SMPS, control loop?

This is a "real" smoker, but unless you tend the offset firebox constantly, you either get too much or too little heat.

The control loop will be nasty. I'm thinking a very slow PWM, gas up, gas down and measure average temperature in the barrel.

...Jim Thompson

Hello Jim,

Not around here. Propane is $4/gal and above. No way, plus I don't like to lug the bottles or call the plumber to tap into the tank line. For barbeque the price per gallon would not matter a lot but I can much easier cook above coals. We use a chimney starter which is really easy. Put the coals in it, crumple a couple of newspaper pages into the bottom and light these. Our local paper is, unfortunately, on the liberal side so it lights fast ;-)

Regards, Joerg

Well, yeah. The point is you stoke a hot fire, sear it, and get away with more flavor too!

Lighting isn't a problem. Charcoal and wood left in the grill from the last burn piles up and ignites easily with my foundry propane burner. It ain't LOX, but it leaves the grill in one piece, too.

Tim

Hello Tim,

Way to go, man!

Regards, Joerg (using pine a lot)

Yeah, ever since I started the control circuit on my induction heater project I've figured incremental control would be a very good thing. If you reduce the slew rate of the error amp so it's slower than the circuit it's controlling, you avoid the phase shifts. The problem is, slew rate limiting is just differentiation (in a clipping sort of way), which is just another phase shift...

Tim

I have two "bottles" and make a once every month or so trip to the U-Haul propane dispenser.

...Jim Thompson

This is not just slew rate limiting. It is non-linear slew-rate limiting, that is, up to some error magnitude there is no limiting, then it begins to turn up. I have been using it in my DC-DC convertors since the late 80-es...

Dimiter

------------------------------------------------------ Dimiter Popoff Transgalactic Instruments

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Tim Williams wrote:

Hello Jim,

Not all of them. We have a little Brinkmann smoker. Coal pit with door at the botton, water tray above it, then two racks at the very top. Simple and low maintenance. On a 6-8 hour smoking session I have to add coal maybe once, and hickory or mesquite whenever I happen to walk by. The real challenge is to refrain from snatching something off the racks. The mouth begins to water because the scent is wafting all around the property.

Decidedly too high-tech. Alternative PWM: Wife asks to check on smoker. This generates an interrupt.

MOV bottle, hand MOV beer, mouth SUB thermometer_dial, expected_range JNZ lever_routine MOV bottle, recycling_bin RETI

Regards, Joerg

See....

Newsgroups: alt.binaries.schematics.electronic Subject: Re: SMPS, control loop, SMOKER, S.E.D - Smoker.jpg Message-ID:

I only use it once or twice a year, but I can smoke three large turkeys at once ;-)

...Jim Thompson

Hello Jim,

My wife just secured over 100lbs of charcoal when it was on sale, plus we have some left from the winter. With a Weber that'll last through the whole summer with at least three barbie sessions per week. In fall we'll buy another 100lbs when it's on sale again :-)

Regards, Joerg

Hello Tim,

I guess this would be the LOX method:

Regards, Joerg

Ours connects to the natural gas supply with a flex tube and quick- connect fitting. No hassles with tanks or worries about running out with a bunch of meat on the grill, but it did cost a bit initially to get the black pipe run to exactly the right spot, and they seem to charge a bit more for the NG BBQs themselves .

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Either the box is too small, doesn't have it's own heat vent, or the smoker itself isn;t well enough insulated/doesn't have enough thermal mass. Fill the smoker portion about 2/3 full of ceramic bricks and that problem might dissapear.

Controlling it will not be simple.

I'd argue that is just a grill that you smoke stuff on... nothing wrong with that though, it's what I do.

I had NG at the old house. Piped about an 80' run of the special black pipe myself... passed inspection at first request.

...Jim Thompson

Is that all? Are implying that is large? :)

For a home smoker, yes. But I saw one up in Carefree, AZ, that was probably about 15' long... homemade from 55 gallon drums ;-)

...Jim Thompson

Not really. While you could grill on it the results wouldn't be stellar. You'd have to move the fire pit to where the water tray is now. Possible but that's still to far away from the meat and there would be too much air drafting around it. I don't think you'd be able to present a nicely seared tri-tip steak from it.

Regards, Joerg

That be the one ;-)

Tim