Guide Contents
Guide Contents
Overview
Pinouts
Power Pins:
2
3
6
6
SPI Logic pins:
Additional Pins
Assembly
Prepare the header strip:
Add the breakout board:
And Solder!
6
6
8
8
8
9
Wiring & Test
SPI Wiring
Download Adafruit_MAX31856 library
Attach Thermocouple
Load Demo
Library Reference
Faults
13
13
13
14
14
16
17
Downloads
Files
Schematic
Fabrication Print
19
19
19
19
© Adafruit Industries
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-max31856-thermocouple-amplifier
Page 2 of 20
Overview
Thermocouples are very sensitive, requiring a good amplifier with a cold-compensation reference, as well as
calculations to handle any non-linearities. For a long time we've suggested our MAX31855K breakout, which works
great but is only for K-type thermocouples. Now we're happy to offer a great new thermocouple amplifier/converter
that can handle just about
any
type of thermocouple, and even has the ability to give you notification when the
temperature goes out of range, or a fault occurs. Very fancy!
This converter communicates over 4-wire SPI and can interface with any K, J, N, R, S, T, E, or B type thermocouple
© Adafruit Industries
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-max31856-thermocouple-amplifier
Page 3 of 20
This breakout does everything for you, and can be easily interfaced with any microcontroller, even one without an
analog input. This breakout board has the chip itself, a 3.3V regulator and level shifting circuitry, all assembled and
tested. Comes with a 2 pin terminal block (for connecting to the thermocouple) and pin header (to plug into any
breadboard or perfboard). We even added inline resistors and a filter capacitor onboard for better stability, as
recommended by Maxim.
Goes great with our 1m K-type thermocouple
(http://adafru.it/270)
or any other thermocouple,
really!
Works with any K, J, N, R, S, T, E, or B type thermocouple
-210°C to +1800°C output in 0.0078125° resolution - note that many thermocouples have about ±2°C to ±6°C
accuracy or worse depending on the temperature and type, so the resolution will be a lot better than the
accuracy!
Internal temperature reading
3.3 to 5v power supply and logic level compliant!
SPI data requires any 4 digital I/O pins.
© Adafruit Industries
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-max31856-thermocouple-amplifier
Page 4 of 20