Has anyone try to build a DIY Guru/Stoker?


 
T

Thomas Nguyen

New member
I'm curious how difficult it would be to build your own automatic temp control unit like the Guru or Stoker. Has anyone had any success in this kind of project?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Thomas Nguyen:
I'm curious how difficult it would be to build your own automatic temp control unit like the Guru or Stoker. Has anyone had any success in this kind of project? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
There was a recent thread on a homebrew solution based on off-the-shelf controllers. Problem is that it is not that much cheaper and you wind up spending at least half as much for a crude system.

I actually used to own a company building small specialized electronic devices. And I can tell you that this device does a ton relative to what they charge for it, and the small market for it.

If you have spent $600-$1000 on the smoker, adding $200 to it to make it a complete system is not much. If it saves two or three cooks from going bad, it pays for itself. And with things like the web interface, it adds a level of joy to the hobby that simply is not there.

Finally, as you may know, I have written a program to control the stoker. And you are getting that for free
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While I'd certainly argue the "crude" part, my controller was certainly never meant for mass production. It's a hobby - but the nice thing is it does EXACTLY what I want, and if I need a new feature, I can code it up in a jiffy.

There is info here.

Amir - is your software open source? You might be surprised what cool features other folks could add.
 
Bob, I was not aware of your project. What I had seen was people using off-the-shelf PID controllers which really are crude tools for the job.

Your system is actually superior to Stoker because of the PWM controller. I had suggested John to implement the same on Stoker but he thought it was too hard.

As to sharing my source code, I am too embarraced to do so.
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This was supposed to be a one day project with a few lines of code. now it is over 4000 lines of code and growing. One of these days I will re-write/re-architect it properly and then share it out.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Thomas Nguyen:
I'm curious how difficult it would be to build your own automatic temp control unit like the Guru or Stoker. Has anyone had any success in this kind of project? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I made a lot of progress on building my own homebrew version of the stoker. (this was before there was a Stoker). I know software, but not hardware, so I spent much of my time figuring out how to interface thermometers to computers. My design goals were slightly different than the stoker and I made many different choices. My most significant cost challenge was thermometers. Those things are just plain expensive in very low quantities.

In the end, I abandoned my project. My solution would have cost about the same or slightly more than the Stoker. Also, the Stoker is superior in almost every way to the solution I was designing...
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I am very happy with my Stoker. The Stoker is built around the Maxim/Dallas TINI board, which is a great solution for this type of project.

-Matt
 
One thing I never could figure out about the stoker is its use of those Maxim/Dallas thermometers. All the data sheets I have read indicate that the probes go up to 125 degrees C, which is only 257 degrees F. Is this true of the stoker? Or is there some magic or undocumented (or hidden) feature of the Maxim/Dallas probes/chips that I do not know about???
 
I know that this topic is OLD, but I just completed a very nice DIY temperature controller, using a PID controller. The entire project cost me $115, and that's adding lots of frivolous features. That and the fact that I mainly did it out of a curiosity of how PID controls work. It maintains temps within 1 degree. It has two cooking chamber probes and averages the readings to determine the PV (process value). I'm currently using a BBQ Guru fan, until I get my own blower designed, which is almost done. I've written an instructable on the topic that I'll be publishing soon.
 
Nik, when will you be publishing your DIY temp controller on Instructable. I'm very interested in what you will publish.
 
Thomas, I put together a control system a while back. Look here
Sorry the pictures are no longer there.

Even though I spent as much as a store bought one this controller is an industrial quality controller. Auto tune, NEMA 4 rating etc. I now use them for much of my temperature control at work (PXR4). This unit is durable and will control the pit temperature to plus minus 1 degree. Have made 4 others for friends. That way I get to come over and eat their food.
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I have gotten a few of my engineers excited about building a DIY controller. They have built quite a few controller devices in the past and we should be able to leverage past work. Right now I am just talking to friends about what the specs on the unit should be.

I would love to hear suggestions on what you would do to improve your current controllers. The first major improvement will be variable speed fan control. I also want the device to have built in Wifi.
 
Hi, new to the board. I was reading this post and was wondering if Bob had an update on his Homebrew temp montitor/controller or if someone else picked it up and used it?
 
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