Looking forward to HeaterMeter arrival

[Curtis_Aotea]

Kia ora / hello from New Zealand.

After spending all day doing a brisket recently on my Kamado Joe and then researching BBQ controllers, I pretty quickly settled on a HeaterMeter over the other options due to:

1. Opensource
2. Price / value (being able to easily replace parts)
3. Enjoyment of putting it together
4. Range of options (more probes, thermocouple, servo-dampers)

So - I've ordered the HM 4.3 kit with adapt-a-damper, blower fan and a case. I already have a spare Pi 3B+ wanting something to do, and plan on powering it with a spare car battery also waiting for something to do. I figure 50Ah should be good for a few cooks.

In terms of probes, I've ordered a Perfect Prime-TL0500 thermocouple from Amazon, which I intend to fix to the dome thermometer of the Kamado Joe as my pit probe (much as Bryan Mayland does). For meat probes I've got some existing thermistors which I'll use until Thermoworks has its next sale. The probes I have are from my current EasyBBQ bluetooth setup, and do have the 2.5mm connection:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0823WS8Q8/?tag=tvwb-20

Hopefully they'll do the job accurately enough.

Very much looking forward to getting the Hakko out and have enjoyed watching Bryan's videos on how to wire everything up and install the software. I'm pretty tech / solder / Pi savvy, so hope to be OK (although am glad to not have to fiddle with SMD soldering).

Will get back to you all with any questions and/or with pics of the first cook!

 

[Larry Naylor]

Curtis how did the build go?

 

[Curtis_Aotea]

Excellent question, and very timely, as I just received the package in the post last night (it's a slow trip to NZ in these pandemic times), and soldered the boards up. It's the most fun couple of hours you can have by yourself with a soldering iron and glass of wine!

Super pleased to see the LCD light up first time on powering up with the car battery, networked, and web interface up and running.

Only minor challenge was being short a single 100k ohm resistor short (4 in the packet instead of 5). Bryan apologised for his inability to count to 5 - but I'm not complaining - given his amazing work and contributions he's allowed to get a bit forgetful! . Not sure at the effect of missing this resistor, but a quick trip to the local electronic hobby store today will sort that out.

Now just waiting for the kamado adapter to arrive, hopefully later this week (it's been similarly delayed in shipping), and will be assembling the Adapt-A-Damper this evening.

EDIT: Bryan *can* count...I just found the 100k ohm resistor on the floor

 

[Curtis_Aotea]

All done & working brilliantly (on the bench). Servo rotating and adjusted perfectly from 0 to 100%, blower blowing variably from none to a gale, thermocouple working as intended and the responding to temp adjustments as expected. Web interface tweaked, Pit Droid downloaded and connected.

Only one task is to get a threaded piece of tube to adapt for the bbqube kamado adapter plate to the round threaded end of the adapt-a-damper.

In other words, mating these two parts (attached pics) - what are you all using for this application?

Edit: I just realized I ordered the bbqube adapter, not the bbqguru adapter. The one I have appears to have a smaller diameter pipe fitted. Oh well, will fit with a couple of tubes, and the airflow difference shouldn't matter for kamado purposes.

 

[Curtis_Aotea]

As a final note for now, I've ordered some thermoworks thermistor probes...turns out my current thermistors have 3.5mm plugs, and even with a 2.5mm adapter, nothing is registering on the food probe ports (I'm hoping it's the probes, not my soldering & assembly!).