TAC Panel Control

The touch pad controls adjacent to the right display provide full access to the Watlow controller features. Because the Watlow controller has been pre-programed at Bruker, few users will need to use these controls. Information about them may be found in the Watlow CLS200 Series User’s Guide, supplied with the Thermal Applications Controller. This User’s Guide may also be downloaded from www.watlow.com.

Table 1: Stage Values

Enables (green LED indicator)/disables (red LED indicator) the Manual Setpoint Control knob. The factory default setting is Disabled. Enabling Manual Setpoint Control transfers control of the Watlow controller from the Watlow control buttons to the Manual Setpoint Control knob and TAC firmware.

Used to set the desired heater/cooler temperature, displayed on the second line of the right-side display.

Controls the power to the heating/cooling element. The indicator light turns green when the heater/cooler output is enabled, and red when the Heater/Cooler output is disabled.

The controller includes an over-temperature alarm independent of the Watlow controller. When in alarm mode, the indicator light turns red and power turns off to both the tip and sample heaters. The indicator light is located in the middle of the front panel of the control box. The factory programs the over-temperature setpoint.

Controls the temperature of the tip heater inside the probe holder.

A calibration of temperature as a function of tip voltage appears in the graph below (Figure 1). Data points are indicated by diamonds; the line is a fifth order polynomial fit to them. Use Table 2 to set the tip voltage for the desired temperature if you are using manual, rather than software, control of the TAC.

Table 2: Temperature as a function of Tip Voltage (plotted in Figure 1

Figure 1: Tip Heater Calibration

Figure 2: Left-Hand Side Display

The display panel on the left-hand side of the TAC (Figure 2) shows, from top to bottom:

1. The top row displays the heater type and PID setting
   • Heater type can be set to
     • ThermoElectric heater/cooler (TE Stage; as in Figure 2),
     • High Temperature heater (Heat Stage)
     • Air/Fluid heater (60°C Heater; MultiMode only)
   • PID parameters (air or fluid) and state (Enabled, Disabled, Error).
     NOTE: The only heater/cooler element with fluid capability is the Heating and Cooling Elements (Bio Heater), which is only available for MultiMode SPMs. For all other SPMs, the PID Mode parameter will be automatically set to "Air" and grayed out.

2. The second row down displays the StageCurrent.
   • Heater or Heater/Cooler current in mA

3. The third row displays the Scanner Temp.
   • The temperature of the reservoir in the magnetic base.

4. The final row displays the Tip Heater Voltage.
   • Given in Volts
   • Can be set to Manual (Man; see Figure 2) or Analog 2

Figure 3: Right-Hand Side Display

The right display panel, shown in Figure 3, shows, in order:

1. The top row displays the Control Loop Type and stage temperature.
   • Control Loop Type can be set to ThermoElectric (TE) or Heat Type (HT)
2. The second row displays, from left to right:
   • Stage Set Point
   • PID Loop
   NOTE: PID loops of Cool, Heat or Auto indicate that the output is on. "Man" with 0 percent output indicates that the output is off.
   • Output percentage