First of all, I want everyone to know that I'm a noob to the world of circuitry... I'm a mechanical engineering student and haven't completed my E&M course yet, but want to get my hands on a project I have in mind. I have a project that is very similar to this: http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/showthread.php?t=25912
I've read through the post a few times and don't have the knowledge to completely follow everything that's being discussed, so I wanted to know if anyone could read over what I have in mind and give me some feedback/advice (while bearing with my inexperience). I want to make a heating element to put over the bowl of my hookah so that I would eliminate the need for a burning coal to produce smoke (the idea is discussed on another forum, but it's not a very technical forum and it doesn't seem like anyone's gotten anywhere with the idea)
Through my initial research I came up with this idea: hook a potentiometer up to the gate of a TRIAC, which would be connected to the power supply and a heating element (NiCr wire) in order to create a variable temperature heating element. I need the temperature of the heating element to reach up to 400 degrees Celsius, which shouldn't be an issue if using NiCr. My problem is that I don't have the knowledge to pick out the parts I'd need in order to make such a circuit.
My other idea would be to use a household light dimmer to regulate the heat of the wire, but again I don't have a very solid knowledge of household dimmers and their functioning. Do they variably limit the amount of amperes flowing through them?
Here's a chart containing useful information about NiCr wires of different diameters:
http://www.wiretron.com/nicrdat.html
For my first idea, I was looking at this TRIAC, but it's rated at levels much higher than what I'd need (I'm looking to use a standard 120V, 15 amp wall socket as my power source):
http://www.alliedelec.com/search/productdetail.aspx?SKU=9356521
would this be overkill?
Any advice would be helpful... I'm not really trying to use the limited knowledge I have and trial and error to try to go about doing this. Thanks for your patience
I've read through the post a few times and don't have the knowledge to completely follow everything that's being discussed, so I wanted to know if anyone could read over what I have in mind and give me some feedback/advice (while bearing with my inexperience). I want to make a heating element to put over the bowl of my hookah so that I would eliminate the need for a burning coal to produce smoke (the idea is discussed on another forum, but it's not a very technical forum and it doesn't seem like anyone's gotten anywhere with the idea)
Through my initial research I came up with this idea: hook a potentiometer up to the gate of a TRIAC, which would be connected to the power supply and a heating element (NiCr wire) in order to create a variable temperature heating element. I need the temperature of the heating element to reach up to 400 degrees Celsius, which shouldn't be an issue if using NiCr. My problem is that I don't have the knowledge to pick out the parts I'd need in order to make such a circuit.
My other idea would be to use a household light dimmer to regulate the heat of the wire, but again I don't have a very solid knowledge of household dimmers and their functioning. Do they variably limit the amount of amperes flowing through them?
Here's a chart containing useful information about NiCr wires of different diameters:
http://www.wiretron.com/nicrdat.html
For my first idea, I was looking at this TRIAC, but it's rated at levels much higher than what I'd need (I'm looking to use a standard 120V, 15 amp wall socket as my power source):
http://www.alliedelec.com/search/productdetail.aspx?SKU=9356521
would this be overkill?
Any advice would be helpful... I'm not really trying to use the limited knowledge I have and trial and error to try to go about doing this. Thanks for your patience