Good day all,
My first post here, having been a stick/charcoal smoking guy for years, I decided to get a pellet smoker before Christmas so I could smoke a brisket without too much fuss monitoring temps etc. I had already built a dual probe Arduino temp monitor so I could watch smoker and meat temp inside on my phone or computer, that part worked great! The smoker however was another story. I bought a clean used Pit Boss PB820 a week before Christmas and played around with it smoking ribs a few times, it seemed to work fine but once in a while I would get wild temp swings. Then came the Christmas brisket and I was outside every 20 minutes trying to control the temps in the smoker. Long story short, I think a combo of faulty control board and temp probe were the cause and a call to Pit Boss and I have new parts on the way, but in the meantime, I want to play with a PID.
My idea is to use the stock controller for all functions but the auger, which will be driven by my Inkbird ITC-106 and K type TC. I'm thinking of leaving the PB controller on smoke to get the fire started and fan operating and using the PID for temp control to drive the auger.
In theory, this should work. Has anyone here ever done something similar? If so I would love some feedback. Do you see any problems with my thinking?
I'm heading out to shovel the deck shortly and start wiring it up for first tests. I want to cook some wings and ribs tonight, should be a fun day of experimenting.
Cheers
My first post here, having been a stick/charcoal smoking guy for years, I decided to get a pellet smoker before Christmas so I could smoke a brisket without too much fuss monitoring temps etc. I had already built a dual probe Arduino temp monitor so I could watch smoker and meat temp inside on my phone or computer, that part worked great! The smoker however was another story. I bought a clean used Pit Boss PB820 a week before Christmas and played around with it smoking ribs a few times, it seemed to work fine but once in a while I would get wild temp swings. Then came the Christmas brisket and I was outside every 20 minutes trying to control the temps in the smoker. Long story short, I think a combo of faulty control board and temp probe were the cause and a call to Pit Boss and I have new parts on the way, but in the meantime, I want to play with a PID.
My idea is to use the stock controller for all functions but the auger, which will be driven by my Inkbird ITC-106 and K type TC. I'm thinking of leaving the PB controller on smoke to get the fire started and fan operating and using the PID for temp control to drive the auger.
In theory, this should work. Has anyone here ever done something similar? If so I would love some feedback. Do you see any problems with my thinking?
I'm heading out to shovel the deck shortly and start wiring it up for first tests. I want to cook some wings and ribs tonight, should be a fun day of experimenting.
Cheers