PID And BDS

[cjj]

Hello I am new to all this  and I  need a little help hooking up my PID . Do you plug the smoke Generator  into the PID or do you Plug it  directly to a wall outlet  I have read on another site that you plug it into the PID and the  Instruction manual said to plug it into an outlet . thanks

[RSilva]

The instructions are correct.  With the digital, it is best to plug the PID and smoke gen into wall outlets.  You won't use the short cord that came with the BDS that jumps from the smoke gen to the cabinet heating element.  You need a computer power cord to jump from the PID to the cabinet

You will attach the temp probe from the cabinet to the smoke gen so you don't get an error message and it gives you a temp reading from a separate location in the cabinet.


As the instructions show, if you have an original smoker, then you would plug the generator into the PID.

[cjj]

 Thanks  I do have the  probe from the cabinet to the smoke generator  Thanks  Again

[Sydney Smoker]

Sorry if I'm missing the point, but if you plug the smoke generator into the PID won't the timing and smoking be screwed up?

I have an OBS and am using a Sous Vide Magic PID (which is similar to Auber).  I plug the smoke generator and the PID into the power and the cabinet into the PID.

This way I'm controlling the heating element with the PID without messing up the 20 minute cycle on the generator or reducing the heat under the bisquette so the smoke stops.

The way these PID devices work is to turn the power on and off to maintain a temperature.  If the generator is turned on and off all the time smoking could be stopped completely (especially if you are trying for low temp smoking), and the 20 minute puck timer would not be accurate either.

Am I on the right track?

If not can someone explain why?

Thanks,

Peter.

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi Sydney Smoker;
Welcome to the forum.

You are hooking up your PID correctly. For the OBS the generator should be plugged into a separate outlet, and the cabinet only should be plugged into the PID. At this point the PID can either be plugged into a separate outlet or into the back of the generator; but it is best to plug it straight into its own outlet.

[Sydney Smoker]

Thanks for that.  The reason I went for the OBS rather than the digital model was because of my desire to use a PID controller after reading about the wide temperature swings with both the OBS and digital models. 

I've been using my Sous Vide Magic for sous vide cooking for several years now and understand the workings of a PID controller pretty well.  One of the pre-requsites for using the SVM with rice cookers or slow cookers is that they NOT be digitally controlled so that the power cycling does not continually restart the digital program. 

Is this the same for the BDS or is it just that you connect the digital smoke generator directly to the power as with the OBS?

Sorry to be pedantic, but I've read several opinions here and could believe either case if they were all true.

Cheers,

Peter.

[GusRobin]

The Auber "Bradley" dual PID for the OBS has a plug for the cabinet and a plug for the generator. I plug the PID into the outlet, the cabinet and generator into the PID. The power to the cabinet "pulses" to maintain temp, the power to the generator does not. It stays on for the cycle that you set it for. Not sure how it would work with the DBS or how the Sous Vide Magic works.

[Habanero Smoker]

I don't have a PID, but use the DigiQ II which uses another type of algorithm, that makes use of a pulsing on/off actions to control the temperature; and it only has one outlet. As Gus mentioned, I'm not sure if the digital will reset if you plug the generator directly into your PID. Generally most digital devices will reset to zero or factory defaults; although there are more digital devices that are being build with ROM so the current settings are stored and are automatically restored if there is a power disruption. I can say the pulsing on/off actions of your PID would interfere the with 20 minute cycle of the motor of the digital.