Program Review; Care Of The Thermocouple; Display Dots; Correcting Entries - Paragon DTC 1000 Operation & Maintenance Instructions Manual

How to Tell if You Have Cone-Fire
1 From
display, press ENTER , then 1 . If
IdLE
appears, you have Cone-Fire mode. If
you have Ramp-Hold mode only.
2 Bring the controller back to
a) From
, press STOP .
----
b) From , press ENTER 3 times slowly.
ConE
then , will appear.
IdLE
If you have Cone-Fire, all of this manual applies to your
controller. If you have Ramp-Hold only, skip Cone-Fire on
pages 6-9.

Care of the Thermocouple

The small metal rod protruding into the firing chamber is
the temperature sensor, or thermocouple. Do not let shelves,
posts or ware touch the thermocouple. This could affect the
temperature reading.
Bumping the thermocouple during loading can damage it
or push it out of the firing chamber. It should protrude into the
firing chamber at least " -
1
2
thermocouple extends into the firing chamber even farther.)
Avoid firing clay with a high sulphur content. The sulphur
eats into the thermocouple, making it brittle and easy to break.

Display Dots

Single Center Dot: Time
A lower center dot appears during time display. It separates
hours from minutes (i.e. 1 hour, 30 minutes displays as 01.30).
During temperature display, the dot disappears.
Single Right-Hand Dot: °C
When a temperature is displayed in °C, a lighted dot ap-
pears in the lower right. In °F it disappears.
Three Dot Display: Power Monitoring
To adjust temperature, the DTC 1000 sends power to the
relay(s) intermittently. The relays, in turn, power the heating
elements. To monitor when the relays are turned on, press 8
during firing. When three dots appear along the bottom dis-
play, relays are receiving power.
To turn off Power Monitoring, press 8 again. This feature is
used mostly for diagnostics.

Correcting Entries

If you enter the wrong temperature, cone, time, etc., while
programming, enter 0000. Then enter the correct numbers
before pressing ENTER .
The Stop Key
You can stop a firing at any time by pressing STOP .
If you inadvertently enter Ramp-Hold, you do not have to go
through all the prompts to get back out. Press STOP when
appears. That will take you back to
USEr
ConE
appears,
----
display:
IdLE
will appear.
IdLE
CPL
". (Do not be concerned if your
5
8
.
IdLE
If you inadvertently enter Cone-Fire, STOP will NOT take
you back to
IdLE
until , then
CPL
If you inadvertently press OPTIONS , you can get back to
by pressing STOP .
IdLE

Cool-Down Temperature Display

When the firing is finished,
,
with the total firing time in hours and minutes. To view the
current kiln temperature as the kiln cools, press ENTER .
will disappear. Then temperature will display.
CPLt

Repeat Firings

To repeat the last firing, press ENTER twice from
The kiln will begin firing. This works in both Cone-Fire and
Ramp-Hold. But first, make sure you are repeating the correct
firing by using "Program Review" below.

Program Review

When you select a firing program in Cone-Fire or
Ramp-Hold and go back to
from storage. It is then ready to fire. "Program Review" shows
you the values for that program.
To start Program Review from
Values for the program selected for firing will display one after
the other. You can also use Program Review during firing sim-
ply by pressing 6 .
TIP:
In Program Review, values for a program display
about one per second. You can speed up this display by
pressing 1 repeatedly. If you hold down the 1 key, values
will speed by. This works from both
firing.
Pyrometric Witness Cones in
Ceramic Firings
Though the DTC 1000 fires
electronically, every ceramic fir-
ing should include shelf, or wit-
ness, cones. They measure heat
work accurately and give a his-
tory of the firing.
If you fire the same size load
and type of ware regularly, the
shelf cones let you compare one
firing to the next and alert you
when something is wrong. For
example, if the shelf cone bends
farther and farther with each
consecutive firing, this may in-
dicate thermocouple tempera-
ture drift.
Keep cones 3" from the
peephole to avoid cool air drafts.
Wear firing safety glasses when viewing the cones at high tem-
perature. Your dealer can tell you which cone number to use
for each clay and glaze.
. Press ENTER after each Cone-Fire prompt
, appears.
IdLE
will display alternating
CPLt
, you have called a program
IdLE
, press ENTER , then 6 .
IdLE
IdLE
.
IdLE
and during
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