stoker v6


 
B

bob taylor

TVWBB Member
Will there be a new and improved Stoker V6?
What could be added or improved upon?

Would be interested in seeing what others would like to see.

Curious George
 
Bob, you mean Stokerlog v6, right?

The only thing on my wish list is auto reconnect for when my wireless drops and I get a Stoker connection loss song. Doesn't happen that often now that I figured out it was the heat/sun that was causing my bridge to crap out (last 20 hour cook didn't lose connection once) but it can happen and it would be great if it could reconnect after a timeout period vs. me having to manually be there to press the "start" button. Other than that I'm good . . . wait, if it could fetch my beer that would be cool too
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Yep, agree with Larry wholeheartedly (esp about fetching a beer!) It would be nice to be able to set how much time can pass with no input before restarting (like a configurable value). Also, during the time it is down, would it be possible to keep the temp graph from going to zero? Just keeping the last temp value then adjusting to the newly connected temp value would be great (hardly ever changes anyway...) This would keep the graphs cleaner looking anyway. Don't really care about the fan trace during the down time.

Thanks,
Tom
 
Ok, ok, ok!!!
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I have a prototype running of the retry mechanism. I want to test it a bit more before posting. Want to make sure the corner cases are covered. But so far so good!
 
That's great Amir! I can't wait for the new version.

Yep, I gotta agree with Larry about the need for auto-reconnection.

And I like Tom's idea of maintaining the last temps when restarting, then get an updated read to adjust the graph (if the temps have changed).
 
Sorry guys but I left for a one week trip before getting a chance to post the software.

For now, the system recovers nicely without a glitch down to zero temp. It will retry indefinitely to reconnect unless you stop logging manually. There is time delay between attempts though (about 12 to 15 seconds).

In the process of testing it, I noticed another side benefit. I would turn the box off to simulate network going down and as soon as I would turn it back on, it would reconnect and everything would work as if nothing had happened (other than the samples missing).

This got me thinking. With the above, you don't need "lid open" functionality. Simply walk to the stoker, turn the power off, open the smoker, do your thing and close the lid/turn on the stoker. By the time you get to your computer, it will have reconnected with no chance of false alarms or anything! Even the log continues counting so the time elapsed is accurate.

One issue though. In the process of testing it, I hit the bug where stoker doesn't start up properly and that currently is a fatal error as there is no way to reset stoker other than turning it on and off. So I need to work on that being a soft error, letting you reconnect after the power cycle. Testing this path though will be very hard as I can't always make the bug appear.

Anyway, what started as a feature for a few folks with wireless issues, has turned into a new feature for everyone!
 
Amir,

As a side note, the power cycle to the stoker is the preferred method according to John at Rock's. He said that the stoker would perform better, as opposed to using the lid open option and leaving the stoker powered up.
 
Hi Amir

I have used Stokerlog for 1.5 yrs now and enjoy the program! In the past I have also successfully been able to get into the stoker from work utilizing a host service, no-ip.com, and Port forwarding. Stokerlog also worked on my work PC by entering the address of the host, Stoker1.no-ip.biz in the IP address field.

I recently updated my Stoker firmware, as well as the latest version of Stokerlog. When I tried to get back in from outside my network, the Stoker web interface works fine, even from my bberry web browser. But when I go into Stokerlog I can't see the fan running, or see it on the graph. I made sure I had the blower associated with the probe correctly but still no success.

Any ideas what would cause this? Thx in advance for your help.
 
Amir - that sounds great. I can't wait for you to return from your well-deserved vacation and post up this new version.

I really like the part of just turning off the Stoker and turning it back on, then StokerLog will reconnect automatically. I sometimes forget to click the "auto lid detect" or forget to change the target temp down, before I head out to open up the smoker. This should make things much easier (and not cause the Stoker Connection Lost song -- my wife thinks that is annoying when that happens while I'm out by the smoker and not near the computer to shut it off.
 
I'm also anxiously waiting for the new reconnect feature.

Amir, I'm not sure how you would feel about this but I'd like to see Stokerlog open sourced. This way, you will still have control of the software, and many of the fine programmers out there can add features to benefit us all.
 
Ray,

Let me explain it this way. I was a pretty good programmer in my day. We are talking 1980s, when everything was so simple and programming was in C and assembly language. I could outdo most people in that job.

Fast forward 20 years, and 20 years of managing people and not programming, and you get one rusty programmer when it comes to writing Windows app. To make matters worse, the original concept was to simply log the temps and hence the name "Stokerlog."

The program has grown way past its simple beginnings. It is now tens of thousands of lines and frankly, something I am embarrased for folks to see.
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Maybe when I get a chance to clean it up, I will open it up for folks to see.

PS I am not on vacation but at a show. It is a fun gathering though of audio/video (CEDIA) so it is fun but not as much fun as a real vacation
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Thanks so much Amir... I am looking forward to trying this version out. Regarding the bug where Stoker doesn't "start up properly," what does it look like? Is it the one where the blower stays on? Just want to be ready if that bug hits.

Oh and I love the idea of switching the box off to lift the lid. Like Steve, I sometimes forget to make the temp adjustment at the computer before I go out and open the lid for mopping or something and when I come back in and silence StokerLog, I get that look from my wife... Would rather not get that look...
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Yes, that is the bug. If it happens, stokerlog will complain that stoker is "hung," put up a dialo box asking you to restart the machine. And for now, stops logging.

Now that we have good recovery and can restart from a power cycle, I need to change the code to keep going but testing it will be challenging as that bug doesn't come up that often.
 
Amir, I know what you mean about being a rusty programmer. Been working more on the Database side of things for several years and all the JAVA and .Net stuff has just left me in the dust.

Anyway, just some notes that I have made while using the Stokerlog application.

1. My pit temp does not display the decimal. It appears as if the font is too large.

2. I get an unhandled exception if I attempt to change the fan graph color

3. If I make a note and then remove the note, the Arrow which points to the graph remains visible.

I know....none of these things are big...but if you're in there monkeying around with the code and happen to think about them.....
 
Thanks for the feedback Aaron. The graph bug has been around for a while. I just fixed it. Can't yet look at #1 as I don't have the stoker connected to my network right now but will work on it tomorrow.

#3 is very difficult to fix. The graph object I use treats everything as a seperate element. Drawing them is easy but deleting requires that I attempt to find all the elements and that is non-trivial. So I don't think I will be able to fix this anytime soon. Hope that is OK
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Amir,

I use the program regularly and love it. I think the fix you have in place so you can turn off the box to work on the smoker is great.

I would like to make one more wish list request. I would enjoy being able to tell the stoker to raise/lower the temperature at a predetermined time. Sometimes I cook at one temp for a few hours, then want to raise the temperature one or two times throughout the cook. It would be nice to set it up in advance, so I could truly let it be.

For example, put brisket on at 200* for four hours. After four hours, temp automatically raises to 250*. 3 hours later, it raises to 275*. Etc.

Is that something you can do? I know Ken has a timer program that does this, but I would really like to just use one program.

Thanks,

Pat
 
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