StokerLog Version 4.0 Preview


 
Thanks for the attempt, but I'd tried all of those. Problem was that the entire la.gg server was offline. I emailed Amir and arranged for him to send me the software direct, so it all worked out.

Having fun playing with the new Stoker now!

Thanks for your help,

-Gowan
 
Originally posted by Amir:
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.
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Check this out Amir. I bought a new router and I think that might have solved my problems. Last night I ran the Stoker + your logger while I slept. It was not hooked up to my smoker, I just had it running in my house and had StokerLog (SL) running on my Vista machine. SL had never run for more than 4 hours on my Vista box without problems. It ran overnight flawlessly.

So today, using SL + Vista, I smoked two briskets, 3 racks of ribs and 2 giant pork loins that had been cured for Canadian bacon. I had my smokers double stacked (two WSM chambers piled high!) and everything worked GREAT. It was a perfect St. Louis smoking day with temps in the 60s + no wind. The neighbors were all peaking over the fence and commenting on the smells. I passed out quite a few ribs this afternoon, vacuum sealed the brisket for a dinner next week and tomorrow I am having fresh smoked bacon for breakfast!

SL performed without a hitch, no errors, hiccups of blemishes. I was even out of the house for a while and kept in touch via my BlackBerry.

I will keep a close eye on things over the next few smokes and let you know if I have troubles.

Thanks for your help Amir. I gotta go wash the smoke off me before bed!

-Dave
2 WSMs
1 One Touch Platinum
1 Smokey Joe
1 Stoker unit
1 understanding wife
 
Originally posted by Ken Brown:
Amir,

I've tried to contact you via your regular e-mail. No Reply. Are you still around?

Ken
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Oh hi Ken. Yes, I am around but been busy with other things.
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Will search and respond to your email.
 
Amir,

I had something strange happen during a turkey cook today. I had my temp set for 300 and my food probe set for 170. I had my fire alarm set for the probe, 275Low/335high, and the food alarm set for the turkey. In addition to that, I checked the "Keep Warm" feature, which I love BTW. I had the "keep Warm" setting at 90%, so when the temperature of the turkey started approaching 170°, your program kicked in and stepped down the main probe temp to 270°, as expected. However, it did not take into consideration the fire alarms lower limits, which it reached very quickly, and set off a fire alarm. Also, when it adjusted the temperature down, it activated the alarms on the Stoker, which were deactivated before. I was out working with some customers and received 2 fire alarm notification, followed a little later by a food notification. I scurried home and got he situation under control but not before I had a severe panic attack and some nasty looks from my neighbors.

May I suggest a couple of changes for the "Keep Warm" feature.
#1 if you are going to step down the main probe temp, disable the alarms before you send an update to the stoker, or make sure you don't change the stokers alarm setting.
#2 if a fire alarm is set, make sure you reset the lower limit to below the new probe temp set. (maybe 15° less than set amount)
#3 send a notification when a new temp is set.

My sendmail.aspx accepts a new field called "message" to allow for more information to be sent, so current temp settings and actual temp readings could be sent, as well as a "keep warm" notification, as part of the message.

We all appreciate all your hard work on this project.
 
Ah, good find Ken. You are right that I did not consider alarms at all in Keep Warm. I can modify it but here is the trick. I have not looked a the code for a few months. I am liable to break something after add this code
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. So are you willing to retest the whole program to make sure all is well?
 
Amir,

Thanks a lot. I downloaded and installed the new version, but I won't be able to test the new feature until Tursday. I'll be doing a turkey for my mom. Thanks again.
 
Amir,

I tried your changes today and it did not seem to work. I've attached a portion of the log file and sent it to your e-mail address. The alarm did not turn off and I received an audio alarm from the stoker device shortly after the temperature was shifted downward.

I re-checked the version and it the one I'm supposed to have. It is dataed 11-30-2007. Not sure what went wrong.

Thanks,
Ken
 
I noticed an unusual behavior in the Stoker internal programming. This has happened before but I never realized what was going on. At one point in my cook today, I increased my target temperature from 225 to 250. After an hour, I decreased the temp back to 225. (I was doing a little jump start on the plateau) The temp in the smoker dropped as expected, however, when it reached the target temp, the fan did not resume. In fact, the temp in my smoker dropped to 218 and the fan had still not kicked in yet. I'm not sure how low it would have dropped, but this was getting past the "lets see" range. For kicks, I dialed in a new temp of 230 and the fan kicked in immediately. Could this be a software bug in the firmware? Any one else notice this? Of course the StokerLog does not control the fan, it just records the activity, so that is not the culprit.
 
How is your Stoker connected to the computer?

The only time(s) that I have noticed this is when I'm using 2 or more of the stereo headphone cables from the Stoker to the fan and temp probes. The response time is longer than normal, and except on my insulated smokers (they lose temperature lots slower), yes the drop is alarming. I think that the fan would eventually kick in, but like you, I have never waited it out. On the insulated smokers, the temp drop in the pits takes so long that the time that the software takes to refresh the fan takes place before the temperature drops.
At least that's what I think is happening from my experience.

BOB
 
Ken, I have not seen that problem. Next time be sure to go and check the blower in person so that we know for sure it is not the reporting/stokerlog that is doing it.

I think we excert far more control on the stoker than people do with the browser/front panel so bugs are bound to come out of the woods that way.

Unfortunately, tracking and finding such bugs is very difficult.
 
I did do a visual inspection to make sure, but the fact that the temp fell 7° below my set point was proof enough that there no activity on the blower.

Bob, I am using a ceramic smoker, with Amir's wonderful software and according to the log, I set the new temp of 225 from 250 at 4:44 pm. It reached 225 @ 5:56 and 218.8 at 6:05, I reset to 230 at 6:07, and it reached 230 at 6:09.

This afternoon, I will fire it up , stabalize at 250, then turn it down to 225 again to see if it will repeat. But I think it will. Now that I know what's going on, it's not a problem. I just won't assume when I adjust downward again.
 
Well, I ran my test today. It was almost like I though it would be. The fan however did kick in finally, at 216, which as you'll see from the pic @ StokerLogPic and by the contents of the log file at StokerLogTxt. Looks like the firmware could use some tweaking.
 
Dave,

I was even out of the house for a while and kept in touch via my BlackBerry.
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Dave,

You mentioned that you were able to use your BlackBerry to check on the stoker application. I have tried everything and only get a "time out" error message. Any suggestions? Anybody else been able to access the stoker application web page with their BlackBerry? Thanks.

Sean
 
Ken,
What happened at 4:58:10? Noticed there is a fourth temp that starts showing in the log at that point that hadn't been there prior to that?
 
Originally posted by Todd D.:
Ken,
What happened at 4:58:10? Noticed there is a fourth temp that starts showing in the log at that point that hadn't been there prior to that?
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I plugged in an additional probe to do another unrelated test. I'm working on an app that will text my phone with Stoker information on a regular basis. Now I don't have to be near a computer to know what's going on on my smoker. On the weekends, that where I want to be, away from the computer.
 
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