You can ignore this warning: it isn’t working correctly.
Hi!
It happened a few times already that the Pioreactor stopped working mid-experiment because it “overheated”. I am wondering why this is happening and if we should upgrade to the high-temp version even though we only work with temperatures to 37°C. I set up the automatic temperature up to 37°C. In my opinion it should not heat up above a temperatue that is dangerous for the raspberry if the target temp is 37°C. Any suggestions for that? It doesnt happen all the time, but from time to time even though the temperature in our laboratory is constant.
Greetings
Leo
Hi @LeoKleym,
37C isn’t bad for the Raspberry Pi, but the heater PCB (underneath the vial) is much hotter than 37C. There’s a safety limit at ~63C on that heater PCB, and if exceeded, the software will decide to turn off / shutdown.
I’ve mostly seen this happen when frequent dosing occurs, and the heater PCB needs to work overtime to heat up cooler media being entered. Here’s a few solutions to try:
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Add more insulation, specifically near the top. We’ve put putty around the top of the Pioreactor to help reduce interior drafts and improve heat retention.
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To solve this issue and get better temperature stability, the temperature expansion kit really helps.
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You can bump up those safety limits. Add the following code to a new Python file in your
/home/pioreactor/.pioreactor/pluginsfolder:from pioreactor.background_jobs.monitor import Monitor from pioreactor.background_jobs.temperature_control import TemperatureController TemperatureController.MAX_TEMP_TO_REDUCE_HEATING = 64.0 TemperatureController.MAX_TEMP_TO_DISABLE_HEATING = 66.0 TemperatureController.MAX_TEMP_TO_SHUTDOWN = 67.0 Monitor.MAX_TEMP_TO_SHUTDOWN = 67.0This may warp the plastics, which are made of PLA. The other kit we sell uses plastics that can be heated well beyond these limits, too.
