Alpes Lasers TC-3 User Manual Download Page 1 | Manualshive

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Summary of Contents for TC-3

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Page 2: ...21 Installing the USB Drivers 22 Working With Thermistors 23 Working With RTDs 24 User Calibration of Resistance Sensors 26 Working With AD590s and LM335s 26 External Fan Control 27 Resistive Heaters and Heat Cool Only Modes 29 Gain Control and the PID Loop 29 Using the AutoTune Function 30 Using the AutoTune Function Remotely 32 Compensating for Cable Resistance 33 Internal Power Management 33 Sp...

Page 3: ...ed to make using the instrument straightforward With its text based menus there is never any confusion over which setting is being changed and parameters are displayed in clear English no cryptic numbers or LEDs to decode The TC 3 offers all the features you would expect from a modern temperature controller including AutoTune for automatic PID parameter calculation 0 004 C temperature stability 0 ...

Page 4: ... not safety related and are intended simply to point out important information If at any time any of the following conditions exist or are suspected of existing discontinue use of the unit until it can be inspected by qualified service personnel Visible damage to the unit including damage or stress caused during product shipment Storage of the unit outside the standard storage temperature or humid...

Page 5: ... completely before attempting to use this product WARNING To avoid electrical shock ensure a 3 prong power cord is used and is plugged into a earth grounded receptacle Failure to do so can result in severe injury or death CAUTION There are no user serviceable parts inside All service and repair work shall be done by Alpes Lasers or personnel authorized by Alpes Lasers Modifications done by non aut...

Page 6: ...knob turn to the right until the I Lim setting is displayed Press the knob to edit the setting and adjust the limit as appropriate to your Peltier Press the knob again to save the value Make the same adjustments to the high and low temperature limits T High Lim and T Low Lim as appropriate for your application The unit may come pre programmed for the laser it was bought with However if you are usi...

Page 7: ...ou can set the Gain to PID and directly set the PID control values It s that simple For more detailed operating and installation instructions read on Installation Installation of the TC 3 is very straightforward as the quick start section above illustrated This section will provide additional details and considerations for installing your TC 3 After unpacking the unit make sure all packing materia...

Page 8: ...er switch located on the front of the unit into the on position The unit will display the current firmware revision go through a quick power up self test and return to the last known operating state Ventilation The TC 3 has vent holes on the rear and left side of the unit You must not block these vent holes or overheating may occur causing damage to the unit CAUTION Do not exceed 250VAC on the lin...

Page 9: ...ambient temperature which will typically be several degrees higher than room ambient does not exceed the unit s operating temperature Warm up and Environmental Considerations In order to achieve the highest level of accuracy the TC 3 should be powered on for at least one hour prior to taking measurements In addition ensure that the unit is not operating outside the ambient temperature range or hum...

Page 10: ...ge adjustment knob located on the right hand side of the unit is used to change the set point or parameters in the menu It also acts as a push button primarily as an enter button when making changes in the menu When in the main screen pressing the knob will change from Normal to Large display mode There are four LEDs a green power LED that is lit whenever the AC power is turned on the blue Output ...

Page 11: ...nce mode allows you to bypass the sensor equation and directly select the sensor set point This can be useful when only the desired sensor value is known or when the sensor to temperature conversion values are not available for your sensor Main Display Screen On the main display you will find the set point and two or three measurements depending on the configuration you have chosen An example disp...

Page 12: ... that most other temperature controllers Using Limits The TC 3 supports three different types of limits temperature sensor and current There is both a temperature high and temperature low limit and if the actual temperature exceeds either of these limits the output will be shut off Likewise both high and low limits exist for the sensor R limits and the output will be shut off if the sensor measure...

Page 13: ...mmunications settings To access the sub menu simply press the knob to enter the sub menu when its name is displayed Below is a complete list of available settings Menu Description Factory Default Root Menu Main Menu Mode This set the operating mode T Mode R Mode or Ite Mode of the temperature controller T Mode Mount Specify the mount connected to the TC 3 If using a LaserMount select the appropria...

Page 14: ...perature drops below this value the output will be turned off Temperature limits not monitored in R Mode or Ite Mode Limit monitoring can also be disabled in software see TEC ENAB OUTOFF command 99 C T High Lim T High Lim is the upper temperature limit If operating in T Mode and the actual temperature rises above this value the output will be turned off Temperature limits not monitored in R Mode o...

Page 15: ...nger than the Tol Time setting then the unit is considered to be in tolerance 0 1 C H C Mode This selects the heating and or cooling mode of the TC 3 See the section below titled Resistive Heaters and Heat Cool Only Modes for more information Heat Cool Ext Fan This selects the voltage for the auxiliary fan power supply See the External Fan Control section below for more information Off Ext Fan Pwr...

Page 16: ...4108E 04 ThermC The C term in the Steinhart Hart equation 0 87755E 07 RTD A The A term in the RTD equation 3 98480E 03 RTD B The B term in the RTD equation 0 58700E 06 RTD C The C term in the RTD equation 4 00000E 12 RTD R0 The R0 term in Ω in the RTD equation 100 00 AD590 M The slope term in the AD590 correction equation 1 00000 AD590 B The offset term in C in the AD590 correction equation 0 000 ...

Page 17: ...Menu Disp Mode Display mode which is used to control the layout on the main screen Normal will display four values typically the set point temperature read back temperature current and voltage Large will display the read back temperature sensor or current depending on the mode T R or ITE mode respectively When changing the set point the set point will be displayed during the set point change Norma...

Page 18: ...ption Factory Default Knob Speed Controls the adjustment speed of the knob Possible values are slow medium and fast Slow Edit User Cal Enable or disable editing of user calibration values This is not a persistent value and will always resets to No on power up No ...

Page 19: ...2 Fan Analog Ground 13 ID 14 Remote Sensor 15 Remote Sensor Output Connector DB 15 Female Using the ID Pin For operation above 5A the ID pin pin 13 must be connected analog ground pin 12 and make sure all three TE and all three TE pins are connected Using Remote Sensor The remote sensor pins pins 14 15 are used in RTD 4 wire mode and provide a remote measurement of the RTD voltage to eliminate vol...

Page 20: ... the RS232 interface see the Computer Interfacing Manual which can be found on the Arroyo Instruments Website Connecting to the TC 3 Alpes Lasers carries two cable assemblies specifically designed for connecting the TC 3 to temperature controlled fixtures or devices Part number TC LLH is a meter cable capable of up to 5A of TEC current designed for use with Alpes Lasers LLH mount Part TC HHL can s...

Page 21: ... the Mount setting to User Defined removes all software limits allowing unrestricted operation of the TC 3 Remote Mode Operation Remote mode operation is when the TC 3 is being controlled by a computer over the USB or RS232 interfaces When in remote mode the TC 3 behaves differently preventing you from affecting the operation of the instrument Some of the primary differences are you will not be ab...

Page 22: ...ruments Website and follow the on screen instructions Once the drivers are installed to determine the COM port number go to Control Panel and select System Once the System Properties dialog appears choose the Hardware tab then click on the Device Manager button When the Device Manager appears click on the plus sign to the left of Ports The port identified as an USB Serial Port is the TC 3 In the e...

Page 23: ...n the typical control range 0 C to 40 C typical 10K thermistors offer good sensitivity to changes in temperature and this is the range in which most 10K thermistors are typically used 10K thermistors can be used at much higher temperatures but will suffer poorer temperature stability performance because of the lower sensitivity When evaluating the performance of a thermistor it is important to und...

Page 24: ...TDs also function by converting temperature into resistance but unlike thermistors RTDs increase in resistance as temperature increases RTDs are also a fairly linear device meaning they can be used across a much broader temperature control range According to IEC751 the resistance temperature relationship is determined using one of two equations dependent on the temperature or resistance value bein...

Page 25: ...ensor and source lines to remotely sense the actual resistance of the RTD and eliminate the cable or connector resistances When using 4 wire measurement mode you must select RTD 4 wire as the sensor type and then connect the Sensor and Remote Sensor at one side of the RTD and Sensor and Remote Sensor to the other side of the RTD Make these connections as close to the sensor as possible The drawing...

Page 26: ...easurement The calibrated measurement is computed as follows User calibrated reading Sens Cal M reading Sens Cal B Sens Cal B is displayed in kilo ohms kΩ for thermistors and ohms kΩ for RTDs Be aware that the there is only a single set of calibration values and changing sensor type does not change the calibration data Therefore if you will be changing between thermistor to RTD sensors you will ne...

Page 27: ...uilt in user adjustable 4 12V DC power supply designed to provide up to 350mA to an external fan When using the TC 3 with mounts that require a fan no additional external power supply is needed The housings used by Alpes Lasers do not incorporate fans Fan control is setup in the menu using the Ext Fan Ext Fan Pwr Ext Fan Mode and Ext Fan Off settings Ext Fan can be set to Off Slow Medium Fast or C...

Page 28: ...al remaining running for an addition number of minutes as defined by the Ext Fan Off setting Cool Fan is turned on whenever the TEC output is on and cooling off otherwise Heat Fan is turned on whenever the TEC output is on and heating off otherwise ...

Page 29: ...the PID Loop The TC 3 supports a fully configurable PID loop allowing full customization of the PID control parameters To simplify control eight standard gain settings are also defined and many applications can achieve acceptable performance with these predefined gain settings eliminating the need to understand and adjust the PID loop The predefined gains are numbered 1 through 300 and set using t...

Page 30: ...eters generated by AutoTune are not necessarily the ideal PID parameters and small improvements may be possible by further refining the results manually Before starting the AutoTune function it is best to begin from ambient conditions either with the TEC off and the mount stabilized at ambient or the TEC on and the set point around 25 C While this is not required it can produce better results Auto...

Page 31: ...is performing and the word AutoTune will flash on the display The typical temperature profile of an AutoTune process is shown in the graph below The first step which is the calculation of the P and D parameters completes at around 68 seconds then the mount is allowed to stabilize with the new P and D parameters then the second step begins which is the determination of the I term This completes aro...

Page 32: ... any time to cancel the AutoTune process and the PID parameters will remain unchanged an E 436 will also be displayed Using the AutoTune Function Remotely The AutoTune function can be done remotely and works essentially the same as local operation The TEC AUTOTUNE command starts the process and requires one parameter which is the AutoTune temperature test point The command will immediately put the...

Page 33: ...ance the short might add Place the short as close to the Peltier as is reasonable A simple approach is to unplug the cable from the mount and place a shorting plug on the mount end of the cable which is easily made from a male DB15 connector and a soldering iron to solder the ITE and ITE pins together Make sure the Peltier is disconnected to protect it from current overloading during the test Chan...

Page 34: ...to another However there may be conditions where the reduced current actually prevents the mount from achieving the desired operating temperature The only solution in this case is to increase the load voltage The simplest method is to wire a power resistor in series with the TEC to create additional voltage Depending on the voltage of your controller and application requirements the value of the r...

Page 35: ...Stability 24hr ºC Error Reference source not found 0 01 Measurement Channels Current Resolution mA 10 Accuracy reading mA 0 30 Voltage Resolution mV 10 Accuracy reading V 0 0 05 Sensor 10µA Thermistor Range kΩ 0 1 450 Resolution kΩ 0 01 Accuracy reading kΩ 0 05 50 100µA Thermistor Range kΩ 0 05 45 Resolution kΩ 0 001 Accuracy reading kΩ 0 05 5 LM335 Bias mA 1 Range mV 1730 4730 1 Software limits A...

Page 36: ...ution Ω 0 01 Accuracy reading Ω 0 03 0 1 Current Limit Resolution mA 10 Accuracy mA 50 Other Fan Supply 4 12V 350mA max TEC Connector Female DB 15 Display Type 2x20 VFD Computer Interface USB 2 0 Full Speed RS 232 DB 9 male Power 100V 120V 230V 50 60 Hz Size H x W x D inches mm 3 5 90 x 8 5 215 x 12 305 Weight lbs kg 6 2 2 8 7 4 3 4 Operating Temperature 10 C to 40 C Storage Temperature 20 C to 60...

Page 37: ...nge The message attempted to set a value that was outside the allowable range USB Serial only E 202 Invalid data type When trying to parse the message the data was in an invalid format USB Serial only E 204 Suffix not valid An invalid number base suffix radix was encountered when parsing a number USB Serial only E 402 Sensor open output turned off A sensor open circuit was detected and the output ...

Page 38: ...than 20 seconds E 433 Not a TEC The TEC CHAN command attempted to select a non TEC channel E 434 Ite limit exceeds cable rating The cable plugged into the unit is not rated to carry the current as set by the current limit E 435 Mode Change A mode change occurred when the output was on forcing the output off E 436 AutoTune failed The AutoTune process failed See the Using the AutoTune Function for m...

Page 39: ...blow immediately discontinue use of the instrument and contact service for support Service Service and repair for the TC 3 can be obtained by contacting the distributor from where you purchased the instrument or directly from Alpes Lasers You can contact Alpes Lasers through one of these methods By mail Alpes Lasers 1 3 Max de Meuron 2000 Neuchâtel Switzerland By phone 41 32 729 95 10 By fax 41 32...

Page 40: ...ty Repairs will be made and the instrument returned freight prepaid Repaired products are warranted for the balance of the original warranty period or 90 days whichever first occurs Limitation of Warranty The above warranties do not apply to products which have been repaired or modified without Alpes Lasers written approval or products subjected to unusual physical thermal or electrical stress imp...

Page 41: ...TC 3 Temperature Controller User s Manual Page 41 ...

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