Noobie Question -- Homebrew differencies -- HELP


 

Bob Ivey

TVWBB Emerald Member
Ok, I have looked at the high end manufactured ATC's and have a good handle on what they are about. I have gone through a lot of the threads in this section. I am sure my questions have been answered before but I have not found them. It looks like the heatermeter works like the cyberq and others for a lot less money. Building a kit is not a problem for me so that is not an issue. What is the difference between a LinkMeter and a heatermeter. What is a raspberry pi. I get the idea it is the interface for a heatermeter to a computer network.

I guess what I am asking is what is the best approach and how do they compare to the commercially available products. Obviously the commercial products are more expensive. I can build kits with no problem. I am not fluent in linux but because of my work I am comfortable with networks. I am a low voltage contractor and install alarms, home theater, and phone systems.

Recommendations and comparisons will be greatly appreciated. Pardon my running on a bit but I am not really sure exactly what to ask.

Thanks
 
a linkmeter i believe uses the the linksys wrt54g. the heater meter is the actual board.
the linksys method is outdated and no longer supported, not to mention you can actually get a raspberry pi for cheaper then you can get the required router for the earlier version.
raspberrypi is a small 35 dollar computer that is all in one and is linux based for the most part. You definetely want to build heatermeter plus raspberrypi. btw you may want to research how you want to enclose it all and things like that. I have a thread were i am working on a weather resistant model but you have to solder things in a different way and it requires a few different component. I built one board and no that i see what i really want to do i am building another and weather resistant enclosure
 
I saw that thread. It looks interesting but if I decide to do this I will start with the standard unit first to get familiar with it. Weatherproofing electronics is nothing new to me but not being familiar with this project yet I am not sure how I would do it.
In your experience, how will the heatermeter and raspberrypi work compared to the commercial units. It looks like it only handles one smoker at a time but that probably won't be a problem. Can this system be monitored through a pc or a mac. I know they have an android app. Is there an ipad app? Can the system keep a full record of the cook?
Thanks
 
The Wiki has a lot of direct answers that might be easier to look through but I'll hit some of your questions.

When I refer to HesterMeter it means the microcontroller board that actually does the controlling. This can be used standalone with the integrated character LCD and buttons to control a BBQ without any networking or graphs. LinkMeter is the marriage of that to some sort of teeny little Linux box to do graphing and provide a web interface, storage, and a lot of speed. This was initially a WRT54GL router but now we use the RaspberryPi which is like 10x faster, 10x easier to set up, and has plenty of room to grow. The term HeaterMeter is generally used on these forums to refer to the whole shebang though.

The main monitoring interface is via web browser which streams data from the device. The page works on iPhone/iPad, Mac Safari, Android browser, PC Chrome Firefox and IE (to a lesser extent). I exclusively use the web interface so that's all I develop for. The Android app trails a little behind feature-wise.

You're right, only one pit can be controlled, with only one output, but with up to 4 probes (only one can be used to control the temperature, the rest are view-only).

You can store cooks by using the "stash" operation which stores the log to the SD card which can then be viewed later or exported to CSV if you want to import it into Excel. Saving the graph to PNG is also supported in the next release. You can't keep notes about it _yet_ but that's something I'd like to add. (Actually you can but it isn't easy to do).

There's also high/low alarms for each probe which in addition to beeping, can send email or SMS (via email-SMS gateway) or anything else you can do with Linux command line tools. For example, I have my system step down the temperature as the food gets close to being done then send an SMS when it is.

The basic system is designed to be easy for regular users but there are hooks _everywhere_ for people who like to tinker, pull data out, or connect to other things.
 
Thanks for the input Bryan, it was very helpful. Is it possible to compare your system to the commercially available units. They are obviously much more expensive. Labor is not a problem and the experience of doing it myself is a big plus. Thanks.
 
Well I haven't really kept up with what the commercial products are doing because it seemed they were playing catchup to HeaterMeter :-D I know the Stoker has a better probe system in that you can plug a probe or fan into any port and it can control two pits, but for the cost difference you can probably build two HeaterMeters for that price. HeaterMeter also doesn't need a separate PC for graphing as it is all integrated into the unit. The web pages on HeaterMeter are also a lot fancier and can be replaced if you know javascript and HTML programming (replacement home screens welcome!). You still get a total of up to 4 probes (1 pit, 3 food) which is the max any device supports. One thing you don't get is a "ramp down" mode which some support with a simple checkbox. You've gotta script it yourself (from the script repository) if you want it to do that.

You also get me! I don't know how much work the commercial products put into their software but I spend a lot of spare time working on it. You know if you come up with a feature that's cool, I'll make it. I just added "servo control" mode, which is something the commercial products don't have, allowing you to use a servo and a damper instead of a fan which works pretty well.
 
Well Bryan, I think the heatermeter is my best bet. I don't need two pits and you are right, it is not a problem to build another unit. I don't think the probe system is a big deal. While it would be nice, it should be easy to keep the different meat probes straight. When using a WSM, what advantage would the servo and damper be? And the other advantage, and I think the most important, is access to you.
 
The servo and damper is nice because for some people the fan can blow up some ash, or actually blow heat out of the smoker so they limit the lower the max fan speed to prevent that from happening. It also prevents air from naturally convecting through the fan when it is off and letting the pit get too hot. With and of these fan systems you have to choke off the smoker a bit because the fan can only really raise the temperatue by supplying air and relies in the fire choking itself out to bring the temp down. On my Big Green Egg, it means I can leave the top open more than just a crack which prevents stale smoke from building up inside and possibly giving a little off flavor to your BBQ. That said, I've been using the fan for 4 or is it 5 years now and making great pulled pork.
 
If I wanted to try the servo damper idea, is there a specific part you would recommend? I am using a WSM22. And is there anything different or difficult that needs to be changed to do it? Will it work with the existing circuit board?
Also, I saw posts about using a 4 line display instead of a two line display. What changes need to be made to make that happen other than getting a different display? I have found displays on ebay that meet the specifications.
Thanks for your help
 
Servo Mode and one such damper hardware. It is just 3 easy solders to connect it to the system and you can switch back and forth if you want.

4-line LCD is just a web config option (4-line home) and you'll also need to run a ribbon cable to it (the pins are the same but not in the same location) to connect it up.
 

 

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