Brunch wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 5:08 pm
jimbob22 wrote:For the heating issue with the electric blanket overheating, for safety reasons, you can get a wifi temperature logger, you can put the tiny device in the doll body and it will send you an alarm on your phone when the temperature is too high (I use "Inkbird IBS-TH2 Wireless Thermometer" but there are many)
Ah okay, I didn't know that. Thanks for the advice!
If you use the old style non-electronic-control heating pads, you can use the Pymeter temperature-controlled power strip to turn it on and off based on specific temperatures. Just set the heater to a setting that will provide enough heat to reach the temperature you want, vs that in the room, and plug it into one of the two independently-controlled outlets. Each one has it's own temperature sensor and programmable on/off range. Super-easy to setup or change, with intuitive quick "menu". About $30 each. Been running a couple continously for over a year now for various purposes.
They will not work with the electronic control pads, because those require you to manually turn them back on once power has been turned off at their ac plug.
You *can* use some of the electronic control pads minus the control unit, wired directly to the outlet, *as long as* their heating element is designed to be powered by simple switched wall-power, and is not run by PWM'd DC or AC, or low-voltage DC or AC.
If you need to, again for non-electronic pads, or using an ep without it's contorl (direct-wiring), you can also use a fan-speed-control or dimmer switch that uses a knob to control an SCR (the most common type). THe fan speed units tyipcally only go down to about half power, so you don't stall and damage the fan motor, but light dimmers often go down to nearly zero so give much finer control over the heating element. Thus, you use one of these between the heating pad and the ac plug, to set the basic output level, and then the control plugs into the Pymeter outlet so it switches it on and off to control temperature.
For even better control, I modified one for another use so that the two outlets actually control just one device, with two separate temperature sensors and control ranges. Since this involves cutting the Line or Neutral paths on the relays, then splicing them in series so that either sensor detecitng out of range condition shuts off power to the heating element, it's not something you want to do unless you understand electronics and are confident of your DIY modification skills.
But it allows one sensor to be right at the heating element/item interface, so it shuts off if it is about to exceed the temperature at which the item might begin to become stressed. The other sensor can then go somewhere else on or in the item, to shut it off once it reaches the temperature you wish it to remain at. After some playing with the ranges, and sensor placement, you may find it keeps the item generally at the same temperature all the time within a few degrees or less. (more thermal mass will keep the temperature more even, though it will take longer to reach that temperature in the first place).
That part was/is a huge success. 
