Electric Kiln/Components
ESP32Kiln is a combination of hardware components, that you need to acquire and software that you can download from Github.
It should be quite easy to build and in mine opinion does not involve much technical skills. Before start, you should know what voltage and current is, have some basic understanding of Arduino IDE and you should be quite comfortable with operating on mains voltage. Some soldering skills could also be useful (but you can build it completely on proof board, without soldering).
You also don’t have to build everything at once, there are parts that are optional and you can start your build with minimal set of components and upgrade it later.
Components list
Required components:
- ESP32-Wrover board (I’ve used TTGO with MicroSD)
- MAX31855 breakout board
- K-type thermocouple
- DC->AC solid state relay
Optional, but highly recommended:
- 128x65 dot matrix LCD 12864B v2
- Rotary encoder with button
Optional:
- DC/AC secondary relay - like SLA-05VDC-SL-C (240V/30A) mechanical relay
- Additional MAX31855 board with K-type thermocouple for housing temperature measuring
- Coil power meter - 30A/1V. This is contact less power meter that generates small current when energy flows inside it’s coil. Mine already had burden resistor - so on output it produces -1V to 1V, proportionally it’s coil rated for 30A. We just need to measure it to know how much juice flows to the heater.
- Perhaps a kiln :)
Bill of materials
Total expenses for this set should be around 30-40$ (depending on where you buy it)
- ESP32-Wrover board: 11-14$ if exactly like mine, but other ESP32-Wrover you can bought for 6+
- MAX31855 board: ~2
- K-type thermocouple: 1-10 - depending on max temperature it can withstand
- LCD 12864B: ~5$
- Encoder: 1$ * SSR: 4$ + 4$ for radiator
- Mechanical relay EMR SLA-05VDC-SL-C (Songle): 3$