Using Composer to make a profile on the F4T

What Composer is

Composer is Watlow’s software for setting up its controllers from a PC. With an F4T it lets you write and edit profiles on a computer, with a keyboard and a full-size screen, instead of on the controller’s touch screen, and keep copies of them on your PC.

Profiles are the test itself: the sequence of temperature setpoints, ramps and soaks the chamber runs. A thermal cycling screen, for example, is a ramp down, a soak at the cold limit, a ramp up and a soak at the hot limit, repeated for the number of cycles you need.

Before you start

• A PC with Watlow Composer installed, from Watlow’s website.
• A network connection between the PC and the F4T’s Ethernet port.
• Your test plan: the setpoints, ramp rates or times, soak times and number of cycles.

Making a profile

In outline (the video shows it on screen):

1. Connect Composer to the F4T.
2. Open the profiles and create a new one.
3. Add the steps in order: ramps to each setpoint (by time or by rate) and soaks at each setpoint.
4. To repeat a cycle, add a jump step back to the start of the cycle, with the number of repeats.
5. End the profile with an end step that leaves the chamber in a safe state.
6. Save the profile to the controller, then start it from the F4T.

Tips

• Before changing anything, save the F4T configuration to a USB drive, so you can go back to it.
• Ramp by rate when the rate of change matters to your screen. The screen strength calculator shows how the rate of change affects a thermal cycling screen.
• On Hanse chambers, ChamberCore also builds and runs profiles. Composer is Watlow’s own tool for the controller.

Questions about your controller or a profile? Contact us or call 1-269-673-8638.