Sentry Industries Sentry Xpress 4.0 User Manual

Single-Speed / Ramp-Hold Version

Sentry Xpress

Digital Temperature Controller

°F

°C

°C Display Dot

Temperature Display

Temperature

display is in °F.

Tem

perature display is in °C. Seepage13forinstructionson

selecting °F or °C.

Time Display

:Separates hours from minutes. Example: Display shown above is 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Hr./Min.

When Lit

START/

STOP

Enter

Program

SENTRYXpress

MICRO PROCESSOR

START/STOP Key

Starts and stops a firing.

Press after each programming step. It works like the Enter key on a computer.

Up Arrow Key

From

press .Press

to select Single-Speed or

Ramp-Hold. Pages 6, 8

During a

Ramp-Hold firing, press the

. will appear. Press

. The current segment ramp or hold number will appear. To skip, press again. Page 8

During a Ramp-Hold firing, press repeatedly until appears. Press .Eachtimeyoupress the , the hold time for the current segment will increase by 5 minutes. Then press . Page 8

Program

Review

Run

°F

When Off

°C

When Lit

HIGHER

Skip Seg. Add Hold

Change Temp.

T/C Offset

Alarm

The Sentry Xpress 4.0 micro processor is manufactured by the

Orton Ceramic Foundation and displays the CE mark.

press repeatedly until

the arrow keys to change the target temperature for the current seg ment. Then press .Page9

press repeatedly until

the arrow keys to change the alarm temperature. Press .Tosi lence the alarm, press any key. Page 9

row keys to adjust the controller to fire hotter or cooler. Press to return to .Page12

LOWER

Delay

Review

4.0

During a Ramp-Hold firing,

appears. Press .Use

At the display, press

. will appear. Use ar

During a firing,

Indicator Lights

Light is on during pro gramming.

Light is on during pro gram review.

Light

blinks during firing.

Down Arrow Key

From press

.Thepro gram you have selected will appear one step at a time. When ap pears, press . Page 4

press .

Enter delay time. Press

twice. Page 4

During firing, press

. The program you entered will appear one step at a time. Page 4

From

IM-221/2-06

*These features are new with the Sentry Xpress 4.0. If your controller does not have these features, it is an earlier controller.

Introduction

Contents

The easiest way to learn to operate your controller is to read this manual while you are sitting in front of your kiln. Press the keys as you read the instructions.

Do not worry if you hear a clicking noise during operation. Mechanical relays click as they turn the heating elements on and off. This is normal.

When you first connect the power, the controllerwilldisplayasoftwarecodeand then .

If your controller shows instead of a software code before appears, then the controller includes only Skip Seg

ment from "Advanced Features" on pages 8 - 9. If your controller shows a software code before appears, then the controller has all the features in this manual.

Please read the manual. Damage caused by failure to follow instructions is not covered by warranty.

Once you learn the basic features of the Sentry Xpress, you will be able to control every stage of firing. This offers learning opportunities and convenience difficult to imagine with a manual-controlled kiln.

General Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Time and Temperature Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Operation Begins from the IdLE Display. . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Thermocouple Inspection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

A Rapid Way to Scroll Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Program Review & Repeat Firing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Power Failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

CPLt Message: Firing Completed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Thunder Storms and Power Surges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Canceling a New Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Theory of Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Two Firing Modes: Single-Speed and Ramp-Hold . . . . 5

Temperature Over-Shoot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Single-Speed Programming Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Ramp-Hold Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Programming a Cooling Segment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Ramp-Hold Programming Instructions. . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Advanced Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Skip Segment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Add Hold Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Editing the Target Temperature During Firing . . . . . . . 9

The Alarm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Lost Wax Burnout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Burnout Instructions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Display Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Error Messages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

bAdP / Bad Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

EtH / Electronics Too Hot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

FAIL / Thermocouple Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

FE Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

FtL / Fired Too Long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

HTdE / High Temperature Deviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

PF 1 / Power Failure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

PF 2 / Power Failure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

PF 3 / Power Failure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

tC / Thermocouple Failure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

tCL / Thermocouple Lag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

tCr / Thermocouple Reversed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2 Single-Speed/Ramp-Hold

Thermocouple Offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Selecting °F or °C Display . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Trouble Shooter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Controller display is blank. No heat in kiln.. . . . . . . . . 13

Controller display turns on. No heat in kiln. . . . . . . . . 14

Kiln switch box ½ amp fuses keep blowing.. . . . . . . . 15

Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Shorthand Instructions. . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Safety

General

The warranty on your Sentry Xpress controller does not cover damage from overfiring, regardless of the circumstances. It is the operator’s responsibility to make sure the kiln turns off at the proper time.

When the kiln is not in use, disconnect the power.

Do not leave the kiln unattended, especially near the expected shut-off time.

Wear firing safety glasses when looking into the firing chamber of a hot kiln.

Do not touch hot sides of kiln. Keep unsuper vised children away.

Install your kiln at least 12 inches from any wall or combustible surface.

Do not open lidor dooruntil kiln has cooled and all switches are off.

Fire only in a well-ventilated, covered and protected area away from combustible materials.

Keep cordset away fromhot sides of kiln or furnace.

DANGEROUS VOLTAGE! Do nottouch heating elements with anything. Disconnect before servicing.

When vacuumingthe kiln, keepthe nozzle away from the controller. Vacuum cleaners create a static charge that can damage the controller.

Guidelines

Time and Temperature Display

Center Dot: Time

A center dot appears dur ing time display. It separates hours from minutes. (Exam ple: 1 hour, 30 minutes dis plays as 01.30.) During tem perature display, the dot disappears.

Right-Hand Dot: °C

When temperature is displayed in °C, a dot appears in the lower right. In °F display, it disappears. You can choose between Fahrenheit and Celsius display. See page 13.

Operation Begins from the IdLE Display

must appear before you can fire the kiln.

If , , or other message appears instead of

when the kiln is first turned on, press the

key (the key with the circular arrow).

will appear.

If you press during a firing, will ap pear. To get back to , press again.

If the display shows an error message such as in stead of , see page 11.

(firing completed) appears at the end of a firing.

To make appear, press .

The center display dot indicates

time instead of temperature.

°F

°C

Thermocouple Inspection

The small rod protruding into the firing chamber is the temperature sensor, or thermocouple.

CAUTION: Bumping the thermocouple can push it out of the firingchamber. Thiscould causean overfire! Bumping the thermocouple could also cause inaccu rate readings.

A 1/8” diameter thermocouple should extend into the firing chamber ½” -

A ¼”diameter thermocoupleshould extendinto thefir ing chamber ¾ - 1” or more.

Keep shelves, posts and ware 1” - 1 ½” away from the thermocouple.

”.

ARapidWayto Scroll Numbers

During programming, hold an arrow key down several seconds, and numbers will begin to scroll rapidly. Ordi narily, you would press to raise a number and

to lower it. But sometimes it is faster to press the opposite key. This is because the numbers scroll below 0000 to the highest number, and vice versa. Examples:

To program a 99.59 hour Hold when the display shows

00.00, press the once.

To program a FULL rate when the display shows 0000, press the once.

To program a temperature of 200°F when the display shows 1800°F, press the . That is faster than pressing the .

Program Review & Repeat Firing

Program Review lets you check that the information programmedinto thecontrolleris correct.ProgramReview shows the values for the program in active memory. Use Program Review from to repeatthe lastprogram you fired.

key. The rate, temperature, hold, etc. will

display one after the other. Firing will continue.

Press the key. After rate, temperature, hold, etc., will appear. Press . will appear, and the kiln will begin firing the program just reviewed.

Press the

Note: Press during delay to end the delay and begin the firing. The maximum delay is 99 hours and 59 minutes.

Power Failures

After a power failure, the controller will continue firing

provided that:

The kiln temperature is above 212°F / 100°C when the power comes back on.

The temperature dropped no more than 72°F / 40°C while the power was off.

Power Failure Messages (see page 12)

The power failed during a cooling segment, and the kiln cooledpast thetarget temperaturewhile thepower was off.

The power failed during firing and kiln tempera turewas below212°F / 100°Cwhen thepower cameback on.

The power failed during firing and temperature dropped more than 72°F / 40°Cby the time the power came back on.

CPLt Message: Firing Completed

When thefiring hassuccessfully completed, the Sentry Xpress will shut off power to the elements and sound an alarmfor 30seconds. Thenthree messageswill cycle oneafter the other:

(complete)

Firing time in hours and minutes

Delay

Delay is a count-down timer.The kilnbegins firingwhen the timerruns outof time.Use Delayto fit a firinginto your schedule.

CAUTION: For safety,do not leavethe kilnalone dur ing a delay or a firing. We cannot guarantee your kiln against overfiring even though the controller is auto matic.

After you have entereda program and the control

ler is ready to begin firing, will appear.

Press the key once. will ap

pear, alternating with .

Use the arrow keys to enter delay time. (The deci

mal separateshours andminutes. Example:1 hour and 10 minutes = 01.10.) Then press twice.

will appear, alternating with time left until

the firing begins.

4 Single-Speed/Ramp-Hold

The current kiln temperature

Press to return to .

Thunder Storms and Power Surges

Unplug the kiln or disconnect the power when the kiln is not in use, especially during thunder storms and in areas with frequent power surges. If the kiln is part way through a firing when a storm begins, it is probably okay to continue the firingwith closesupervision. Donot leavethe kilnunat tended.

Canceling a New Program

If you do not touch the keys for one minute during pro gramming, the controllerwill go back to the display. The controller will also discard the program you were en tering and will retain the previous program in memory.

This is useful if you change your mind during program ming and decide to keep the previous program. Instead of completing the newprogram, waita minuteand letthe con troller return to .

Theory of Operation

The temperature you are firing to is called the target temperature. After the controller reaches the target tem perature, it can also hold that temperature.

The controller firesat acontrolled heating rate.The rate is figured in degreesper hour. If you selecteda rate of100° per hour, it would take10 hours for the kiln toreach 1000°. Rate is similar to “miles per hour.”

In summary, the controller does three basic tasks:

1) It fires at a controlled heating rate, or speed, mea-

sured in degrees of temperature change per hour.

2) It fires to a target temperature.

3) It can hold the target temperature.

The controller fires in segments, or stages. A segment is a given heatingrate to atarget temperature. Shownabove is a segmentwith arate of625° perhour, a target temperature of 1250°, and a hold of one hour.

Heating rate is figured in degrees per hour. The recom mended heating rate for the material you are firing is usu ally available from your supplier. It also varies depending on the thickness of the material.

To figure how long a firing segment will take, subtract the current temperature from the target temperature and divide the resultant temperature bythe heating rate.In the diagramabove, thefiring timeis 1250°- 80° (roomtempera ture) = 1170 ÷625 = 1.87 hours.

The controller can fire up to 8 segments per firing. One segment is often all that is needed, though.

After the controller has finished firing the last segment, it will turn off power to the elements.

Note: If youenter a rate of 0000 in segment 1,or if the target temperature in segment 1 is lower than the cur rent temperature, will appear in the display.

Rate

Each segment must include a rate, which is degrees of

temperature change per hour.

The kiln will fire at full power when the rate is

1799°F/999°C. Full power displays as .

Note: To enter full power from , press the

key once.

Hold

Hold is the length of time that you want the kiln to remain at the target temperature. Hold is also called soak or dwell time. Hold maintains a steady temperature for the length of time you specify. You can use Hold in both heating-up and cooling-down segments.

When Hold is set to 99.59 hours, the controller will remain at that temperature indefinitely, until you press

. To enter a 99.59 hour Hold, press the

once from 00.00 during programming.

Note: During a Hold, the display flashes between the Hold temperature and time left in Hold.

Two Firing Modes:

Single-Speed and Ramp-Hold

To give you greater flexibility, your controller has two firing modes:

Single-Speed Mode (see next page)

Often times, all you will need is Single-Speed mode, which has one segment that includes a rate (temperature

change per hour), a target temperature, and (if needed)

hold time.

In Single-Speed mode, you can choose one of five firing

speeds. Then enter the temperature you are firing to.

Ramp-Hold Mode (see page 7)

Ramp-Hold mode offers much greater flexibility than Single-Speed mode. Use Ramp-Hold to create custom fir ings with up to 8 segments. The controller can store 4

+ 11 hidden pages

Sentry Industries Sentry Xpress 4.0 User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Theory of Operation