Dirty power ?


 

JKalchik

TVWBB Gold Member
So, my g/f & I loaded up the truck, trailer & monster and headed north this weekend. A long time friend of ours, her son is graduating culinary arts school. We hatched out the idea of smoking for his graduation party several months ago, and here we are. 2 packer briskets, 2 pork butts and a bunch of chicken is on the menu.

Calumet, MI. It's not the end of the earth, but when it's not snowing, you can see it from here. Houses are frequently a century old, and you can still find knob and tube wiring still in use.

On to the HeaterMeter issue/observations. In an attempt to keep from having to muck about with the WiFi configuration, I brought along a pair of EthernetOverPower adapters/transceivers. First issue: The GFCI breaker I brought along (extension cord style) kept tripping as soon as the extension cord was plugged in. Okay, the kitchen has been rewired and it's already on a GFCI. Fine, take that out of circuit. The EoP adapter would not start up at the end of the extension cord. Works fine in the kitchen where the extension cord is plugged in, but won't start at the end of the extension cord. The HeaterMeter has now been running for better than 15 hours, and the thermocouple pit probe is reading +/- 10 degrees, or more. As a result, the fan/damper is cycling up and down frequently.

How sensitive is the Arduino board to dirty power? Or low voltage? At home, it's been running dandy, but this is the second trip with it where it's misbehaving. Mary does have problems with the GFCI tripping in the kitchen on a fairly regular basis. Before anybody suggests a professional electrician, this is pretty well out in the hinterlands. Good contractors are not common, and priced commensurately.
 
So, my g/f & I loaded up the truck, trailer & monster and headed north this weekend. A long time friend of ours, her son is graduating culinary arts school. We hatched out the idea of smoking for his graduation party several months ago, and here we are. 2 packer briskets, 2 pork butts and a bunch of chicken is on the menu.

Calumet, MI. It's not the end of the earth, but when it's not snowing, you can see it from here. Houses are frequently a century old, and you can still find knob and tube wiring still in use.

On to the HeaterMeter issue/observations. In an attempt to keep from having to muck about with the WiFi configuration, I brought along a pair of EthernetOverPower adapters/transceivers. First issue: The GFCI breaker I brought along (extension cord style) kept tripping as soon as the extension cord was plugged in. Okay, the kitchen has been rewired and it's already on a GFCI. Fine, take that out of circuit. The EoP adapter would not start up at the end of the extension cord. Works fine in the kitchen where the extension cord is plugged in, but won't start at the end of the extension cord. The HeaterMeter has now been running for better than 15 hours, and the thermocouple pit probe is reading +/- 10 degrees, or more. As a result, the fan/damper is cycling up and down frequently.

How sensitive is the Arduino board to dirty power? Or low voltage? At home, it's been running dandy, but this is the second trip with it where it's misbehaving. Mary does have problems with the GFCI tripping in the kitchen on a fairly regular basis. Before anybody suggests a professional electrician, this is pretty well out in the hinterlands. Good contractors are not common, and priced commensurately.

I had some issues and bryan had me install a plug in that shows noise in thermocouple reading. In spite of fluctuating reading by several F, mine still controlled, because fluctuations averaged. My problem got mostly better with different thermocouple. Still shows noise though. ... I live near high voltage lines...might or might not have something to do with it. There are times when its noise free.....and times when its not.
 
Last edited:
<scratches head> The brisket has probed really tender, 1 at 192 F, and the other at 197 F. The butts are at 180 and the aitch bone is just about ready to pull cleanly. Chicken just went on, should be on for just under 3 hours. Based on the probe readings and how the meat feels... something ain't quite right. Food is still gonna be good.
 
Now that I'm home, I'm running a long test burn. I have installed the hm-noise AVR firmware to see the noise display (as suggested by Bryan in another thread.) While it's behaving better here than away, if I'm reading the noise display correctly, I've got a noise issue with the thermocouple. Time to dig out another thermocouple....
 
I would suggest instead of running power out to your grill you run a long CAT5 cable from the HM output to your grill. On the grill end add a couple probe jacks wired to the 4 spare wires in the CAT5 cable, you also need to add one jumper wire per probe on the HM board as well. This way your HM is in reach of power and in a safe location from weather, theft etc... it would suck to setup a long low and slow at a campground and come back to find your HM gone, this way it can be in your car, camper etc...
 
Ralph, my smoker weighs some 1,200 lbs.... it doesn't travel often. And, when it does, it's under pretty well known circumstances.

Another thermocouple, same apparent issue. Burned Bryan's latest snapsnot, just on general principles, no difference (as expected.)

I still suspect power as a contributing issue, I'm getting only a degree or two swing, I was getting 5-10 degrees last weekend.
 

 

Back
Top