I admit, I didn't read all 10 pages and I may be wrong and please correct me if I'm wrong but in your description of rewiring MES write up (first post) you basically bypassed (dummied) control board and got a same result and symptoms as what jdk2007 dealing with... I didn't see PID and SSR included in rewiring to make MES fully functional...
Unless, I am wrong cuz my mind is set to build instead of buying "plug and play"... I was looking for PID ( proportional integral derivate ) and SSR and never thought about DTS ( Digital temp. controler )...my bad...
tallbm rewire works perfect if rewired MES is plugged in to Inkbird nd Inkbird plugged in to outlet... good stuff...
Yeah the 1st post in that thread bypasses the MES controller electronics making it dumb where the chord feeds power directly to the heating element with no control period... basically what jdk2007 is seeing. jdk2007 is already getting that effect without rewiring but in my mind his board could continue to fail in any variety of ways causing different or even more unexpected, uncontrolled behavior so I would recommend just rewiring rather than keeping a failing component in the mix.
My post doesnt cover building a PID + SSR but buying an Auber Plug n Play PID for $150 or building on yourself is the next step. The rewire just makes the MES PID ready.
If buying a controller Digital Temp Controller you have to take into consideration 2 things.
1. What are it's amperage/wattage limitations? You cant hook up a 10 amp (1200watt) MES to a controller that cannot handle 10amps. Also with electricity you probably want something that has MORE than a 10amp limit and handles more like 12amp +
I believe there is a best practice with electricity to overshoot your needs by like 10% to handle any variety of electrical issues. So if you get a controller that can ONLY handle 10amps it has a good chance of failing at some point. At the very least think of it like a 10amp controller is running at it's limit the entire time when a 10amp device is pulling max current. Nothing holds up running at it's upper limit forever.
2. What is the max temp range it can handle.
Finally, a PID controller will be far superior to something like that Inkbird Digital Temp controller. I own one of those inkbirds for a different purpose and it temp swings just like the old MES did.
With a PID controller you can hold temp right on or with in 1-3 degrees of set temp.
This kind of precision is valuable if you want to do sausage or bacon where you want to avoid temp swings that cause fatout. Also with a PID controller your temp range is pretty much limited to what the temp probes can handle or how many digits you can fit into the display (3 digits = 999 max hahah).
So to wrap it all up. The rewire is to make the MES dumb and ready to use with 3rd party controller. The 3rd party controller you get better be able to safely and effectively handle running an MES. A PID controller is going to be the best controller performing and most applicable controller for the job of doing any kind of smoke you can think of :)