PID controllers on EBay

[Soulman1282]

It looks like the control panel on the DeLorean in "Back to the Future" that tells you what year you're coming from and what your destination year is! LOL

[esselle]

Originally Posted by Dr_KY

I have made contact with Wank a few times but so far all I have gotten is he offers no guarantee with his stuff because he is in China.

Is that his real name? If it is that has made my day
Is this the same guy that has been banned from the BBBQS site or have I got my wires crossed?

[Dr_KY]

Originally Posted by esselle

Is that his real name? If it is that has made my day
Is this the same guy that has been banned from the BBBQS site or have I got my wires crossed?

Sorry it's a TYPO his name is Wang if I'm not mistaken again.

Didn't you buy one of his units? What's it like? There are photos of the basic set-up that someone purchased on another forum and they were not real happy with how it arrived ie. dirty probe and thin wiring. Can't comment on the wiring as I'm no electrician.

[esselle]

Originally Posted by Dr_KY

Sorry it's a TYPO his name is Wang if I'm not mistaken again.

Didn't you buy one of his units? What's it like? There are photos of the basic set-up that someone purchased on another forum and they were not real happy with how it arrived ie. dirty probe and thin wiring. Can't comment on the wiring as I'm no electrician.

Not me Al....I bought the Pitmaster IQ110....very happy with it.

[Dr_KY]

Oh sorry I knew someone over there was mentioned to be looking into the blower set up. Sorry Scott.

[colonel00]

I think he should donate a few units for testing purposes

[landshark530]

I purchased one of these controllers, mostly based on the price and options. I was going to build my own pid controller, but this unit was only about 40 bucks more than I was going to invest on a single readout unit.
My cost for the golden-wolf with a fan and flange was $158.00. The duel readout made the difference over a single readout unit.

Shipping took about a week. I had a short delay due to some manufacturing problem during the new year week. My bad for ordering during the holidays. They threw in an extra temp sensor for the trouble.

I received the unit and started testing the with boiling water and with my pellet stove I use to heat my home. The temp controlls worked well. The fan unit is a 50 cfm fan, which is plenty for my chargriller and uds. The other controllers I looked at only had 5, 10, or 25 cfm motors, with the 35 cfm motor being $150+ just for the motor. Computer fans, which is what all these controllers on the market use, cost about a one dollar per cfm, so charging 180 dollars for a 25 cfm fan is highway robbery.

The unit can control the pit based on pit temp, or meat temp, or run a program that will do both. I just used the pit temp and ran the meat temp as a backup.
I used a 5 dollar electical box to attach it to my side firebox. I thought the higher cfm fan might be an issue, but I had no problems. The unit can also be adjusted so the fan does not run at 100%.
I threw on some counrty style ribs for a test, no reason to waste expensive meat. I had an initial spike when I started the cook, but after that the system ran better than expected, and kept temps where I set it. I forgot to add fuel and it dropped to 190. I threw on another hunk of wood and it recovered with the fan quickly.
I jumped the temps at the end and it changed and ran accurately without fail. Temps remained within 5 degrees and most of the time stayed dead on. My smoker is not air tight and I was using charcoal to start, then used apple and cherry wood.
I used a 4amp power supply because the fan is a 2 amp fan, but I would buy another one of these in a heartbeat.
The instructions are not the clearest, but I was able to figure them out. You can program 4 different cookings phases, but it was easy to turn them off and just run one program.
There are high temp and low temp alarms, Setting them at extreme ranges eliminates them going off if you don't need them.

I extended the fan wires to give me some more room to work with. I just used a small cooler to hold the unit for this test.

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[landshark530]

I forgot to mention. My ribs turned out great. Was also my first time using Myron Mixon's rubs from his book. The ribs were so good I forgot to take pics. My bad, again... I'll be doing a brisket this weekend and will try to remember to get some pics.

I did not get any price drop or deal for my review, but I felt this was a decent product and half the cost of units with the same options.

The fact that you can run the pit and monitor the meat without having to buy another product was also a nice feature. The alarm is loud enough that once it goes off if you don't respond to it, your neighbors are sure to call you and let you know about it. It's not loud, but loud enough, not a bad thing.

[woodpelletsmoker]

I am the manufacturer of this controller of GOLDEN-WOLF in China
My name is Wang Zhaohui, Wang is family name, Chinese culture.
Please check mt eBay link to find eBay score and feedback. Most buyers are from American

Dear landshark530, if you fine tune P.I.D, temperature fluctuation shall be under 1or 2 F.
First set I=0. and D=0. Try P from a small value, say 5, and increase step by step, till temperature goes crazy, out of control. then drop P again step by step till the temperature is stable. the P value shall be 60-70% of this stable value. Then try different I and find the best value, last D. This is a trial and error practice. Different application may have different PID value.

Dear Dr_KY, someone got a dirty probe because probe was out stock and I sent 2 probes used by me before. This was just for fast delivery.

Jan.23 is Chinese new year, the spring festival. All country were on holiday Jan.22 to 27.
But if you watch China news on TV, many chinese people (more than 100 million population!) were moving back to home town. Big burden on train and air. Most workers can not be back factories on Jan.27. I have 48 orders waiting for fan for delivery. I am promised today that the fan will be ready on Feb.6

Yes I am also selling cold smoke generator, check my eBay score and feedback please, I have sold many pieces and most byers are Australian. It can burn SAW DUST, it is made from stainless steel. Please compare it with Smoke Daddy.

[woodpelletsmoker]

Thanks for modern technology of computer science, it is very easy to develop a smarter controller. The key is micro processors, the chips, I need only to write a smarter software, the program. Most programmers are from China and India. It is a Hi-Tech, but MANY can do it.
I am much more proud of my burner. No auger is needed. Construction is very simple, so the price. With my burner and controller, you can turn your pit to an automatic pit. The burner can burn charcoal, chips, and pellet. I am attacked and being attacked by many American welders on thesmokering.
That is the reason why I am not active on American BBQ forums. Someone said that I re-invented wheels. It is not true because my burner is much simple and temperature fluctuation is 1 F. If none else can do it, it must be something unique.
Due to extremely high shipping cost to send single Smoker to American, I fail to sell complete smoker to American. I did sell Offset and Cabinet smoker to Australia and Canada. I sold 11 pieces of burner to American for upgrading old pit to automatic pit.
If I have right partners financially and commercially, my burner shall kill ALL pellet pits! I am more an engineer, designer, inventor than a business man.
When we talk Carbon Print, Ego-Friendly, we shall keep in mind that Pellet smoker is much more complicated constructed, which means that more materials like iron copper paint are needed, also more electricity is consumed,
My burner is simple, less material is needed, less electricity is consumed.
Simple construction means high reliable too. Electrical parts are fan and controller. Price of fan is US$20, price of controller US$99. If you replace a new one, cost is not that much. Maintenance is easy and cheaper.
My cold smoke generator is more simple than smoke Daddy.
I have patent of grease catch grill, which I do not find any similar.It is different from grease pan.
If you want to be No.1 in BBQ area, contact me please.

Traeger, Weber, landmann, Brinkmann just name a few, are all made in China.
Trust China please.

[woodpelletsmoker]

Originally Posted by esselle

Is that his real name? If it is that has made my day
Is this the same guy that has been banned from the BBBQS site or have I got my wires crossed?

There are too few active members there and web master asks for paid ad.
Before BBBQS is as attractive as bbq-brethren I will not buy its ad.
Without enough active members ban or not is meaningless

[Brizz]

An iQue 110 is $140. The Golden Wolf is $160. What am I missing? What's the value proposition of the Wolf? The extra probe? What am I missing?

[El Pistolero]

Originally Posted by Brizz

An iQue 110 is $140. The Golden Wolf is $160. What am I missing? What's the value proposition of the Wolf? The extra probe? What am I missing?

Without making any value judgement one way or the other, I will say that 1) the IQ is a simple thermostat, while the GW is a PID*, 2) IQ is analog, GW is digital, and 3) IQ does not actually display the temp, while GW displays the temp of both the pit and the meat.

*PID - "A proportional–integral–derivative controller (PID controller) is a generic control loop feedback mechanism (controller) widely used in industrial control systems".

[colonel00]

The GW can also run programs based on the meat or pit temps. For instance, let's say I want to do a hot and fast brisket but I want the temps to be low for the first part of the cook. From what I understand (I do not have one of these units...yet) you can program the GW to maintain temps at a lower level for an amount of time or even until the meat reaches a certain temp. Then it can change the pit temp to a higher temp.

Also, looking at some of the available options now, I am highly intrigued. There is one option for a remote so you can control the unit and view the current data from inside you house. There is also a wifi unit that can be pretty cool. I am really tempted to try one of these out. Sadly, I don't know which I would want or how I would connect it to a UDS at this point.

woodpelletsmoker, is there an option for both wifi and the remote?

[Funky D]

Originally Posted by Brizz

An iQue 110 is $140. The Golden Wolf is $160. What am I missing? What's the value proposition of the Wolf? The extra probe? What am I missing?

Adding on to senor Pistolero, if the fan that comes with this is truly 50 CFM, it can probably maintain the heat on my stick burner. The iQue is only strong enough to maintain Eggs, WSMs, and the occasional UDS as far as I know...

I'd be in for one in a heartbeat, but without good instructions, I'd be worried about getting it working, and getting a solid mount to the smoke monster.