were installed as well. Next, connect the temperature sensors. Since the computer is usually in one place and the column in another, the ESP32 can be powered from any phone charger. Here Samovar becomes your observer. It shows messages on the monitor and sends them to your smartphone: boost finished, turn on the water, stabilization finished, temperatures exceeded, pause, and so on. You also see all the temperatures. If vapor breaks through, a message pops up; there are charts, and you can analyze the behavior of the column, and so on.
But stability and safety are up to you. It cannot control anything yet. It only informs.
Using Samovar with only temperature sensors and charger power can be called rather a test. It lets you make sure the ESP32 and the WiFi network work stably.
Further assembly will require placing the Samovar board in an enclosure and using a more serious power supply. If you plan to use a cooling pump, you will need one 12 volt 80-100 watt power supply.
You can use two power supplies: 40-50 watts to power the Samovar board and the stepper motor, and 60-70 for the cooling pump.
Next steps:
A stabilized voltage regulatorwill let you trust Samovar with heating control almost completely: boost, stabilization, holding the temperature, and switching the heating off when the process ends.
Emergency shutdown is strongly recommended right after connecting the regulator.
Cooling setup fully automates holding the set temperature at the outlet, opens the water at the start and closes it at the end of the run.
Reflux level sensor monitors column flooding. Together with the voltage regulator, Samovar automatically reduces heating and prevents liquid from being thrown out through the TCA (atmospheric vent tube). With this sensor the column can be kept in the pre-flooding mode automatically throughout the whole take-off.
