Post your HeaterMeter graphs


 
Happy Thanksgiving. I got done early this year...
Turkey and Brisket cooked really quick on bottom rack.

My 4th cook using the HM, and first cook with servo on the stacks in the insulated cabinet smoker. About 50 lbs total.

12 lb and 10 lb Turkeys, 12 lb brisket, 8 lb Pork Butt, 8 lb Pork Loin. It took 8 hrs for the 12 lb bird on rack 1 to get to 183 and 9.5 hrs for the 12 lb Brisket on rack 2 to get to 195.

Thanksgiving_2014_12hrs.png


Note the "flat line" temp reading for the fire using an external thermocouple (I think the TC is actually fried). I did some tweaking around with BPID settings a few times during the cook and tried to keep track of what and when I changed something... I have notes where I did a fine tune of servo damper to be more closed when fan stops at 7:42 to decrease overshoot.

I have the full cook log that shows ambient was 42 degrees after taking the butt and loin off around 10:00 AM.

Used about 22-23 lbs of lump charcoal
 
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I wanted to post this video of my setup with Ralph's Rotodamper and of course Bryan's HeaterMeter 4.2 setups. I use a Char-Griller Akorn and had the top damper almost completely closed on this cook. My settings were some I found on this thread as my own attempts had been extremely erratic until then. My cook was a 10+ hour Costco Sirloin chunk with lump charcoal.


The top two moving bar indicators are for the servo (orange) and the fan (green). I use cat 5 from the HM to the Rotodamper, with the probes inserted into the Rotodamper.



Thanks to all - I love doing this stuff more than the food (and I do like the food)

John
 
Thats pretty slick with the video in there!!!
Since you have a HMv4.2 I would use VOLTAGE mode for the Fan Output, instead of PULSE, less noisey...
I notice your config has the roto damper in "Full open/close only" mode, so the damper only closes down in case of overshoot and lid mode and the blower is basically running the show. I prefer to let the roto damper work the full range rather than open/close only, for low temp cooks I generally set the blower "On at Max Only" and let the damper control the natural draft to regulate the temps, for higher temp cooks I usually uncheck both Full Open/close and Max only and let the servo and blower run the gamut. The HM is so versatile you can get awesome results from several control methods and there is no right and wrong, just what works for your rig... I do prefer to regulate the pit with natural draft control instead of forced air whenever possible....
Nice work!
 
Thanks for your advice Ralph (again!) I will try your suggestions next run. I also would prefer the RD use natural air to maintain the temperature but was so happy to get a 10+ hour cook at this temp/setup.
 
Yah, a stable 10+ hour cook is a beautiful thing! I would guess with natural draft control it would have lasted even longer....
 
I think I might have it dialed in! Using a barrel fan/servo on an 18.5" WSM. 5 lb pork butt. Not the total cook, but it all went well. Have my fan set to 0% min and 30% max, Servo is open/close, and top damper is 1/2 open.

lBjVhJW.jpg
 
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Here is the shortest cook log I ever made. notice a very short "stall" over 180 degrees.
10 lb brisket in an electric Butterball oil-less infrared cooker.


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6czbofWF3TxZlNBTWpkazBFQ2M/view?usp=sharing

Ambient temp is reported as the pit temp. Took less than 4 hrs from power on to power off !
Finished product has some decent tasting bark. No smoke ring on the very tip... have not cut it all up yet. Note that the brisket was over 140 degrees in less than an hour.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6czbofWF3TxZmV4NkVTME16ZHM/view?usp=sharing

Here's the setup I used. I draped the brisket over the top of the "turkey tower" wire rack inside the cook bucket assembly.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6czbofWF3TxbHJGSEgwdzQyNTQ/view?usp=sharing
 
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Beef Ribs

Screenshot%202017-05-20%2022.55.11.png


A rough start, but overall somewhat smooth on mostly damper-only.

2 Racks of beef plate ribs @ 285

Akorn + RotoDamper
Settled in at 6, .003, 11.
Fan on above 50%
0% to 100%, 40% Startup Max
Fully Open at 100%

Full Config:
al=250,260,190,200,-160,-193,-160,-193 &fn=0,100,105,245,84,40,50,100 &lb=100,255,13,10,11 &ld=15,240 &pc0=2.4723753e-04,2.3402251e-04,1.3879768e-07,5,3 &pc1=7.0798257e-04,2.1983532e-04,9.3692565e-08,9609.9996,1 &pc2=7.0798257e-04,2.1983532e-04,9.3692565e-08,9609.9996,1 &pc3=7.0798257e-04,2.1983532e-04,9.3692565e-08,9607.9998,0 &pidd=11 &pidi=0.003 &pidp=6 &pn0=RedHead &pn1=Ribs%20Low &pn2=Ribs%20High &pn3=Ambient &po=0,0,0,0 &sp=285
 
e539km3.png


22.5" WSM
HM 4.3 with a micro damper
Proportional 4
Integral 0.02
Derivative 5

Kingsford charcoal with the basked 3/4 full. I used my extra lazy man method to light the coals.
Cooking 3 racks of baby back pork ribs from Costco
There's no meat probes because it's baby backs.
This was my first cook using the HM since last spring. It magically stopped working and I couldn't figure out why. I tried building a new one so this one decided to work again.
 
1 degree Farenheit? Perfect Time for Smoking!

It is really cold here, but that doesn't stop Heatermeter!
15 lb packer brisket over lump, hickory and sassafras (new to me.)
10 hours in and looking great.

Screenshot%202018-01-07%2010.24.11.png
 
My first cook with the Heater Meter + MicroDamper!

Overall, the cook went SOOOO much better than having to manually crack the lid of my Pit Barrel Cooker
I have some tweaking to do on the PID values since the Pit temp struggled to get above my set temp. I suspect some of the issue was that the outside temp was around 10 deg F today.

PID values for the HM|MicroDamper combination used on a PBC. I chose these values as my starting point based on an older thread by some other PBC owners (Dave & Benjamin)
P=3
I=0.002
D=3
I'm thinking my I & D need to increase a bit next run, but still learning...

I also had a small hiccup where the web app was showing Pit Temp as "---" and appeared to be frozen. I cycled the HM power, everything came back up but it reset the graph. Not sure what happened there, might keep an eye on it and do some more research if it happens again.


56tfM5p.jpg
 
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I'm doing the first test burn on a Primo Oval lg. HM4.3 and Micro Damper. No food. Set point 200d. Been playing with the PID values and the best I seem to be able to do is keep the temp between 202d and 198d. Should I expect to be able to do better?
 
If it's consistent and staying within a 4 degree range, no need to spend too much time tweaking things.
 
I just finished up my heatermeter last week and ive done a couple meatless test cooks to get things somewhat dialed in. Yesterdays test cook started a little rocky at +/- 7 deg. It seems like if I have the bowl really full, the fan kicking in causes it to overshoot a good bit. I reduced the max fan to 30% to see if it would smooth it out and the last 12 hours was +/- 1 at the most, and most of the time was +/- 0.5 . I am pretty impressed so far. I didnt have the bowl in my vision classic b near full, and got 17.5 hours at 225. The previous test cook, though a bit more rocky, lasted 20 hours at 225 and i had the bowl about 75% full.

Here is yesterdays test cook:

_OkbBBnRSqrCq0-O_US1PSGytCHIcVKjihCXcplgbwizyJbNNYuF_LrIRQH6_GEyrz90fOjLwMGVOdyhaZmlphpX26VXaBBfA5tJPnbVX54IAMxksigTur4i9wv_McsVgEfKq42Aj7v9n1QcWBYmA6nBEy38VwaKQXwqTwh-p5D4yzkH91xS_1S558_lqZzu74dN55PU0dnNW_lOkCnYzA1m5dJInjIJA7xX5k4jZCs2VJbbWRxNv6V-Tz0pqfbxPMbdzGY2JOwD68OYG0PlEAs7ECvYod7GAO9gfTRV-Vr4nNpTBMLCZYGT9gRohZUrECPvKPIjxGRwPpYyNBksTVFzi3B1pnhBP48tHA1PBDcdpZ85aJHoF56AxIh7y8bD5hchfXGjFithkzknbY7N6y0r8aBEfr7w8mkgpY-XLtpizP3vXyy8MTLq_ykhF4m3yytxNUfv9Wrjx7BQXh-6umYsQwKdnI3MRB4-stXGmnJUaaxyYZa0ChkKppT9Zjx2SRdjgrSU9rkWtWm8Z2ntEu5K96EPIbN8HjTw9nHR5_YtaWTCQjKlAAIgRA6UVF5wZAjr_63eBovQHZNPjMKr11K9Uxs787dtezEh0_cB2JQ0JGGRBpU6CkTK9kwH_7lIGs6DI2akiDj00zA4xFzNatH-8Q=w1080-h796-no



The wife is out of town at a conference, and El Diablo (mothe rin law), has the kids tonight, so I just fired up another test cook, this time with real meat! though just some boring wings :( I was going to do some ribs but couldnt run away from work early enough to get them on in time for dinner.

Follow along if youd like: http://76.192.127.180
 
If it's consistent and staying within a 4 degree range, no need to spend too much time tweaking things.

+

Put two grate probes in different spots
You might decide that even +/- 10 f is meaningless

But it fun to play with
 
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