Probe-only configuration


 
F

Fabian H

New member
Hi all,

by way of introduction - I'm Fabian from Portland, Oregon. I just got a used Akorn Kamado, and being the engineer that I am, decided that this is something I need to automate. My beer brewing rig is fully automated too. I work as a software engineer in industrial controls, mostly for sawmill laser scanning.

Now to my question: I bought a 4.2 HM kit and got it all soldered up, it boots up and I can access the web GUI.

Can I just use a thermistor probe (I got a Thermoworks) for Probe 0 (Pit) ? The probe works fine in slots 1 and 2, but in slot 0 it shows wrong values. I suspect that slot 0 is for a thermocouple only.
I did change the probe type in the GUI from thermocouple to Thermistor, but that does not help. The assembly instructions are unclear to this point. Is there a hardware modification I need to make?

Alternatively, can I somehow set probe 1 as the pit probe? I don't mind mucking with the source, but figured I'll ask here first.
Lastly, a huge thanks to all the people here, I have spent countless (work) hours reading the forum while waiting for Mouser parts, and learned so much from all you guys.

- Fabian
 
Ok, so I'm one step further, the standalone HM shows probe 1 as the pit temp when i disable probe 0, but the GUI still insists on showing probe 0 at the top. I can live with that, but it would be nice to have probe 1 be the pit temp shown at the top.
Fabian
 
No Thermocouple solution

Did you ever get this resolved?

I got a "Thermoworks TX-1003X-AP air probe with grate clip" as advised in the wiki.
I'm facing the same issue, I'm not planning to use a themocouple, and instead want to use Probe 1 as the pit probe.

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Thanks Steve, that functionality is working fine. Was curious more for the title/header bar showing "Off" and my probe 0 name instead of the pit temp. If I wasn't anal, I would have purchased a commercial controller and been done with it :)
Maybe it's just a better idea to go with the thermocouple as the pit probe, and use it as designed?
 
You'll be hard pressed to find a commercial solution that can match the heatermeter's bells and whistles. Thermocouples are cheap, rugged and plentiful. Those were the main driving points for making the pit probe a TC.
 
I can change it so that the "control probe" temperature is reported in the first slot always so it appears as probe 0 in the webui and on the graph. However, you'll still have to manually name probe 0 to match what you want, and the temperature value will be duplicated in its actual spot as well, is that an acceptable compromise?
 
That would be awesome, Bryan, though I just placed an order for a thermocouple air probe from TW, so I should be all set. Might help someone else, and I wouldn't mind testing it out maybe as a backup in case my TC fails someday... Thanks for all the hard work you do.
 
This is available now in the snapshot AVR firmware 20180101B (LinkMeter -> AVR Firmware -> Online Repository, flash the latest heatermeter.hex).
 
Hey Bryan,

Just wanted to report back that this works perfectly for me. Probe 0 Disabled but named something useful like 'PBC'. Probe 0 Name displays in the header along with the pit temp from Probe 1.
Thank you!

Mike
 
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