Stoker Blower Fan acting weird

Finally an issue with the Stoker. I accidentally snagged the cable on the fan, and it yanked it (unplugged) from the unit. After that the fan is still recognized as Blower 1 (my name for it) but it is acting weird. It will run and run, so i have to either unplug it or turn the stoker off. It gets the pit to 265 (target of 225) and still blowing. I turn unit off, and manage the pit manually. After the pit recovers, I try it again, and the fan wont turn on.
Everything was great until my big feet got in the way.
I may have damaged it, but just wanted to throw this out to you guys. any ideas?

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by james brosche:
Finally an issue with the Stoker. I accidentally snagged the cable on the fan, and it yanked it (unplugged) from the unit. After that the fan is still recognized as Blower 1 (my name for it) but it is acting weird. It will run and run, so i have to either unplug it or turn the stoker off. It gets the pit to 265 (target of 225) and still blowing. I turn unit off, and manage the pit manually. After the pit recovers, I try it again, and the fan wont turn on.
Everything was great until my big feet got in the way.
I may have damaged it, but just wanted to throw this out to you guys. any ideas? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>I would call John and ask him, it sounds like some of the electronics inside the phone plug are disconnected possibly. There was somewhere it implied in the docs that there is some electronic smarts in the plug, so that it can determine what type of device is connected, must have done something to it.

Probably a simple repair for John, but would require you send it back to him, most likely.

You can open it up like any respectable hacking type individual would do, see if you can fix it, and if you break it as-is common with the hacker type you can just mail him the part back anyway!

Has anyone opened their Stoker, and if so what type of processor is in it? Does this have a PIC in it? Just curious, I need to know and will be opening mine soon...hehehe

Do this:

Disconnect all temp probes. Just leave the blower plugged in. Turn on the unit. Does the blower run continuously?

So, I followed Amir's advice and plugged it in. It didn't do anything. So I then plugged in the pit probe. Fan turned on. I adjusted the pit to below room temp. Fan turned off. I adjusted fan to 200 and fan kicked on and ran. I then reset probe back to below room temp and fan shut off.

Seems to be working...

Plot thickens...

I thought that would be the case .

Sadly, that is one bug that exists in stoker. On both of my units, sometimes it will power on with the blower and it will never shut off. Unplugging the temp probe usuaully (but not always) fixes it.

It seems to have something to do with what the set temp was from the last cook.

The issue is that it is so hard to duplicate. If we can nail the scenario that makes it happen, I can get the develper to fix it.

I have used my stoker a few times and not had any problems. I would contact John Jackson and let him know what the problem is. I think you may have to send it back though.

Amir, I am so glad you posted that. My stoker has done that same thing twice, but I did not try unplugging a temp sensor. I think I fixed it by moving around some of the plugs. (Essentially accomplishing the same thing.)

When the stoker gets into that state, I don't think power cycling it helped either.

That's correct Kelley. Power cycling does no good.

One strange solution I have found is to hold the pit probe between my fingers. This causes its temp to rise as the machine is booting and fixes the problem often. Of course, the probe tends to be smelly (smokey) so I tend to not want to go that route, lest I want my fingers to smell all day .

Another friend of mine has the same problem that is why I am sure it is a software bug and not a defect in single unit.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Amir:
I thought that would be the case .

Sadly, that is one bug that exists in stoker. On both of my units, sometimes it will power on with the blower and it will never shut off. Unplugging the temp probe usuaully (but not always) fixes it.

It seems to have something to do with what the set temp was from the last cook.

The issue is that it is so hard to duplicate. If we can nail the scenario that makes it happen, I can get the develper to fix it. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>


That isone issue that I am having repeatadly and yes sometimes turning it off opr unplugging fans and probes will fix,but more and more now it will not cure the problem.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by T Hoffman:
That isone issue that I am having repeatadly and yes sometimes turning it off opr unplugging fans and probes will fix,but more and more now it will not cure the problem. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Try the above method of holding the fire pit probe in between your fingers so that it warms up and then turn on the device....

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Amir:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by T Hoffman:
That isone issue that I am having repeatadly and yes sometimes turning it off opr unplugging fans and probes will fix,but more and more now it will not cure the problem. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Try the above method of holding the fire pit probe in between your fingers so that it warms up and then turn on the device.... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>


I understand ,but should we REALLY have to do that to get the unit working again ? I am fed up with Stoker and John,hopefully the DigiQ II will be better.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by T Hoffman:
I understand ,but should we REALLY have to do that to get the unit working again ? I am fed up with Stoker and John,hopefully the DigiQ II will be better. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
I guess I should not suggest standing on one leg while aligning the stoker due north to get it working .

Seriously, no, this bug should not be there. Period.

As to Guru being better, that is not the case for those of us hooked on the many, many things we can do with stoker which we cannot do with Guru. If you all you want is a thermostat, then Guru is a fine product.

For the rest of us, we like having our PC playing some music when the food is ready. Or waking up in the morning and knowing how the fire did.

The pain with Rock goes away once you have the unit in your hand. And the start-up thing above while annoying at times, also goes away once the unit is operating. No excuses for either. But having spend hundreds of hours programming the stoker out of sheer fun of using the capabilities of this box, there is no way the Guru is better for me. But I understand it not being the case for others .

I also have had issues with fan staying in the "ON" position as the temp goes 100+ degrees above my "setting". I'm glad to see there is a fix, and I'll unplug and reset to see if that helps. I also took the advice of a few on here and just bought a DI-524 on the cheap from a guy in my neighborhoon on Craigslist. Looking forward to setting it up!