My homemade digital temperature controller!

[reinhart36]

Greetings!

I got my large BGE in 2010, and have loved it and used it extensively. I wanted a temperature controller so I could do other things (such as sleep) while smoking or drying things.

I've chipped away at a few iterations of one over the last couple of years, and am now completely finished.

Check out this video of it in use:

https://vimeo.com/90480641

Please let me know what you guys think!

thanks,
Eric

 

[BchrisL]

I also have a BGE and I find that it allows me to fall asleep simply by design. I have cooked so much in it that I know exactly where to set the dampers and how to manage the fuel. Usually, with a full load of quality (not Cowboy) lump I can light it off a 11pm and go nite nite with two butts in there and be assured it will be right at 275 to 300 when I wake up the next morning. It will usually run about 20 hours on a full charge of fuel. I find that if I feel the side of the top and it tells me what's going on inside. If you are lookin' you ain't cookin', and I don't look till the meat thermometer reads the right temp.

That said,
Nice idea. Is that a PID controller, micro controller with a stepper motor?
Two words : solar cells.
Two more words, weather resistant.
Does it control the lower vent?
Nice graft there are lots of things that could be done with the data that is acquired, especially if the meat thermo were included.
I always wanted a model that would predict when the meat would hit a certain temp based on the histogram.

Tell us more!!!
Chris.

 

[boozer]

The part where you said, "If you lookin you aint cookin" was the only thing I was able to make sense of. The rest was quantum mechanics to me, I just make big fire! But i don't knock it, rock on, you sciencey bbq'ers!

 

[BchrisL]

The part where you said, "If you lookin you aint cookin" was the only thing I was able to make sense of. The rest was quantum mechanics to me, I just make big fire! But i don't knock it, rock on, you sciencey bbq'ers!

I don't know much about quantum mechanics either, and writing computer code makes my eyes glaze over right after "START" but I know a good governor when I see one.

I like to eat the Q, so when the fire goes out or gets too hot and ruins the Q or makes it slow down to a point that it isn't ready till tomorrow when the guests came over this afternoon, it is a great disappointment. So a temperature controller and a way to watch the cooking progress from my lazy boy is a cool thing.

I have been using my remote thermometers for years, but they do not make adjustments to keep the cooker on track. This device is like cruise control for your cooker. I have seen others over the years, but never got one. This one has promise.

 

[bbquzz]

I have to say I'm with Boozer, but my question is what's wrong with a Maverick or maybe a BBQ Guru? I've never used a BGE but have heard they hold temps and you can load it and forget it and get some sleep just like a WSM.