cadenrank

Ahhhh, so it's mechanical. The load side is just powering the timer, not actually having anything to do with disengaging the sitter contacts. I knew something had to be missing from the equation I was trying to figure out. 

Thank you guys!

Ahhhh, so it's mechanical. The load side is just powering the timer, not actually having anything to do with disengaging the sitter contacts. I knew something had to be missing from the equation I was trying to figure out. 

Thank you guys!

Well, I got my '55 amplifier today. Hooked it all up and things looked good. Mt thermocouple read 75F, so I put my lighter on it, and it dropped and went into negatives very quickly. Made me think of reversed polarity. I switched my thermocouple wires and the thing runs perfectly. My TC block had red and yellow marked on it, and I had always assumed red as positive. It turns out the yellow is actually positive. I had my TC wires crossed this entire time, and I suspect this caused the problems with the '56 amplifier as well.
Now, is a triple SSR bank reasonable protection against an ssr sticking closed? What about snap discs (on climb)?
 
Thanks,
Ken

Thermocouples can appear backwards in polarity because they are often viewed as a power source.
Anyway simple to check calibration over a small range with ice water and boiling water. For higher approximates a propane torch can see if it accelerates in the thousand degree range.
If your meter presents too much load the reading can be affected by parallel operation. .thermocouple wire and thermocouple connectors are supposed to be made of compatible metals  as the thermocouple so as not to induce additional couples.
Most folks use thermocouple wire and jacks made just for thermocouples which are made of compatible materials, others don’t contending equal and opposite couples are created and negate each other. Still some are susceptible to noise and require shielded thermocouple wire. For the most part they are robust and tolerate reasonable connections

Ah!! That’s why my use of DPDT toggle switches to switch between two different kiln thermocouple cables and a terminal block is still providing reliable results! Thanks for this!

Yep. Basic common toggle switches were standard on Alpine kilns to switch between top and bottom thermocouples for decades. Lots of old kilns had them before the days of controllers and pyrometers that have multiple thermocouple inputs.

You can just connect them together . Paralleling the wires is fine. I use my Fluke in parallel with the max board so I can check them .  

It should work fine. Thermocouple connections don't affect the reading as long as there's no temperature difference across the connection, which there never is with small connector. That's why you can use standard terminal blocks for thermocouple connections, like most kiln companies do.

Specifically I’d like to know what these five different icons represent on the top right of the menu, and why the furthest one to the right is enabled on my iPhone Safari browser at all times, yet is never lit on my laptop chrome browser, whether or not the system is running a heating cycle.  What I haven’t found is a manual or readme with details about these things.

You can buy a MAX31855 for any kind of thermocouple and swap out the type K chip. I did this and also made a PCB to try making my own boards. The MAX31856 is good because it doesn't need a different chip for each type of thermocouple.
It shouldn't be to difficult to get the software working with 31856, one day I might buy a board and take a look.

I have the 32856 adafruit breakout boards.  The software by Jason does cover the pinout and also uses the 31856 library from adafruit. In theory it should all work. In the config.py file you need to change thermocople to K and also change selection of board , it is 0 for the 56 and 1 for the 55 so you need to reverse those. Also the pinout is specified there being 4  GPIO PINS IN USE. the 3.3 volts from the pi goes to the Vin on the breakout board. Ground to any GND . It all worked when I first set it up and the profile system for heating is very clever...overkill for a pottery kiln as it was designed for a reflow soldering station but should be ok. Now for unknown reasons the temperature reading is screwed up. Not sure why but hopefully will be fixed very soon. I plan to use the system for monitoring until I feel it is solid..don't have that feeling yet! Let us know how it all works for you..together we can succeed. Ron.
 
 

Go to the paragon website and get the wiring diagram for your model. Then you will need to check the wiring is appropriate for your house (If in a house, a neutral and two hots for 120v / 240v).  208 v does not make sense for a home installation it generally only occurs in three phase installations.. Then if all correct you will need to troubleshoot 

Give me some time to edit the pictures, Mark is correct what looked like lamp cord is not so……that is good, one less thing to fix. The power cord appears adequate as the ground is just trimmed back so it appears it can be reused.
 
My suggestions will include the removal of all the wiring to the receptacle at the top of the control box. IMO, it’s useless at this point unless you plan on buying a 40 year old extension ring, and it creates a bit of mess. Besides you will get some decent unused high temp wire to work with.
Hopefully I can detail some suggestions and others will either agree or may see it differently. Regardless, you will have a path to pursue or something to show your tech with respect to the suggestions.

Swapping out just the plug on this would be a pretty straight forward (and fairly inexpensive) project, assuming everything downstream of the plug and inside the kiln is in good shape too. 

I do have a feeling that your kiln probably has the same issue that @neilestrick and @Bill Kielb had figured out the other night with my kiln, but they will chime in with it soon, I'm sure. I'm basing this on the 120/240v rating on the manufacturer plate, the 4 prong receptacle on the front of your kiln, and the fact that the power cord has a 3 prong plug.

Swapping out just the plug on this would be a pretty straight forward (and fairly inexpensive) project, assuming everything downstream of the plug and inside the kiln is in good shape too. 

I do have a feeling that your kiln probably has the same issue that @neilestrick and @Bill Kielb had figured out the other night with my kiln, but they will chime in with it soon, I'm sure. I'm basing this on the 120/240v rating on the manufacturer plate, the 4 prong receptacle on the front of your kiln, and the fact that the power cord has a 3 prong plug.

Just a quick observation
Yes I would say this is wrong and that plug contained two hot legs L1 & L2 and a neutral but is missing a ground. While hard to be entirely sure from the picture, here are a few things I notice.
1. Ordinary wire nut, looks like it began to melt at one point. Install high temp or at least new (all locations) and relocate as far away from the shell as possible and as far towards the bottom of the cabinet, where it is always reasonably cool.
2. This really looks like lamp cord,, so whatever it leads to needs to use the appropriate wire with approved wiring practices. No lamp cord!
3. This ground screws is much rustier than the adjacent screw. The accelerated corrosion is indicative of small amounts of electric flow. Rust is actually a movement of electrons. In its early days bonding the neutral as a ground was acceptable in some appliances, eventually this was forbidden as it can create a shock hazard.
Anyway, we will need a picture of the low, med, high switch (back side) but just from what I can see, the wiring needs to be reviewed and the deficiencies repaired before operating this.
Its actually not uncommon to find some of this in old kilns so not hard to repair. Just from what we seem to know at this point, this kiln needs the internal wiring reviewed and updated, a four pole plug with a separate ground and appropriate cord. The existing cord likely is four wire so you may be able to use it by cutting back and getting all four wires, then the appropriate cord end, matching receptacle and of course branch wiring to include a neutral and ground.
Proper TLC likely puts this in good order. Prior to that, I suggest don’t plug it in till the deficiencies have been addressed.
To start, more pictures of the wiring, from a slight distance (contextual) will make this easier to understand. Super zoomed in pictures probably not as useful unless we are looking specifically at a connection.
Please take a picture of the equipment tag which will include model, voltage, wattage etc… it’s really hard to speculate without it.

These old Paragon kilns are wired differently than most kilns these days. They are 120/240V, meaning some of the time the switches cause the elements to run on 120V and other times the elements use 240V. Consequently, the 4-wire plug and receptacle with a neutral is essential.  The kiln will not operate properly on a conventional 3-wire 240V circuit. As Marko notes, a 30 amp circuit is minimum, but 40 amps is maximum.  The outlet on the top of the control box is actually 120/240V, and was intended to power an extension ring if desired. Otherwise, it's not good for much else. As for digital controllers, the external wall-mount Skutt KM-1 is not suitable for this kiln. It will only work with a straight 240V 3-wire cord with no neutral. As noted, this kiln requires a neutral. The Orton AF4000 wall-mount controller can be special ordered with the 120/240V circuitry. If you are adventuresome and facile with electrical wiring, you could replace the kiln sitter mechanism with an Olympic ElectroSitter.

@Bill Kielb Here we go again! Yes, according to the wiring diagram for that kiln it should be a 4 wire setup. The only difference with this one is that it only has two elements, not 4 like the other one.  @Neosquid post a picture of the plug, as well as a picture of the switch on the control box. If you know how, open up the control box and take a picture of the back side of the switch, too. There's a chance the kiln is wired wrong and won't work, or at best is wired wrong and not totally up to modern safety codes. It would be a fairly simple fix, though.

Hmmm, we just went through this, I believe this is a 4 wire kiln so that plug does not entirely make sense. What is stamped on the kiln tag. It should say voltage, amperage, wattage, etc……. Maybe post a quick picture of the equipment tag and cord / plug.