BS611 w/Auber WSD-1200GPH

[mtbisson]

Hello-
   I am brand new to this forum and to smoking and am hoping to get some help from the experienced. I'm sure some of you are wondering why I am messing around with the PID being new to smoking and all so I'll just let you know that I am the type of person who dives in head first when I find a new passion. That being said here is what I am having a problem with.
   Per the PID manual, the light next to the "R" on the display indicates whether there is power to the smoke generator or not and the light next to "out" on the display represents whether there is power to the heater or not. I set my program in the PID to:
C-1, 225... E-1, t, t-1=3.5
C-2, 225... E-2, F, F-1=180
C-3, 130... E-3, t, t-3=30.0
rest all 0's
With power off to the PID, I connected my BS611 to the control, then powered everything up (temp knob on smoker all the way to HI and generator switch to "ON".  I then powered up the PID and both lights came on at the generator box. Everything was pre-heated in 20 minutes (44 degrees outside) which was great! But then the temp kept climbing to 240! I checked all my connections to make sure everything was seated correctly but can't figure it out. Some things I noticed:
1. The element indicator light and the generator light both came on and went off only when "out" indicator was lit on PID.
2. "R" indicator stayed lit the entire time (which it should do because R1 is defaulted to "1" so it should stay on for the entire 3.5 hrs)

So basically I have a two-part question:
1. Once I advance my pucks will the generator keep working (since R1 is lit on PID) even though the indicator light for the generator is not on anymore on the generator box?
2. I thought the PID was supposed to control temp within approx. 3 degrees farenheit, so why is the temp in my smoker climbing to 240? ("out" indicator on PID was not lit after it reached target temp of 225 but element still glowing bright all the way up to 240 when I pulled the plug on my trial run).

Sorry for the long post but I'm hoping someone will be able to point me in the right direction.

Thanks,

Mike

[Grouperman941]

You may need to run an autotune.

[mtbisson]

Thanks for the input Grouperman! I read the PID manual when I first got it but skipped that section because it said I wouldn't need it since I would be using the PID to run the smoker. I went back and read the Auto-Tune section and most of it makes sense. The one question I did have on it was this, Do I need to have meat in the smoker to perform the auto-tune? They used the example of using a pot of water to tune a rice cooker but there is no mention of how to do a smoker except to "set the cooking equipment up in the exact configuration it will be used for". The way I see it that will vary from smoking ribs to smoking a pork shoulder due to the thickness of the meat... any idea on whether to run the auto tune loaded or empty? Thanks

[Grouperman941]

You should simulate a load -- I just put two bricks in mine. A pot of water might work.

I suppose you could just use an actual load of meat.

[dave01]

welcome to the forum. When I first got my PID it drive me a little crazy but after using it a couple of times it's very easy to use

[mtbisson]

Ran the autotune with a pork butt in my OBS today! Everything seems to be working great now! Thanks for the help!