Brand New Damper Design - "The Micro Damper"


 
I have a helping hands and i saw the wiring diagram and that is easy for me. I probably have made, run, pulled, and troubleshot 10K cat5 cables in my lifetime and have everything I need to make my own cAT5 cables. I was thinking more of the putting the blower/fan together. I'll wait and check it out once i receive it. Thx for all the effort on it and making it and sending it over.
 
Len M. said:
[Edit] I have been enlightened about the dangers of zinc/galvanized steel and BBQ, so the inside (zinc coated) locknut has been replaced with a stainless steel locknut. [/Edit]
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What ss locknut and where did you get it? Have a link?

The 1" ss nuts I found are 3/8" thick, that won't work for my setup!
 
I'm not sure what locknut he is using, but you could get a galvanized one and burn off the zinc in a charcoal chimney.
 
Using a step drill bit on thin sheet metal you can drill a hole to the proper size to screw on a 1" npt thread. If you overdrill you'd need a lock nut.

I should probably mention which step drill bit I'm using, since not all have the same increments. I have this set. I drill using the thin one first, then I jump up to the big guy. Once you are drilling with the larger bit, check how the thread fits at each increment - you'll find the sweet spot.
 
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SteveCK said:
Using a step drill bit on thin sheet metal you can drill a hole to the proper size to screw on a 1" npt thread. If you overdrill you'd need a lock nut.

I should probably mention which step drill bit I'm using, since not all have the same increments. I have this set. I drill using the thin one first, then I jump up to the big guy. Once you are drilling with the larger bit, check how the thread fits at each increment - you'll find the sweet spot.
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That's what I was kind of thinking I'd do, thank you. I guess I could solder the nipple to the sheet metal if I still don't like the way it threads on.

And hey, I have the same bit set!
 
KennyDado said:
What ss locknut and where did you get it? Have a link?

The 1" ss nuts I found are 3/8" thick, that won't work for my setup!
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I dug through my hardware bins and found a few leftover Garvin made 316 SS locknuts from a boat project I did a few years back. They are 1/8th inch thick.

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Garvin Link
 
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I finally cobbled together a HM on the breadboard with a Micro Damper and fired up the cooker last night to test the whole thing out.

* Micro Damper servo only, fan not even installed
* On a Large Big Green Egg, top damper slider closed all the way and the daisy wheel all the way open
* Attached to the BGE with a 1" npt nipple -> 1" npt 45deg fitting -> 1" npt nipple -> Micro Damper
* P, I, D = 4, 0.003, 5 per SteveCK's own settings
* Fan off, blower from 0% to 100%

It works great!

I ran the grill for about 4 hours, started at 225F, stepped to 275F for a short time, stepped back down to 250 for the rest of the test (my smoking temp range). It performed well, responding to step changes very quickly and stabilizing quickly, with negligible overshoot in either direction. (I'm not particularly picker about overshoot or oscillation as long as I'm +-10F of setpoint... I stayed within +- a few degrees most of the time)

So for the purpose of using it as damper only control, for low & slow cooks, on a ~18" komado style grill, it looks like this Micro Damper will work great!

I still need to test how hot of a cook I can maintain with this little guy without a fan.

I'm smoking a brisket tomorrow evening, I'll report how it did on an actual cook. Maybe I'll remember to screenshot the graph too.

Thanks again, SteveCK, for the Micro Damper. And Bryan and everyone else involved in the HM project.
 
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Glad you're getting good results. Thanks for pioneering fanless operation. I've been so busy with other aspects of life that anytime I get to fire up my cooker I want it to produce food, so I've just been defaulting to what I know works for me, lol!
 
Was emailing Steve last week, forgot to share. I was also good with P, I, D = 4, 0.003, 5 on my Kamado.. this was with fan, though. Have to do a brisket and I still haven't (too freaking lazy to) modified my UDS to 1" opening, so, will use the kamado. I'll try fanless as I'm sticking to 225.

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I think Steve said for the UDS to bump P to 7
 
My current PID for the UDS is 7, 0.01, 4. I run my UDS with a weber lid, three racks and on the bottom rack I have a 20" pizza pan with a 18" cake pan filled with water.
 
SteveCK said:
My current PID for the UDS is 7, 0.01, 4. I run my UDS with a weber lid, three racks and on the bottom rack I have a 20" pizza pan with a 18" cake pan filled with water.
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Thanks.
I actually got off my *** and got UDS converted to 1" (after a few powertools and cursing). Man is it much cleaner to install those things when the drum is new versus a few years old :)


My UDS is double rack w/ a lid (http://www.ice8420.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/2012-11-26-11.24.52.jpg) . Will try those settings and work from there!
 
Great cook with the first run of the microdamper on my UDS.

Super happy with the results.. UDS not as controlled an environment as my kamado so I don't expect perfection.

UDS, two racks, RO lump. Fat drips on the fire, always have had minor spikes, don't really care about that. This was a ~13 pound brisket (before trimming) on the top rack.

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Settings are P:7, I: 0.01, D: 4
Fan On at 5%, min 5%, max 80%
1" opening, to 45 elbow, to 4" 1" extension

Using the latest fan that Steve recommended.
 
Great looking cook Seth! You hit the nail on the head, a UDS does not have such a finely tuned cooking environment that a kamado has. Trying to get rid of those tiny bumps in a UDS could drive you insane!
 
KennyDado said:
...I'm smoking a brisket tomorrow evening, I'll report how it did on an actual cook. Maybe I'll remember to screenshot the graph too...
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SteveCK said:
Glad you're getting good results. Thanks for pioneering fanless operation. I've been so busy with other aspects of life that anytime I get to fire up my cooker I want it to produce food, so I've just been defaulting to what I know works for me, lol!
Click to expand...

As promised, and before I forget, here are the results of my first smoke entirly fanless (up until my raspberry pi flaked out). As it's my first cook I definitly have had some issues, but none of them related to the MicroDamper. The MicroDamper/avr did just what I asked them to do and I'm very happy with them.

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I had slight issues stabilizing at 225.
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Glad you're happy with it Kenny! I did a cook of some spare ribs tonight on the Akorn. Forgot to dial the fan down so I had a bit of oscillation after opening the pit to wrap the ribs, but it flattened right out.

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Akorn Settings

SteveCK said:
Glad you're happy with it Kenny! I did a cook of some spare ribs tonight on the Akorn. Forgot to dial the fan down so I had a bit of oscillation after opening the pit to wrap the ribs, but it flattened right out.
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Steve,

What have you landed on with your PID and Fan / Servo settings for your Akorn?

I'm giving the MicroDamper its first run tomorrow with a brisket.

Phillip
 
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