[sdiy] temperature testing

[Neil Johnson]

Hi Matt,

> searched a bit through the archives and didn't find anything so... how do
> you all go about testing your circuits over temperature? i imagine there's a
> decent amount of dust cleaner and hair dryers involved but i'm hoping some
> of you have some recommendations for something resembling a hobbyist budget
> temp chamber to make things a bit more objective and repeatable.

I use a Gallenkamp "economy incubator size 1" that I picked up on ebay
for very little.  It's quite large, but gives a stable temperature
environment.  It only heats, so that's anything above ambient.  It
doesn't have a fan, which for some tests can cause problems (air flow
cooling) and for home use it's good enough.

I also have a fridge in the same room, which is mainly used for
keeping beer cool, although it can also be used for single-point low
temperature tests (about 4 Celsius).  For anything inbetween I need to
wait for winter....

Oh, and to do this properly you need a bunch of thermocouples,
superglue, and a means of recording the temperature against the other
parameters you're measuring.  At work we use an Agilent 34970A and
relay cards to monitor 5-6 points on the unit under test.

Cheers,
Neil
-- 
http://www.njohnson.co.uk