Temperature Control Software - OmegaTemp

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Overview

Controlling or pre-programming a furnace can be difficult

and there are a number of issues to make it so. Omega

-Temp is a program for operating your furnace intelligently

and easily. The brain of the furnace is the PID controller,

small box with led display, few buttons and a maze of

menus and settings in it. The PID controller can be

very difficult to use and lacks few crucial features.

OmegaTemp is a software that runs on a Windows based

pc, connects to your furnace and to the PID controller

in the furnace. OmegaTemp adds those missing elements

and makes it easy to operate your furnace with few clicks of a

mouse. The program is delivered with a 5 meter USB to furnace

cable. (USB-RS232)

 

Features

• Quick control

Use quick control feature to get the furnace quickly to a

desired temperature. All you have to type in is the desired

temperature and the desired ramp rate (maximum speed for

heating or cooling).

• Temperature profiles

Create temperature profiles for your furnace with few clicks.

Define unlimited amount of individual steps; setpoint, ramprate,

and dwell time for each segment.

• Define steady temperature

With the stability settings, the user can pre-define what is

considered a steady temperature. Define maximum temperature

oscillation, rate of change observation length, maximum rate of

change ºC/min and minimum steady time. The temperature will

be declared steady only after the temperature fulfills the given

definitions.

• Broadcast steady temperature

Once OmegaTemp identifies a steady temperature, it can

proceed to next instruction. This can be new target temperature, a period to hold the current temperature, or in addition to these, it can broadcast a message inside Windows, to say that the temperature has been reached, and it is steady. The benefits of this is that if you have other process to start doing something automatically when you have reached a temperature of interest. This can be for example a software to run measurements; for example our Omega family software for electrochemical measurements, such as Seebeck coefficient, Impedance spectroscopy and so on. This way you could make range of sweeps automatically, for example overnight.

• Easy to use

Normally all PID controlled furnaces are hard to handle: They have huge range of settings and features, all of which must be controlled from small 4 character led display with just 4 buttons. To get to any setting user must browse through long menus where the setting may or may not exist depending of the other settings. With OmegaTemp all relevant settings are easy and fast to change.

•  Easy to install

Latest version of this software is always downloadable from our web pages. The software runs on your Windows based computer without any installation process; just plug the cable, and double click on the programa nd you ar ready to go.

The program is pure Win32 code so it will run on any modern Windows based PC. Unlike with many other programs, you do not need to install and update any kind of prerequisites such as C++ redistributables, .NET frameworks, Java runtime environments, DLL files etc.

• Option: Secondary thermocouple feedback & fine tune

Sometimes the temperature given by the furnace controller does not represent the sample under test (SUT) temperature. This is a normal situation and can be due various reasons and can be remedied by adding thermocouple close to the SUT and reading the voltage with appropriate device and converting that to a temperature and manually compensating for the difference using the furnace PID controller. This however is labor intensive, inconvenient and error prone method.

Another way to overcome this is to control the furnace with a thermocouple that is located at the sample, but not many furnaces allow this option. Such approach will void the warranty and risk overheating and melting the furnace. This method also introduces a very big delay for the heating action and the heat reaching the SUT thermocouple and the feedback the PID controller receives, thus confuses the PID algorithm, causing big overshoots and oscillation in the temperature.
An optional feature in OmegaTemp can solve all this automatically and safely for the user. The solution includes a small instrument with temperature reader (to a thermocouple located at the sample) and a cable to connect that instrument to OmegaTemp. The program will then automatically adjust the furnace controller so that the sample temperature will override the furnace temperature.

 

Requirements

• Turms  is a software for Windows computers. Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2.

• Two free USB ports. The software comes with 5 meter long USB to RS-232 cable, connected between the computer and the furnace, and with USB license dongle, that must be connected to a USB port for the software to function.

• A furnace with Eurotherm controller capable of communicating with MODBUS protocol and a serial port (Sometimes called COM or RS-232 port). All Eurotherm controllers from series 2200, 2400 and 3200 can do this, some might require a small communications chip replaced.

 

Try before buy

Download the software and the manual from our pages. OmegaTemp.exe and  OmegaTemp_Manual.docx. Version of these files are also included in the filename as year month day, for example 20120120.

(If your computer has a serial port, you can connect a normal serial cable from computer to furnace and you can try the features even without the USB-RS232 cable shipped with the program)

 

To purchase

Contact us

 

Example details

4 step temperature program with and without dwell time.

 

Note the settling time required to reach the temperature

stability:
Once within the defined conditions for the defined five minutes,
the program dwells four minutes at the temperature before

next segment.

 

Dwell time is given as Days/Hours:Minutes.

 

A temperature program can have as many segments as needed, without a limit.

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Rate of change is calculated for user-specified duration with

linear least squares.

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