Pit Reading 400°F + when plugged in. K-Thermocouple


 
T

Tom O.

TVWBB Member
Title says it all. Started a cook this morning and when I plugged in the thermocouple to put it in the Kamado it had readings of 400°F to 415°F oscillating in that approximate range and would never change. Before it was ever heated in the Kamado... just sitting on the table.

So... I thought it was a bad thermocouple. Nope, two brand new ones did the same thing.

Now I have no idea what to do.

Anyone have a clue?????

Tom
 
Well, 108 views, no responses. So I guess this has never happened before.

It was fun while it lasted but I am tired of chasing down errors, re-installing firmware, and messing with something that I just want to work.

So, I ordered a Fireboard Drive 2 a few minutes ago, and a Pit Viper blower. The Heatermeter went in the trash.

Tom
 
<shrug> Lot of data missing. Did it show a reading before the T/C was plugged in? After it was disconnected? That would give you something to go on as to which side of the jack the problem is on. Did you tone out the T/C? Open up the plug to make sure nothing had jumped the connections (yes, I've had to fix that on one of mine.) Any chance that moisture got inside the H/M case?

I've been running a 4.2 H/M for 4+ years, and about the only issues I've had were the above mentioned T/C connection problem, and having to replace the CF card (one just failed, and once when I flashed the wrong firmware.) I've hauled mine with my smoker over 2,200 miles now and never gave it a second thought.
 
I agree with the above. The original post had no info. What kind of HM did you have? Just changing TC`s will not get much response from others. Did you check your configuration to make sure the thermocouple was set up correctly. This is information that would help others help you. Users will help if they know more of what you tried. How do we know that you didn`t drop in a bucket of water?
Also I hope your new Fireboard, HM clone, works well for you. Their marketing is very good. The B.S. about their design specs for thermocouples made me laugh because that has been the standard since we have sent men to the moon. They did not come up with the spec. Also Thermoworks make good probes and looks like that's who their probe contract is with. One last thing is a damper and blower system is still the best.
Good luck with new controller and post results back to forum in the ATCS area so others can view your results.
 
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Here's the info I saw. No TC or probes plugged in, HM read 4°F. Plugged in TC and it read 400°F to 415°F bouncing around in that range. Appling heat to TC end did nothing.

Plugged in meat probes, one at a time, and all read 117°F just sitting on the table. ALL probe sockets read the same. Applying heat to meat probes did nothing, no response, stuck on 117°F.

And that is all the info I have. The board is a Pi ZERO

Tom
 
So, all 4 temp sensors are showing anomalous readings. To me, that indicates a problem on the H/M. Has it been dropped? Soaked? I'd crack the case and do a close visual inspection around the sensor jacks and the surface mount components. Maybe use a good DMM to check the temp sensors on their own and after being plugged in (check on the board side of the jack.)
 
This is the info people need to help.
If this was my HM this is what I would do in this order
1 Try a different power supply. Myself I would use a 12v battery capable of suppling 2amps.
2 replace flash card with new one out of the package and make sure to format it prior to flash. Use formatting tool recommend by Brian in the GitHub link. I have had these fail or get corrupted and when that happens the HM processor cannot execute the program, thus it just freezes in the step of the program that is corrupted. Flash cards fail and they fail often just sitting on a table unused. This something I would not pass on trying.
3 if no change, I would try a different Pi if I had a spare
4 replace the HM processor
What ever is easier and most cost effective you could switch steps 3 and 4 around.
Hope you really didn`t toss. I suspect you didn`t.
 
Tom O. said:
Well, 108 views, no responses. So I guess this has never happened before.

It was fun while it lasted but I am tired of chasing down errors, re-installing firmware, and messing with something that I just want to work.

So, I ordered a Fireboard Drive 2 a few minutes ago, and a Pit Viper blower. The Heatermeter went in the trash.

Tom
Click to expand...

That's a bummer. Sorry the project was more frustrating than it should have been. Too bad you opted to throw it out, I'm sure someone here would have been interested in purchasing it.

This forum has a lot of users, most who don't participate in the HM section, but still like to click on and read "new" posts, so I wouldn't use the topic views count as any sort of metric to base any decisions off of.
 
No worries. Just tired of fiddling with it.

By the way, my new Fireboard 2 Drive arrived yesterday. And guess what? I rigged one of my HM blowers to it no problem. I printed and used both the Adapt-a-damper and the Micro damper units with my HeaterMeter while it worked. They both still worked fine, never had a problem with the blowers at all. So the Pit Viper blower was not needed after all.

Just connecting the fan power wires to a 2.5mm plug was all it took. Of course, the Fireboard controls only the fan, not the servo. But I can manually adjust the openings on the adapters to run my Kamado Joe just fine.

That alone saved me from 50 to 60 bucks (depending on which commercial fan unit you pick to connect to a Fireboard 2 Drive). So all was certainly not lost. My son took the old HM home to fiddle around with it after he found out I chucked it so it might live again. He literally came by after he got off work and fished it out of the trash after I IM'ed him about my frustrations with it. :)

Tom
 
I'm glad your son rescued the HM.

I get the fiddling with things. At times I want a hobby project, and at times I just want a tool that does the job.
 
Tell your son to pick up on this thread, with some patience and help from forum members he will get it working....
I still think the HM is gonna be superior to any other BBQ controller out there if you build a damper, to my knowledge no other controller has implemented a damper system, though I have been out of touch a while... have I missed a new turn-key controller that has a damper?
My rotodamper has been outside on my kamado powered on for over 5 years now, still going strong, always performs for me without issue.
 
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