[time-nuts] uC ADC resolution (was: Poor man's oven)

[Poul-Henning Kamp]

--------
In message <73A71EF4-EB76-4965-B3D5-53F9DD5BF0FA at n1k.org>, Bob kb8tq writes:

>If we want to hold the oven at some temperature +/- 0.1 C, the control loop 
>needs to go from full on to full off over that range.

...ehhh, what ?

>You will map (somehow) the full range of the output into a 0.2 C input range. 

Uhmm... no ?

The full DAC range maps to the heat you need for supply at the two
ambient temperature extremes.

For instance if you were building a -40...+70C OCXO, *ideally*
DAC code 0 should correspond to +70C and DAC code 65535 to -40C ambient

That means that one DAC step corresponds to a change in ambient temperature
of (+70 - -40) / 65536 = 1.7 milliKelvin.

A more realistic temperature range for a time-nut build would be +10...+40C.

	DAC bits	mK
	--------------------
	10		29.3
	12		 7.3
	14		 1.8
	16		 0.5
	--------------------

10 bits would cause I-hunting in your PI(D) but the measurement noise
would probably dither that for you.

12 bits would allos a trivial implementation.

If you go for a double or tripple oven/dewar design, you probably
need 14 bits.


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