Eric Nelson
Lifetime Supporting Member + Moderator
Hi guys,
One of my customers builds small machines that have a small 24V/60W heater in them. The heater is powered by a 240/24V step-down transformer. The output to the heater is controlled by a potentiometer connected to a Crydom proportional controller SSR (LINK). The SSR is controlling the primary to the transformer. This current setup works fine.
Since the machine also has a 24VDC power supply for the control circuit, he is wondering if we could simply increase the size of this DC supply, and use it to power the heater. This would eliminate the need for the transformer.
My question is if anyone makes a similar potentiometer input SSR, but with a DC output? Alternatively, maybe a just a potentiometer with an on-board circuit to provide a PWM output? This could then control a standard DC output SSR to vary the heater output.
Ideally, the cost for the DC conversion needs to be less than or equal to the cost of the current AC setup. The current components consist of the transformer, SSR, and potentiometer. The DC version would include the additional cost of the larger DC supply, plus whatever is needed to control 24VDC to the heater (pot and controller).
Any thoughts?
-Eric
P.S. I'm not looking for a 'homebrew' solution (i.e. Arduino, etc.)...
One of my customers builds small machines that have a small 24V/60W heater in them. The heater is powered by a 240/24V step-down transformer. The output to the heater is controlled by a potentiometer connected to a Crydom proportional controller SSR (LINK). The SSR is controlling the primary to the transformer. This current setup works fine.
Since the machine also has a 24VDC power supply for the control circuit, he is wondering if we could simply increase the size of this DC supply, and use it to power the heater. This would eliminate the need for the transformer.
My question is if anyone makes a similar potentiometer input SSR, but with a DC output? Alternatively, maybe a just a potentiometer with an on-board circuit to provide a PWM output? This could then control a standard DC output SSR to vary the heater output.
Ideally, the cost for the DC conversion needs to be less than or equal to the cost of the current AC setup. The current components consist of the transformer, SSR, and potentiometer. The DC version would include the additional cost of the larger DC supply, plus whatever is needed to control 24VDC to the heater (pot and controller).
Any thoughts?
-Eric
P.S. I'm not looking for a 'homebrew' solution (i.e. Arduino, etc.)...