Looking for guidance on building a benchtop PID loop

Hi all,

I just acquired a Micrologix 1100 and I am interested in getting components to build a PID loop. The purpose is just to help deepen my understanding of PID tuning. This is for my own personal education.

I have seen examples where people have used an analog controlled air valve blowing at a DC motor to generate volts for an analog input.

I was thinking another option would be to use a 0-10V DC pump running water through a flow meter.

Could anyone help guide me to some inexpensive components to build a bench top PID loop application? Preferably something that has a higher speed of variation than temperature control. I am trying to get a hold of the IF2OF2 expansion module so I can make use of 4-20ma or 0-10V analog I/O.

Real life examples of applications you have built would be extremely helpful. Direct links for online shopping would also be helpful (if permitted).

Thanks!

I was going to say temperature because that's the one I'm looking to do myself at home.
Though I was going to use a 12V kettle to do it... The rise time of temperature would be faster than a tonne of water and after each experiment, I could dump the water.

The other example, I've been toying with is this http://www2.vernier.com/sample_labs/EPV-12-pid_ping_pong_ball.pdf

But am not sure how you'd go on about it with a PLC.

You could, if you have the parts, also have a level control with PID with a tank, pump or proportional valve.

Other things I saw were:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fusr9eTceEo

https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/jgafford/files/pid_demo.pdf

Edit:

One example I did at work was vacuum control in a reactor. The vacuum pump runs all the time and the vacuum is controlled via a "bleed" valve that lets air in to control the amount in the reactor. I've seen some tiny vacuum pumps on eBay... but I'm not sure how feasible this is as a small scale project.

A temperature rig (like the kettle) is both relatively easy to make and easy to measure so that seems like a good candidate. A nice touch is that heat is typically a tad slow to spread in a medium: apply a burst of heat and it will take a while before you see the temperature increase on the thermometer.

Electricity and water: keep it safe.

Look at Motorized potentiometers from Mouser. Round one has a 4.5V motor, slide pot has a 10V motor. They're designed for PC mount.

Here is a temperature application that I build for use in my classes. Doesn't require real fast times, but does give some real world experience.

Using this connected to one of analog inputs
https://www.amazon.com/Uxcell-Temperature-Sensor-Transmitter-0-200C/dp/B01E9VTJ6G

and this :
https://www.amazon.com/RTD-Pt100-Temperature-Control-Thermocouple/dp/B00VQ09018

and as a heater a simple 30-60W tip soldering iron directly driven by a plc output, if the heater and the sensor are tied together then the response time will be short, or you can also separate a bit them to try longer response times.

I make my own simulators.
I have a servo hydraulic cylinder simulator here
http://deltamotion.com/peter/py/HydSim.zip
It is written in python
The advantage of writing simulators in software is that many different kinds of systems can be simulated.
After the cost of learning is paid the next simulator is free.
I can write simulations for different types of systems in minutes.


I just started to learn python in January. It is easy.
Download Anaconda 3.6
https://www.anaconda.com/download/#macos

I like python much better than Scilab so I am ditching Scilab for python.