Controller Problems

[old sarge]

Good luck Ken.

 

[Ken]

Hopefully someone will have an idea, even if I didn’t understand it before.  I don’t want to rely on my Weber kettle.

 

[LarryD]

I'm frustrated and I'm not even the one spending time and money on this. 

I would think if it's the relay itself it would likely fail open or fail closed, though I suppose it could be acting like a blinker bulb on a strand of xmas lights.

 

[Ken]

I went ahead and did a 2 hour cook today.  I smoked a 2-pound petite sirloin.  Basic seasoning of salt, pepper and crushed red pepper.  225 with a pecan and oak combo.  The results were good, but the controller image was very scary.  No alarms went off, but I certainly still have problems somewhere.  I'm very perplexed. 

 

[old sarge]

The eat looks good.  I cannot comment on what the program is showing.  Back in April 22, you did ribs which came out great.  If they were done on the 2 wifi, what has changed - your best guess?  You said it all started when using the food probe; was that replaced with a new one? If on your model 1, never mind.

 

[Ken]

These problems started while cooking late last December on the Model 2.  I gave the model 1 to a son in law.  The meat that I cooked yesterday was just out of frustration.  It seems like every time that I try a test or to cook something, the results are all over the place.  The consistent part is they seem to start about 30 minutes or so into the cook.  After that, It's anybody's guess. 

I think I'll put the old controller back in the unit and leave the new relay in.  I'm going to try something different to see what happens.

 

[old sarge]

I sure hope you get this figured out.  I do not pretend to understand all this PID stuff.  I understand on and off.  What I do is cook only by temp or time.  No fiddling around with ramping up annd stepping down etc. When I see smoke coming out, I find something else to do till time is up or the temp has been reached. If all goes well, we eat.  If not, Carl's Jr. is just down the road; so far Carls sees very little of me except for their breakfast biscuits. I am sorry you are having problems with the PID. I doubt I would have the patience to fix it and would probably either make it analog or buy a new smoker.

 

[LarryD]

Well shit... here I was talking about the relay and you already replaced that.  Sorry...

Any chance there is a wire running someplace that gets pinched when the unit heats up and expansion occurs?

 

[Ken]

The wiring looked fine last time I checked.  That will be part of the swapping of controllers.  What I can't tell is if one of the wires is compromised mid-stream.  I would buy new wires, but they aren't for sale.  I'd like to get new ones complete with new connectors. 

 

[old sarge]

If you have a multi-meter, check the wires for continuity after disconnecting them at each end. That should take care of any possible compromise.

 

[Ken]

Thanks. I don't have one, but it sounds like I should.  That would eliminate a lot of trial and error. 

 

[old sarge]

They are handy to have for a lot of 'around the house' problems/repairs.

 

[LarryD]

I'm still kind of brain-storming here and working with the idea that when the unit gets hot for a period of time that there is expansion/movement involved and that is what triggers the issue.  Unfortunately, I've never taken mine apart, so I have no idea what's inside.  I do know there is a big heat-sink on the back of mine.  Have you dug in enough to know what that attaches to?  I'm assuming it's important or it wouldn't exist.  If there is some way that heat sink separates from whatever it's cooling then that might cause it to be flaky.  One could run a fan across the heatsink to help it cool more efficiently to see if that makes any difference.

Have you ever noticed that the problem is better or worse based on the ambient outside temperature?

 

[old sarge]

The heat sink takes the heat from the solid state relay (SSR). I have not operated on mine so cannot help there.  However, several folks did convert their analog smokers to PID and if you use the search function, you will find some photos of the smoker opened up and the wire set up.  Keep in mind those are analog. I will look tonight when I get home from work. Just a guess but there may be a loose connection on the ssr or maybe the ssr is shot.  Hard to tell. Here is a link describing the ssr:
https://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=10&chapter=0

 

[Ken]

I just ordered a multi meter and wiring pliers. 

Here are some images of the wiring and basic components, controller and relay.  It's so straight forward that it just adds to the mystery. 

 

[old sarge]

Ken - Some of this will not apply to your situation.  However, dig into the links - lots of photos of wiring inside the smokers from the days of folks hard wiring an auber into their analog.
https://www.smokinitforums.com/index.php?topic=1287.0
https://www.smokinitforums.com/index.php?topic=1287.0

And here some SSR testing directions:
https://www.electricaltechnology.org/2019/01/solid-state-relay-types-of-ssr-relays.html

 

[Ken]

When I get the new multimeter and the weather breaks I’ll jump back into this.  I have an outdoor smoker so dry weather is important.

 

[Ken]

After 4 months I seem to have finally found the problem.  I bought a multimeter after a suggestion from Old Sarge on the forum.  While testing the second wire, another of the connectors just fell off.  This is the third one that just fell off seemingly for no reason.  After replacing it, I performed three almost identical two-hour tests just like the attached screen shot.  I don't know if it just my bad luck with this unit or not, but the wiring seems a bit flimsy.  Just my thoughts for future upgrades and repairs. 

 

[old sarge]

I hope this solved your problem.

 

[Ken]

After four months, me too.