The Adapt-a-Damper - Open Source Project
- Thread starter WBegg
- Start date
Looking at adding a damper to my UDS, but the two inlets I have are 1.5in.
Has anyone drawn an adapter that goes up to that size? The inlet valve is 1.5in so i'm guessing the diameter needs to be slightly smaller with an O-Ring to stop it falling out (It's not threaded).
I'm a complete novice when it comes to 3D printing otherwise i'd have a go myself :-S
Has anyone drawn an adapter that goes up to that size? The inlet valve is 1.5in so i'm guessing the diameter needs to be slightly smaller with an O-Ring to stop it falling out (It's not threaded).
I'm a complete novice when it comes to 3D printing otherwise i'd have a go myself :-S
Bob Walters
TVWBB Member
Print the threaded adapter. Take it down to your home improvement store and find a copper plumbing part to screw in. Then search around for various elbows, reducers, and so on which will allow you to go from that 1" pipe thread to the inlet of your cooker. Solder or screw everything together and you're good to go.
Hello all. Just received my parts including the adapt a damper. I noticed WBegg's servo/fan wirings had the connectors attached to the ends and somehow attached to the rj45 jack. Is there instructions for that part? It seems like an elegant way rather than cutting off the servo/fan wiring ends and pushing it down onto the jack? Thank you.
Do you have other pictures that show how you connected the wires and connectors on the Ethernet jack? This seems really elegant.
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Thanks! I will be installing the capacitor. Did you have to thin out the plastic wire cover to punch the wires through with a punch pen? The wire gauge seems thick? Thanks for your support!
Need some adapt a damper love here. I got my heater meter up and running but have no clue if the damper is working as it should. When I set the set temperature to a high temp, the damper will close. However, when I am doing a cook and there is a temperature overshoot; say, a 225 set temp that overshoots to240, the damper seems to stay open about 80% open. When the temperature goes down below set temp, the damper also doesn't seem to close up. My understanding is that if the pit probe temp goes below the set temp, the damper should open and fans kick on and vise versa for a over temperature?
Bryan Mayland
TVWBB Hall of Fame
Make sure your Damper is working properly by setting HeaterMeter into Manual Mode. This is most easily done on the device itself, just right button twice, then set that to Yes. Now when the output is 0% your damper should be closed. On the device's LCD again use the up and down buttons to change the output percent. Take it up to 100% and down to 0%. Does it work as expected? It should move smoothly and not bind up or sound like the motor is struggling along the way. You can test the smoothness when the output is in auto mode at 100% and trigger the lid detect. The damper should slowly and smoothly travel from full open to full closed.
I've got a video showing how to do manual mode on the LCD and check the output here:
I've got a video showing how to do manual mode on the LCD and check the output here:
almost 3 Aluminum Adapt-a-Dampers complete. All this CNC stuff gets me thinking of creating an all weather enclosure that can snuggle nicely in the cubby I have in my smoker. Thinking all metal, but was worried about WiFi with a Pi Zero W. Turns out, the Pi Zero W has a spot to solder a small connector for an external antenna! I'll keep y'all posted on the progress.
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Not currently. i may design one if there's enough demand
When do they hit the market?
Don't know if they ever will. There's a lot of time in making one, and I probably couldn't justify the costs, but I am working on some fixtures to speed up the process, and dialing in some of my toolpaths, so who knows. Maybe?
What kind of CNC are you using for that? Mine definitely couldn't handle it, but that's a hobby I just got started with. Bought a cheap 3018 Pro at the start of Covid-19 restrictions, and been playing with it a bit. The difficulty is on whole another level from 3D printing, I haven't even worked out what software tools I'd best use. Easel is very limited but still the only one that I am somewhat comfortable with, although it seems to me it doesn't really count the tool width into the equation - I always seem to be left with narrower items than what I had on the screen. 
To conclude, it would be a very long way before I could mill something like that out of an aluminum block - even if I did have a decent CNC machine...
To conclude, it would be a very long way before I could mill something like that out of an aluminum block - even if I did have a decent CNC machine...Last year, I bought a Precision Mathews PM25-MV. It's big enough, but I'm limited to max of 2,300 Spindle RPM, so I can't run fast feed rates (It's all about the chip load). I use Fusion 360 for all my Designs and CAM work. Machine has an Acorn controller, and I opted for Servos instead of Stepper Motors. All in all, a very capable machine, just not fast due to max spindle speed. Great for on-offs and prototypes.