What is it?

This is a breakout board for the AD8495 K type thermocouple amplifier. It has 3 pins for Vcc (3-30 volts!), ground and output. It also has a 2 pin screw terminal for connecting the thermocouple. The output voltage is 5 mV per degree celsius read on the target thermocouple.

It can basically read anywhere from 0°C up to a maximum of 200°C for every volt of your power supply (so a 5 volt supply can read up to 1000°C), or the range of your K type thermocouple (whichever is lower). If the thermocouple is open, the output voltage will be pinned to the supply voltage. This is a fail-safe for when used with heating applications.

Why did you make it?

At the time, there were no breakout boards for this device, and I needed one to build a reflow oven controller. The only alternative that had through-hole or breadboard pins was the AD595, which was triple the price.

I made my reflow oven controller - and in fact I sell them here on Tindie now too - but thought I'd give back to the maker community by building and selling a breakout board for this part too.

The board comes with all of the surface-mount components installed, but the 3 pin header and the 2 pin screw terminal are not attached - you need to solder them on yourself (in whichever orientation you prefer).