Post your live HeaterMeter Cooks


 
210 @Cmorris I think you killed it
Crap, right after I foiled it and went back to sleep, temps spiked and it never came back. Internal temp showed 204 on a different digital at the time I pulled it, it's fork tender and smells great, I guess we're having possibly overcooked brisket for lunch instead of the planned dinner....

Edited to add - turns out when I foiled (and added charcoal) I trapped a chunk of charcoal between the Smokey Joe and the tamale pot allowing it to draw air around that joint so even with the damper servo the hm was unable to choke out the fire. So... operator error in the sleepy refuel is to blame.
 
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CMorris: Thanks for posting your link, this is the first I've been able to see the web portal live; simply amazing. I've got everything but the HM board and seeing this live just made me even more excited. Can't wait for the final piece to get delivered! I'm glad that even though the temps ran away you were able to salvage the food.
 
Crap, right after I foiled it and went back to sleep, temps spiked and it never came back. Internal temp showed 204 on a different digital at the time I pulled it, it's fork tender and smells great, I guess we're having possibly overcooked brisket for lunch instead of the planned dinner....

Edited to add - turns out when I foiled (and added charcoal) I trapped a chunk of charcoal between the Smokey Joe and the tamale pot allowing it to draw air around that joint so even with the damper servo the hm was unable to choke out the fire. So... operator error in the sleepy refuel is to blame.

Well, looks like you had it under control pretty good until you had the coal mishap, and even after... That's one great thing about a Kamado, they can burn FOREVER on a single load of coal....
 
First try at a brisket flat over baked beans in the mini, also first attempt at low and slow with one of Ralph's prototype Roto dampers to try to get a handle on the problems I had draft induced overshoot.
http://pyrosheatermeter.dyndns.info:22280

With a setpoint as low as 100 degrees a 5 degree fluctuation is 5%, so small temperature swings may trigger lid mode. When running the pit so low increase the lid mode trigger to a larger number to prevent the false lid triggering...
 
With a setpoint as low as 100 degrees a 5 degree fluctuation is 5%, so small temperature swings may trigger lid mode. When running the pit so low increase the lid mode trigger to a larger number to prevent the false lid triggering...
Yeah when I dropped the set point to 100 I was playing with pid values trying to get the oscillation during the initial swing to a new set point down a little. It seemed to be more prevalent at low temps, hence the low set point (and no food on). I pushed the lid pct to ten right after that second false lid open detect.

Speaking of which, I think I do have reasonable pid parameters for my setup now. We'll see, since I do have brisket take 2 going on in about an hour, same url: http://pyrosheatermeter.dyndns.info:22280
 
Fan and servo both using full range all the time, but min fan speed bumped to 30% since low fan speeds it seems struggle overcoming the increased static pressure of the small opening in the servo valve when it's also at low pct open. I think I need to tune the pid values a bit more, but that's a subject for a different thread.
Sweet....
Do you have the fan on at Max Only or all the time?
 
Fan and servo both using full range all the time, but min fan speed bumped to 30% since low fan speeds it seems struggle overcoming the increased static pressure of the small opening in the servo valve when it's also at low pct open. I think I need to tune the pid values a bit more, but that's a subject for a different thread.

For low temp cooks I would try running the blower at 100% only. The Roto-Damper will open up more to allow a more natural flow of air once the pit nears the target temp and the blower turns off... Looks like you had a real nice cook last night though...
 
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Using this damper for first time on the egg. In a previous post I described how I made three of these without fans for my WSM. I wasn't happy with the results so I put a muffin fan in one and am trying it out here. Just starting a 5 hour rib cook. Fan on at 100% only with default PID values. Feel free to take a look at how things are working out!


Well, cook is over so I will just post graph. Worked well enough for me, but it's not near as pretty as the 3D printed ones.


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Got a couple of racks of side ribs on for a 5 hour cook.

http://shmick.no-ip.org:8000/luci

Giving Tom's double-barrel servo damper its first run on the Kamado Joe.

I'm also seeing how my 2 new ThermoWorks TX-1001X-OP probes graph compared to the ET-72 pit probe.

Update: Looks like I've hobbled myself by trying to re-use some pretty old charcoal.

Kad0xSKl.png

8NW5MaXl.jpg

ODSOUOfl.jpg
 
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Well that was a pretty miserable cook, but I think I sabotaged myself by starting off with pretty old charcoal.

I was dealing with overshoot, then couldn't keep the temps up, then they remained too high. It looks like I had a pretty solid seal with the damper, so not sure where things went wrong in keeping the temps stable.

giqaX7Bl.png
 
Bravo John. By the looks of the cook so far and being a first run on a brand new UDS, I'd say you nailed it out of the gates. I've been very pleased with my UDS/HeaterMeter combo. Are you using the stock PID values?

Get some meat on there!
 
Thanks!

Yea, the PID values are stock at the moment; I don't think I'll need to change them. I only put in 8 lbs of kingsford coal and it kept temperature for about 8 hours. I've never done this before, so I need to read up on quantity and type of coal to use. I was extremely pleased with the way the unit kept temps, within 1-2 degrees of my set point for most of the evening. I forgot to take a screenshot before unplugging it this morning. I'm planning on smoking some brisket for a party on Saturday so I'll be firing it back up Friday night!

John
 
Well that was a pretty miserable cook, but I think I sabotaged myself by starting off with pretty old charcoal.

I was dealing with overshoot, then couldn't keep the temps up, then they remained too high. It looks like I had a pretty solid seal with the damper, so not sure where things went wrong in keeping the temps stable.

giqaX7Bl.png

Perhaps you should consider installing the ping pong ball check valve to better control air flow when the temperature is too high.

-- Mache
 
Perhaps you should consider installing the ping pong ball check valve to better control air flow when the temperature is too high.

-- Mache

It's using the servo damper, which is basically doing the same thing without the need for a fan blowing the ping pong ball out of the way.
 

 

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