grams stay in memory even when the power is turned off.
Programs are numbered 1 - 25.
The first message to appear after you plug in your Sentry
Xpress is
[ IDLE]
. Press
Start/Stop
. Then press the
Up
Arrow
key twice to scroll through two messages:
[USER]
and
[CONE]
.
To use Ramp-Hold mode, select
[USER]
. Press the
Start/Stop
key. Then follow the boxed instructions in the
next column to enter temperature, heating rate, etc.
[PRO1]
is Program 1. When you fire the kiln again, you
can repeat Program 1 by selecting
[PRO1]
. When you are
ready to fire a different program, select
[PRO2]
, which is
program 2. Then enter temperatures, heating rates, etc. Se-
lect programs
[PRO3]
-
[PR25]
the same way.
Pointer:
To Select a high number Ramp-Hold
program from
[PRO1]
, press the
Down Arrow
.
You will go to
[PR25]
, the highest program num-
ber. Use the up and down arrow keys to scroll
through your stored programs.
To over-write a program, select it and enter new rates
and temperatures. This automatically over-writes the pre-
vious program. Write down your programs in a notebook.
Make copies of the blank firing record on page 33.
Three Types of Rate
In the Rate option, page 22, you can set up your control-
ler to calculate rate in one of three ways: 1) degrees of tem-
perature change per hour, 2) degrees of temperature
change per minute, or 3) elapsed time needed to reach a
temperature. The normal setting is degrees per hour. If you
are having problems entering rate, check the RATE option
to be sure your controller is set for degrees per hour.
Rate as Degrees Per Hour
Each segment must include a rate, which is the firing
speed of that segment. We usually measure rate as degrees
per hour. This is similar to miles per hour; just replace miles
with degrees. During programming, enter the rate when
[RA]
appears.
[RA]
will also include the segment number:
[RA 1] [RA 2]
etc.
The diagram above shows three rates. A rate of 1000°
per hour will reach 1000° in 1 hour. A rate of 500° will reach
1000° in 2 hours. A rate of 333° will reach 1000° in 3 hours.
Keep the kiln lid or door closed when the kiln is not in use.
13
Ramp-Hold Programming Instructions
You have up to 20 segments available in Ramp-Hold.
Zero out segments that you don’t need. See step 9 below.
Lock, Fan, and Delay can each be turned on or off as
programming steps. Ignore the steps below that you have
deactivated. See LOCK (page 21), FN (selected in AOP1,
page 22), and DELA, (page 17).
1
From
[IDLE]
, press
Start/Stop
(the left button).
2
Using the
Up Arrow
key (not the
Down Arrow
),
skip past
[CONE]
and select
[USER]
. Then press
Start/Stop
.
3
Press the up and down arrow keys to select a pro-
gram, from
[PRO1]
to
[PR25]
. Then press
Start/Stop
.
4
If the program is locked,
[UNLO]
(Unlock) will
appear alternating with
[0000]
. If you want to
change the program, enter your passcode. (Other-
wise press
Start/Stop
to go to Step 11.)
5
[RA 1]
will appear. Enter firing rate (temperature
change per hour) for segment 1. (1° = slowest rate.
1799°F / 999°C = full power.) Then press
Start/Stop
.
6
[°F 1]
or
[°C 1]
and the target temperature from
the last firing will appear. Use the arrow keys to
change the temperature. Then press
Start/Stop
.
7
[HD 1]
and the hold time from the last firing will
appear. (Example: 1 hour, 10 minutes = 01.10).
Use the arrow keys to change the hold time. Then
press
Start/Stop
. (No hold = 00.00)
8
If your kiln is set up with a vent fan,
[FN 1]
will ap-
pear. Press
Start/Stop
. Use the arrow keys to se-
lect
[ON]
or
[OFF]
. Press
Start/Stop
.
9
Continue entering values for the segments
needed. When
[RA _]
appears for the next seg-
ment that you don’t need, select
[0000]
. Then
press
Start/Stop
. This will zero out the remaining
segments. (Example: You need only 1 segment.
When
[RA 2]
appears, enter 0000.)
10
[LOCK]
alternating with
[0000]
will appear. En-
ter your passcode to lock the program, or press
Start/Stop
to leave it unlocked.
11
[STRT]
will appear. Press Start/Stop.
[DELA]
will appear. Set a delay time. If you don’t need to
delay the firing, leave the time at
[00.00]
. Then
press
Start/Stop
.
[-ON-]
will appear, and the kiln
will begin firing. If Delay was programmed,
[DELA]
will appear and time remaining until start.
To stop a firing before completion, press
Start/Stop
.
[ABRT]
(abort) will appear.
When kiln fires to completion, it will beep for 30 sec-
onds.
[CPLT]
(fired to completion), the firing time, final
firing temperature, and current temperature will appear.
