Long time lurker with some questions


 
J

JHalasz

TVWBB Fan
I've been watching this site and watching the heater meter mature, I want one, I have watched some of the live cooks you guys do, amazing. I have to get up all night and monitor my temps, at first I thought that what you guys do is cheating, but year after year of losing sleep in order to make that perfect butt, or brisket, i'm on board. I want in.]

I have tons of electronic skills, I just dont see a DIY from beginning to end in here anywhere, I see tons of different options for running a setup, I just want to know if anyone has a Large BGE, and what exactly do I need to do?

i would like to find someone with an extra 4.1 board I could buy, where do i get an adapter for the blower, do i need a servo... like I said, i know a lot about nothing on this topic.

Would one of you kind people please point me in the right direction?

Thanks,
J.
 
Ok, you've got the electronic skills, so building the HM should be no problem.... See the wiki for pretty complete instruction on getting the HM board built and connected to the raspberry pi.
Now, how are your mechanical skills and your toolbox? If good you can surely make your own vent adapter for your BGE, if not so good you can buy one from BBQ Guru or Auberins (including their fan if you want to get it done really easy). I think the BBQ Guru setup has a simple gravity flap in it that should help tame overshoot, otherwise you might want a servo damper, specially if you do really low temp smoking like fish etc. Personally, with a Kamado I prefer a servo damper so you can take advantage of the awesome air flow in a kamado and control your fire pretty much like you do with the BGE vent, think of it as a computer controlled vent. (rather than changing over to the forced air type operation with a blower) Instead of waking up to tweak the vent the HM will do it for you, and it also has the blower there that can kick in if things start to get out of hand. The Heater Meter is loaded with setup options so you can run it in several modes, all fan, or natural draft with a servo damper, or both together, or blower only at 100% (servo damper will work alone unless the HM decides you need 100% air flow, at which point the blower will kick in until the HM moves to 99% air flow)
With all that covered you still have the bare circuit boards, so you'll need some kind of enclosure. You can fashion one yourself, or checkout the "3D Printed Case" threads to see the awesome case(s) Tom and Matt created with their 3D printers. The original servo damper was just a flap in tube, which works but kinda went from 0-100 with the smallest movement. I was unhappy with the effectiveness of this type of valve so I created the Roto Damper, which is a valve that can open up in small increments and regulates the air flow very well. Or if you need a check valve to stop overshoot "on the cheap" you can always build my "Ping Pong Ball Valve" and just run that with the blower.
Hope that helps cover some of your questions....
 
Last edited:
Nope. No cheating going on, just creating consistent, reproducible cooks of your favorite cuts of meat!

Here are some links to get you on your way.

HeaterMeter main Wiki site

The v4.1 Hardware and v4.1 Assembly links contain everything you need to order and build the board.

You'll still need:

1 x Raspberry Pi
1 x SD Card for the Raspberry Pi to install the HM software onto
1 x 12V DC power supply, minimum 1 Amp output
1 x USB Wireless adapter with a Realtek 8192cu chip such as this one, assuming you're not going to have it attached to a hardwired network when it's outside.

You'll probably want a case for it, which can be found here

And while you're at it, might as well go with a servo driven damper such as this one or this one.

I think that pretty much covers it!
 
Last edited:
Everything looks good here except the install like Steve posted is for the old 3.x system and is much easier now with the Pi/4.0. Use HeaterMeter 4.0 software which is just "Write image to sd card. Profit."

10,000 Foot View
-- Get PCB, HeaterMeter board components, build
-- Get parts listed by Steve, assemble device
-- Flash software SD and boot
-- Put device in case
-- Mount blower to egg
 
im good with the electronics portion of the build, its the mechanical part that has me confused, the damper, im guessing this is to complete close the bottom vent when its getting too hot, or to open it to allow the blower to work when its not hot enough. How / where do I get the parts to mount this thing to the bottom vent? :D

I read the posts with the dampers, im good with either, but I dont see where either are for sale, I have emailed the rotodamper guy, see what he has to say about his device.

So I guess my biggest issue right now is mounting? The damper isnt 100% needed, but I nice to have if I am correct? The only time I would need it is when i get weird wind guests during a cook, I am usually opening vents, not closing them...
 
JHalasz said:
So I guess my biggest issue right now is mounting? The damper isnt 100% needed, but I nice to have if I am correct? The only time I would need it is when i get weird wind guests during a cook, I am usually opening vents, not closing them...
Click to expand...
The damper is certainly optional but folks developed it to combat run away (too hot) temperatures that draw air through the idle fan due to heat convection. There are two flavors of dampers, active and passive. The active ones have servos and are controlled by lines off of the blower RJ45 connector. The passive one is the Ping Pong Ball Check Valve mentioned above and can be assembled for just a few dollars.

I would not worry about mounting. Even though this is a WSM-oriented website, many folks on this forum have eggs and can help out. Just ask.
 
Last edited:
the ping pong ball valve looks like an easy way to see if I want to get into the servo damper business.

Now to find a 4.1 pcb... it doesnt appear that anyone has any at the moment.
 
JHalasz said:
Now to find a 4.1 pcb... it doesnt appear that anyone has any at the moment.
Click to expand...
I have been watching Bryan's and other's comments on the development log and it seems to me that they are still in active development on the 4.1 PCB and are working on resolving the thermocouple design. If it were me, I would see this as having two choices: Either build the stable 4.0 design which may fulfill all your needs or wait 2-3 months for a stable 4.1 design. I have a 4.0 system (cost me around $200 in parts), am very happy with it, and do plan on building a 4.1 system once they get the design done, a fulfillment process in place, and folks are happy with its stability.

-- Mache
 
Mache said:
I have been watching Bryan's and other's comments on the development log and it seems to me that they are still in active development on the 4.1 PCB and are working on resolving the thermocouple design. If it were me, I would see this as having two choices: Either build the stable 4.0 design which may fulfill all your needs or wait 2-3 months for a stable 4.1 design. I have a 4.0 system (cost me around $200 in parts), am very happy with it, and do plan on building a 4.1 system once they get the design done, a fulfillment process in place, and folks are happy with its stability.

-- Mache
Click to expand...

If you're looking for servo + fan over the cat5 jack, I'd go with v4.1 instead of v4.0

There were 2 small mods required for v4.1 that Bryan looks to have addresses with the v4.1.3 board

I just built a v4.1 and it's running great. Go ahead and order a set of 3 v4.1.3 boards and you'll probably have no trouble selling off the other 2 boards.
 
ok, i got the boards ordered, all the parts, asked to have a case built, and im going to about getting a damper from Ralph, so... what servo to use?
 
JHalasz said:
ok, i got the boards ordered, all the parts, asked to have a case built, and im going to about getting a damper from Ralph, so... what servo to use?
Click to expand...


Make sure you verify that the boards you just ordered don't have the Bottom Ground plane fault, when you get them. More then likely, they will have it.
 
The servo is a MG90s, they are brownish/black with black horns and metal gears (NOT the SG90s that is blue with plastic gears). I have been happiest with the ones I've gotten from amazon here.
 
Steve_M said:
These will be faulty. I'd cancel the order and wait until v4.1.4 is uploaded.
Click to expand...

I haven't seen Bryan comment on this issue, so maybe he is busy or something... Don't you think it's simple enough just to cut that connection on the board in a similar manner as the "white wire" situation? Personally, I would wait to cancel the order until Bryan gets the files updated, at that point I would cancel, being spring and all. Unless you are good with waiting...
 
RalphTrimble said:
I haven't seen Bryan comment on this issue, so maybe he is busy or something... Don't you think it's simple enough just to cut that connection on the board in a similar manner as the "white wire" situation? Personally, I would wait to cancel the order until Bryan gets the files updated, at that point I would cancel, being spring and all. Unless you are good with waiting...
Click to expand...

Yep, it's a simple fix, though since we know there's a problem, why not wait a couple of days and see if it gets fixed and then you don't have fuss around with it anymore than necessary.
 
I guess it's personal preference. I had to cut 4 traces on my v4.1 board to do the "white wire mod" and that didn't bother me or set my progress back a bit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top