Temperature & humidity controlled facility ...

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  • chris_j_hunter
    Automated Home Legend
    • Dec 2007
    • 1713

    Temperature & humidity controlled facility ...

    This is a bit of an odd one - we need to bake tapes ! Not as daft as it might sound :



    Audio-Restoration will restore your records, tapes or video sound to their original no-noise quality; and can even make you a custom CDr of your favourite tracks!


    key point is we have sticky tapes (reels & cassettes) & heating them for some hours (maybe ten) at about 130degF / 55degC (±5 at most) is the way to fix it !

    the obvious first thought is to use a domestic oven, but the temperature required is at the low end of their range & they don't typically control temperature accurately enough ... too low => ineffective, too high => distorted tape & reels & cassettes, plus dreaded print-through, meaning ruination of the tapes !

    so I was thinking it might be Idratek to the rescue - ie: make a largish closable box from (say) sheets of hardboard & 100mm insulation-foam, with a tungsten light-bulb for heating and a small grill & a couple of PC fans (one for even heat distribution & one for exhausting damp air / ventilation), and use Idratek modules for control - say a dimmer module + temperature module to control lamp intensity, another dimmer module + humidity sensor to control ventilation fan speed, plus digital inputs connected to reed-switches to sense when the box is open or closed & turn the whole thing on & off ... with Cortex & a macro to manage it well !

    the quantity of tapes involved is not huge - say three hundred cassette tapes & twenty NAB reels, so the box won't have to be huge ... but I was thinking of making the arrangement permanent (no sense in fixing the tapes & having them then revert), which would mean having the facility tick-over at a very low level / very low power, essentially forever !

    Another way to go might be to use a picaxe approach :



    but the advantage of using Idratek modules would be easy tie-in with the HA ... for monitoring & signaling etc, that things are OK / not-OK ...

    Any thoughts ? All comments welcome !
    Last edited by chris_j_hunter; 15 January 2009, 12:19 PM. Reason: typos
    Our self-build - going further with HA...
  • Karam
    Automated Home Legend
    • Mar 2005
    • 863

    #2
    Ah.. now where will we be when our tungsten option is extinguished?

    Control wise I think it should be straightforward to do. A dimmer could be used simply in on/off control mode (which I'm sure would be adequate) or you could even use one of the more advanced controllers to take advantage of ranging output. As for door sensing, humidity measurement and control of extraction fan I'm not entirely sure of necessity but it could be fun to do anyway . A suggestion would be to place the bulb in a separate compartment and draw warm air through suitable vents - just not sure how good a bright light would be to tapes. There are of course other heating elements that could be used.

    Comment

    • toscal
      Moderator
      • Oct 2005
      • 2061

      #3
      What you need is, effectively a humidor for tapes. You could use an under floor heating mat for the constant gentle heat approach or a home brew heating mat or tray.
      Another option could be to hack a Easy Bake Oven, childrens toy. It uses a 100 Watt light bulb as the heat source. You may be able to pick one up on Ebay. http://www.hasbro.com/easybake/
      IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.
      Renovation Spain Blog

      Comment

      • chris_j_hunter
        Automated Home Legend
        • Dec 2007
        • 1713

        #4
        >not entirely sure of necessity ...

        yep, maybe right - it may be enough to have a couple of vents with manually adjusted dampers (once adjusted, can be left alone), and some sort of heater mat controlled by Idratek, using just dimmer & temperature modules ...

        >bright light ...

        I imagined a low heat requirement would mean it would hardly glow !

        >Easy Bake Oven ...

        not heard of that before, looks a bit small, though !
        Our self-build - going further with HA...

        Comment

        • toscal
          Moderator
          • Oct 2005
          • 2061

          #5
          It appears my slightly off the wall idea of the easy bake oven has actually been used. Someone hacked one with a hair dryer.

          You could use a kids hair dryer as these won't get as hot as a normal one. Chico make one, my daughter uses one, and its defiantly not as hot as a normal dryer.
          IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.
          Renovation Spain Blog

          Comment

          • chris_j_hunter
            Automated Home Legend
            • Dec 2007
            • 1713

            #6
            toscal -

            brilliant, thanks for the link to that article ... best on the subject I've seen ...

            never heard of dehydrators for food before, too, at least domestically ... a bit of Googling led me to the (swiss) Stockli range available here, in Europe (including the UK) ... look good

            so, it seems there are ready-made machines optimised for the job !!

            thanks again

            Chris
            Our self-build - going further with HA...

            Comment

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