Steve Sullivan
New member
Hey all. Great forum you have here. It was very helpful for me to learn about ATC and smokers.
I have an electric brinkmann (I know, I know I’m not a purist right?) and it lacks any temp control. I’ve attempted to use simple dimmers/hot plate controls on the brinkmann but each had its own disadvantage and still required babysitting. I have two kids so I have to sit them and don’t have the time to constantly watch the smoker. I had been thinking of making my own advanced ATC when I came across the stoker, Amir's program sealed the deal and I had to have it.
Soon I hope to make or buy a real wood / charcoal smoker. WSM is up on the list. But so is a UDS.
Thought some here might be interested in how well the stoker works with an electric smoker.
Once I planned to use the stoker I needed a way to control the heating element instead of the fan. I figured a simple relay would do the trick. A search for the relay proved to be more difficult than I thought because the stoker sends out 5v DC for the blower. Plus 1200 watt is a lot of current. I asked John at Rocks about it and he said he's done it before, he knew of a relay and said he may have a used one in stock. He pulled the relay off a circuit board he had and sent it with his hand written wiring instructions along with the stoker. No extra charge (maybe cause extra food probes were backordered). Great service.
Stoker arrived, I cut the fan off, wired an extension cord to the relay, done.
Works awesome, keeps temps steady as could be.
For those who run the stoker wireless you may want to check out the D-link dwl-g730ap. I had this for travel and it works great as a bridge, router, access point.
Controlling/monitoring the stoker from the office and pda is just awesome.
I have an electric brinkmann (I know, I know I’m not a purist right?) and it lacks any temp control. I’ve attempted to use simple dimmers/hot plate controls on the brinkmann but each had its own disadvantage and still required babysitting. I have two kids so I have to sit them and don’t have the time to constantly watch the smoker. I had been thinking of making my own advanced ATC when I came across the stoker, Amir's program sealed the deal and I had to have it.
Soon I hope to make or buy a real wood / charcoal smoker. WSM is up on the list. But so is a UDS.
Thought some here might be interested in how well the stoker works with an electric smoker.
Once I planned to use the stoker I needed a way to control the heating element instead of the fan. I figured a simple relay would do the trick. A search for the relay proved to be more difficult than I thought because the stoker sends out 5v DC for the blower. Plus 1200 watt is a lot of current. I asked John at Rocks about it and he said he's done it before, he knew of a relay and said he may have a used one in stock. He pulled the relay off a circuit board he had and sent it with his hand written wiring instructions along with the stoker. No extra charge (maybe cause extra food probes were backordered). Great service.
Stoker arrived, I cut the fan off, wired an extension cord to the relay, done.
Works awesome, keeps temps steady as could be.
For those who run the stoker wireless you may want to check out the D-link dwl-g730ap. I had this for travel and it works great as a bridge, router, access point.
Controlling/monitoring the stoker from the office and pda is just awesome.