Test running homebrew temp controller

smokindave74 said:

Excellent post, Righteousdog. Nice photos, and really nice explanation.

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thx

smokindave74 said:

You brought up tuning, which is a question i had. Have you tinkered with the settings that Auberins has in their manual? Basically P=1.2 ot=10, I=300, d=70, and SouF=0.7.

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the only thing i changed was OT=20 on my setup, because i thought the fan was short cycling a bit much BUT...

you are on the right path reading the manual and trying to understand what you are doing. i don't want to give too much out with HOW anyone should set their unit up, because there's too many variables. the only recommendation i WILL give is DON'T change to many things at once, or you lose track of what changes ARE working for your setup.

smokindave74 said:

It didn't do this every time, but I did notice it on several occasions in the 12 hour cook.

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you mentioned you think your t/c placement was not right...it shouldn't be in a spot where it's going to get dripped on by meat juice for sure. i typically keep my t/c near the side above grate level because it seems logical this would be a more stable spot. then again it depends on your style of fuel loading and flavor wood placement...if any (variables). unless you're using a diffuser or wpan (i don't) you're bound to get a flare up. obviously the fan shouldn't be running then but dont go crazy OCD.

i do notice quite a dif with my PID temp vs the maverick (et-732 fluctuates more) but i try not to get too anal - i actually trust the PID more.

plus there's that adage about a person with two watches vs one

PS - i hope your 'q was good

smokindave74 said:

On a side note, you had mentioned MTBF on the EM relay. I did a little rough math calc and I figured that if it cycles 10 times a minute times 12 hours, that is about 7000 cycles on a 12 hour cook. 100 cooks would be 700,000 cycles. But we are talking about a tiny load and voltage, so maybe this thing will last 1 million cycles. In any event, I am guessing that if the EMR does eventually fail, I can buy a SSR, and rewire it to use that mode instead, correct?

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i'll have to pay more attention to mine next run, but i think 10 cycles a minute is pretty high. either way you're close to what i figured, which was 86 12 hour cooks. i still think it will last longer, based on how many controllers i DONT replace at the day job

yes you are correct, you can rewire for the external SSR using the controllers internal SSR, which has nothing to do with the relay. too bad they didn't put an internal SSR in there that would handle the load straight off...

think of the P as the gas and the I as the brake. the higher the value the harder you flooring it (and usually having overshoot) or hitting the brakes. they are interactive, so depending on what the system is doing should help to decide which one to adjust. baby steps. once dialed in ambient and fuel should be less of an issue.