Recent content by Todd E.

Started out by cleaning off the solder side of the PCB with alcohol. Rechecked that the blower was wired to the Cat5 properly and fired up the HM w/o the Pi. Everything worked and plugging in the blower cable didn't mess with the LCD. Also, none of the "hot" operating temps I had felt before...

Yep. With blower disconnected and the HM calling for 100% blower it seems to be happy. I'll start with the blower wiring and MOFSET joints. I used a Cat5 cable for the blower with blowerBLK to CatBLUE and blowerRED to CatBLUE/WHITE. Thanks Bryan. Todd

I got my 4.2 board all soldered up. Strapped on the Pi and fired things up. Everything looked good and I changed the Pit0 setting to TC so the reading went from "The Sun" to ambient 73 degrees F. Plugged in the blower (blower only, no servo) and the LCD went blank. Adjust contrast didn't do...

Steve, Where did you get your TC probe? I like the mount using the grate clip. Does the probe reside "permanently" inside the smoker or do you run it through a hole large enough for the fastener? Maybe you run the prbe through a grommet and attach the clip for each cook. Todd

I've bullied my brother and BBQ competition teammate into going the HM route. I think I'm going to go the thermocouple option but am totally lost on what "style" to get. I know K type and all that but what are the rest of you TCers out there using in your WSMs? I have been positioning my...

Another good observation and one I (and maybe others) have come to take for granted. Sometimes I get so far into DIY, open source, MacGyver mode that I forget how and why I got here in the first place. I used to be more of a "Look at me! I'm sticking it to The Man!" but now am more motivated by...

Understood. It's all I can do to manage my single WSM. Spot on again Ralph. The main motivator is to be able to get some reasonably stress free shut eye once things are set. Good point about the HM route providing a staged entry option. Standalone would fit the bill but I just loooooovvve the...

My brother has gotten the competition BBQ bug and is looking to add some ATC to his WSM fleet (18" and 22"). He's looking at the stoker primarily due to its ability to control multiple pits. Of course , I'm trying to steer him to the HM build because I'm biased. Looking at the latest from the HM...

I think I was above the set point for >2 sec but will double check later and pay closer attention. Todd

update I was messing around with my HM and calibrating the servo pulse range when I noticed that the blower was up to it's old "tricks" again. It was ignoring the max setting and coming on at whatever startup setting was entered. I went through a few cycles of "cooling" and "heating" (my wife...

Agreed Ralph. Just being a little silly. It seems like the air burner would almost necessitate the blower being on at some rate during the cook. I would think that the small holes in the manifold would cut down on the natural draft (already "restricted" by moving through the damper mechanism)...

I suppose a lower cfm fan would help. I'll check and see if there's one available that fits my damper housing. I'm also holding out some hope that deflecting the air flow downward will help. EDIT Maybe there would be a software solution to this. If your damper is at 100% open and the temp still...

I think that's the sort of thing I need for my rig. I'm going to fabricate a deflector and see if that helps my blower act more like a stoker and less like a cooler. I've seen that BBQ Guru adapter but never paid attention to the "insides" of the mount. Thanks for the eye opener. Todd

I like where this is headed. Right now (as of early tonight) my set up is on above = 99%, min = 0%, max = 10%, max on startup = 50%(?). I don't do high heat cooks per se but would probably use the other two vents to achieve and control a temp over 300 on my 18" WSM. As I said before, too much...

more success I did this and things seem to be working for me as well. The process seemed to muck up the network connection for a bit but everything eventually came online. At first, the blower was up to it's old tricks (not recognizing the max blower speed) and was coming on at 100% whenever...