Gary Graham
TVWBB Fan
Hi,
I am new to the forum and it appears that the gravity from that 26 page post on the Homebrew controller and Tempmon and Heatermeter must have pulled me in.
I have an insulated cabinet smoker (32 sq ft cooking area) that I built in 2010 that burns lump charcoal and wood chunks in a gravity fed firebox. I use a 12v PID controller and a small stoker fan, and my largest cook so far was a just over 200 lbs of brisket, butts and ribs. This year, I want to run pellets and I am building a pellet drive system from scratch.
For some extra insurance, I wanted to build a super thermometer that would help me profile my cooker and see if I can get the heat spread out evenly. My 200lb cook in the "Fridge"
Since I want to start using the Megamometer quickly, it will start as a thermometer, and as I pick up the skills on the Ardiuno hardware and programming, I hope to grow it into a full blown data logging multi-fuel controller that can serve status up to a web interface.
I would like to build upon the excellent work by Brian Mayland and others on this forum that contributed to his project called Heatermeter. However, I will need to make some changes to adapt the hardware and software to burn pellets and support additional probes, etc.
Here is my punch list for the Megamometer project. <edit to prioritize a bit>
1) Purchased an Arduino MEGA 2560 for the main board. Will put those extra I/O ports to use...
2) Slight changes to use a 1602 display shield with 6 buttons. Having the buttons on this $17 part will save time and effort when building the unit. The 1602 can show 4 temperatures or parameters at once, and can also be used to view a log file with some navigation tweaks for scrolling with left/right buttons to see data for a point in time on all 8 probes. Anyone using a rotary encoder or joystick controller to help with navigation ?
3) Add support for more meat probes (bring the total up to at least 8 ). These probes can be used to profile temps in the cook chamber, or to monitor the cook temps for meats on each rack. The cost here is in the probes... I see Polders go for about $10 ea and Maverick HT for $18 ea. Also considering the use of LEDs in|near the probe connectors to show status-at-a-glance. The Mega has several digital pins, so 3-4 pins per probe could be used to light a LED to show status of the meat on that probe.(blue<40<yellow<140<red<cook target>=green)
4) Add a couple more pit probes - like one on the heat deflector over the pellet burn pot and maybey one in the exhaust stack to monitor and (attempt to) control efficiency. I hope to be able to report on lbs/hr or BTU/Hr or something like that instead of fan percentage.
5) Control mode for burning pellets. I want to keep the cooker at the target temp using a closed loop that will vary the heat from the burn pot as cooking conditions demand. More heat is needed at the start of a cook with all that cold meat, or during recovery after opening the door, so I would run the fan at 100% and give it pellets more frequently.
I am testing this type of control using a 12v PID that drives an on/off timer for the auger. (while PID J1 output is high, the timer blips the auger motor on/off to bring in pellets occasionally). This has a knob to alter on/off time, but no provision for fan speed control right now.
6) Thinking of using an Adafruit data logger board with real time clock support. That would give a 2GB flash card for web pages and logs, some ease in data portability, etc. Without this, it appears we have just a few kb of flash space for logs and need to set the time manually each run ?
7) Web capabilities - found some hacks for serial communication with a router. Planning to cook at home and away - it make sense to integrate with a router. I also saw some hacks for adding a SD card to a router...
8) Customize the setup menu where the control program and other parameters can be set using the display and buttons. Have "cook for temp" and "cook for time" with an option for "cook then hold" after meeting the target.
9) Considering the benefit to support an electronic servo damper. This may help with recovery times in a large cooker. My cabinet smoker is just like a refrigerator and I end up standing there with the door open sometimes. Although the cooker is insulated, there is a lot of volume that needs to be re-heated, so I think throttling the damper might help. (keeping the door shut will help too, right ?)
10) Have the ability to select the control modes for "stoker fan" or "electric element" or "pellet drive" so the controller can be used on different cookers.
I am new to the forum and it appears that the gravity from that 26 page post on the Homebrew controller and Tempmon and Heatermeter must have pulled me in.
I have an insulated cabinet smoker (32 sq ft cooking area) that I built in 2010 that burns lump charcoal and wood chunks in a gravity fed firebox. I use a 12v PID controller and a small stoker fan, and my largest cook so far was a just over 200 lbs of brisket, butts and ribs. This year, I want to run pellets and I am building a pellet drive system from scratch.
For some extra insurance, I wanted to build a super thermometer that would help me profile my cooker and see if I can get the heat spread out evenly. My 200lb cook in the "Fridge"
Since I want to start using the Megamometer quickly, it will start as a thermometer, and as I pick up the skills on the Ardiuno hardware and programming, I hope to grow it into a full blown data logging multi-fuel controller that can serve status up to a web interface.
I would like to build upon the excellent work by Brian Mayland and others on this forum that contributed to his project called Heatermeter. However, I will need to make some changes to adapt the hardware and software to burn pellets and support additional probes, etc.
Here is my punch list for the Megamometer project. <edit to prioritize a bit>
1) Purchased an Arduino MEGA 2560 for the main board. Will put those extra I/O ports to use...
2) Slight changes to use a 1602 display shield with 6 buttons. Having the buttons on this $17 part will save time and effort when building the unit. The 1602 can show 4 temperatures or parameters at once, and can also be used to view a log file with some navigation tweaks for scrolling with left/right buttons to see data for a point in time on all 8 probes. Anyone using a rotary encoder or joystick controller to help with navigation ?
3) Add support for more meat probes (bring the total up to at least 8 ). These probes can be used to profile temps in the cook chamber, or to monitor the cook temps for meats on each rack. The cost here is in the probes... I see Polders go for about $10 ea and Maverick HT for $18 ea. Also considering the use of LEDs in|near the probe connectors to show status-at-a-glance. The Mega has several digital pins, so 3-4 pins per probe could be used to light a LED to show status of the meat on that probe.(blue<40<yellow<140<red<cook target>=green)
4) Add a couple more pit probes - like one on the heat deflector over the pellet burn pot and maybey one in the exhaust stack to monitor and (attempt to) control efficiency. I hope to be able to report on lbs/hr or BTU/Hr or something like that instead of fan percentage.
5) Control mode for burning pellets. I want to keep the cooker at the target temp using a closed loop that will vary the heat from the burn pot as cooking conditions demand. More heat is needed at the start of a cook with all that cold meat, or during recovery after opening the door, so I would run the fan at 100% and give it pellets more frequently.
I am testing this type of control using a 12v PID that drives an on/off timer for the auger. (while PID J1 output is high, the timer blips the auger motor on/off to bring in pellets occasionally). This has a knob to alter on/off time, but no provision for fan speed control right now.
6) Thinking of using an Adafruit data logger board with real time clock support. That would give a 2GB flash card for web pages and logs, some ease in data portability, etc. Without this, it appears we have just a few kb of flash space for logs and need to set the time manually each run ?
7) Web capabilities - found some hacks for serial communication with a router. Planning to cook at home and away - it make sense to integrate with a router. I also saw some hacks for adding a SD card to a router...
8) Customize the setup menu where the control program and other parameters can be set using the display and buttons. Have "cook for temp" and "cook for time" with an option for "cook then hold" after meeting the target.
9) Considering the benefit to support an electronic servo damper. This may help with recovery times in a large cooker. My cabinet smoker is just like a refrigerator and I end up standing there with the door open sometimes. Although the cooker is insulated, there is a lot of volume that needs to be re-heated, so I think throttling the damper might help. (keeping the door shut will help too, right ?)
10) Have the ability to select the control modes for "stoker fan" or "electric element" or "pellet drive" so the controller can be used on different cookers.