JAG
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| posted on 20/10/10 at 12:50 PM |
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Thermocouples
Hi All,
I have access to relatively cheap and robust thermocouples and was thinking of using them to monitor water, oil and intake air temperatures.
However; I have no 'instrument' to attach the thermo's to and to generate a temperature reading.
Does anyone know where I could find such a device? I quite fancy the idea of building something, maybe a kit of parts? or perhaps someone here has
designed something?
Justin
Who is this super hero? Sarge? ...No.
Rosemary, the telephone operator? ...No.
Penry, the mild-mannered janitor? ...Could be!
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matt_gsxr
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| posted on 20/10/10 at 01:08 PM |
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MS is expecting variable resistance, rather than induced voltage, but it only measures voltages so thermocouple could be used (I guess).
It might be easier to use the stock sensors though as these are easily calibrated in the MS software (EasytTherm if MS1, TunerStudio if MS2).
People do use thermocouples for determining exhaust temperatures (I guess the thermistors melt at those temps).
The air-temp thermistor that I used from Maplin was about 40p. I am sure you could use your thermocouples, but I can't see it saving money,
time or effort. But you will learn some stuff, unfortunately I don't know how to run them.
Matt
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JAG
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| posted on 20/10/10 at 02:19 PM |
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I'm going to use the standard stuff for my Megasquirt. Both the coolant and air-temp' sensors will come from DIY Autotune or similar.
This was as a 'better' instrument for the dash really. I'm hoping to ultimately turbocharge my MX-5 engine and thought that better
quality temperature measurement would be a good idea.
What I'm looking for is the electronics that attach to the Thermo' to give a real time temperature reading. Any one have any ideas?
Thanks.
Justin
Who is this super hero? Sarge? ...No.
Rosemary, the telephone operator? ...No.
Penry, the mild-mannered janitor? ...Could be!
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trogdor
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| posted on 20/10/10 at 02:43 PM |
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you can get temperature displays that you plug your thermocouples into and it will display your temperature.
I work for a company that calibrates lab equipment and we have metres of the stuff!
It is something that I would like to do as I would be able to temperature map my engine and engine bay.
Anyway have a look on RS for temperature displays, tho the main issue will be something you can fit to your dash and look good. Plus getting something
to display more than one temp may be difficult.
EDIT something like this would work and look ok.
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/search/searchBrowseAction.html?method=getProduct&R=0119362
although it only shows one temp.
[Edited on 20/10/10 by trogdor]
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trogdor
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| posted on 20/10/10 at 02:57 PM |
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ideally you would want a data logger that will take your thermocouple inputs and log them for you to look at later. Maybe with an alarm system in
place for any high temps etc.
Problem is data loggers are not cheap.....
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RazMan
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| posted on 20/10/10 at 04:21 PM |
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I found a dual input temperature meter on eBay - ridiculously cheap and came with 2 type K thermocouples. It can measure the differential between the
two temps.
Cheers,
Raz
When thinking outside the box doesn't work any more, it's time to build a new box
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matt_gsxr
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| posted on 20/10/10 at 05:04 PM |
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I understand now, sorry I guessed rather than asking.
Thermocouples can be pretty good as they have a wide temperature range. Not sure you need high precision measurements for anything automotive
(i.e.+/-2deg is more than good enough). You could log the temperatures of all sorts of things, brake calipers, separate headers, radiator, oil
cooler. Dataloggers are expensive, but for temperature the sampling rates are really low that that you could use something like a Chameleon (£40) an
Arduino (£15), you could multiplex with some simple relays as really sampling faster than once every 5 secs is not necessary.
Sounds like an interesting project.
Matt
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Madinventions
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| posted on 20/10/10 at 05:14 PM |
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I've used the AD595 from Analog Devices (not cheap though!) in previous projects. You can get them from eBay cheaper sometimes, but it's
probably better just to get a complete panel mounted thermocouple reader from eBay, or use standard sensors.
AD595 link
Ed.
Mojo build diary: http://www.madinventions.co.uk
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View my band website:
http://www.shadowlight.org.uk
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Volvorsport
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| posted on 20/10/10 at 07:09 PM |
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we datalog with squirrel dataloggers .
back pressure and EGT , depending on the information we want 1 or 10 second sampling rate .
in the engine test cell - its about 50hz
we use t/couples from tc direct , some multimeters can read temps also .
www.dbsmotorsport.co.uk
getting dirty under a bus
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