Raspberry Pi?

[Rustyv]

OK, so who wants to build one for me, in a water-proof box, with waterproof toggle overrides? (Oh, and controlling line power/three phase contactors.)

Precision, you said you were bored, right? How 'bout learning a new "cooking" skill?



The kid got convinced by his father that it was "too much for him" - which is BS - I can post, most, of the process here - will do so in a bit - but its simple.

Pull the kid to the side and ask him to build it anyway. That kind of tinkerer spirit needs to be nurtured, not taken out back and flogged.

If he runs into roadblocks, I'll send you my contact info. If I can't help him, I know folks who can (says the guy currently hacking into the messaging bus in his truck to make his ham radio less wife offending)

[BDK]

I know - but his father is really against it - I tried to explain things to him... Send me a good email - perhaps if I get a mentor for him, I can swing it - the kid wants a good reference from me, and his Dad seems nervous about what I expect from an engineer to get one.

[BDK]

This will have to be built inside a water proof box, with a radiator/other provisions for dealing with heat.

All valves are line power – 110V or 3 phase, the pump is three phase

There will have to be manual override switches, usually with an “Off/On/Auto” feature, for all functions. We can send you our current box, with a Unitronics M 90 in it, if needed, but we think it would be better if you start from scratch.

The thermocouple inside the pasteurizer uses thermostatic wire, and is a:
Pyromation Thermosensor Model:KP43G09M/2 T163
Pyromation, Ft. Wayne, IN.
Pyromation.com

Reads 2˚ high at 51˚. May have an issue, or it may be in the Unitronics. Will need to be able to calibrate the thermocouple to read correctly.

“A” cycle
1. Open Hot Valves
2. Start Glycol Pump
3. Heat to X˚ F
a. If it does not change rapidly in temperature
i. Sound alarm
ii. Open all valves (this is to clear any air pockets which may have formed)
iii. Close all valves, except hot
4. Hold for Y minutes at X˚ F
5. Stop Glycol Pump
6. Close hot valves
7. Open City Water Tap
8. Open city water valves
9. Start Glycol Pump
10. Chill to 100˚F
a. If it does not change rapidly in temperature
b. Sound alarm
c. Open all valves for 1 minute
d. Close all valves, except city water
11. Stop Glycol Pump
12. Close City water valves
13. Close City Water Tap
14. Open Ice Builder valves
a. Possibly, start a circulator pump for the ice builder. Uncertain, will obtain more info from the manufacturer.
15. Chill to 36˚F
a. If it does not change rapidly in temperature
b. Sound Alarm
c. Open all valves for 1 minute
d. Close all valves, except ice builder
16. Stop glycol pump
17. Close ice builder valves
18. If temp rises to 38˚F
a. Open Ice builder valves
b. Start Glycol Pump
c. If it doesn’t work.
i. Stop glycol pump
ii. Close ice builder valves
iii. Start chiller
iv. Open chiller valves
v. Start glycol pump

“B” cycle

1. Open Hot Valves
2. Start Glycol Pump
3. Heat to P˚ F
a. If it does not change rapidly in temperature
i. Sound alarm
ii. Open all valves (this is to clear any air pockets which may have formed)
iii. Close all valves, except hot
4. Hold for Q minutes at P˚ F
5. Stop Glycol Pump
6. Close hot valves
7. Open city water valves
8. Start Glycol Pump
9. Chill to 100˚F
a. If it does not change rapidly in temperature
b. Sound alarm
c. Open all valves for 1 minute
d. Close all valves, except city water
10. Stop Glycol Pump
11. Close City water valves
12. Open Ice Builder valves
13. Chill to 36˚F
a. If it does not change rapidly in temperature
b. Sound Alarm
c. Open all valves for 1 minute
d. Close all valves, except ice builder
14. Stop glycol pump
15. Close ice builder valves
16. If temp rises to 38˚F
a. Open Ice builder valves
b. Start Glycol Pump
c. If it doesn’t work.
i. Stop glycol pump
ii. Close ice builder valves
iii. Start chiller
iv. Open chiller valves
v. Start glycol pump

“Caustic” Cycle
1. Open Hot Valves
2. Start Glycol Pump
3. Heat to 170˚ F
a. If it does not change rapidly in temperature
i. Sound alarm
ii. Open all valves (this is to clear any air pockets which may have formed)
iii. Close all valves, except hot
4. Stop Glycol Pump
5. Close hot valves

“Acid” Cycle
1. Open Hot Valves
2. Start Glycol Pump
3. Heat to 150˚ F
a. If it does not change rapidly in temperature
i. Sound alarm
ii. Open all valves (this is to clear any air pockets which may have formed)
iii. Close all valves, except hot
4. Stop Glycol Pump
5. Close hot valves

“Sanitizer” Cycle
1. Open Hot Valves
2. Start Glycol Pump
3. Heat to 140˚ F
a. If it does not change rapidly in temperature
i. Sound alarm
ii. Open all valves (this is to clear any air pockets which may have formed)
iii. Close all valves, except hot
4. Stop Glycol Pump
5. Close hot valves

[Darrell]

No matter how you do it, have the designer document the hell out of it. You don't want to have something remotely process critical that no one else can work on. See the thread on Darrell's indispensability to his operation.

The Angry Lesbian has required me to work late all week, trying to get a down flatbed printer up. I pretty much got it up tonight, may have to fine tune in the morning. I was there about three hours late. She actually kissed me on the cheek. The downside is that I've been trying all week to get another look at Comet Lovejoy (looking cool in pics!), and the weather finally cooperated today. Another snowstorm is on the way in though; when I finally got home it was clear as a bell (and did get to see Venus and Mercury in conjunction just off the south side of Pikes Peak). Half an hour later, when I got off my ass and took a pair of binos out, it had totally clouded over.

[Weetabix]

See? Indispensability sucks for everyone. I used to work with an engineer who always said he wanted to be valuable but not indispensable. I've tried to go that way in my career, too. Sadly for vacations, I'm now closer to indispensable than I like. I need to figure out how to remedy that.

[toad]

Tale from Japanese IT manager. "My problem is not that they don't know programming languages, but that they don't know Japanese!"

UT at Arlington, Texas for a long while had technical writing courses listed in their catalog but the courses never seemed to be available. The Accreditation Association finally came down on them for putting too many courses that didn't exist in their catalog in an attempt to attract students.

[Darrell]

See? Indispensability sucks for everyone. I used to work with an engineer who always said he wanted to be valuable but not indispensable. I've tried to go that way in my career, too. Sadly for vacations, I'm now closer to indispensable than I like. I need to figure out how to remedy that.

I feel your pain.

Post script on the flatbed printer--evidently it is a bad print head. Got one coming in for Saturday delivery, and guess who now has to work tomorrow to install it. Busy season is over, no more OT. I left by 9:30 this morning when I hit 40 hours. They'll have to eat a couple hours of OT for tomorrow, though. Cold, grey and freezing drizzle here today, good day to come home and take a nap.

[slowpoke]

How many valves and how many pumps?
How many thermocouple inputs, and any other sensors?

Three position three pole switches for the on/off/auto.
Seems pretty simple from the hardware side software not to bad either.
I suggest one of the arduinos, if you have to be fancy you can get the arduinos with built in cpu/ethernet etc, but I recommend you not.

[BDK]

Only sensor is the one thermocouple

9 valves, one pump, possibly a circulator pump for the ice builder.

[blackeagle603]

If you've got a builder bug in your pants, the game is getting pretty interesting at the nexus of 3DP and off the shelf computer "engines"

To wit:

download 3DP files and build a robot around a Snapdragon engine

At CES 2015, Qualcomm Research is introducing its latest innovation in robotics through the Snapdragon Cargo—a flying and rolling robot with an integrated flight controller—powered by a Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ processor.

Inside Snapdragon Cargo is a multi-functional computing platform. This hardware and software platform is built around the Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC to provide a low-power solution that integrates multi-core processing, wireless communications, sensor integration, positioning and real-time I/O for multiple robotics applications...

The Snapdragon Micro Rover is a 3D printable robot that serves as a catalyst to the robot hobbyist community; with it, users can create their own robotics applications with their smartphones. The blueprints to create this simple, easy-to-build, 3D-printable robot are free to download, as are sample applications. It’s designed to use the compute functionality of a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor within a smartphone. Place the smartphone in the Micro Rover and load the sample apps for autonomous operations.b