Amps
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [Amps] Monitoring temperature

To: amps@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [Amps] Monitoring temperature
From: Manfred Mornhinweg <manfred@ludens.cl>
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 18:51:51 +0000
List-post: <amps@contesting.com">mailto:amps@contesting.com>
Bill,

I would appreciate any suggestions for monitoring temperature on a solid
state power amp.

In addition to the chip you used, there are many other options. There are some digital temperature sensor chips, like the DS18S20. I have used that one in several professional projects. It's very useful when you need to put the temperature data into a microcontroller, specially when you need to measure the temperature at different places, because you can connect several of these sensors using a single wire, and program addresses into the sensors to access them selectively.

If you are after simpler things, look at thermistors, which don't tend to rectify RF. They exist in PTC and NTC versions. They are very non-linear, and that limits theri usefulness in some cases, while in other cases it can be an asset.

Also look at Pt100 and Pt1000 sensors. They are almost linear, highly accurate, RF-insensitive, and exist in many physical shapes. But their output signals are small, so a lot of amplification is needed.

Don't overlook plain simple diodes and transistors as temperature sensors. A transistor connected as superdiode (joining base and collector) is best. The temperature coefficient is quite linear. I have used 2N2222 transistors as precision temperature sensors!

And about the high level RF in an amp, it's a matter of proper bypassing, perhaps a ferrite choke here and there, and in the worst case you might need to install a shield over an RF-sensitive IC sensor. The readout electronics should anyway be in a shielded compartment, using pass-through capacitors for the wires. Since temperature varies slowly, filtering the leads of any sort of analog temperature sensor is really simple. You don't need to pass any fast signals, so you can use any sort of brute force filtering.

I don't think you want to look into quartz temperature sensors! They are ultra accurate and stable, but not very common, and require a more complex readout circuit.

In most cases either ICs like the one you used, or like the DS18S20, or small cheap transistors are the most practical solutions.

Manfred

========================
Visit my hobby homepage!
http://ludens.cl
========================
_______________________________________________
Amps mailing list
Amps@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/amps

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>