Story:
After massively overshooting the temp on an isomerization of an allybenzene, Green elf started thinking...
wouldn't it be nice if green elf could homehow control his hot plate via a probe and a computer connection.
There are many thermometers out there which use a RS-232 interface which one can use to communicate with a computer with, the advantages of such a device are numerous, 1. you can mkae nice graphs of your distillations, see where the dips are and temp changes..etc..etc.
But assuming a device could be aquired, I don't think it would be too difficult to write a program which would be able to control Dimmer (if one can find a computer controlled dimmer) which could regulate the temperature of the hotplate.
This would bring end to many unecc. destruction of chemicals such as the beloved MDP2P. Which seems to polymerize into a beautiful display of tar if temp gets too high.
Any Ideas on how one would be able to complete this project?
or any open source code for communicating with RS-232 thermometer type devices?