https://community.element14.com/challenges-projects/design-challenges/experimenting-with-thermal-switches/Experimenting with Thermal Switchesen-USTelligent Community 12https://community.element14.com/challenges-projects/design-challenges/experimenting-with-thermal-switches/b/challenge-blog/posts/finisher-s-prize-for-experimenting-with-thermal-switches-challengeThu, 05 May 2022 15:13:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:31ac1421-d32d-4a7c-bf01-7d8e27b31da5rsjawale24Two days ago, I received my finisher's prize for the contest - Experimenting with Thermal Switches. It is a nice little PDF temperature and humidity data logger manufactured by Multicomp Pro. The box contains the main unit of the data logger with a wall mountable stand, a CD, two screws for wall mounting, and a user manual. I was surprised to find an optical disc inside the package. The CD contains the Pidifix software using which one can configure the data logger. The main unit has two LEDs - OK and ALARM and a push button to start/stop the data logging. If the data logger is logging data properly, the OK LED will flash in green at a given interval (set by the user), if any alarm is triggered, the alarm LED will flash in RED and the data logging will be stopped. The LCD will display a x sign. More on this is discussed later in the blog. The data logger has a USB so it can be plugged directly into the PC/laptop. User Manual and specs - There is a user manual included in the box. The specifications of the data logger are as follows - Data storage capacity - 17280 ~ 30240 (I think there are the no. of points that can be recorded) Battery life - 2 years at 15 min intervals sample interval - 10 sec to 18 hours Temp. storage range: -30 to 70 deg C The data logger is powered using a CR2032 3 V Li battery On pressing the push button, it will display the current temperature on the LCD The unit of measurement is shown at the top (deg C). The small tick mark means that no alarm event has happened. The END on LCD signifies that the data logger is not logging data. If it's recording, the LCD shows REC (recording data). Again pressing the start/stop push button will display the relative humidity on the LCD. Pressing the push button again will display the set parameters of the temperature limits (high and low) and the humidity limits (high and low). Here high and low signifies the range within which the data logger will record the data, and if the temp or humidity recorded are out of the limits, an alarm event will be triggered and the data logger will stop recording data and the LCD will display an x sign with ALARM LED flashing in RED. Software- In order to configure and set parameters for the data logger, the PiDifix software is used. The software can also be downloaded from the product page of the data logger on element14 website. Here's a screenshot of the software. Using the software one can configure the temperature limits as well as the relative humidity limits and the interval at which data has to be logged. The data logger needs to be plugged into the USB port of the PC to configure it. The limits can be set as per user requirements. The channels tab sets the temp and humidity high and low limits as well as the unit of measurement. The sample interval tab sets the intervals at which the data is recorded. I left all other settings as default and clicked on configure. This configures the data logger and it is ready to record data now. Unplug the data logger from the PC and long press the start/stop push button for 2-3 secs, the LCD will display the temp and REC symbol. Experiment - In order to test the data logger, I did a small experiment - I set the temp and humidity limits such that an alarm event is not triggered. I kept it idol for more than 24 hours in my bedroom to check the temperature and humidity variation throughout the day. To get the results from the datalogger, simply plug it the USB port and it will be detected by your PC as a drive. Upon opening the drive, you'll find a pdf file generated by the data logger. This is such a cool feature, the user doesn't have to do any complex data processing/programming to get the recorded data. Unfortunately, while taking pictures for the blog, I started data recording and it deleted my previous data. I think this a drawback of the data logger, as there should be some method to prevent data from deleting accidentally, or it should at least keep the data to the one previous measurement if not all. Anyway, this is a nice little handy pdf data logger for temp and humidity. There are multiple applications to this, for example, checking the temperature and humidity variation of your house, or the attic or the wardrobe, or using it in the kitchen or in industrial plants to log the data throughout the day.thermal switchesthermal sensormulticompfinishers prizedata loggerexperimenting with Thermal Switcheshttps://community.element14.com/challenges-projects/design-challenges/experimenting-with-thermal-switches/w/documents/27440/experimenting-with-thermal-switches-challengersThu, 14 Apr 2022 20:36:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:a1b13b02-5db4-49d1-8c87-b1340f05926bpchanExperimenting with Thermal Switches About Competition | Blogging | Example Application | Resources | The Dates | The Prizes | The Kit | The Judges | Terms & Conditions | The Challengers | The Winners Welcome to the Experimenting with Thermal Switches challengers page! Our Experimenting with Thermal Switches Competition a(n) collaboration/association with Kemet, has now launched. The 15 challengers will use the Thermal Switches kit to experiment use, application, response, and more. These Challengers will receive a Challenger Kit for FREE. Please join us in congratulating the official sponsored Challengers. We look forward to reading all your initial blogs introducing your project designs. AlfredC | Ambrogio Galbusera | Doug Wong | Gordon Margulieux | Gough Lui | guillengap | karthikrajagopal | Leow cheah wei | manoj roy | Md Khairul Taifur | Navadeep Ganesh U | Rushiraj Jawale | Swathi C | Vinay YN | Vishwas Navada ARDU-TEMPE BEACON (ARDUino + TEMPErature) Synopsis: use thermal switches in an alarm beacon and a greenhouse fan heater AlfredC's project blogs Energy Squeezer Synopsis: two projects related to energy efficiency: a device to extract heat from boiler fumes and a mixer for the hot water generated by the solar panels. Ambrogio Galbusera's project blogs The Cozy Cat House Synopsis: focused on characterizing the thermal switches in the kit. design, build and operation of a specific application. The application would be a heated and instrumented hutch for a cat. Doug Wong's project blogs Experimenting with Thermal Switches Synopsis: build an aluminum heating plate heated back power resistors and controlled by the TRS break type switch under test. I would also try a steel heating plate to test the effect on the thermal magnetic performance of the TRS. Gordon Margulieux's project blogs Thermal Switch Torture Synopsis: test and characterise the thermal switches over many cycles, thus torturing them. Gough Lui's project blogs 3D Printer Thermal Runaway / Thermistor Tester Synopsis: experiment with thermal switches to prevent thermal runaway in 3D Printers guillengap's project blogs LED Life Booster/Extender Synopsis: developing a circuit using a thermal switch to control the power/ switch between LED light panels, to optimize the life of LEDs in LED bulbs. Karthik Rajagopal's project blogs Thermal Protection Circuit Experiment Synopsis: use thermal switches for motor control and PCB heating control. Leow cheah wei's project blogs Maintaining Temperature of Plating Solution Synopsis: use thermal switches to maintain the temperature of an electroplating solution manoj roy's project blogs Appliance Life Guard Synopsis: use thermal switches in a robot application that produces hot water and pumps it at a high speed. Md Khairu Taifur's project blogs ThermoPID Synopsis: use thermal switches switches with a DC/DC converter IC to catch the component's operational temperature value and initiate active cooling with a fan on overheat. Navadeep Ganesh U's project blogs Auto-Cutoff System for Room Heaters Synopsis: use thermal switches for experimenting and interfacing them with a room heater. Rushiraj Jawale's project blogs Smart Appliance Synopsis: use thermal switches in a water heating bath to control the temperature of the water. Swathi C's project blogs Thermal Monitoring and Protection System Synopsis: build a temperature monitoring system featuring Thermal protection. Vinay YN's project blogs Making Electric Geysers Smart Synopsis: using an external smart device made with KEMET's Thermolite thermal switches to send information to wireless Plug which can in turn control an electric geyser. Vishwas Navada's project blogs Congratulations to all our selected challengers! Good Luck Everyone!https://community.element14.com/challenges-projects/design-challenges/experimenting-with-thermal-switches/w/documentsThu, 14 Apr 2022 20:36:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:55452b96-f291-465f-9e16-0a46ef222036https://community.element14.com/challenges-projects/design-challenges/experimenting-with-thermal-switches/w/documents/27364/about-the-competitionThu, 14 Apr 2022 20:35:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:c8a44290-b3b4-4546-af03-238b4585422bpchanExperimenting with Thermal Switches About Competition | Blogging | Example Application | Resources | The Dates | The Prizes | The Kit | The Judges | Terms & Conditions | The Challengers | The Winners Thermal switches (also called thermal sensors) are used in a variety of industrial, home/kitchen appliance, and HVAC products. They are typically used as protection against overheating, overcooling or overloads when used in a motor protection circuit. The most widely used thermal switches are bimetallic thermal switches and thermistors. Bimetallic thermal switches consist of two strips of different metals that are bound together. Bimetallic thermal switches leverage the expansion of metals when they are heated. As the strip is heated, the different metals bend in different directions opening or closing a switch contact (NO/NC). A thermistor is a type of resistor whose resistance changes with temperature changes. Thermistors are widely used as inrush current limiters, self-resetting overcurrent "fuses", and self-regulating heating elements. The bimetallic thermal switches have been a mainstay for the design of thermostatic temperature controls and over-temperature protection over many decades. Thermistors have also been widely used, but neither type offers high accuracy or stability needed to meet the latest demands of consumers and industrial end users. In response, thermal ferrite materials such as KEMET’s Thermorite ® have emerged to enable a new generation of thermal switches (temperature sensors) that deliver greater accuracy, faster response times, and better stability with respect to ageing and environmental conditions such as humidity. In this design challenge, participants will be given a kit of thermal switches based on KEMET’s Thermorite ® to experiment with their use, application, response, and more. Thermal Switch/Sensor Thermorite ® Reed Switch Bi-metallic Strips Thermistors ContactType Mechanical Mechanical Electrical Operating Principle Switching the reed switch ON/OFF at a trigger temperature of the thermo-ferrite material Switch ON/OFF at a trigger temperature by using two metal strips that have different thermal expansion coefficients which deform by temperature Semiconductor (NTC) or Ceramic (PTC). Change in resistance due to temperature. What is Thermorite? Thermorite is temperature sensitive ferromagnetic material that has soft magnetic characteristic under curie temperature. The material’s saturated magnetic flux density decreases as material temperature goes up, and it becomes paramagnetic (ferrite lose its magnetic property) rapidly when the temperature of the material reaches at curie temperature. What is Curie Temperature? The Curie temperature is the temperature point above which some materials undergo an abrupt change such that they lose their permanent magnetic properties. The Curie temperature is synonymous to the Curie Point. It was named after scientist Pierre Curie who discovered the laws revolving around magnetic properties changing due to temperature changes. Depending on its composition, Thermorite can be tuned to lose its magnetic permeability quickly at a predetermined temperature and instead behave as a paramagnetic material. KEMET’s TRS and OHD series of temperature sensors exploit this property to actuate a reed switch at a specific temperature determined by the composition of the thermosensitive ferrite. The switch can be designed either to open or close at this temperature. How Does the Thermorite ® Reed Switch Work? The reed switch contains a pair of Fe-Ni (iron-nickel) reeds encased in a glass tube filled with inert gas. Encasing the reeds in this way ensures the switch is dust proof, explosion proof and corrosion resistant. A Thermorite tube surrounds the reeds (Figure 1), and acts as a magnet at temperatures below the set point determined by the material composition. When the temperature rises above the set point, the Thermorite loses its magnetic properties and the magnetic field collapses allowing separated reed contacts to touch (make-type switch) or closed contacts to separate (break-type switch). The mechanism shows very little degradation due to metal fatigue. Tests under standard conditions have demonstrated switch lifetime based on metal fatigue of 500,000 on/off cycles. Figure 1. Reed switch operating principle (Source: KEMET) a) Break-type Switch The break-type switch consists of the Thermorite® cylinder that surrounds the reeds. At both ends of the cylinder are ring-shaped permanent magnets, as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2. Structure of break-type sensor (Source: KEMET) Below the temperature set point, when the Thermorite acts as a magnetic material, the magnetic field acting on the reed is a single loop as if caused by one large surrounding magnet. This magnetic field induces opposing poles in the reeds, causing them to be attracted thus turning the switch "ON". When the temperature set point is exceeded (i.e., curie temperature), the Thermorite loses its magnetic property. At this point the single magnetic field becomes two separate fields associated with the permanent magnets at each end of the switch, causing the contacts to separate. This turns the switch "OFF". b) Make-type Switch The make-type switch has a similar structure to the break-type, except for an additional spacer inserted in the middle of the Thermorite cylinder as shown in Figure 3. Figure 3. Make-type switch structure(Source: KEMET) When the surrounding temperature is lower than the temperature set point, the spacer causes the separated pairs of permanent magnet and Thermorite® to create two independent magnetic fields that act in a similar way to those of the break-type sensor in high-temperature mode. The contacts are separated and the switch is turned “OFF”. When the temperature around the make-type switch rises above the set point, the Thermorite components lose their magnetism. The independent fields due to the permanent magnets closer to the ends of the reeds cause the contacts to join thus turning the switch “ON.” Table 2 summarises the switch states at temperatures above and below the set point defined by Thermorite composition. Switch Type Status below temperature set point (Thermorite is magnetic) Status above temperature set point (Thermorite is non-magnetic) Make OFF. Contacts open ON. Contacts closed Break ON. Contacts closed. OFF. Contacts open Table 2. Summary of switch status at temperatures above and below set point. For more information about the Thermorite® Reed Switch, please vist the Resources section of this competition. What kind of experiments can the participants perform with the Thermorite® Reed Switch? Temperature control White Goods (Home kitchen appliances) Aquarium heater Overheat Protection Industrial equipment IGBT module Motor and inverter drive Radiator, heating and fan control But how you experiment with them depends are your interests and what stirs your curiosity about this relatively new product and how it functions. What do I need to do to win the Grand Prize or Runner Up Prize? After the month long enrollment period is completed, and the 15 FREE thermal switch component kits are shipped, you will have 8 weeks to complete your experiments, write two blogs, and share what you learned about Thermorite® Reed Switches. You will be judged by the quality of your final blog and what you learned about these components. Can I still be elgibile for the Grand Prize or Runner Up Prizes if I am not selected for one of the 15 FREE kits? Yes, on the condition that you obtain the Thermorite® Reed Switches featured in the kit and perform experiments with those components, and post your blogs in the Experimenting with Thermal Switches Group. You must write and post two blogs. Also, please notify rscasny@newark.com with links to your two blogs. What do I get if I don't win the Grand Prize, but I wrote the two blogs? If you write two blogs and post them in the Experimenting with Thermal Switches Group by the deadline on March 28, 2022, you have successfully completed your entry in the competition. If our judges do not select you for the Grand or Runner-Up prizes, you will be eligible to receive the finisher prize. But remember, you have to write two blogs by the deadline to be considered a finisher! Resources TRS Thermal Reed Switch TRS Thermal Reed Switch, Screw Type KEMET TRS Thermal Reed Switch KEMET TRS Thermal Reed Switches - Tech Specs New Product Releases TRS Thermal Reed Switch OHD Thermal Guard Which Thermal Sensor to Choose? Who is Eligible to Enroll in the Experimenting with Thermal Switches Competition? Any element14 member can enroll in the Experimenting with Thermal Switches competition. But to receive one of 15 FREE magnetic component kits, you need to submit an application by the enrollment deadline, January 3rd, 2022. (If you're not an element14 member you will need create an account or register. It takes less than a minute to register.) Enrollment Begins: December 3, 2021 Enrollment Ends: January 3, 2022 Applicants Selected: January 7, 2022 Challenge Begins: January 26, 2022 Challenge Ends: March 28, 2022 Blogging Requirements: Only 2 Blogs! In order to successfully finish this competition, you are required to blog twice during the competition period. You can blog more than twice, if you wish. Our recommendation is: Write Blog 1: Introduce yourself and explain what experiments you plan to perform. Due February 9th, 2022. Write Blog 2: Show the results of your experiments, using images, screen captures, videos, tables, charts, etc. Then tell us what you learned about magnetic components. Due March 28, 2022. Please also tag your blogs with 'Experimenting with Thermal Switches.' . The Prizes There will be two main prizes: a Grand Prize and a Runner Up prize. We will also offer a finisher prize to those who have met the requirements for finishing the competition in full but have not been chosen for the Grand and Runner Prizes. (Note: The Grand and Runner Up Prize winners will not receive a finisher prize.) The Grand Prize will have two options: Option A Option B DSOX1202A/DSOX1202A-100 ($1052) Digital Oscilloscope, InfiniiVision 1000 X-Series, 2 Analogue, 1 Ext Trigger, 100 MHz, 2 GSPS. Legion 5 Gen 6 AMD (17") with RTX 3050 Laptop ($1087) The Runner Up Winner will have two options: Option A Option B SideTrak Axis Triple Portable Monitor for Laptop ($419) Apple iPad Mini ($499) The Finisher Prize is: Multicomp Pro PDf Data Logger ($30.77 ea) The Thermal Switches Experimenter’s Kit element14 is offering for this competition 15 kits FREE of charge. To be eligible to receive one of them, you must submit an application by the enrollment deadline (January 3, 2022). Here is the kit (kit has been revised as of January 11th, 2022 due to availability of parts): Product Description Buy Now Thermostat Switch, Reed Switch, TRS Series, Axial, 30°C, Normally Closed, 100 Vdc, Molded Buy Now Switch, Thermal Reed, 0.5 Ohm, 120 Deg C, Break, Quick Connect, Screw Type Buy Now Thermostat Switch, Thermal Guard, OHD Series, Radial, 90°C, Normally Closed, 100 Vac/dc, 0.3A Buy Now Thermostat Switch, Thermal Guard, OHD Series, Axial, 30°C, Normally Closed, 100 Vac/dc, 0.3A Buy Now Thermostat Switch, Thermal Guard, OHD Series, Axial, 50°C, Normally Closed, 100 Vac/dc, 0.3A Buy Now Thermostat Switch, Thermal Guard, OHD Series, Axial, 90°C, Normally Open, 100 Vac/dc, 0.3A Buy Now Thermostat Switch, Reed Switch, TRS Series, Axial, 30°C, Normally Closed, Wire Harness, 100 V Buy Now Thermostat Switch, Thermal Guard, OHD Series, Radial, 105°C, Normally Closed, 100 Vac/dc, 0.3A Buy Now Thermostat Switch, Thermal Guard, OHD Series, Panel Mount, 115°C, Normally Open, 100 Vac/dc, 0.3A Buy Now Thermostat Switch, Reed Switch, TRS Series, Axial, 60°C, Normally Closed, 100 Vdc, Molded Buy Now Thermostat Switch, Thermal Guard, OHD Series, Axial, 110°C, Normally Open, 100 Vac/dc, 0.3A Buy Now *Click buy now link to see product data sheet The Judges Top Members of the element14 Community will be our judges. They are to be determined. Top Member Top Member shabaz Shabaz has studied Electronics Engineering followed by Law, and worked primarily in the fields of radio communications (military), telecommunications (infrastructure used by phone companies), data networks, and information technology. He was originally involved in hardware design, followed by software engineering and technical marketing. Thank you to our Judges for offering their time and service. Tips on Writing Your Application If you want to get a chance to received one of the 15 FREE Thermal Switches Kit, you will need to submit an application no later than January 3, 2022. The key to a winning application is to provide as much meaningful information about your proposed experiments as possible. The application should be detailed enough to give the judges a good idea of what you plan to do and how you plan to pull it off. But you don’t have to write a book! By answering each of the following questions in your application, you will provide the judges with the information they need to make their decisions: (a) Describe your technical background. (b) Why are you interested in this competition? What interests you about thermal switches? (c) What kind of experiment(s) do you plan to perform? (Be as specific as you can) (d) Have you participated in the element14 Community? If so, please provide some links to what you've done. If you are a new member, answer "New Member." All interested element14 members must submit an application before the end of enrollment on January 3, 2022. Here are some other suggestions for completing a winning application: 1. Please complete all required information (contact information, etc.) In the Project Title field, use "Experimenting with Thermal Switches" or your element14 member name. Please use the email address that is associated with your element14 profile. 2. Complete all of the application questions Tell us why you want to be selected. Before deciding what you want to write, think about the following things: You are entering a competition. The most persuasive applications are the ones that attract the eye of the judges. A single sentence application will never be selected. This competition is not a game of chance. Be as detailed as possible, but don't write a book. Anyone Can Participate in Experimenting with Thermal Switches Any element14 member can enroll in the 'Experimenting with Thermal Switches’ competition. To receive one of the 15 FREE thermal switches kit , you need to submit an application by the deadline, January 3, 2022. General Questions For any general questions about the ‘Experimenting with Thermal Switches’ competition, please post a comment on this page. To keep up-to-date with this competition, please bookmark it. Terms & Conditionsthermal_switcheshttps://community.element14.com/challenges-projects/design-challenges/experimenting-with-thermal-switches/b/challenge-blog/posts/the-winners-of-experimenting-with-thermal-switchesThu, 14 Apr 2022 15:27:00 GMT93d5dcb4-84c2-446f-b2cb-99731719e767:1ba8651d-b880-44d2-ad4f-802c0690d8ecrscasnyWe have completed the Experimenting with Thermal Switches Design Challenge, sponsored by KEMET, and featuring its Thermorite® Thermal Switches. We had 15 participants with 13 finishers, including our Grand Prize and Runner Up Prize winners. Our judge has read all the blogs and tallied up the points, and in this blog we will announce the winners of this competition! First Things: Let's Talk About Thermal Switches Many people know all about bimetallic thermal switches, but not everyone may be familiar with Thermorite® Thermal Switches. So, let me provide you with a brief background. Thermal switches (also called thermal sensors) are used in industrial, appliance, and HVAC products. They are typically used as protection against overheating, overcooling, or overloads when used in a motor protection circuit. The most widely used thermal switches are bimetallic thermal switches and thermistors. Bimetallic thermal switches consist of two strips of different metals that are bound together. Bimetallic thermal switches leverage the expansion of metals when they are heated. As the strip is heated, the different metals bend in different directions, opening or closing a switch contact (NO/NC). A thermistor is a type of resistor whose resistance changes with temperature changes. Thermistors are widely used as inrush current limiters, self-resetting overcurrent "fuses," and self-regulating heating elements. The bimetallic thermal switches have been a mainstay for the design of thermostatic temperature controls and over-temperature protection over many decades. Thermistors have also been widely used, but neither type offers the high accuracy or stability needed to meet the latest demands of consumers and industrial end users. In response to the drawbacks of the traditional products, thermal ferrite materials such as KEMET’s Thermorite® have emerged to enable a new generation of thermal switches that deliver greater accuracy, faster response times, and better stability with respect to ageing and environmental conditions such as humidity. For a detailed discussion of Thermorite® Thermal Switches, go here . How Does the Thermorite® Thermal Switch Work? The thermal reed switch contains a pair of Fe-Ni (iron-nickel) reeds encased in a glass tube filled with inert gas. Encasing the reeds in this way ensures the switch is dust proof, explosion proof, and corrosion resistant. A Thermorite tube surrounds the reeds, and acts as a magnet at temperatures below the set point determined by the material composition. When the temperature rises above the set point, the Thermorite loses its magnetic properties and the magnetic field collapses, allowing separated reed contacts to touch (make-type switch) or close contacts to separate (break-type switch). The mechanism shows very little degradation due to metal fatigue. Tests under standard conditions have demonstrated switch lifetime based on metal fatigue of 500,000 on/off cycles. element14's Experimenting with Thermal Switches competition was an opportunity to provide our participants with a kit of KEMET’s Thermorite® thermal switches so that they could conduct experiments and blog about what they learned. Our judge has made his decisions, so let's meet the winners! Grand Prize Winner of the Experimenting with Thermal Switches Challenge: Gough Lui Gough Lui wrote seven blogs during the experimenting period. Even though only two blogs were required, given the breadth of experiments he had planned to conduct, I'm not surprised at the extra blogs he felt were needed. What did he attempt to do that had him write these extra blogs? I'll let him explain in his own words: " I proposed focusing on characterising the thermal switches provided in the kit. I attempted to characterise as many as I could for the temperature cut-in and cut-out thresholds and temperature hysteresis over many cycles, to see if there is any drift in parameters as the switch ages under a working load. Initial contact resistance and final contact resistance will also be measured in case this yields any further insights. Upon the conclusion of the tests, I may even repurpose the switches to create a simple temperature-controlled chamber by controlling a resistive heater, or to control heatsink temperatures by directly controlling a brushless-DC fan. " His second blog featured an unboxing and an introduction to his experiments, including load handling, thermal coupling and distribution, measurement speed, thermal thresholds, contact resistance, and more. His third blog is where it really gets interesting; he discusses Magnetic Characteristics, External Magnetic Influence, Overload Behaviour, and does a Teardown. In the fourth blog, he goes into Vibration Induced Resonance, Contact Bounce, Overvoltage Behaviour, and offers some thoughts About Switching Inductive Loads. I would describe the fifth blog as his data analysis blog, and he has plenty of data! Blog 6 is a must read, as he discusses his Latching Fault Circuit Design – A Thought Experiment. The final blog covers problems and conclusions. Our judge noted that Gough Lui "provided a lot of results which will be absolutely useful for any organisation looking to use thermal switches. It's an extremely valuable resource." Gough Lui's blogs were high quality and they clearly demonstrated what he learned from his participation in this Experimenting with Thermal Switches program. For these reasons, he was selected as our Grand Prize Winner. You can read all of Gough's blogs by going here . Runner Up Prize Winner of the Experimenting with Thermal Switches Challenge: Ambrogio Galbusera While our grand prize winner chose a test-the-limits approach to his thermal switch experiments, as evidenced by his "Torture Test" title, our runner up prize winner took what I would call an applications approach to his experiments with thermal switches. Spanning four blogs, Ambrogio used thermal switches in two projects related to energy efficiency that he called the Energy Squeezer . His projects were designed to be the following: (1) a device to extract heat from boiler fumes and (2) a mixer for the hot water generated by solar panels. In the first blog, he articulated his personal goal, which was "... in this challenge, I would like to evaluate whether the Kemet thermal [switches] suit two projects I have in mind to improve the energy efficiency of my house." He describes his two projects as (1) a fume energy extractor and (2) a solar panel water mixer, along with his testing plan. His second blog covers test setup and the specific thermal switches he plans on using. He covers a lot of useful information that you should take the time to read. Blog 3 covers the details of his fume energy extractor, and Blog 4 covers the water mixer. As our judge indicated, Ambrogio "came up with very clever solutions that should save a lot of energy. His solutions are (on the face of it) reliably designed, and make good use of the inherent reliability of the thermal switches for heating scenarios where reliability is essential/required." For these reasons, he was selected as our Runner Up Prize Winner. See his project blogs here . I'd like to thank all the element14 members who participated and completed this challenge, and who will receive a Finisher Prize for their work: ARDU-TEMPE BEACON (ARDUino + TEMPErature) Synopsis: use thermal switches in an alarm beacon and a greenhouse fan heater AlfredC's project blogs The Cozy Cat House Synopsis: focused on characterizing the thermal switches in the kit, with the design, build, and operation of a specific application. The application would be a heated and instrumented hutch for a cat. Doug Wong's project blogs Experimenting with Thermal Switches Synopsis: build an aluminum heating plate heated back power resistors and controlled by the TRS break type switch under test. I would also try a steel heating plate to test the effect on the thermal magnetic performance of the TRS. Gordon Margulieux's project blogs 3D Printer Thermal Runaway / Thermistor Tester Synopsis: experiment with thermal switches to prevent thermal runaway in 3D Printers guillengap's project blogs LED Life Booster/Extender Synopsis: developing a circuit using a thermal switch to control the power/ switch between LED light panels, to optimize the life of LEDs in LED bulbs. Karthik Rajagopal's project blogs Thermal Protection Circuit Experiment Synopsis: use thermal switches for motor control and PCB heating control. Leow cheah wei's project blogs Maintaining Temperature of Plating Solution Synopsis: use thermal switches to maintain the temperature of an electroplating solution manoj roy's project blogs ThermoPID Synopsis: use thermal switches switches with a DC/DC converter IC to catch the component's operational temperature value and initiate active cooling with a fan on overheat. Navadeep Ganesh U's project blogs Auto-Cutoff System for Room Heaters Synopsis: use thermal switches for experimenting and interfacing them with a room heater. Rushiraj Jawale's project blogs Thermal Monitoring and Protection System Synopsis: build a temperature monitoring system featuring Thermal protection. Vinay YN's project blogs Making Electric Geysers Smart Synopsis: using an external smart device made with KEMET's Thermolite thermal switches to send information to wireless Plug which can in turn control an electric geyser. Vishwas Navada's project blogs Last Word: A Big Thank You to Our Judge I'd like to thank Top Member Shabaz for judging the Experimenting with Thermal Switches Challenge. His input on the projects was invaluable to our final decisions. Other Imagesbimetallic thermal switchthermal switchwinnersthermistorThermorite® Thermal Switchesthermal sensorkemet