Another New Build - One small issue


 
K

Ken B

New member
Hi everyone from Toronto,

First of all, I want to thank everyone involved in the project. Over the last several years, I've gone through too many thermometers and have resisted the BBQ Gurus of the world for my Primo ceramic. I caught wind of the HeaterMeter project on the Primo forum and voilà! I haven't had a soldering iron in my hands for longer than I care to admit (probably north of 25 years now - fell in to the world of software and never looked back), but the project seemed to be at the perfect level to get back in to it.

The instructions on the project page and all the tips here were excellent and my HM (with thermocouple) powered up first time and seems to be working perfectly with one minor issue that might directly point to my rusty soldering technique.

After putting the HM in the case, I've noticed that groups of pixels on the LCD display are dimmer than others and more of them are dimming as time goes by. It took about 30 minutes for the first group of pixels to show a noticeable drop off. Today, I remove the boards from the case and powered it up for several hours and every pixel looked to be the normal, proper contrast.

So, I'd guess that it is safe to assume that the heat build up in the case is triggering this. Any suggestions on what area of the board that I should too look to identify poor solder joints? Any other obvious culprits? Other than the visual dropoff, everything else is working perfectly. I love the CSS customization too - it really helps personalize the project.

Next up, I need to decide on which blower/damper control to use. Lots of choices…

Here's my room temperature 3 probe capture without fan/damper.

hm_zpsvmfekvwd.jpg
 
Maybe you just got a cruddy LCD. I had a few that just arrived to me broken where some of the liquid crystal elements were broken and leaking. I don't expect much for $10 chinese part like that.
 
Thanks, that makes sense. I've been running it for 12 hours and there's no further drop off on the pixels.
 
I've been running the system for a couple days in the case to see what the LCD does. Some pixels are very dim, others that were dim have more contrast now, etc.

Not a big deal of course, as the primary feature of the LCD is to merely tell me that the system is up and running.

Here's a current pic of the display.

_DSC2534_zpss4nfzlwt.jpg
 
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Nice glossy case. ;).

It seems like it doesn't matter if you pay $12 for a screen or $2...they are all made in China with about the same rates of failure

If you need a recommendation for a damper, I recommend the Offset Rotary Damper design by Tom Kole. It's simple and reliable.
 
Jas,

Thanks, the case looks and feels great. I'd send anyone yr way for one. And, I'll be sure to check out Offset Rotary Damper.
 
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