Random newbie questions


 
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DaveVorbaltz

New member
How I landed here...

I just upgraded my bbq pit. And by "just upgraded" I literally mean yesterday. I have only run it a day to season it and have yet to even cook in it. So this is already a bit premature.

I'm a bit of a unix/linux nerd and was google fishing for a mechanism to remotely read temperatures (bbq pit and meat probes) via a raspberry pi. My original plan was for something very low level -- basic temperature reads. I have existing graphing infrastructure (cacti) and an existing monitoring system (nagios) that I planned on tying all this into.

Heatermeter looks cool... but... it looks like maybe more than I need and ... also it looks like component assembly might be above my head. I'm more of a software/OS nerd and have not really experimented with hardware AT ALL.

From reading random posts, it seems HM was designed for smallish pits. Mine is a tad larger. If I were to go "all in" with heatermeter -- how large a fan I would need? And would HM would even drive a fan that large without modification? I've got a 20x24 offset firebox with a 30x42x48 reverse flow smoke chamber.

Or is there a project out there folks know of that is a better fit -- cheaply providing raw temps in a usable range that I can get at via a raspberry pi?
 
The HM can control just about any 12v blower. The rotordamper has a rd25, which is a 28cfm blower, it would be more then enough to control your smoker. You can PM me, I'm a builder of custom Hm's that work with the rotordamper and I'm the designer of the adapter board, that connects them both.
 
All the parts in the equation can be swapped out, you can build your own temperature measuring board which is just an arduino with a 10K resistor linked to your temperature probes and run the heatermeter software to do all the reading and spit out serial data. You can write your own code on Raspbian to read the serial and get it into your catci. Or you can run the LinkMeter software there and write code on your cacti box to poll the data or stream the JSON from LinkMeter.

As John said, the HeaterMeter is designed with some beefy bits that will drive a blower up to 12W for controlling larger pits so that shouldn't be an issue. If you don't want to design your own hardware or tinker with electronics, the best thing to do would be to probably get a HeaterMeter and then just do whatever you want with the serial data coming out (via Pi or a bluetooth UART or whatever). If you don't need buttons or an LCD, or LEDs, you could probably get the parts for maybe $40 shipped?
 
If I do go with heatermeter... there is probably no real reason to duct tape this into my current cacti/nagios config since everything is "just there". That's just where my thought process started... Though if there were a simple/inexpensive solution for reading temps, I might still try that as a jumping off point. But with a nice clean package like HM... you might as well use what is there.

Is there a rule of thumb for "size of firebox (or smoke chamber)" to required CFM?
Does fuel matter in CFM requirements? It seems like (from some random samples) most folks are using lump charcoal. I tend to use logs.
 
DaveVorbaltz said:
Is there a rule of thumb for "size of firebox (or smoke chamber)" to required CFM?
Does fuel matter in CFM requirements? It seems like (from some random samples) most folks are using lump charcoal. I tend to use logs.
Click to expand...

I don't think the fuel is a problem, they all use oxygen.

I use a UDS, which is a 55 gallon drum. From almost 6 years using the HM, I have determined that you would need about a 8.6cfm blower on the UD, to be able to get good control in various weather conditions. Anything smaller, and although you may be able to control, you won't be able to get to higher heats and when the weather is windy or cold, you won't be able to get a good control.

Anything over 55 gallons, I'm not sure, but definitely a 28cfm would control virtually any smoker.
 
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