Hello,
I am helping my brother with a project for his class. He is designing a small system similar to a "wood burner", current goes through a metal tip to generate heat. However, the metal tip must maintain temperature even when exposed to cold, such as ice.
I thought he could use 120v power in, splitting off to a voltage controller and DC power supply. From there the 24v dc would run to a small control board that can communicate with the voltage controller to maintain temperature by monitoring a thermocouple.
So, as the tip warmed up and approached his set temp, the control board would know based on the thermocouple value and could cutoff or pulse voltage to maintain that temp. When the tip is exposed to objects and loses heat, the thermocouple value would drop and control circuit would tell the voltage controller to give more energy to get the temperature back in range.
By trade I am an engineer, but work with larger scale panels rather than small circuits.My main problem is I have no idea what these components are called. I am having a hard time researching parts due to the large range of products. I know what I want to do, but am lost trying to find the correct parts.
So if anyone with knowledge of parts could help me out it would be greatly appreciated, even if its general names. Maybe someone with experience knows of a better design, or noticed any flaws in my plan?
I am helping my brother with a project for his class. He is designing a small system similar to a "wood burner", current goes through a metal tip to generate heat. However, the metal tip must maintain temperature even when exposed to cold, such as ice.
I thought he could use 120v power in, splitting off to a voltage controller and DC power supply. From there the 24v dc would run to a small control board that can communicate with the voltage controller to maintain temperature by monitoring a thermocouple.
So, as the tip warmed up and approached his set temp, the control board would know based on the thermocouple value and could cutoff or pulse voltage to maintain that temp. When the tip is exposed to objects and loses heat, the thermocouple value would drop and control circuit would tell the voltage controller to give more energy to get the temperature back in range.
By trade I am an engineer, but work with larger scale panels rather than small circuits.My main problem is I have no idea what these components are called. I am having a hard time researching parts due to the large range of products. I know what I want to do, but am lost trying to find the correct parts.
So if anyone with knowledge of parts could help me out it would be greatly appreciated, even if its general names. Maybe someone with experience knows of a better design, or noticed any flaws in my plan?