Gentleman to do a pratice run to get use to the PID is it necessary to use meat. if i just want to see the functions?
Not really.
You might need to come up with something to put the meat probe in though, if you are going to to temperature decisions.
Maybe a potato.
No but I would suggest turning on the Smoke Generator and placing some hot water in the dish. This is what I did when I ran my test. I also programmed it with some different steps to put the PID through it's paces and to get familiar with it. Start low and work your way up.
Also maybe a pan of sand or water, or a heavy cast iron pan, to simulate a load.
The PID is calibrated for the Bradley from the factory. If you want to autotune it to be more precise then you should put in the typical meat load that you will most often do.
However, unless you added a second element there should not be a need to autotune. Even with the 2nd element I have not autotuned and it still holds within +- 2 degrees.
If you are just going to play with it then you don't need to have meat. But whenever I play like that I usually throw in a chicken. It is cheap, and then I have something to eat when I am done playing.
I like the way you think a chicken hum. its like the test steak on my Weber BBQ. Thanks guys, your so much help for us beginners.