PID controllers on EBay

[woodpelletsmoker]

Originally Posted by urbanredneck

I think these battery packs would probably do the trick- comes with the charger and whatnot too.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-12V-Porta...item256ceb4f3b


This look right?

GOOD enough

[charlie263]

Price looks good, looks like chinese product, note bad spelling. May be alright.

[woodpelletsmoker]

Originally Posted by charlie263

Price looks good, looks like chinese product, note bad spelling. May be alright.

Yes this kit is designed and made in China
Pardon my poor English. I am native chinese living in Beijing,China.
I have never been in American

[RFehr]

Folks,

I just received my WiFi unit a couple days ago. Breif review below to help others get going with this unit and I'll provide more detail later.

- First off, as others have stated the PID parameters are very good - pit temperature control is as good as I've seen Fan quality and volume is very good. The air volume from the fan at 100% is actually far to much for the 'average' backyard pit. Without testing, I suspect this fan would be more than sufficient for a large competition pit. I find that setting the maximum fan speed to 65% is about right for my purposes.

- There are a few really good features to note quickly. First, it will remember exactly where it was in it's cooking program (i.e. what stage, temp, and time) in the event of a power loss. As soon as power was restored, it will begin exactly where it left off - no reprogramming the cooking cycle necessary. The meat probe is very good - and the ability to "hold" a meat temperature after the cooking cycle is a great feature at such a low price point. Last feature to note is manual fan control to bring the pit temperature up to target VERY quickly.

A few details before we begin.

- The fan is surprisingly high volume and the controller does demand a considerable start-up current if the fan is set at the default 100% maximum rate. I would suggest either a 2-3A 12V adapter or a small gel cell battery combined with a smaller battery charge controller. The latter would be preferential for 'critical' cooking as you effectively have battery backup in addition to the battery acting as a 'buffer' to supply the extra current needed when the fan first starts up.

- For those living in one of the last 2 countries on the planet that still think in Fahrenheit (I'm Canadian - so I'm bilingual - C/F - makes no difference to me). Press and hold the Set1 buton for 3 seconds. The display will change from showing the pit current/set value to setup mode. The first setup parameter is F-C - which allows you to change the display from degrees C to degrees F. The default is 0000 which will display temperatures in degrees C. Pressing the + button will change the display to 0001 which display temperatures in degrees F.

- while your in setup mode, you might want to set the max fan speed a bit lower unless you have a very large pit. In setup mode, pressing the Set1 button will move the display to the next setup parameter. The fourth parameter is HdC which is the maximum fan speed expressed as a percentage of max. Default value is 100%, I'd suggest setting this down to 70% as a good starting point.

- More info on the other parameters later.

Now, onto WiFi details:

When the controller starts up for the first time, it will be in AdHoc networking mode. Meaning that it will not attempt to join an existing network but will rather just appear as a standalone device that you can connect to with any WiFi enabled client device (laptop, phone, tablet, etc.). The AdHoc networking mode would be useful if you were traveling with your bbq and your home network was unavailable. You could then easily monitor with just your WiFi enabled phone wherever you were.

However, for a permanent home installation, the initial AdHoc mode is really just to allow you to configure the device to join an existing network.

First off, you should note the IP details that your laptop currently has when connected to your home network. The three parameters your looking for are IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway. Note these somewhere for use later on. For those a bit more network saavy, what we're really looking for is an IP address that is outside of the normal DHCP range of your router that we can later assign to the controller. We'll also need this "open" address to set up port forwarding in the router/firewall if we want to access the controller from the internet.

Next step will be to note the exact name of your wireless network (SSID) and the method used for authentication - i.e. how does your network expect to see the wireless password? I would strongly recommend setting your wireless network to "open" or security/authentication "disabled" temporarily - much easier to start simple and add the security later.

Also, it will be much easier at this stage if you unplug or disable your home network's wireless AP or router.

That's it for preparation. Now we'll need to set the wireless adapter on your client device (laptop, phone, etc.) to a static IP address as follows:

IP: 192.168.1.16
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.15

If you are unfamilliar with how to set a static IP on your device, Google has the answers.

Next, power up the PID controller and on your client device initiate a scan for available wireless networks. You should soon see a new network available called "GOLDEN-LION" that is open (i.e., requires no password).

Connect to this network and use Internet Explorer to connect to http://192.168.1.15:1080. While you can use any browser to configure the wireless portion of the controller, at this point only Internet Explorer has been reliably working for me to see the actual pit temperatures/stages.

Once you've successfully loaded the Wireless Settings page, the first thing you'll want to do is change the name of the controllers wireless network to match that of your home network. If you've followed my recommendation, there will be no password to enter as you've disabled passwords for your home network (temporarily). Save this setting and the controller will restart. If you scan for new wireless networks, and your home network is turned off, then you should see the controller come up using the same name as your home network - but in AdHoc mode.

Connect again to the controller and now you'll be setting it's IP address to a static or fixed value that matches the format for your home network. Set the gateway and subnet mask to the same values as your laptop had when it was on your home network - and make sure you choose an IP for the controller that is unique. Save these settings again, and again the controller will re-boot.

This time, you'll need to change the IP of your laptop to a new static address that matches the format of your home network. I.e., if your home network has an IP address format of 192.168.0.x, and you've just set the controller to 192.168.0.99 because you are sure it's not in use, then you'll need to set your laptop to something like 192.168.0.98. This is just temporary for this last step.

Using Internet Explorer, connect again to the NEW address of the controller on port 1080. In the example above, this would be http://192.168.0.99:1080.

The last step is in the Advanced Settings area where we'll want to set the network mode to "Infra" rather than "AdHoc". This tells the controller to join the existing network that we set up earlier rather than creating it's own. Before you hit save, go back and plug or re-enable your home's wireless network. Save the controllers settings and it should reboot and join your home network!

Before you try to connect to it, you should restore your laptops normal settings - which is likely to have an IP address assigned to it automaticly via DHCP from your router rather than a 'manual' static address that we've been using for setup. Connect your laptop back to your home wireless network and confirm that the controller is online at the address you've set. I prefer confirming by going directly to the wireless settings page on port 1080, but if you wish you can skip this step and go directly to the PID controller page on the 'standard' port 80.

Again, for me the only browser that properly displayed the controller parameters is Internet Explorer - Chrome displayed the static text but did not run the JavaScript properly and would not display temperatures.

In the release of firmware that I have, you can only view temperatures and not actually control anything. I'm sure this is not the intended final feature set - and if someone knows something that I don't, please let me know. I'm trying to get some details on actually CONTROLLING the pit via WiFi from the developer.

If you get to this point successfully, then making the controller visible on the internet is a relatively simple matter of configuring port forwarding on your router. A lesson for another day.

Final Comments:

- Bottom line is that the PID controller and fan end of the product functions remarkable well for the price point. I would buy one again without hesitation.
- However, the WiFi end of the product is very new and needs a lot more polish to make it what I'd really like to see. I'm confident that all these issues can be solved with just a new firmware release and some good documentation - we'll see how quickly this can be achieved.
- if you're not an avid network 'hobbiest' and don't have the patience to wait for some of the WiFi features to get smoothed out, I'd stick with the "tiger" model with the wireless remote.



Save these settings and the controller will restart (actu

[RFehr]

One final note - if you get stuck anywhere in these steps, you can reset the controller to factory default by turning the controller off, press and hold the "<" button while turning the controller on. After several seconds, the display will show "8888" and the controller will beep after which you can release the "<" button.

[colonel00]

Thanks for the review and tips.

[RFehr]

Folks,

My controller is on-line if you want to have a look for yourself.

http://fehr.digitalhomes.ca

Have a look - very simple interface but again, in the version of firmware that I have I can only view and can't control. Also, for me only IE even displays all the values properly. YMMV - let me know if you find any other browser version that works.

I've confirmed with Wang that I should be able to change all settings OTHER THAN the PID parameters via the web interface. If anyone has a browser version that is successful in doing this, please post back here.

I'll try to leave the controller on-line at least until March 18 - at which point it will be put to work smoking some meat!

[cinmur]

RFehr.
I was wondering if you could help me on the wifi. I did exactly as you instructed. My Ip settings on my laptop connected to our net (dhcp) were as follows: Ip..192.168.1.117.....255.255.255.0, default gateway 192.168.1.1...I setup the controller with 192.168.120 & the same default gateway of 192.168.1.1....changed adhoc to infra as you instructed.. When finished, I can access the controller with the :1080 into network setting...but when I go to IE, and type in 1092.168.1.120(controller ip), nothing happens. I can ping the controller with no loss. I did notice that I have only one network connection on the laptop...in other words if I turn on the lion controller, nothing changes on the connections...only the one that is connected to internet...so that by looking the wireless network page on laptop, there is no indication of lion on or off.
I have used the lion to smoke with and it works great...just need to get connected.
Thanks for your input.

[RFehr]

Originally Posted by cinmur

RFehr.
I was wondering if you could help me on the wifi. I did exactly as you instructed. My Ip settings on my laptop connected to our net (dhcp) were as follows: Ip..192.168.1.117.....255.255.255.0, default gateway 192.168.1.1...I setup the controller with 192.168.120 & the same default gateway of 192.168.1.1....changed adhoc to infra as you instructed.. When finished, I can access the controller with the :1080 into network setting...but when I go to IE, and type in 1092.168.1.120(controller ip), nothing happens. I can ping the controller with no loss. I did notice that I have only one network connection on the laptop...in other words if I turn on the lion controller, nothing changes on the connections...only the one that is connected to internet...so that by looking the wireless network page on laptop, there is no indication of lion on or off.
I have used the lion to smoke with and it works great...just need to get connected.
Thanks for your input.

Couple things:

• The lack of "GOLDON-LION" appearing as an adhoc network in your wireless network search indicates sucess in setting a new SSID and having the controller join your home "infrastructure". This is good.

• Obviously being able to ping your controller is a very good thing.

• Being able to browse to http://192.168.1.120:1080 confirms that the controller's internal web server is online.

• On the version of firmware that I have (the wrong version), there is an error in the page. Result is that ONLY Internet Explorer (preferably an older version) will load the page. Firefox just spins for a while an gives up. Chrome loads the table, but will not run the JavaScript to load the real-time temperature data into the table. Same with Safari. However, my iPhone actually loads the page OK.

• If you've tried a bunch of browsers, then one more question: Could you access the temperature settings page (http://192.168.1.15) when you were just connected to your controller in adhoc networking mode? If you didn't try, I'd back up - reset the controller to factory defaults and start over - one you can get to the wireless settings page, verify that you can also load the controller's temperature page at the same address.

[RFehr]

Bizzarely restrictive board policy - I replied to cinmur's question but apparently I'm not allowed to post a quoted reply until a moderator has reviewed even though I've already been posting in this thread. I get restrictions - but ????

Anyway, I guess my answers will be approved in due course.

A bit of a personal update. There is no question that I have a disfunctional version (old perhaps) of controller firmware. I've scraped the html that the controller is posting and there are a few errors - including no proper checks on how parts of the JavaScript should be executed based on what browser you're using.

Biggest problem for me is that THERE IS NO "TEMPERATURE SETTINGS" LINK. Not in the page that loads, not in the code, not in the JavaScript, simply not there. I can view temperatures - but not set anything.

If you look at the screen shots on Wang's website, they are much different than the ones you will see if you connect to my controller (link above). I'm working with Wang to try to get a new firmware file to flash onto the controller but if this can't be done, the unit is going back. As all have said, the PID controller and fan works great. But I bought it for it's ability to be CONTROLLED via WiFi.

Hopefully Wang can get this addressed quickly.

Randy

[colonel00]

Originally Posted by RFehr

Bizzarely restrictive board policy - I replied to cinmur's question but apparently I'm not allowed to post a quoted reply until a moderator has reviewed even though I've already been posting in this thread. I get restrictions - but ????

Just a guess but I believe it is due to the fact that you are a new member. Probably an anti-spam measure to keep entities from joining the forum and spamming or being abusive.

[cinmur]

That is interesting..as I was connected a couple of week ago by using 192.168.1.15...I was running windows 7 with older IE version...reformated, reinstalled win 7 & IE9...now I cannot access the temp settings.
Thanks for your input,
Murray

[Flat_Rate]

Mine should be here tomorrow, not gonna be happy after waiting 4 weeks if I can't change temp settings via WiFi, and set it up easily. Guess we will see.

[BBQchef33]

Originally Posted by RFehr

Bizzarely restrictive board policy - I replied to cinmur's question but apparently I'm not allowed to post a quoted reply until a moderator has reviewed even though I've already been posting in this thread. I get restrictions - but ????


Randy

Sorry Randy, there was a rouge/wrong setting attached to this particular forum. I corrected it.

[woodpelletsmoker]

Dear RFehr,
What you get is second generation.
Third generation can change temperature
Fourth generation will be ready soon and it has graphing of time-voltage-temperature