StokerLog Version 4.0 Preview


 
Amir's program appears to have places for only 3 food probes. Since most everyone that cooks in contest cooks two butts and two briskets this would certainly be a good thing to put on the "to do" list.
 
Originally posted by Chet Calhoun:
Amir's program appears to have places for only 3 food probes. Since most everyone that cooks in contest cooks two butts and two briskets this would certainly be a good thing to put on the "to do" list.
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Will do
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Here's a question from a Newbie to this discussion.
I've just recently found this fantastic program, thanks Amir!

OK, I'm (unfortunately) running Vista. The Stoker Log program will sometimes stop running. No error messages, except the large "Start Logging" button will be highlighted, instead of the "STOP".
The graph will just remain the same, with no more updates.
I have to close the program, then re-start. Refresh does nothing.

Since I haven't found anything in these threads (yet...like I said, I'm new here), I'm assuming that this isn't really common, and is possibly a Vista problem???

quote:
Originally posted by Chet Calhoun:
Amir's program appears to have places for only 3 food probes. Since most everyone that cooks in contest cooks two butts and two briskets this would certainly be a good thing to put on the "to do" list.
Click to expand...

Also, I sometimes use as many as 4 fans, (4 different smokers) and up to 8 meat probes.
;-)

Thanks,

BOB
 
Thanks for the kind words Bob.

I do all of my development and testing on Vista so I know it is supposed to work there
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When this situation happens, is there anything in the status line? The program gets out of logging if it detects an error talking to the stoker but there is usually an indicator in the status line.

Are you using a wireless connection to stoker? If so, try using a hardwired ethernet link to see if that makes the problem go away. If it does, then I would trace the wireless networking part of your system to see if there is something causing problems there.

If none of this works, then I would need more clues as to your config, what the system was doing at the time, etc. to search for the bug.
 
Well, that response caused mixed reactions here.
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It shouldn't be a Vista problem (which is good!), but it seems it's my problem, which is bad for me!
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It may be later in the week before I can do more. Yes, ethernet connection, No, I don't remember anything in the status line.
I DO remember that in the title bar, after "StokerLog by Amir M.--Default.bbq" there was the Windows message "(Not Responding)" which made me blame Windows Vista.

Thanks for your help. I'll be back, whether I have this problem again, or not.
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BOB
 
Not responding is not good. The bew versions of the program never waits on anything. Are you running the latest version or the older ones?
 
I'm back. Just used the Stoker and Stoker Log with one fan, one pit temp probe and 4 to 6 meat probes all weekend at a contest. Absolutely no problems with the program or the Stoker. I'm guessing that maybe my problem before was trying to run too many fans (3) pit probes (4) and meat probes (8) together with the program. If that's the problem, I guess I'll just have to wait for the updates
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until I use all that equipment with the Stoker Log program.
Would that be version 4.6a or version 5?
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BOB
 
Originally posted by Bob in Fla:
I'm back. Just used the Stoker and Stoker Log with one fan, one pit temp probe and 4 to 6 meat probes all weekend at a contest. Absolutely no problems with the program or the Stoker. I'm guessing that maybe my problem before was trying to run too many fans (3) pit probes (4) and meat probes (8) together with the program. If that's the problem, I guess I'll just have to wait for the updates
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until I use all that equipment with the Stoker Log program.
Would that be version 4.6a or version 5?
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BOB
Click to expand...
The program has never been tested with more than on fan so it is liable to do really strange things
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. I now have a second stoker and fan. So once life settles down and I get more programming time, I will try to tackle this.
 
Amir, I just gotta say a great big thank you for this program. I just got my Stoker a couple of weeks ago and hooked it up to my Stump clone smoker that I built. It was a great smoker before, but with the Stoker and your program, it's an awesome smoker now.

My wife laughed at me when I'd rather sit in the office and watch the graphs of the probes than sit in the living room and watch TV. But while watching the graphs, I noticed the fan was running quite a bit and the temp wasn't very stable. My first thought was a bridge in the chute and sure enough, that's what it was. So I was able to fix the issue before it became a problem. In fact after I came in from fixing the bridge, the Stoker Log indicated a Fire Out had occured.

You have a great program and the only thing I would ask is that the "real time" temp field be larger and a darker font -- it's almost grayed out and a little hard to read.

The Auto Lid Detect option is great. I usually have the door opened for just a couple of minutes. Then the smoker has time to recover a bit before the fan kicks back on (if needed). Without this, the fan was blowing the entire time I had the door opened and then it would overshoot the target temp after I closed the door.
 
Originally posted by Steve Story:
Amir, I just gotta say a great big thank you for this program. I just got my Stoker a couple of weeks ago and hooked it up to my Stump clone smoker that I built. It was a great smoker before, but with the Stoker and your program, it's an awesome smoker now.

My wife laughed at me when I'd rather sit in the office and watch the graphs of the probes than sit in the living room and watch TV. But while watching the graphs, I noticed the fan was running quite a bit and the temp wasn't very stable. My first thought was a bridge in the chute and sure enough, that's what it was. So I was able to fix the issue before it became a problem. In fact after I came in from fixing the bridge, the Stoker Log indicated a Fire Out had occured.

You have a great program and the only thing I would ask is that the "real time" temp field be larger and a darker font -- it's almost grayed out and a little hard to read.

The Auto Lid Detect option is great. I usually have the door opened for just a couple of minutes. Then the smoker has time to recover a bit before the fan kicks back on (if needed). Without this, the fan was blowing the entire time I had the door opened and then it would overshoot the target temp after I closed the door.
Click to expand...
I am glad it worked for you steve. I feel guilty that I have not done much work on the program since the last version. The latest features require quite a bit of work and I have just been too busy with work.

But the change you asked for was pretty simple. So here is a version to test: http://la.gg/upl/Setup41.msi

Let me know if the font treatment is better now.
 
Amir, I am looking forward to trying out the updated software. Thank you for the quick modification. I'll download it this weekend and give it a try and I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again!
 
Originally posted by Bob in Fla:
Well, that response caused mixed reactions here.
icon_biggrin.gif
It shouldn't be a Vista problem (which is good!), but it seems it's my problem, which is bad for me!
icon_frown.gif


It may be later in the week before I can do more. Yes, ethernet connection, No, I don't remember anything in the status line.
I DO remember that in the title bar, after "StokerLog by Amir M.--Default.bbq" there was the Windows message "(Not Responding)" which made me blame Windows Vista.

Thanks for your help. I'll be back, whether I have this problem again, or not.
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BOB
Click to expand...

Amir - I will preface this by saying I ABSOLUTELY LOVE your program, otherwise I would not work so hard to get it to function. As you know I've had my share of Vista issues with the Stoker Log too. I am still trying to narrow down the problems. I only use the Stoker on a hard-wired connection now (I gave up on wireless a long time ago due to instability issues). At first we thought the problems occurred whenever an alert was triggered but Amir you coded through that issue. I then seemed to think the error would occur whenever I made any changes to the temp or alert settings but I can not get that to cause the problems. This weekend I set-up the Stoker and ran it on my Vista box for several hours, without making ANY changes and the program stopped functioning after about four hours. Then I immediately switched over to my XP box and ran a successful smoke for over 18 hours - the Stoker Log performed flawlessly-it was ROCK SOLID on XP!!! Running the program from this box is very inconvenient. I have a new router on order. Once I get it installed I will re-test and report the results. If I still have problems I will gladly set-up the stoker and punch a hole in my firewall for you to check on it if you want....

Thanks,
-Dave

2 WSMs
1 One Touch Platinum
1 Smokey Joe
1 Stoker Kit
1 Very Patient Wife
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Dave, no need to preface anything. I am sure there are some bugs in the program
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When the program stops working, what does it do exactly? Can you change any settings or is it hung?

One thing to note: StokerLog can get pretty big memory wise as it has to keep track of all the samples for the graph. Vista is larger and as such, you can run out of (virtual) memory sooner than XP. When you run stokerlog, do you have other programs running? If so, try just running stokerlog and see what happens.

By the way, you don't need to be cooking anything. The program doesn't care if stoker is controlling the fire or not. Just run the program tonight before you go to sleep and see if it is still alive in the morning. Put the stoker on a table with the probes and blower simply attached to it.
 
Originally posted by Amir:
Dave, no need to preface anything. I am sure there are some bugs in the program
icon_smile.gif
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When the program stops working, what does it do exactly? Can you change any settings or is it hung?

One thing to note: StokerLog can get pretty big memory wise as it has to keep track of all the samples for the graph. Vista is larger and as such, you can run out of (virtual) memory sooner than XP. When you run stokerlog, do you have other programs running? If so, try just running stokerlog and see what happens.

By the way, you don't need to be cooking anything. The program doesn't care if stoker is controlling the fire or not. Just run the program tonight before you go to sleep and see if it is still alive in the morning. Put the stoker on a table with the probes and blower simply attached to it.
Click to expand...

Amir - I will try this soon and record the results. More to come.......

-Dave
 
Amir, I'm running the most recent version of your program. I upgraded from the older version of 4.1 to the newer version of 4.1. I forgot to uninstall the old version (which might be my issues and I'll do so and reinstall after my cook) but it looks like the temperature scale on the left-hand side of the graph has been removed.
 
Originally posted by A. Vale:
Amir, I'm running the most recent version of your program. I upgraded from the older version of 4.1 to the newer version of 4.1. I forgot to uninstall the old version (which might be my issues and I'll do so and reinstall after my cook) but it looks like the temperature scale on the left-hand side of the graph has been removed.
Click to expand...

I just tested it and the scale is still there. Can you remove and install again? Also, try rebooting and run this program before you run anything else and see if it works then.
 
Uninstalling the old version and installing the new version seems to have fixed the issues... clearly pilot error. Thanks!
 
Help!

I'm trying to locate a download for the current version of StokerLog, but none of the links in this thread work. Can anyone direct me?

Thanks in advance!

Gowan Fenley
Johnny Mitchell's Smokehouse
 
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