Thermostat.
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I put a wire between the thermostat and the sensor.
I have this thing switching a 12v 1.5a wallwart. At first I had a fan and a bulb in parallel, but it wasn't heating enough. I think I'm gonna pick up some nichrome wire and see if I can make my own element and put it in a tube vwith the fan pointing at it.
I think I'm gonna mount it to the inside of the lid.
This thermostat is very simple, a single relay that's marked 2a 30 VDC or 1a 120VAC, a pair of batteries, a thermistor, and a variable resistor.
What kind of AC heat source could I get under 1a?
Wow, I just looked up Ohm's law, that little relay will handle 120 watts!
I wonder if the rest of the circuit will...
I need some nichrome wire.
Tried a few solutions, peltier couldn't make enough of a temperature difference (uninsulated), so a potpourrie heater, a 120v AC ceramic briquette about the size of half of a 9-volt battery wedged against a metal disk by a screw/bracket thing, the other half of which is screwed into a thin wooden board screwed to the bottom of the lid. Heatsink on the other face of the metal disk, it's wired to the "fan" circuit on the thermostat along with a gamecube power supply. It couldn't hack it either, until I wrapped the thing in a blanket. The digital meat thermometer stuck into the top through a hole in the board reads 81.5F, and I can hear it cycling. Tied the thermistor to the tip of the meat thermometer.
Maybe the peltier would work if I insulated it, then I could cool too. I could also add the peltier as a cooling device, but I'd need another heatsink.
Here's the final setup:
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I found out that the thermostat can't switch two 120v lines. Faced with 120v across the fan contacts it just lets it all through, so I had to add more wires (and wirenuts) so it only switches one 120v and one 12v.
Now I just need to find a blanket big enough for this rubbermaid...
Questions? Comments?