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newbie question: Arduino UNO + TC4 Roastlogger
snwcmpr
Top  #26 Print Post
Posted on 12/28/2012 5:30 PM
Just so you know I find this fascinating just reading and following this thread.
Thanks,
Ken
--------------
Backwoods Roaster
"I wish I could taste as well as I wish I could roast."

As Abraham Lincoln said "Do not trust everything you read on the internet".
 
JimG
Top  #27 Print Post
Posted on 12/28/2012 6:07 PM

Quote

matteo411 wrote:Moving back to Artisan, I can now give the fan varying strengths with the Fan's SSR hooked up to OT2 and the ZCD on IO3. I can hit the fan OFF event button and the fan turns off. However after a few seconds the fan comes back on again. Is this Artisan doing this or a hardware issue? I'm not sure what expected behavior of Artisan is.

Hi, Matt -

Glad to hear some progress has been made!

I assume you have loaded aArtisanQ.ino in your Uno? I did not intentionally include any "features" giving the fan a mind of its own. Can't say for sure what I might have done unintentionally Roflmao

Try using your DMM to measure the output from OT2 at the SSR control terminals. This will tell you if the SSR, on its own volition, is allowing the fan to run. If there is a measurable voltage on OT2 when the 0% fan event has been activated, then there's probably a software glitch somewhere.

Let me know for sure what firmware you have loaded, please.

Jim
 
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matteo411
Top  #28 Print Post
Posted on 12/28/2012 9:40 PM
Hi Jim,

The sketch I'm loading is this one:

https://code.google.com/p/tc4-shield/downloads/detail?name=REL-aArtisanQ_PID_3_2.zip&can=2&q=

Now for the DMM tests of voltage across +/- on the OT2 pins ( the transformer+SSR+fan is all left disconnected for this test)

1. Plugged in USB to macbook -- 0V on OT2
2. Plugged in wall 120VAC -- 1.17V on OT2, LED3 on TC4 board is ON
3. Hit Fan OFF button -- 0V on OT2 for 1-3 seconds, then rises back to 1.17V and LED3 comes back on
4. Hit Fan 25% button -- 0.88V for 1-3 second, then rises back to 1.17V and LED3 is on the whole time.
5. Hit Fan 50% button -- stays at 1.17V
6. Hit Fan 75% button -- stays at 1.17V

Matt
 
JimG
Top  #29 Print Post
Posted on 12/28/2012 9:57 PM
If LED3 is on, then the Arduino is calling for some fan output. I'm not sure how/why yet, but I think something in the firmware must be maintaining a minimum level of fan output.

The firmware you loaded is Brad's (aka greencardigan) recent outstanding contribution to the project. I haven't used it yet myself, nor have I looked carefully at the code. It is quite possible that there is something there that automatically sets the fan output.

I will look through the code (as can you, if you wish) and see if I can figure things out.

In the meantime, you could consider dropping back a version to the non-PID release of aArtisanQ (from back in Nov. 2011):
http://tc4-shield...-beta1.zip

If you are not using any PID functions then this older release should behave well.

Jim
 
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matteo411
Top  #30 Print Post
Posted on 12/29/2012 12:07 AM
GREAT NEWS!

After changing to the aArtisanQ-REL-beta1 sketch the fan is now working perfectly. My Fan 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, and OFF buttons are all working! Also the Exception Error about the thermocouples has gone away.

In order to get the sketch to verify/compile I had to downgrade my Arduino environment from 1.0.3 to the 0023 release.

BIG thanks to JimG and everyone on the thread for helping out. I think I'll post to a blogsite the final schematics, pictures, etc. if others are interested?

Best,
Matt
 
JimG
Top  #31 Print Post
Posted on 12/29/2012 10:51 AM

Quote

matteo411 wrote:I think I'll post to a blogsite the final schematics, pictures, etc. if others are interested?

Matt -

That would really be appreciated. The lack of documentation and examples using the TC4 system is a barrier to many folks who might otherwise use it. I am quite lazy when it comes to documentation, as you have no doubt experienced Shock

Jim
 
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matteo411
Top  #32 Print Post
Posted on 12/29/2012 11:11 AM
OK I'll work on some documentation of the effort. Happy to contribute!

A couple questons about roasting.

1.) Thermocouple placement?
- bean temperature (BT) thermocouple: going to place slightly above the bean mass, so that as the beans expand from roasting the rotating mass will come into contact with it
- external temperature (ET) thermocouple: out in the open air? Within the housing of the Air Crazy Popper?

2.) Artisan automation
- Can events be "played back" from a previous recording and/or triggered off of roasting events like FC and SC? I thought I saw something like this with RoastLogger action tables.

Matt
 
snwcmpr
Top  #33 Print Post
Posted on 12/29/2012 1:26 PM

Quote

- bean temperature (BT) thermocouple: going to place slightly above the bean mass, so that as the beans expand from roasting the rotating mass will come into contact with it

Why not have it in the bean mass all the time? You would also be able to measure the rate of rise and time to dry before the beans expand.

Ken
--------------
Backwoods Roaster
"I wish I could taste as well as I wish I could roast."

As Abraham Lincoln said "Do not trust everything you read on the internet".
 
JimG
Top  #34 Print Post
Posted on 12/30/2012 8:36 AM

Quote

matteo411 wrote:
- external temperature (ET) thermocouple: out in the open air? Within the housing of the Air Crazy Popper?


Your Air Crazy Popper may be different.

But with my Poppery 1, I placed the ET (max. environmental temp) sensor immediately outside the roast chamber. It is in a location so that it measures the hot air coming off of the heating coils just before the air enters the roast chamber.

Jim
 
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matteo411
Top  #35 Print Post
Posted on 12/30/2012 10:19 AM
OK and any info about automated events in Artisan? Under Tools -> Designer I see that the profile can be moved around but I can't find any documentation about it
 
greencardigan
Top  #36 Print Post
Posted on 12/30/2012 11:01 PM
Sorry I've been offline for a bit.

I believe the automated events will be coming in a future version of Artisan.

Regarding my aArtisanQ_PID, do you have potentiometers attached to the TC4? If you don't then you need to comment out the analogue1 and analogue2 lines in the user.h file otherwise your fan and heater output will change randomly. That might be what was happening??
 
matteo411
Top  #37 Print Post
Posted on 12/31/2012 10:47 PM
No I didn't have potentiometers attached, so I'm sure that's what was happening. Good to know.

Attaching pic of the stripped-down Air Crazy popper and electronics enclosure box with SSRs,ZCD,transformer,TC4+Arduino

Thanks,
Matt

PS Happy New Years fellow roasters!
matteo411 attached the following image:
popper.jpg
 
matteo411
Top  #38 Print Post
Posted on 01/01/2013 11:51 PM
I've got heat problems with the Air Crazy. I couldn't get to 400F or first crack after 30 minutes, even at 100% heat, 40% fan. I think I'll try switching back to the Poppery II's heating plate that has the 2 nichrome elements in parallel.

Matt
matteo411 attached the following image:
screen_shot_2013-01-01_at_94815_pm.png
 
JimG
Top  #39 Print Post
Posted on 01/02/2013 2:45 PM
Try increasing the volume of green beans.

Jim
 
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matteo411
Top  #40 Print Post
Posted on 01/03/2013 1:35 AM
So I changed out the heating element from the Air Crazy with the original one I had from the Poppery II. The Poppery II's heater didn't suffer from the same underpower issue and I was able to get past 400F no problem.
 
matteo411
Top  #41 Print Post
Posted on 02/06/2013 12:40 AM
Hi greencardigan:

I got tired of doing my roasts with nothing but the Event Buttons so I ordered some POTs to go back to analog control. Also I've found that with Artisan software once you add too many buttons the program takes forever to start and it crashes after a couple minutes, at least on a Mac.

So now I've got 2 10K POTs that I'm trying to get to work with the REL-aArtisanQ_PID_3_7 sketch. The POT for the fan works fine and I can vary it perfectly from 0 to 100%. The other POT, however, has no effect on the heater. I probed the center pin of the heater POT and it indeed varies from 0V to 5V as I turn it, as expected.

With the Event Button approach in the software GUI I can at least turn the heater on, but it only stays on for 1 second or less. This wasn't a problem with the older aArtisanQ-REL-beta1

Any ideas about what I should try?

Thanks,
Matt
 
greencardigan
Top  #42 Print Post
Posted on 02/06/2013 5:09 AM
Hi Matt,

Are you using version 3_7 exactly as downloaded or have you made changes such as modifying the options in user.h?

Try turning the fan up above 20% and then turning the heater up. There is a feature that wont let the heater start unless the fan is above the % set in user.h. This can be used to prevent a heater meltdown. OT1_CUTOFF is the relevant parameter. It's set to 20% by default.

If this doesn't help let me know.

Brad
 
MaKoMo
Top  #43 Print Post
Posted on 02/06/2013 1:20 PM
Hi Matt,

just added sliders to Artisan (to be released as part of v0.6.x) that can be programed and should work fine together with aArtisan. Couldn't test it yet as my TC4 board from Jim got stuck in some tax office. If you are willing to test I can forward you a test build.

Marko
 
matteo411
Top  #44 Print Post
Posted on 02/06/2013 9:57 PM
GreenCardigan:

Yes I redownloaded 3_7 and left user.h completely alone. Even with the fan at full blast I can't turn on the heater with the POT. I can only do it with the Event Button but that's only for a second.

Marko:

Sliders are exactly what I was thinking of! Yes, a test build would be great.

--Matt
 
greencardigan
Top  #45 Print Post
Posted on 02/06/2013 11:53 PM

Quote

matteo411 wrote:
Yes I redownloaded 3_7 and left user.h completely alone. Even with the fan at full blast I can't turn on the heater with the POT. I can only do it with the Event Button but that's only for a second.

Are you using a LCD?
Or the PID feature?

If not try commenting out the relevent lines in user.h by adding // at the start of the line like the following.

// #define LCD // if output on an LCD screen is desired

// #define PID_CONTROL // if PID control is allowed to be activated


And make sure the this line is not commented out.

#define ANALOGUE1 // if POT connected on ANLG1


If that doesn't work then try replacing the aArtisanQ_PID.ino with the file attached. This will send serial data to your computer every time the Arduino reads the POT connected to ANLG1.

You will have to open a serial terminal (Tools -> Serial Monitor in the Aduino software) and set it to 19200 baud. Hopefully you will see values between 0 and 100 when you turn the POT on ANLG1.
Edited by greencardigan on 02/06/2013 11:59 PM
 
greencardigan
Top  #46 Print Post
Posted on 02/06/2013 11:55 PM
Sorry the file didn't attach. Trying again.
greencardigan attached the following file:
aartisanq_pid_1.zip [9.8kB / 515 Downloads]
 
matteo411
Top  #47 Print Post
Posted on 02/07/2013 12:53 AM
Hi GreenCardigan,

Thanks for the quick response! So it appears to be working great now after I commented out the following lines in REL 3_7

//#define LCD // if output on an LCD screen is desired
//#define LCDAPTER // if the I2C LCDapter board is to be used
//#define LCD_4x20 // if using a 4x20 LCD instead of a 2x16
//#define PID_CONTROL // if PID control is allowed to be activated

Marko:

Is there a way to view the POT output in Artisan? It'd be useful to know the 0-100% setting that the dial is on.

Matt
 
MaKoMo
Top  #48 Print Post
Posted on 02/07/2013 1:12 AM
Artisan displays the slider value using an LCD on top of each slider and record each change to the eventtable that is stored and displayed along all other profile data. However, these values are based on user input to the artisan UI which potentially sends change requests to the TC4 for now. The actual TC4 values are not requested. However I plan for a general mechanism that allows to turn any readings from external devices, via quantification step into those extr events. But this is still to be implemented..
 
greencardigan
Top  #49 Print Post
Posted on 02/07/2013 2:21 AM

Quote

matteo411 wrote:

Thanks for the quick response! So it appears to be working great now after I commented out the following lines in REL 3_7

//#define LCD // if output on an LCD screen is desired
//#define LCDAPTER // if the I2C LCDapter board is to be used
//#define LCD_4x20 // if using a 4x20 LCD instead of a 2x16
//#define PID_CONTROL // if PID control is allowed to be activated

Thats great!

I'll have to try to find what's causing POT value to be over written.


Quote


Is there a way to view the POT output in Artisan? It'd be useful to know the 0-100% setting that the dial is on.

I send the fan and heater power values to Artisan for plotting. I have Artisan set up using the Extra Devices option. aArtisanQ_PID will send the power values to Artisan if PLOT_POWER is defined in user.h.
 
greencardigan
Top  #50 Print Post
Posted on 02/07/2013 2:37 AM
Hi Matt,

Would you be able to try adding those comment lines back in then removing just the PID_CONTROL line. Then try with them all in except the LCDAPTER line.

I'm trying to work out which part of the code is causing this bug and I'm trying not to remove my LCDApter yet to reproduce the bug on my setup.
 
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