temperature control

[dave01]

Hi everyone. I just got done doing the upgrades to my 6 rack digital and auto tuned the Auber PID. My question is when I ordered the pid it said only to change the P setting from 70 to 140 if you added a second element. I put in a 900 watt element but the auto tune changed the P to 66. Can this be right?
Maybe someone with the 900 watt mod could give me their PI and D settings so I could compare. My first smoke since the mods will be tomorrow.
Thanks,
Dave

[tskeeter]

Can't tell you what the P value should be for the 900 watt mod, but I'm wondering if you ran autotune with an empty smoker and whether that could affect the P value the PID set?  As I was doing my dual element mod, one of our more experienced guys suggested running autotune with something in the smoker to replicate in-use conditions.  Something I hadn't thought of.  I'd think a couple of bowls of cool water would work to simulate having meat in the smoker.  Running autotune more than once sometimes seems to help the PID tighten up the operating parameters as it "learns" how the smoker behaves.


If others can't recommend a specific P value for your 900 watt mod, I interpolated the P value as 126 based on the recommended dual element mod setting changing from 70 to 140.   

[dave01]

Thanks, I'll probably give that a try. I had two bricks and 1 bowl of water in there when I did it but it just doesn't seem right