Sentry Industries Sentry 2.0 operating instructions Keys

Chapter 2

The Keys

Correcting Entries

If you enter the wrong temperature, cone, time, etc., while programming, enter 0000. Then enter the correct numbers before pressing ENTER. See also the Stop/Back Key, page 7.

1 / Cone Fire

Cone-Fire is a method of firing ceramics

to a pyrometric cone. See Chapter 3, page 8, for details. To find out if your Sentry in-

cludes Cone-Fire:

1 From IdLE display, press 1. If CONE appears, you have Cone-Fire mode. If the 1 key does not re- spond, you have Ramp-Hold mode only.

2Press STOP to bring the controller back to IdLE .

2 / Add Time

This key adds five minutes to a Hold. It is designed for ceramists who watch witness cones through the peephole, and for glass

artists who inspect the glass near the end of firing.

1During a firing, press Add Time. HOLd , and time in hold, will appear.

2Press Add Time again. The time shown will in- crease by 5 minutes. In a few seconds, temperature display will return.

Note: Add Time will add 5 minutes to Hold in ei- ther Cone-Fire or Ramp-Hold, even if no hold had been programmed. After hold time displays, 5 min- utes are added with each press of the key.

3 / Delay

This delays the start of the firing by the amount of time entered. Use it to fit a firing into your schedule or to take advantage of

lower electric rates at night. Delay zeroes out after each fir- ing. Therefore, it must be programmed for each firing.

1A Cone-Fire or Ramp-Hold program must be in ac- tive memory, ready to fire. (See pages 10 and 13.)

2From IdLE press 3. Enter delay time (i.e., 5 ½ hours = 05.30). Press ENTER.

3To begin Delay, press ENTER once from IdLE . A Delay count-down timer will appear.

Note: Press START during delay to end the delay and begin the firing. The maximum delay is 99 hours and 59 minutes.

CAUTION: For safety, do not leave the kiln alone during a delay or a firing. We cannot guarantee your kiln against overfiring even though the controller is

automatic. The operator assumes full responsibility for shutting the kiln off at the proper time.

4 / Ramp Hold

Ramp-Hold fires the kiln to the tempera- ture you specify, whereas Cone-Fire fires to a pyrometric cone. Press 4 from IdLE to

program a firing or to select a stored program. See “Ramp-Hold,” page 12.

5 / Present Status

Press 5 during a firing to display the cur- rent segment that is firing. The messages that can appear in Present Status:

■RA 1 Ramp (see page 12), and segment number.

■Hd 1 Hold (see page 12), and segment number.

■PRHT Cone-Fire Pre-Heat (see page 9).

■COOL Cone-Fire Slow Cooling (see page 11). Uses for Present Status:

■You are firing a program that contains several heating and cooling segments. Without Present Status, it would be easy to lose track of which segment is firing.

■In Cone-Fire, you may think the kiln has fired too long when it is actually only in a slow cooling.

6 / Program Review

When you press ENTER to begin firing, the controller will fire the program that is in active memory. Program Review shows the

values for that program. The program in active memory is—

■The program that was fired last, or

■The program that was selected since the last firing.

Start Program Review from IdLE , or while firing, by pressing 6.

Note: In Program Review, Cone-Fire Fast speed displays as F 20 . Slow speed displays as S 20 . (These speeds are 20% faster and slower than the standard speed.)

7 / Alarm

The alarm sounds when the kiln reaches the alarm temperature you enter. Use the alarm to alert you to—

■Lower the lid from venting position (ceramics).

■Check the witness cone near shut-off time (ceramics).

■Check the fusing or slumping of glass.

■Remove the knife blade from the furnace at the end of heat treating.

You can enter only one alarm temperature at a time. How- ever, after the alarm beeps, you can set the alarm for another temperature, as many times as you want, during the firing. You can enter a higher or lower temperature than the cur- rent temperature. Entering an alarm temperature automati- cally erases the previous alarm temperature.

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