Fan set to "on at max only"


 

D Peart

TVWBB Pro
But even after it has reach pit temp the fan still acts as if on at max only isn't set.

Ideas? This is my new 4.2 build using the network cable. I've also noticed that the web page hangs long enough that Chrome prompts me to stop. Never had that before either.

david
 
David, chime in if this is different enough from your issue to make me guilty of thread-jacking and I'll post it as a new one ....

I'm having similar issues with the blower. My HM is a 4.1.4 build. I'm trying to get my blower to come on only when the damper is 100% open and then I only want it to run at some reduced rpm (e.g. 25%). I did a fair amount of reading last night that included a back and forth between Bryan and Ralph that has me thinking this may not be possible. The reasoning behind wanting to keep the blower turned down is that on the 18" WSM a full speed blower actually cools the pit. I'm using the blower included in the build hardware list. I've been using the HM with damper only control but wanted to try and figure out how to get the blower back in the game.

Also, noticed some hanging with the configuration interface in Chrome that I hadn't seen before. The work around was to close the tab and reopen a new one. I was using a wireless interface.

Todd

EDIT - Did some more digging and found this in a similar thread, from Ralph ...

Here is how it works. The blower and servo are controlled by the same basic logic, which is the HM using PID parameters along with Pit Probe temperature data to assign a speed/position. The servo position always correlates with the HM 0-100% position (unless set to open/close only mode) but the fan will follow the Min/Max/Startup rules in addition to the HM %. So if Startup max is 100% and Max is 50% the fan will blow at 100% until the pit temp is achieved the first time, from then on when the HM is at 100% the fan will actually be at 50%, and when the HM is at 80% the fan will actually be at 40% etc. With the fan "on at Max Only" setting selected, in the above scenario, the fan will blow at 100% until the pit temp is achieved the first time, when the HM backs down to 99% or below the fan will go OFF and the damper alone will operate from 0-99%. However, if the HM ever reaches 100% again the blower will turn on at 50% (the MAX value) until the HM goes back down to 99% or below, at which time it will turn back off...

I think I was following this logic with my setup. It seems like the problem is that the blower remains on and ignored the on at max only parameter.
 
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I've also seen the conf page hang but I can't debug it. I _think_ it is some event handlers getting called recursively, but if I put breakpoints in the code, they never fire more than once. It also doesn't do it every time, which doesn't make any sense at all. It's like sometimes Chrome calls an event handler multiple times and sometimes it doesn't.

Dave, make sure you're not running the latest AVR firmware because "on at max only" doesn't work in that any more. You need to upgrade to the linkmeter snapshot as well where "on at max only" is now "on above %".
 
I was running the latest firmware. I sent that unit to my brother, and will have him update it.

thanks
david
 
Bryan, there was some issues on the latest firmware where it doesn't retain the data after a power cycle, correct? I am wondering if this effects the MAX/Startup Max. During my last cook I noticed the blower was running at Startup Max even though the pit temp had been reached already, is it possible these two issues are related. I should actually pull the RD3 from the grill and verify this on the bench, because this happened during a cook so I didnt get to mess with it, I just set the Startup Max down to what I wanted the MAX to be so the blower would slow down.

- - - Updated - - -

Bryan, for the new on above %, if you wanted it to be on at max only, would you set it to 99% or 100%?

Thanks!

"On Above" I would say 99%, because it can't go above 100%...
 
The issue only affects losing the graph data on reboot, and should be fixed in the latest snapshot.

@Aaron Morris: Yup Ralph is right. It has to be *above* the on above value before the fan comes on. If you try to set it to something higher than 99% it will help you remember by setting it back to 0% (instead of 99% because of complexities in how EEPROM is cleared and not wanting to reversion the config structure).
 
OK, I will pull the RD in at some point today to experiment with and try to recreate the scenario... because I had Max set at 10% and Startup Max set at 100%, with the fan on above 50%. The setpoint had been achieved several times but the fan seemed to be ramping from 0-100% rather than from 0-10% for some reason. I have an LED across my blower power that will increase in brightness the faster the fan is blowing, but it wont come on until the blower speed is up there a bit. I don't think it will light at 10% at all, and certainly would not ramp in brightness the way it was doing during the cook... and I could hear the fan which told me it was spinning fast because the RD3 is a quiet bugger. So I am pretty sure the fan was actually ramping to 100% rather than 10% (which was brought to my attention by dips followed by spikes in my pit temp). It was a rather unattended cook, the graph caught my attention, investigating what was going on I noticed my blower LED glowing bright and could hear the fan whirring. Changing Startup max to 10% brought things into check, knowing there was another bug in this firmware version I just ignored the behavior for now.
I will try to recreate the behavior and then will install the latest snapshot and see if persists (if I can recreate it in the first place)
 
OK, I just confirmed the above behavior.

I set the blower on above 50%, Min=0 Max=10 Startup Max=100, Setpoint is 75F.

I cooled the pit probe to make the HM go to 100%, observe the blower going to 100% as well.

I then warm the pit probe to above the setpoint twice, followed by a rapid cooling which makes the HM ramp back to 100%, I STILL observe the blower ramping to 100%.

StartUpMaxError.jpg


If I change the Startup Max to 10% the blower peaks out at 10%, so it seems the HM is using the Startup Max value for the blower whether the pit temp has been achieved or not.

I did an AVR update to the latest (non noise) snapshot, same deal. I installed the 9-29 (.gz) firmware snapshot, same deal....
 
Well IDK what to say then, I just did that test several times... You can see it there on my graph...

Is there anything else in my setup that may cause this behavior, like carrying over HM settings or something?
 
Well IDK what to say then, I just did that test several times... You can see it there on my graph...

Is there anything else in my setup that may cause this behavior, like carrying over HM settings or something?

Just tried mine with 9/29 snapshot and it is working correctly doing the same type of test you did. So something is up with your settings somewhere.
 
OK, thanks for confirming... I just repeated it again on my unit, third time around, so I'm not crazy... LOL

I guess I am going to have to try flashing the firmware with the "keep settings" unchecked and see if that fixes up my unit....
 
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Yeah it isn't that I don't believe you, because it is definitely happening there in that screenshot! I just tried it again on another HeaterMeter I have here and it works as expected too so I can't possibly think of how it could be working improperly with your setup.

Thanks also, Dan, for confirming it works for someone else besides just me (which often is the case if I've forgotten to include a file in the checkin).
 
I've done the snapshot so I think everything is on par with you all with respect to software. Here's what I've found. The Chrome lock ups seem to be gone. The fan is working more predictably but doesn't seem to be recognizing the max setting. I set the on above to 99%, min=0, max=10, startup max=100. I messed with the probe so that the set temperature was hit once but from there whenever the HM was at 100% the blower kicked on at 100%. It never came on at 10% when I ramped the pit probe temp up and down.Don't know if this clears or muddies the water.

Todd
 
Todd, that sounds like exactly what I am experiencing...
I just flashed the firmware without the "keep settings" selected, went through the whole setup routine and have it back on the grill now, waiting for the temps to normalize so I can see how it behaves....
 
Well, no joy... It's still running the blower at the Startup Max all the time instead of Max after I flashed without saving settings.
Any suggestions on how to get her back on track? I guess my next step would be to try a freshly imaged SD Card.
 
I just reset one of my HeaterMeters back to default as well and I can confirm now that something isn't right for sure. I'll get to debugging!

EDIT: Nope. It is working right, I just wasn't reading the data right. Ralph, can you copy paste the "full configuration URL" text from your config page? Not the URL, but copy and paste it as text. Dave, if you can get that information it might help too.
 
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FWIW I used the manual reset on the heatermeter a few days ago as I switched from Uverse to Comcast for internet and decided to just start from scratch. I had loaded the 9/8 snapshot then today the 9/29. All is working well for me after doing all that.


Test_zpsrggev5sz.png
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User root setting 17 values...
pn1 to TWKS = OK
al to -40,-200,-40,-175,-40,-200,-40,-200 = OK
pn0 to PIT = OK
pidp to 10 = OK
pc2 to 7.0798257e-04,2.1983532e-04,9.3692565e-08,10000,1 = OK
sp to 275 = OK
pc1 to 7.0798257e-04,2.1983532e-04,9.3692565e-08,10000,1 = OK
pidd to 0 = OK
ld to 100,30 = OK
lb to 30,255,13,10,12 = OK
pidi to 0 = OK
po to 0,0,0,0 = OK
pc0 to 2.4723753e-04,2.3402251e-04,1.3879768e-07,5,3 = OK
pn2 to TWKS = OK
fn to 0,10,70,210,16,10,50 = OK
pn3 to TWKS = OK
pc3 to 7.0798257e-04,2.1983532e-04,9.3692565e-08,10000,1 = OK
Done!

Note I was in the first step in attempted PID tuning, since the Bias factor has been removed I was forced into the PID tuning at a rather unfortunate moment...
 

 

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