Re: [DIYbio] Re: Making my own incubator inexpensively

On 04/24/2012 11:54 AM, Simon Quellen Field wrote:
> You can afford the extra $2.51 for an LM34 and get your 0.1 degree readout.
> Any of us buying an incubator would probably be fine with spending an extra
> $10 for that accuracy. So I agree with your basic point -- it is nice to have
> better accuracy, and it isn't all that expensive. But if the incubator varies by
> 3 degrees from one the side with the heater to the side with the fan, don't think
> that the accuracy of the thermometer is going to let you reproduce the results
> from some lab in Japan of an experiment that required 0.1 degree accuracy.

Well put Simon. My motivation in talking about calibration was indirectly
also about the idea of not focusing on just one criterion, but measuring,
like you are saying.

I'll be thinking of ways to make combo instruments that let you automate
more observations going on during any process involved.

On 04/24/2012 11:54 AM, Simon Quellen Field wrote:
> makes a great loaf of bread in the winter or the summer, because
> my protocol is not to measure the temperature and time accurately, but to knead
> it after the volume doubles.

I use a bread machine and it falls down on things like this. I've thought of
how small the market would be for an open bread machine with a light beam
dough rise sensor instead of a timer for when to knead many times as I got
small bricks instead of loaves of bread. Some extra ingredients change the speed
of rising -- winter or summer too. It would be a flop of a product, so few use
bread machines. Unless they don't use them because they're so hit and miss as they are now...

On 04/24/2012 11:58 AM, Simon Quellen Field wrote:
> Having an accurate thermometer in the lab is a good thing.
.
.
it can be used to set the
> calibration point of the incubator for each run, giving you some confidence
> that nothing has gone out of calibration in the incubator between runs or
> during cleaning.

Even frequent calibration can be easy if designed for. I can see a cal port
in the side the incubator machine that lets you put a temp probe there to
get good readings without cooling off or upsetting the system. A cal port
for a temp probe should be low on the machine so a probe resting on the lab
bench stays put with its end in the calibrate port. It might be a spring loaded
door with a notch for the temp probe, or it could be a simple plate of plastic
with a notch that users can file to fit, replace with generic material if lost,
and slides in a groove with no spring closer.

John

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