Fulthrotl
~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
- Occupation
- E
While I think that the PAX units just might work (they take digital inputs that allow remote selection of different set points), seeing as this is an open ended tinkering project, I'd actually suggest using something like an Arduino system rigged as a PID controller, and also suggest moving over to a different board for the discussion, eg 'cooking for engineers' or the like.
People have already made Sous Vide controllers using the Arduino (eg. http://learn.adafruit.com/sous-vide-powered-by-arduino-the-sous-viduino ) so there are PID libraries out there for programming. Adding multiple temperature sensors would be trivial. The biggest problem would be the high temperature sensor.
You could hack away as much as you wanted, including doing things like adding fan speed control to adjust airflow. I recall someone who had gotten very precise temperature control by adjusting air flow to a smoker.
Actually I just looked: there are many people building Arduino controllers for smokers and barbecues. Lots of ideas about how to best proceed out there.
-Jon
agreed.. i did some googling as well.... the Arduino is being played with quite a bit...
and as mentioned, some tweaking will be necessary.... as my little thermometer wifi does an
excellent job of data logging, i'm going to simply try an ice cube relay interrupting the auger
feed, and see how well it regulates... it's a $5 experiment. if the fire stays lit, problem solved.
if the fire goes out, i will tinker further.
and as was also mentioned, there is a significant difference from one wood type of pellet
to another... the 5 blend fruitwood pellets i'm using now take about 50% more pellets
to get the job done. your milage does vary. so with the pellets i'm running now, there is
a much higher total weight of pellets being consumed, and that may make a trickle feed
unnecessary to keep the pot lit.
one cold night of tuning to see what specific temperatures require in terms of pellet feed
to run stable will be all that is required.. i can set it when i light it off, and that is that.
i'm reluctant to tinker with the airflow into the unit... i was asking Ed Maurin about it,
and when they were developing the PG-500 they didn't want to reduce airflow thru
the unit, as with heating pellets, which backyarders are wont to use, it'll creosote
up the smoker pretty badly...
thanks to everyone who took the time to reply. i appreciate it.
Last edited: