[tobinfricke]

PID is popular because it has only three tunable parameters, and you can kind of just turn the knobs until it works. :-)

For a more systematic design, construct a simple mathematical model of your plant. If nothing else, this will allow you to run faster-than-realtime simulations to experiment with parameters. (Thermal time constants are typically annoyingly slow to fiddle with in real time.)

Simulink is an ideal tool for this, but you can just as well use Python or C++. One way to do it is to structure your model as a differential equation and then use a solver to integrate it.

There are several typical lines of attack. Write the plant either as a transfer function and then think about poles and zeros. Write it as coupled first-order linear differential equations and think about state space.

"Feedback systems: An intro for scientists and engineers" by Åstrom and Murray is a popular introductory text. "Feedback control of dynamic systems" by Franklin and Powell is a superb, slightly more advanced college textbook. (The current edition is wildly expensive but older editions are just as good and nearly free.) I also like "Control System Design: An Intro to State-Space Methods" by Friedland (an inexpensive paperback published by Dover).

[jcims]

This is awesome and has got a few ideas flowing already (and a few terms to google). Not only are the simulations faster, i can mess around with them whenever i feel like it. Setting up the 'real deal' is a weekend affair. Fidelity of any simulation i put together will be very questionable for a while but at least it can help me understand how the parameters affect the response.

I really appreciate it! Thanks!