Turns a Raspberry Pi into a cheap, universal & web-enabled kiln Controller. Forked from the reflow oven project: picoReflow which I found through a blog post on succulent ceramics
NOTE: This code is outdated, use the regularly maintained fork at https://github.com/jbruce12000/kiln-controller/tree/main
I used kilnController to add a firing schedule control to a little pottery kiln I picked up second hand. The kiln is 10A/240V rated to 1000 degrees C. It has a door switch and a basic thermostat which allows for 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% power but no timer, which means constant monitoring if you want to ramp the temperature up slowly or soak the wares at any point. With the kilnController I can now set it up for a bisque or low temperature glaze firing and leave it to its own devices, checking progress every now and then on my mobile phone or PC.
You can read installation instructions on this instructable page: https://www.instructables.com/Build-a-Web-Enabled-High-Temperature-Kiln-Controll/
Standard Interface
Curve Editor
- Raspberry Pi Zero W - any pi will do but the zeros are the cheapest at about $15 here in Australia
- MAX 31855 Cold-Junction K-Type Thermocouple (about $6 on eBay)
- K-Type Thermocouple Sensor -100°C to 1250°C ($3 on eBay)
- Solid State Relay Module SSR-25DA 25A /250V 3-32V DC Input 24-380VAC Output (again, about $6 on eBay)
MAX31855 to RPi PIN (Pin Name)
Vin not connected 3Vo to Pin 1 (3.3v DC) GND to Pin 9 (Ground) DO to Pin 11 (GPIO 17) CS to Pin 13 (GPIO 27) CLK to Pin 15 (GPIO 22)
External dependencies have been kept to a minimum to make it easily deployable on any flavor of open-source operating system.
- greenlet-0.4.2
- bottle-0.12.4
- gevent-1.0
- gevent-websocket-0.9.3
$ sudo apt-get install python-pip python-dev libevent-dev
$ sudo pip install ez-setup
$ sudo pip install greenlet bottle gevent gevent-websocket
$ emerge -av dev-libs/libevent dev-python/pip
$ pip install ez-setup
$ pip install greenlet bottle gevent gevent-websocket
If you want to deploy the code on a PI for production:
$ pip install RPi.GPIO
This only applies to non-Raspbian installations, since Raspbian ships RPi.GPIO with the default installation.
If you also want to use the in-kernel SPI drivers with a MAX31855 sensor:
$ sudo pip install Adafruit-MAX31855
$ git clone https://github.com/botheredbybees/kilnController.git
$ cd kilnController
All parameters are defined in config.py. There's a copy in config.py.EXAMPLE so you can review and change things to your heart's content.
$ cd kilnController
$ python kilncontrollerd.py
If you want the server to autostart on boot, run:
sudo nano /etc/rc.local
add the line:
`sudo python /home/pi/kilnController/kilncontrollerd.py &`
Open Browser and goto http://127.0.0.1:8080 (for local development) or the IP of your PI and the port defined in config.py (default 8081).
I put together some step by step instructions on https://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Web-Enabled-High-Temperature-Kiln-Controll
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
For more info on the parent project, see picoReflow: https://apollo.open-resource.org/mission:resources:picoreflow