Quote:
Originally Posted by KuyasKitchen
Costs are definitley not even close to being the same. For a dual probe system, I'm looking at about $215. For a dual probe Stoker (with WiFi), I'm looking at $400+. WiFi is a requirement
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That's fine on your requirements, and I won't fault what you've done. I'm a software guy too. I had planned on buying an embedded controller and an Omega thermocouple and had already written the software to go on the controller, until I found that Omega already had a prewritten controller to do what I wanted, professionally written and auto-tuned, and if I wanted to pay a little more, it even had a built in http server. I decided for me, it was better to buy than build, but of course I'm talking about a controller rather than a reader. For all those who find this interesting, go for it. I'd be glad to help out if any one wants it, and I certainly won't call ppl fools for wanting to do their own thing. I think an "open source" version of the Stoker would be pretty kick ass, and I totally understand your reason about being so far from the mainland.
One thing to say though, I'm not sure where you are getting your numbers. A two probe Stoker shouldn't cost any where near $400! The Stoker itself is $175. Each probe is $35. You may even be able to get a progressive $5 discount if you buy a few at a time. A wifi bridge is about $40. That's about $285 without any discounts. Still more than what you'll have spent, but by my math, the break even point is at about 4 probes, and that's fine if the average person only wants 2-3. Take into account what else is there, and it's a harder decision to me. Again, I'm not saying anything bad about what you've done, and I totally get it. I'm sorry if I came across that way, but so many of the things people are asking you to add already exist. I'd be saying the same thing if some one said he found a way to build a device to pick dirt up off the carpet that only cost him $20, but took half a day to put together. And for the record, I built my own pellet pooper in stead of buying one because I wanted to do it myself, but it was also cheaper!
One last thing, and then I hope to bow out unless I can help: Some one asked for trending software I think. There is a free piece of software out there called StokerLog which does just that, monitoring your various probes and such. It keeps a log on disk, and maps the results in a nifty graph, which you are able to save. There's also a port based protocol where you can query and set just about everything about the Stoker, and I've written some of a C# library to access it.
Cool work.
dmp
