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Temperature Control Using a
Microcontroller:
An Interdisciplinary
Undergraduate Engineering Design Project
James S. McDonald
Department
of Engineering Science
Trinity
University
San Antonio, TX 78212
Abstract
:
This
paper
describes
an
interdisciplinary
design
project
which
was
done
under
the
author’s supervision by a group of four
senior students in the Department of Engineering
Science
at Trinity University. The
objective of the project was to develop a
temperature control system
for an air-
filled chamber. The system was to allow entry of a
desired chamber temperature in a
prescribed range and to exhibit
overshoot and steady-state temperature error of
less than 1 degree
Kelvin in the actual
chamber temperature step response. The details of
the design developed by
this group of
students, based on a Motorola MC68HC05 family
microcontroller, are described.
The
pedagogical value of the problem is also discussed
through a description of some of the key
steps in the design process. It is
shown that the solution requires broad knowledge
drawn from
several
engineering
disciplines
including
electrical,
mechanical,
and
control
systems
engineering.
1 Introduction
The design project which is the subject
of this paper originated from a real-world
application.
A prototype of a
microscope slide dryer had been developed around
an OmegaTM model
CN-390 temperature
controller, and the objective was to develop a
custom temperature control
system to
replace the Omega system. The motivation was that
a custom controller targeted
specifically for the application should
be able to achieve the same functionality at a
much lower
cost, as the Omega system is
unnecessarily versatile and equipped to handle a
wide variety of
applications.
The mechanical layout of the slide
dryer prototype is shown in Figure 1. The main
element
of the dryer is a large,
insulated, air-filled chamber in which microscope
slides, each with a
tissue sample
encased in paraffin, can be set on caddies. In
order that the paraffin maintain the
proper consistency, the temperature in
the slide chamber must be maintained at a desired
(constant) temperature. A second
chamber (the electronics enclosure) houses a
resistive heater
and the temperature
controller, and a fan mounted on the end of the
dryer blows air across the
heater,
carrying heat into the slide chamber. This design
project was carried out during academic
year 1996
–97 by four
students under the author’s supervision as a
Senior Design project in the
Department
of Engineering Science at Trinity University. The
purpose of this paper is
to describe the problem and the
students’ solution in some detail, and to discuss
some of the
pedagogical opportunities
offered by an interdisciplinary design project of
this type. The
students’ own report was
presented at the 1997 Nat
ional
Conference on Undergraduate Research
[1]. Section 2 gives a more detailed
statement of the problem, including performance
specifications, and Section 3 describes
the students’ design. Section 4 makes up the bulk
of the
paper, and discusses in some
detail several aspects of the design process which
offer unique
pedagogical opportunities.
Finally, Section 5 offers some conclusions.
2 Problem Statement
The
basic idea of the project is to replace the
relevant parts of the functionality of an Omega
CN-390 temperature controller using a
custom-designed system. The application dictates
that
temperature settings are usually
kept constant for long periods of time, but it’s
nonetheless
important that step changes
be tracked in a “reasonable” manner. Thus the
mai
n requirements
boil down
to
·
allowing a chamber
temperature set-point to be entered,
·
displaying both set-point
and actual temperatures, and
·
tracking step changes in
set-point temperature with acceptable rise time,
steady-state error,
and overshoot.
Although not
explicitly a part of the specifications in Table
1, it was clear that the customer
desired digital displays of set-point
and actual temperatures, and that set-point
temperature entry
should be digital as
well (as opposed to, say, through a potentiometer
setting).
3 System Design
The requirements for digital
temperature displays and setpoint entry alone are
enough to
dictate that a
microcontrollerbased design is likely the most
appropriate. Figure 2 shows a block
diagram of the students’ design.
The
microcontroller, a MotorolaMC68HC705B16 (6805 for
short), is the heart of the system.
It
accepts inputs from a simple four-key keypad which
allow specification of the set-point
temperature, and it displays both set-
point and measured chamber temperatures using two-
digit
seven-segment LED displays
controlled by a display driver. All these inputs
and outputs are
accommodated by
parallel ports on the 6805. Chamber temperature is
sensed using a
pre-
calibrated thermistor
and input via one of the 6805’s an
alog-
to-digital inputs. Finally, a
pulse-
width modulation (PWM) output on the 6805 is used
to drive a relay which switches line
power to the resistive heater off and
on.
Figure 3 shows a more detailed
schematic of the electronics and their interfacing
to the 6805.
The keypad, a Storm
3K041103, has four keys which are interfaced to
pins PA0{ PA3 of Port A,
configured as
inputs. One key functions as a mode switch. Two
modes are supported: set mode
and run
mode. In set mode two of the other keys are used
to specify the set-point temperature:
one increments it and one decrements.
The fourth key is unused at present. The LED
displays are
driven by a Harris
Semiconductor ICM7212 display driver interfaced to
pins PB0{PB6 of Port B,
configured as
outputs. The temperature-sensing thermistor
drives, through a voltage divider, pin
AN0 (one of eight analog inputs).
Finally, pin PLMA (one of two PWM outputs) drives
the
heater relay.
Software on the 6805
implements the temperature control algorithm,
maintains the
temperature displays, and
alters the set-point in response to keypad inputs.
Because it is not
complete at this
writing, software will not be discussed in detail
in this paper. The control
algorithm in
particular has not been determined, but it is
likely to be a simple proportional
controller and certainly not more
complex than a PID. Some control design issues
will be
discussed in Section 4,
however.
4 The Design Process
Although essentially the project is
just to build a thermostat, it presents many nice
pedagogical opportunities. The
knowledge and experience base of a senior
engineering
undergraduate are just
enough to bring him or her to the brink of a
solution to various aspects of
the
problem. Yet, in each case, realworld
considerations complicate the situation
significantly.
Fortunately these
complications are not insurmountable, and the
result is a very beneficial
design
experience. The remainder of this section looks at
a few aspects of the problem which
present the type of learning
opportunity just described. Section 4.1 discusses
some of the features
of a simplified
mathematical model of the thermal properties of
the system and how it can be
easily
validated experimentally. Section 4.2 describes
how realistic control algorithm designs can
be arrived at using introductory
concepts in control design. Section 4.3 points out
some
important deficiencies of such a
simplified modeling/control design process and how
they can be
overcome through
simulation. Finally, Section 4.4 gives an overview
of some of the
microcontroller-related
design issues which arise and learning
opportunities offered.
4.1
MathematicalModel
Lumped-element
thermal systems are described in almost any
introductory linear control systems
text, and just this sort of model is
applicable to the slide dryer problem. Figure 4
shows a
second-order lumped-element
thermal model of the slide dryer. The state
variables are the
temperatures Ta of
the air in the box and Tb of the box itself. The
inputs to the system are the
power
output q(t) of the heater and the ambient
temperature T?
. ma and mb are the
masses of the
air and the box,
respectively, and Ca and Cb their specific heats.
μ
1 and
μ
2 are heat transfer
coefficients from the air to the box
and from the box to the external world,
respectively.
It’s
not hard to show that
the (linearized) state equationscorresponding to
Figure 4 are
Taking Laplace
transforms of (1) and (2) and solving for Ta(s),
which is the output of
interest, gives
the following open-loop model of the thermal
system:
where K is a
constant and D(s) is a second-order polynomial.K,
tz, and the coefficients of
D(s) are
functions of the variousparameters appearing in
(1) and (2).Of course the various
parameters in (1) and (2) are
completely unknown, but it’s not hard to show
that, reg
ardless of
their
values, D(s) has two real zeros. Therefore the
main transfer function of interest (which is
the one from Q(s
), since
we’ll assume constant ambient temperature) can be
written
Moreover, it’s not
too hard
to show that 1=tp1 <1=tz <1=tp2, i.e., that the
zero lies between
the two poles. Both
of these are excellent exercises for the student,
and the result is the openloop
pole-
zero diagram of Figure 5.
Obtaining a complete thermal model,
then, is reduced to identifying the constant K and
the
three unknown time constants in
(3). Four unknown parameters is quite a few, but
simple
experiments show that 1=tp1 _
1=tz;1=tp2 so that tz;tp2 _ 0 are good
approximations. Thus the
open-loop
system is essentially first-order and can
therefore be written
(where the subscript p1 has been
dropped).
Simple open-loop step
response experiments show that,for a wide range of
initial
temperatures and heat inputs, K
_0:14 _=W and t _ 295 s.1
4.2 Control
System Design
Using the first-order
model of (4) for the open-loop transfer function
Gaq(s) and assuming
for the moment that
linear control of the heater power output q(t) is
possible, the block diagram
of Figure 6
represents the closed-loop system. Td(s) is the
desired, or set-point, temperature,C(s)
is the compensator transfer function,
and Q(s) is the heater output in watts.
Given this
simple situation, introductory linear control
design tools such as the root locus
method can be used to arrive at a C(s)
which meets the step response requirements on rise
time,
steady-state error, and overshoot
specified in Table 1. The upshot, of course, is
that a
proportional controller with
sufficient gain can meet all specifications.
Overshoot is impossible,
and increasing
gains decreases both steady-state error and rise
time.
Unfortunately, sufficient gain to
meet the specifications may require larger heat
outputs than
the heater is capable of
producing. This was indeed the case for this
system, and the result is that
the rise
time specification cannot be met. It is quite
revealing to the student how useful such an
oversimplified model, carefully arrived
at, can be in determining overall performance
limitations.
4.3 Simulation
Model
Gross performance and its
limitations can be determined using the simplified
model of
Figure 6, but there are a
number of other aspects of the closed-loop system
whose effects on
performance are not so
simply modeled. Chief among these are
·
quantization error in
analog-to-digital conversion of the measured
temperature and
·
the use of
PWM to control the heater.
Both of
these are nonlinear and time-varying effects, and
the only practical way to study
them is
through simulation (or experiment, of course).
Figure 7 shows a SimulinkTM block
diagram of the closed-loop system which
incorporates these
effects. A/D
converter quantization and saturation are modeled
using standard Simulink
quantizer and
saturation blocks. Modeling PWM is more
complicated and requires a custom
S-function to represent it.
This simulation model has
proven particularly useful in gauging the effects
of varying the
basic PWM parameters and
hence selecting them appropriately. (I.e., the
longer the period, the
larger the
temperature error PWM introduces. On the other
hand, a long period is desirable to
avoid excessive relay “chatter,” among
other things.) PWM is often difficult for students
to grasp,
and the simulation model
allows an exploration of its operation and effects
which is quite
revealing.
4.4 The Microcontroller
Simple closed-loop control, keypad
reading, and display control are some of the
classic
applications of
microcontrollers, and this project incorporates
all three. It is therefore an
excellent
all-around exercise in microcontroller
applications. In addition, because the project is
to produce an actual packaged
pro
totype, it won’t do to use a simple
evaluation board with the
I/O pins
jumpered to the target system. Instead, it’s
necessary to develop a complete embedded
application. This entails the choice of
an appropriate part from the broad range offered
in a
typical microcontroller family and
learning to use a fairly sophisticated development
environment. Finally, a custom printed-
circuit board for the microcontroller and
peripherals must
be designed and
fabricated.
Microcontroller Selection.
In view of existing local expertise,
the Motorola line of
microcontrollers
was chosen for this project. Still, this does not
narrow the choice down much. A
fairly
disciplined study of system requirements is
necessary to specify which microcontroller, out
of scores of variants, is required for
the job. This is difficult for students, as they
generally lack
the experience and
intuition needed as well as the perseverance to
wade through manufacturers’
selection
guides.
Part of the problem is in
choosing methods for interfacing the various
peripherals (e.g., what
kind of display
driver should be used?). A study of relevant
Motorola application notes [2, 3, 4]
proved very helpful in
understandingwhat basic approaches are available,
and what
microcontroller/peripheral
combinations should be considered.
The
MC68HC705B16 was finally chosen on the basis of
its availableA/D inputs and
PWMoutputs
as well as 24 digital I/O lines. In retrospect
this is probably overkill, as only one
A/D channel, one PWM channel, and 11
I/O pins are actually required (see Figure 3). The
decision was made to err on the safe
side because a complete development system
specific to the
chosen part was
necessary, and the project budget did not permit a
second such system to be
purchased
should the first
prove inadequate.
Microcontroller Application
Development.
Breadboarding of the
peripheral hardware,
development of
microcontroller software, and final debugging and
testing of a custom
printed-circuit
board for the microcontroller and peripherals all
require a development
environment of
some kind. The choice of a development
environment, like that of the
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