Sous-vide Arduino

Mar 16, 2013 sous-vide arduino pid
Share on:

The project

Sous-vide on a budget. Build a PID temperature controller for mains (230V) devices. Then any suitable device (slow cooker, rice cooker, hotplate, etc.) can then be plugged in and turned into a highly accurate temperature controlled cooker.

Data logging

I also wanted remote data logging, so I could see what it was doing. My controller emits temperature readings emulating an Oregon Scientific THGR810 (so my existing home automation system can pick this up and graph it).

Arduino

Parts list

  • Arduino or FreeDuino (Diecimila or better; Uno, etc) £14.35
  • LCD Keypad Shield for Arduino (eg. DFRobot) £10.50
  • Proto Shield for Arduino £5.99
  • 433Mhz Transmitter
  • Solid State Relay (eg. Fotek SSR-25) £5.89
  • DS18B20 1-wire Thermometer £3.49
  • Mains USB 5V power supply (use one you have lying around!)
  • Project Box £5.75
  • Single socket mains Extension lead £3.78
  • 1x 4.7K resistor
  • Slow cooker (£14.99 from Asda)

Cost

Rough total cost was around £50, excluding the cooker. Not bad compared to commercial devices. You can get basic PID controllers for cheaper, but they haven’t the data logging coolness.

Steps

Arduino 2

  1. Connect up the electronics. The fun bit is figuring this out!

    • Couple of pain points: the potentiometer to adjust the brightness on the LCD Shield sticks up and stops you mounting the shield in the case. Simple solution: desolder it and reattach on the underside.

    • The buttons on the LCD Shield need replacing with longer buttons (TODO).

  2. Upload the sketch to your Arduino.

  3. Plug in your cooking device - I used a slow cooker.

  4. Cook some tasty food!

Get the source

Check out my project on github: http://github.com/barnybug/arduino-sous-vide

Credits