Keep the kiln lid or door closed when the kiln is not in use.
9
Setting the Alarm From IDLE
1
From
[IDLE]
, press
7
.
[ALAR]
will appear alternat-
ing with the last alarm temperature entered.
2
Enter new alarm temperature. Press
ENTER
.
[IDLE]
will appear. (To disable the alarm, set the
alarm temperature to
0
.)
Setting the Alarm During Firing
1
The alarm beeps while the kiln is firing.
[ALAR]
will
appear, alternating with the temperture. Press
7
.
2
Enter the new temperature. (To disable the alarm,
set the alarm temperature to
0
.)
3
Press
ENTER
.
[ALAR]
will disappear, and the kiln
will continue firing.
If you touch
7
, enter a new temperature, and forget to
press
ENTER
, the controller will continue firing without
resetting the alarm.
[ALAR]
will continue alternating with
the kiln temperature.
Question
The alarm on my Sentry sounds a min-
ute into each firing. Why is the alarm going off?
Answer
The alarm was set to a temperature below
the current temperature. To deactivate the alarm
for your next firing, set it to 0.
The 8 Key / Estimating the Firing Cost
The Sentry controller can figure the electrical cost of a
firing. Set up the controller as follows:
In the
[CENT]
option, enter the cost of a kilowatt-hour
of electricity. See page 23.
In the
[KW]
option, enter the wattage for your kiln. See
page 23.
After the kiln fires to completion,
[CPLT]
will flash.
Press the
8
key;
[IDLE]
will appear. Press
again; the cost
of electricity to fire the last load will appear. To return to
temperature display, press
ENTER
.
Note:
If you enter the kiln wattage in the
[KW]
op-
tion but you do not enter cost per kilowatt-hour in
the
[CENT]
option, the controller will display kilo-
watt-hours instead of firing cost.
Note:
By pressing the
8
key during a firing, you can
see how much the cost increases as the firing
progresses.
Pointer:
If you wonder how much Slow Cooling
adds to the cost of a firing, press the
8
key before
Slow Cooling begins, and press it again after the
kiln has fired to completion.
The 9 Key / Look Up Cone Numbers &
Skip a Segment
Cone Table
Look up a cone temperature with the
9
key. (See the
next page for information on cones.)
1
From
[IDLE]
, press
9
.
[CONE]
will appear, then
the cone, if any, currently programmed in
Cone-Fire.
2
Enter a pyrometric cone number. Press
ENTER
.
The display will show the temperature for that cone.
If you enter a non-existent cone number, the display
will repeat the last cone number that you looked up.
Note:
Do not be concerned if the actual cone
shut-off temperature does not match the Cone Ta-
ble. The temperature of a cone varies with firing
speed. The cone temperatures in Cone Table are
for self-supporting cones fired at a rate of 108°F /
60°C per hour during the last hour of firing.
Skip a Segment
Skip Segment works only during a firing. It jumps from
the current segment to the next one.
To skip a segment, press
9
.
[SKIP]
will appear alternat-
ing with the number of the next segment. Press
ENTER
.
If you change your mind and don’t want to skip that seg-
ment, wait 10 seconds without pressing any key. You will
exit the Skip option, and the firing will continue in the same
segment as before.
Skip More Than One Segment
1
Press
9
.
[SKIP]
will appear alternating with the
number of the next segment.
2
Press the
1
(or
3
) key. Keep pressing the
1
(or
3
) key
to scroll through the available segments. When you
see the segment you want to skip to, press
ENTER
.
The temperature display will return, and the kiln
will fire in your chosen segment.
Note:
As you scroll through the available seg-
ments, one of the options is
[CANC]
(Cancel). If
you don’t want to skip to a different segment after
all, press
ENTER
when
[CANC]
appears.
Skip Segment in Cone-Fire
See the segments in the Cone-Fire firing schedules on
pages 32 - 33. Reasons to skip a segment in Cone-Fire:
I
To skip out of Pre-Heat and begin the cone firing. You
might do this if the ware is dry and ready to fire before
Your Sentry can give you the electrical cost of a firing.
Photo by Nick Casberg.
