leof

As far as I can tell there are no parameters in config.py apart from the PID parameters. I tested these as described here. I left them at these values as they tested OK.

I'm not sure about the count down timer. Because the firing stopped at about 900C (while the target temp was set to 940C) I was a bit of in a panic and wanted to resume as soon as possible. I had to switch the Pi off, change SD-card and get all things going again.

I use a Pi with original 7" display and monitor the process from a local browser.

Last week I fired my kiln for the first time with this kiln-controller software. It was a bit of a disappointment. At first things went smooth. But later on I discovered i had set the last ramp to steep: my kiln couldn't heat up fast enough. This didn't worry me much because the config.py sais: # If the kiln cannot heat or cool fast enough and is off by more than # kiln_must_catch_up_max_error the entire schedule is shifted until # the desired temperature is reached. If your kiln cannot attain the # wanted temperature, the schedule will run forever. However, it didn't work that way: the firing stopped after some time without waiting for the oven. I then used my own Windows IoT program to finish the job. I don't know what went wrong.

As far as I can tell from the documentation the icons top-right are driven by specific GPIO's that are used in the original project picoReflow. If you don't use these GPIO's, the icons will not show. From the picoReflow website:

Yes, that would be very nice. And let @jbruce change the oven.py and config.py to have his wonderful web-app working for everyone with a max31856!

Congratulations! Curious about what the culprit was.

Where is the max31856simpletest.py from? Edit: I suggest you use John Robinson's testprogram test_max31856.py because it is his library @jbruce uses with the kiln-controller.py.

It's installed in the wrong place. Try: $ cd kiln-controller $ virtualenv -p python3 venv $ source venv/bin/activate $ pip install RPi.GPIO

You need to install the RPi.GPIO library. Then try the first option again.

if config.max31856: log.info("init MAX31856") from max31856 import MAX31856 # CHANGED FROM max31856 import MAX31856, MAX31856Error software_s = { 'cs': config.gpio_sensor_cs, 'clk': config.gpio_sensor_clock, 'do': config.gpio_sensor_data } self.thermocouple = MAX31856(tc_type=config.thermocouple_type, software_spi = sofware_s, units = config.temp_scale ) This is the right declaration I think.

software_spi = sofware_spi doesn't make much sense to me. Try removing it and let's see what error we get. self.thermocouple = MAX31856(tc_type=config.thermocouple_type, units = config.temp_scale ) It that brings nothing try setting it to 1: software_spi = 1,

As the changes where not the solution, what errors do you get starting kiln-controller.py?

Mark, do you have difficulty in editing the python files mentioned? This can be done with any text editor. Nothing special here. Open the file, make the change and save it. Do you use a Windows computer to connect to your Rpi, like WinSCP? Or do you have a display and keyboard/mouse directly connected to your RPi? Leo

OK. Just a few points: @jbruce has altered the max31856 library. He added some lines at the bottom which you need. So use the library of @jbruce, not John Robinson's. one problem in oven.py, as you already found out, is the addition of "MAX31856Error" which is not present in the library. Alter line 107 to: from max31856 import MAX31856 #, MAX31856Error Note the # to disable everything after it on this line. The thermocouple-type is set in the config.py file: # see lib/max31856.py for other thermocouple_type, only applies to max31856 thermocouple_type = MAX31856.MAX31856_S_TYPE Good luck!