Overview

The Temperature Controller Soft-Device adds a user-configurable single-loop temperature controller to the Soft-I/O module in which it is installed.

The Soft-I/O temperature controller Soft-Device will outperform many dedicated, stand-alone temperature controller modules costing hundreds of dollars, and it is free with every Soft-I/O module! A powerful wizard helps you to set up the controller, guiding you to select a temperature sensor, output device and other parameters.

The most common configuration is to use an RTD as the temperature sensor. Thermocouples can also be used, but because of the low-level nature of thermocouples, you will probably want to reserve their use for temperatures above about 300C.  If you are operating in a narrow temperature range of 0--150C, you can use a solid state sensor which tends to give you high precision and high accuracy with a high level signal.  

You can use an analog output to controller your heat source, but it's much more common to use Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) where the heat source is turned on and off usually at a relatively low frequency such as 1Hz. Soft-I/O can adjust the duty cycle of the output to give you very fine control over the amount of heat being delivered.

Once you have the input and output selected, you can close the loop and then watch graphically as the Soft-I/O temperature controller brings your system to the desired temperature.

After that, you can implement setpoint ramping, a capability often not found in other temperature controllers. This allows you to bring your system up (or down) to temperature with very little chance for over (or under) shoot. And, the Soft-I/O temperature controller supports multiple ramp/soak profiles to allow building elaborate temperature control systems.

What's not to like about something free? You get an advanced temperature controller with every Soft-I/O module that you buy!