John Bostwick
TVWBB Wizard
After a few different modifications and changes to both the heatermeters and adapter boards, a project that has taken longer then I have wanted(8 months), its finally finished. All 5 heatermeters are destined to be put into custom made smokers that will integrate everything into the design. The Customer wanted have the ability to have the Thermocouple and probes attached to the smoker and have all the wiring concealed, so that all that is seen is the heatermeter case. I needed to have a custom heatermeter and adapter board that would allow 3 meat probes and thermocouple.
The first try, we used a USB cable that had 9 wires, and after I soldered everything up and gave it a try, I soon realized how bad USB really is. I could not keep a stable connection. Every time I touched the heatermeters or USB cable the thermocouple would turn off, along with the blower and servo. I tried everything I could think of to make it better, but nothing worked.
So we had some brain storming and we decided on using an 9pin audio DIN cable. It gave a very nice secure connection and was compacted. I originally modified the USB boards to be used with the DIN cables and that to became a nightmare. Not only soldering 9 30-guage wires to pins and the heatermeter , was hard enough, I had to deal with a noise issue that drove me crazy for days. Although, I had working heatermeters and adapter boards that still had a noise issue, I had to send them to the customer as I was out of time and needed to send them as is while I had to go overseas.
While overseas I figured out my noise issue was the result of the wrong type .1 caps I had bought from Mouser. I also redesigned the heatermeter to use the DIN cable, and once I got home I soldered up 5 new boards and they were perfect. I sent them to the customer and a few weeks later I get another minor issue to resolve. The customer was trying to solder the 9 wires to the Adapter boards that were still made to use an USB jack, and was have a very difficult time and he sent everything back to me to see if I could get everything connected.
After, my feeble attempt at soldering wires from a DIN cable to the holes on the adapter board, I decided that another adapter board needed to be made. Due to the restrictions of space, we could not use a DIN Jack on the adapter boards and so I found a very nice solution and it made wiring up the boards very easy and the wire to board jack fit perfectly to the existing size board. Ordered up 5 more boards and waited.
Finally after 8 months, I can finally put this project behind me. They still need to be installed into the custom smokers that were made for them and hopefully I will receive some pictures of the final installation. But here are some pics of the Heatermeters and a adapter board.
The cases were made by the customer
Nice and small DIN jack
The Adapter board-The wires are for the jacks and will be mounted to the smoker
The first try, we used a USB cable that had 9 wires, and after I soldered everything up and gave it a try, I soon realized how bad USB really is. I could not keep a stable connection. Every time I touched the heatermeters or USB cable the thermocouple would turn off, along with the blower and servo. I tried everything I could think of to make it better, but nothing worked.
So we had some brain storming and we decided on using an 9pin audio DIN cable. It gave a very nice secure connection and was compacted. I originally modified the USB boards to be used with the DIN cables and that to became a nightmare. Not only soldering 9 30-guage wires to pins and the heatermeter , was hard enough, I had to deal with a noise issue that drove me crazy for days. Although, I had working heatermeters and adapter boards that still had a noise issue, I had to send them to the customer as I was out of time and needed to send them as is while I had to go overseas.
While overseas I figured out my noise issue was the result of the wrong type .1 caps I had bought from Mouser. I also redesigned the heatermeter to use the DIN cable, and once I got home I soldered up 5 new boards and they were perfect. I sent them to the customer and a few weeks later I get another minor issue to resolve. The customer was trying to solder the 9 wires to the Adapter boards that were still made to use an USB jack, and was have a very difficult time and he sent everything back to me to see if I could get everything connected.
After, my feeble attempt at soldering wires from a DIN cable to the holes on the adapter board, I decided that another adapter board needed to be made. Due to the restrictions of space, we could not use a DIN Jack on the adapter boards and so I found a very nice solution and it made wiring up the boards very easy and the wire to board jack fit perfectly to the existing size board. Ordered up 5 more boards and waited.
Finally after 8 months, I can finally put this project behind me. They still need to be installed into the custom smokers that were made for them and hopefully I will receive some pictures of the final installation. But here are some pics of the Heatermeters and a adapter board.
The cases were made by the customer
Nice and small DIN jack
The Adapter board-The wires are for the jacks and will be mounted to the smoker