Aubers Temperature Controller for Charcoal Smoker


 
j biesinger

j biesinger

TVWBB Platinum Member
I just saw this atc posted in another thread

aubers Temperature Controller for Charcoal Smoker

I was wondering if anybody has any experience using the unit.

I feel that in most situations, an atc is overkill for the wsm, but I would like something to give me some insurance during the night at comps, which would allow me to get some worry free sleep.

I was thinking the nanoQ, but this is much cheaper and seems like it has better features.
 
I was looking at this too for the overnight smokes. Would much rather get worry free sleep. Anyone ?
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got my in the mail last week and ran it yesterday. it seemed to work ok, but I think I challenged it with a small fire.
 
Thanks, let me know how the overnight goes!

I am cooking 2 butts friday night the sleepless way. Might be able to sneak this in before my first comp 10/2.
 
Thanks, let me know how the overnight goes!
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won't be until our next comp 9/24

Meaning?
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I had half a ring of briquettes, and started the minion with about 12 lit. It blew hard getting up to temp, and at one point, I left it for about an hour and it was under temp and blowing hard. I had to shove the remaining coals over towards it and it did fine for the rest of the cook.

next time, I'm going to build a bigger minion and see if it does better.
 
Did you get a chance to use this at your comp ?
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yeah, it worked. I'm not sure what the deal is, but it seems to have limitations. I got to play with it some more to see if I can get it to hold a temp.

I kind of suspected the wsm doesn't need an atc, but thought I try one out.
 
For $100 I couldn't pass up the chance to get one. Shipped the next day. Unlike other on-line purchases Aubers' did not send an email with package tracking info.

I ordered on a Thursday evening and the package showed up at my door on Monday via USPS having originated in GA.

Won't get a chance to try it until Wednesday, but looking forward to seeing if it works.

Since I'm planning on a Butt cook with a minion start I might not start up the control until my temp is around 200. While I suspect that the units can handle starting at a low temp and bringing it up that if you're closer it doesn't have as much to go and less likely to overshoot. More worried about this because I'll use it in the egg first and any overshoot will take awhile to come down due to Thermal Mass of the Ceramic cooker.
 
I used it twice so far. Today I made Pizza but was using a temp that I thought was too high for the controller (temperature probe).

The first cook as a minion start and the controller wasnt hooked up until the pit was up to temperature. Control was excellent and unmoving for about 6 hours of a 12 hour pulled pork cook. The last 6 hours had about a +/- 5 degree temperature swing. Used 250 as temperature.

For the second cook (a brisket) I decided to load everything into the smoker at once. Again a minion start but the smoker was fully loaded and the controller turned on while the temp was still below 100. The fan basically ran straight until about 240-245 and then shut off, but the temp of the smoker went all the way up to 284 before starting to come back down. It took over an hour for the temp to come back down to the 250 area and for the remainder of the cook I had the +/- 10 degree swings.

Afterwards I decided to "autotune" the algorithm. With the smoker running good at 250 I had it in autotune mode and set for 275. The numbers it came up with seem "high" for what I thought they'd be, but haven't had a chance to cook with it since tuned.

I'm off from work all next week so will give it a shot sometime during the week, maybe another Pulled Pork or some Ribs.

Later,
Brad.
 
I've been having problems with overshoot, but I don't think it has anything to do with the stoker. The fan does not run but temps continue to creep up. I have a good seal on all the dampers. I'm wondering if the wsm is drawing air around the door and possibly at the joints.
 
Today I did a smoke with the Aubers running from a cold smoker and a minion start. Was looking to hold 225. The ramp up went smooth, if not alittle slow, the fan didn't run the whole time but it didn't have the overshoot of temp like the 2nd run.

However, over the course of 2 hours the temperature slowly crept up to 250. No big deal and I didn't get bent out of shape about it. I'm using an egg with a new gasket so the seal is very good. Only place for air leaks is around the fan adapter or in the fan. Today was a very windy day. Cold front blew in during the cook and the temps to a 10-15 degree dive.

I'm wondering if the fan is letting the air leak in. The Guru fan's have that adjustable damper feature so that you can regulate the airflow when the fan is not running. Maybe a partial cover over the top of the fan "box" would be the answer?
 
Brad, I'm still having problems with my unit. I hooked it up to a primo and had it set for 220*. During the initial ramp it overshot to 260*. And for the next 4 hrs it oscillated between 200 and 240. I tried autotune but I ran out of charcoal before I could figure out if it was working.

I was reading some about the variables and everything points to the preset values being set up for long oscillations and "stability". I may contact the company to see if they can give me a clue as to which ones I should adjust.

The other option may be to let the cooker ramp up on its own and set the PID to on/off mode.
 
J,

Let me know how Auber responds. I am really interested in this by I am not going to drop the money on it if it's inconsistent and has to be watched. Would kind of defeat the purpose.
 
Let me know how Auber responds. I am really interested in this by I am not going to drop the money on it if it's inconsistent and has to be watched. Would kind of defeat the purpose.
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here's my email:

I have been using your Temp Controller for Charcoal Smoker with Blower for a
few months, on both a weber smokey mountain and primo ceramic cooker. With
either cooker, I did not find your unit provided me with a level of control
better that what I could achieve without the blower. With the wsm I suspect
that it isn't airtight, and the fact that the temps ran away were not the
fault of the unit.

However, with the primo, I've noticed a big initial overshoot, and then long
oscillations +/- 20*. I'm considering adjusting the preset values and was
hoping somebody can give me some suggestions on where to start.

My guess is that I need the unit to react sooner and with less output.
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here's what I got 73 minutes later:

Hello Jeff Biesinger,
1) First, you can try to increase the SouF value from 0.7 to 1.0.
2) If that still give you the problem, you can increase the P value by 1/3 of the original value.
3) If that still not help, you can try to run auto-tune.
Thanks,

Suyi Liu
Auber Instruments
www.auberins.com
770-569-8420
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I believe all ATC's are some form of PID, and the trick is really all about getting it tuned. I'm not sure how the guru and stoker versions work in terms of tuning, but the Auber lets you adjust 6 different parameter settings (in addition to the autotune feature).

I'm kind of excited to see if I can figure it out (I suspect I'll get frustrated before I do). I wished it logged so I could see when the blower kicks on and off as I adjust the settings.
 
Here is were my parameters are set after Autotune: (Large Green Egg, up to temp of 250, autotune with temp set to 275)

P - 3.2
I - 1423
d - 355

The rest are still factory default.

I have to agree with you that I think the default system was set up to allow some oscillations and not maintain a specific exact temperature. Yesterday I smoked some bacon that was curing during the previous week and didn't use the controller at all because I didn't want to deal with the overshoot of temps.

The airflow control on both the WSM and the ceramic cookers is so good and temperature control precise enough that you really don't need the ATC controlers. I was really hoping to get better control at the lower temperatures to psuedo cold smoke.
 
Here is were my parameters are set after Autotune: (Large Green Egg, up to temp of 250, autotune with temp set to 275)

P - 3.2
I - 1423
d - 355
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I checked mine after it autotuned:

P - 8.0
I - 1626
d - 399

Their recommendation was to increase SouF which autotune did not do, and to increase P (like yours) but mine went down.

Both of our I's and d's went way up. I'm going to have to figure out that one
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I have one that I use with my electric smoker to do tomatoes and cheese and other such things that require lower temps. I end up placing the wood chunks on the heating element directly. Works pretty well in that setup for me.
 
So I did a cook yesterday and today. Yesterday's was the KFC (Kamado Fried Chicken) and today was smoking a slab of bacon.

Last night I tried to run the egg at 450 with the Auber, but it would only go to 380 and once the meat was in it couldn't get above 340. Took the Auber fan off and opened the air vents and in about 10 minutes had 400.

Today I smoked a slab of bacon and was looking for a temperature of 200. Unit performed well, started with a minion of 1 coal lit by my blow torch and placed in the grill. The Auber brought it up to temp and it settled between 198 and 205 for 3 hours while the bacon came up to 160. Not as much wind today as the last time and I didn't suffer the steady climb in temp with the fan off as I had done before.
 
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