put out very small signals in the millivolts. They will need an amplifier and signal conditioner to work well. You might try the thermocouple breakout board that Adafruit has but it might not work with your probe. If it does you may have to adjust the readings to compensate for the probe.

[micro007]

I saw this just a little while ago and figured I would use the breakout board and the Adafruit Prototyping Pi Plate Kit to get it all together. If you look on the back of the breakout board it says 1350C max which is way above what I'll be hitting. The probe I have works great and I have a tenma thermometer that works well at low temps but not at high temps. Once I get this wired to the Pi is there a program I could run in say raspbian that would monitor the temp being taken? I need to watch the ramping rate and then adjust the valves controlling the gas which would be the next step.... hehehe!

[adafruit_support_bill]

Currently we have only an Arduino library for the thermocouple amp, but the SPI interface is not complicated at all as you can see from the code: https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-MAX31855-library

The amplifier will work with any K-type thermocouple, but you will want to find a probe rated for kiln temps. The sheaths on the ones we carry in the store have a glass-braid sheath which will start to degrade at about 900F.