I am looking for everyone's opinions on this, and I know its going to vary wildly, but maybe someone can point me in the right direction or offer their advice. I am in the process of building a heat treating kiln for knife making. It will go up to about 2000F and use a K type thermocouple. The controller will be able to control the heating element. So here is where the "build vs buy" comes in.
I know I can get a good PID controller from Automation Direct for $34. Yes the Chinese ones from ebay work, but I wanted something a little nicer and with better documentation. So spending that amount of money is OK for me. My one major want though is to be able to ramp/soak. Im sure I could do this with a regular PID controller and a timer (OR...figure out how to use Modbus with a PIC/Arduino), but that's not very user friendly and would require me to keep going back and forth.
I know I can get a good PID controller from Automation Direct for $34. Yes the Chinese ones from ebay work, but I wanted something a little nicer and with better documentation. So spending that amount of money is OK for me. My one major want though is to be able to ramp/soak. Im sure I could do this with a regular PID controller and a timer (OR...figure out how to use Modbus with a PIC/Arduino), but that's not very user friendly and would require me to keep going back and forth.