Assembly - beginner question


 
R

RyanJ

New member
Hey all,

I started this in another forum on this site, but MartinB suggested I post here. Basically, I own a 18.5" WSM and I'm looking to make it a little bit more "set and forget" and add a ATC. I thought about just getting the non-Wi-Fi Auber Instruments kit, but then I figured if I'm going to spend the money, might as well get a Fireboard 2. Well, it seems the Heater Meter does all of what the Fireboard 2 does, but at a cheaper price and with a vast and supportive community behind it. My questions were based about assembly and setup. I don't want to deal with soldering or anything, and I'm curious on how the Raspberry Pi (would likely get Zero W) fits to the Heater Meter, does it just click in one way? Does the Heater Meter and Raspberry Pi zero W just flop around loosely in the case, or do they mount somewhere inside? MartinB mentioned the Zero W requiring headers, what are those and what does that involve? As for configuring of network (router ports, possibly dynamic DNS), that's fine as I have a bit of a background in that regard. The delta fan that comes with the HM kit...does that require the Adapt A Damper kit? Is it needed? Can I always add it later? MartinB mentioned the delta fan fits with a dog bowl and a 1" conduit nipple, is that dog bowl going to scratch the porcelain on my WSM? I thought I saw someone with a gasket on the dog bowl to minimize scratching/improve seal...what type of gasket material would that have been?

Cheers!
 
Screenshot_20200806-063011.png

Headers are just the pin headers that are attached to the pi it comes with or without them. They are needed to plug on to the heater meter board. unless you want to solder 50 little pins yourself you buy it with the headers pre-attached for $3 more. well actually you only need part of those pins but some people are on a budget and like to do stuff like that on themselves.

Assembly is literally putting an SD card in the slot, pushing the pi pins into the socket on heatermeter board, that's it if buying pre assembled heatermeter board.

The case is designed snd 3d printed to fit board /pi combinations. . Unfortunately not waterproof.
 
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MartinB said:
View attachment 11099

Headers are just the pin headers that are attached to the pi it comes with or without them. They are needed to plug on to the heater meter board. unless you want to solder 50 little pins yourself you buy it with the headers pre-attached for $3 more. well actually you only need part of those pins but some people are on a budget and like to do stuff like that on themselves.

Assembly is literally putting an SD card in the slot, pushing the pi pins into the socket on heatermeter board, that's it if buying pre assembled heatermeter board.

The case is designed snd 3d printed to fit board /pi combinations. . Unfortunately not waterproof.
Click to expand...

Ah, ok, that makes sense. Thank you! So I saw a video with someone putting the Heater Meter together and they had a bunch of open areas on the 3D printed case due to using a different model Raspberry Pi. So is there a specific Raspberry Pi I should buy to avoid having empty "holes" in the case? Sorry for all the stupid questions, but I greatly appreciate your help!
 
They are not stupid questions, there's a lot of information and it can be difficult to sift through it all. I sometimes even have a hard time finding stuff in the wiki that I know is there.

There's a few different versions of the HeateMeter 4.3 case. The holes on the side are for the Pi 1B+/2B/3B/3B+ for the USB ports and ethernet jack that sticks out. You can also get the Pi Zero version where all those holes are filled in with just a solid wall. There's also a version for .. wait what am I doing why don't I just make an image that shows the different options?
hm43-case-pi-models.png
 
Ryan I agree with Byran there are no dumb questions answers however are suspect at times. Every thing fits in the case and is secure the zero wh will save you soldering and it just plugs in. I'm not too sure about attaching to your smoker but if your worried about scratching you could make a gasket to glue on or coat the dog bowl with silicone sealant. I believe you will need the adapter damper or something similar to hold the fan then this will connect to the bowl Here is a vid by someone that should at least get a Oscar nomination for acting. Explains a lot . Good luck with your project keep us posted
 
Chiming here because I'm a newbie with similar questions as RyanJ. I have all hardware on order to assemble a HeaterMeter which I intend to also mount to a WSM 18.5". Only thing I didn't order was a damper and I think that's one of Ryan's unanswered questions. Please ELI5, is the damper necessary? What is its purpose? I'm assuming the reason for it is to limit the inlet flow to the fan so you don't get unintended airflow into your pit when the fan is running slow or not at all?
 
Right. For years we all used our HeaterMeters without dampers but just had to close down the vents on the smoker to be juuuuuust barely letting any air out because any exhaust hole would just suck air through the body of the blower, even if it was fully off. It worked but it was a bit more fiddly.

Now we use dampers to shut the airflow completely when the output is 0% and have a lot more leeway in where the other vents are set because there isn't a giant leaky hole where the blower is. Some care still has to be taken to not have them open so much that other air leaks from around the smoker can sustain and even grow the fire, but the damper allows a much larger window of how much exhaust vent can be open and still allow HeaterMeter to be in control.
 
Thank you Bryan. That makes sense.

With that said, can you or someone else point me to a list of items I'd need to add a damping kit? The items needed for the HeaterMeter is clear to me but I can't seem to find a clear thread that explains what is needed for the damping kit and how that integrates into the HeaterMeter. Sorry if these questions have been answered somewhere else in the forum but I'm failing to find those answers.
 
All the designs for dampers are found in the forum's sticky posts and have different requirements for each. In general you need a blower or fan, a servo, 3D printing, and usually some pipe and/or sheet metal to attach it.
  • Microdamper
  • RotoDamper 3
  • Adapt-A-Damper
  • Barrel Servo/Fan
There's a bunch of other one-off designs that have been posted as well. As for how it integrates, the standard HeaterMeter output has both blower and servo connections built into it, and there's settings in the webui for controlling how the damper opens, and that's all there is to it. The physical part of building it is the hardest part because the software already thinks it is controlling a damper anyway.
 
IMHO, For the WSM I would recommend the adapt a damper. The micro damper works, but the fan is barely enough. It was designed more for the insulated grills like kamodo.
 
GSpinelli said:
IMHO, For the WSM I would recommend the adapt a damper. The micro damper works, but the fan is barely enough. It was designed more for the insulated grills like kamodo.
Click to expand...
Cool. That's actually what I'm looking to do anyway. We'll see how it works out.
 
Bryan Mayland said:
All the designs for dampers are found in the forum's sticky posts and have different requirements for each. In general you need a blower or fan, a servo, 3D printing, and usually some pipe and/or sheet metal to attach it.
  • Microdamper
  • RotoDamper 3
  • Adapt-A-Damper
  • Barrel Servo/Fan
There's a bunch of other one-off designs that have been posted as well. As for how it integrates, the standard HeaterMeter output has both blower and servo connections built into it, and there's settings in the webui for controlling how the damper opens, and that's all there is to it. The physical part of building it is the hardest part because the software already thinks it is controlling a damper anyway.
Click to expand...

Is there anyway to shut the damper off by chance in the settings? dumb curious question lol the fan I was working with had a door that flipped down when the blower wasn't in use (the old Rock's Stoker fan housing I was working with), so was just wondering is all. thanks.
 
There's no toggle to have it not do the damper output, but you can set one of your endpoints equal to the other to have it always either fully open or fully closed depending on which you pick to copy over.
 
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