The way Stokerlog stokes...

I have noticed that Stokerlog seems to blow the fan for long periods of time to get the temp to rise.

It seems that when not using Stokerlog that the Stoker itself will puff in bursts. These would seem to be more effecient and/or be able to raise the heat more rapidly, wouldn't it?

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Alan D:
I have noticed that Stokerlog seems to blow the fan for long periods of time to get the temp to rise.

It seems that when not using Stokerlog that the Stoker itself will puff in bursts. These would seem to be more effecient and/or be able to raise the heat more rapidly, wouldn't it? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

The Stokerlog does not control the fan or the Stoker at all. It mearly reports on what the stoker is doing. The only time it does anything that would effect the stoker is when you change a temp or probe name. If you set the auto lid detect to on, it will adjust the temp setting as the conditions warrant. It's a very passive software.

I suspect the issue is that without stokerlog, you don't really know what the blower is doing. Whereas with stokerlog, you see a full graph, and see the oscilations.

It is a nature of control system with feedback loop to have such variations.

As Ken said, the algorithm for blower control is not exposed. I wishe it was so that we could tune it with a lot more smarts in the PC software. But it is not.

Amir,

I suspect your right. My experience comes from the times when I'm physically in front of the pit, without stoker log it seemed more puffy, but that could be that I'm not near it enough to know what is going the whole time, as you suggest.

One thing I notice though is that I can go along pretty steady until I open the lid once. Then it starts going all over the charts, north, south, etc...and take a really long time to level out again...sometimes up to an hour or more...that's what made me think about this.

But this also reminds me that without Stokerlog, the fan comes blasting on when you open the lid without setting the target down, and that can bump the pit up 20 degrees in the blink of an eye...I guess there's no perfect world...*sigh*,,,

Alan,

I noticed this happening a while back as well. I spoke with John at Rock's and he explained to me the way the stoker software reaches and maintains it's temperature curve. He stated that it is best to physically turn the stoker off when opening the lid, do what you have to do, close the lid, then turn the stoker back on. The software will then reset it's temperature curve and not overshoot it's target temperature to the extreme it did when starting from a cold cooker.

I have started using this method on my cooks and have to admit it works very well. With Amir's latest program, you have the ability to restart StokerLog from where it left off as opposed to starting anew, that is very handy as all the cook times are retained.