Monitoring the ThermoClamp from your computer
1. The ThermoClamp can be monitored by your computer and software
using either the front-panel BNC port (temperature only) or the
USB port (much more information). To use the BNC output, simply
connect the BNC to your recording hardware (i.e. analog input on your
digitizer) and record it alongside your other data.
1.1 The output will give 40mV/deg C. For example, if the control
(or safety sensor if no control) temperature is 30˚C, then the output
voltage will be 1.2 V.
2. To use the USB port, connect a USB cable to monitor the output with a
serial terminal program. You can use any serial software like Realterm,
SerialPlot or PlotLog for Windows or CoolTerm for Mac OS. The serial
baud rate is 230400.
2.1 In CoolTerm, select “Options”, “Serial Port.” Set the Baud rate, and
choose the Port – probably “usbmodem.” Then click “Connect” to start
watching the USB/serial data.
2.2 Choose “Connection” menu : “Capture to Text/Binary File” to
begin recording the output to a file.
3. You must use a quality “Type-B Mini” USB cable. Bad/defective
cables can cause serial errors. Some USB cables are meant only for
charging and do not include data wires. The controller should appear
on your desktop (Mac) or in your system COM ports list (Windows)
after it has been connected with a functioning cable.
4. When the ThermoClamp first powers on, it will print out a header that
contains information about stored parameters, as well as the current
firmware version. The following is an example of the power-on
header followed by a description of each term (underlines added for
clarity):
Firmware_Version 1.24
Setpoint
35.0
Divergence_Limit
5.0
PID_Mode
AUTO
AUTO_PID_Gains
1.500 0.003 0.00008 0.10000 7.000
Setpoint_Mode
AUTO
Runaway_Sensitivity_ESB
3
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