Wet HeaterMeter :(


 
B

Benjamin Thibault

TVWBB Member
Hey guys. It's been a very long time since I've visited the forums, but I'm glad to see you're all still kicking it :)

I built a HeaterMeter 4.2.4 some time ago, and have been using it to make delicious BBQ with no issues. A few weeks ago I smoked a brisket overnight to bring in to work. All went well. Except, in the hurry to get to work I forgot the HeaterMeter outside plugged in. For 3 weeks. April and it's ran got it all wet.

I went out last night to get the smoker started and was surprised to find it still on and displaying stuff. I was unable to get it to connect to the internet, but it was controlling the pit just fine so I left it be. I set it under my kettle with the grill cover on it and went to bed. Well, it rained last night and when I woke up the joystick didn't work to control it. It was popping in and out of Lid Open mode every second but the temperature was steady at the set point and the meat was where I expected it. I unhooked the HeaterMeter and took it apart. Dried everything off and there is a ton of white and greenish residue all over all of the solder points. Both on the HeaterMeter and the RasPi boards. I plugged it back in and nothing. Wouldn't even blink the screen. I didn't have time to test the RasPi by itself to see if it still worked.

I already ordered a new 4.3 kit and I guess Bryan shipped it already Thanks dude!

Is it work messing with the old board? I don't have the time or tools to voltage test or ohm test point to point. I probably need a new RasPi but if that's all and some one would be willing to look at it for cheap is it still worth it? It would be nice to have a second one, but if it's gonna cost 60-70% of new to have some one look at I may just buy a secon 4.3 kit.

tl:dr: Anyone want to take a look at my wet HeaterMeter and see if you can get it to work?
 
It seems I'm a fixer of heatermeters, so send me a pm and I will send you my address. If nothing major is fried, then it's just cost of shipping

John
 
I would wash both boards off really well with a soft brush and alcohol then let it dry and give it a shot. The greenish residue is corrosion which can screw things up pretty bad, but often times the unit will function once the corrosion is removed. Or just send it to John, he knows the HM inside and out as well as anyone...
 
@ralph

I gave it a quick try when I dried it out this morning with some alcohol and a paper towel. Didn't have a brush or anything handy and I was trying to get HeaterMeter back running to finish my cook before work.

I will get an old toothbrush or something and give it another go when I get home and see what happens.

@john thanks. PM incoming.
 
Holy cow, I'm surprised it was alive after the first time it got wet. You must have built yours really well. Good luck in getting it working again.
 
Thanks for the show of support AJones!

Steve, I'm going to be running it will a RDTC from now on I think

Tony, I cleaned a lot of it off with alcohol already, and it's currently with John Bostwick. Shoulda took pictures but forgot. Sorry.
 
I have not had the time to look at it, but when I do get the chance and I find anything worthy of taking a picture of, I will try to remember.
 
It's alive...........

I opened it up and the Pi looked a little corroded, but the HM looked ok. I plugged in and saw nothing, and there was no heat from the board either, that's a good thing.

I sprayed some flux removed and another type of flux remover to clean the board, dried it off and plugged it in again.

As I was moving the board a it, i noticed a little bit on the LCD screen, very likely. I moved the contrast pot and it then started to get easier to view, and voila, it began to display again.

The button is a little iffy, I will probably just replace it.

So far all ok. I haven't check the Pi yet
 
That's good news. Does the display fully work? I know when I saw it outside blinking between lid open and closed it looked like a few of the digits weren't working.

If the raspberry pi is no good I guess that's not a huge deal. I'll replace it with a pi zero w and call it a day.

Thanks for taking a look at it for me.
 
I have some bad news and some goods news.

First the good news

You Pi is fine, your SD card is not. I cleaned it up and wasn't having any luck with getting the ACT light to start blinking(sd card activity). So, I removed my sd card from my zero and used a adapter and I was able to get it to read the sd card. I didn't get the WiFi adapter to work, as I believe it was because of the sd card not set for the B version. So anyways, that's the good news.

For the bad news.

I originally was able to get the HM to work just ok, after I first cleaned it and I also left it running for a couple of days on my work bench. Well, I turned it off and plugged it back in after I fixed the button with a new one. I could only get half the display to work. I tried various things to get it to work fully and nothing seemed to work. I could see the info on the part that was not working by pressing on the LCD, but it was not getting energized. I removed the bad LCD and replaced it with a new one and all is good now.

So, the only thing not working is an SD card.
 
John Bostwick said:
I have some bad news and some goods news.

First the good news

You Pi is fine, your SD card is not. I cleaned it up and wasn't having any luck with getting the ACT light to start blinking(sd card activity). So, I removed my sd card from my zero and used a adapter and I was able to get it to read the sd card. I didn't get the WiFi adapter to work, as I believe it was because of the sd card not set for the B version. So anyways, that's the good news.

For the bad news.

I originally was able to get the HM to work just ok, after I first cleaned it and I also left it running for a couple of days on my work bench. Well, I turned it off and plugged it back in after I fixed the button with a new one. I could only get half the display to work. I tried various things to get it to work fully and nothing seemed to work. I could see the info on the part that was not working by pressing on the LCD, but it was not getting energized. I removed the bad LCD and replaced it with a new one and all is good now.

So, the only thing not working is an SD card.
Click to expand...
Wow, that's some good work. I hope I never need your services, but if I do....
 
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