How to get Auber WSD-1200GPH to Control My Smoke Generator

[Jonnie-star]

Hi there.

I just recently did the 500 Watt and fan modification to my Bradley Original Smoker. I purchased the Auber WSD-1200GPH  however, when I tried doing my first smoke with the machine, I noticed the puck auto feed in the Smoke generator was not working when I pressed the button. As a result, I had to keep opening the cabinet door and manually slide the old puck into the water bin and place a new puck on the heating plank to get it smoking again.  I contacted Auber Instruments and the lady I was speaking to told me that on myWSD-1200GPH  I needed to press and hold the set button until I see "LCK" on the screen and then going up to 166 and change R1 and R2. I didn;t get much of a better explination that that.

I asked her for step by step instructions however, she was unable to do so.

Just wondering if anyone can please help me out here and provide me with step by step instructions on how I can program my WSD-1200GPH so that it allows my smoke generator to be functional.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[TedEbear]

Auber Plug & Play PIDs
Single/Dual Probes
From Hawkeyesmokes

Auber PIDs

Model WS-1200CPH



Model WSD-1200CPH



There have been many questions and discussions about the Auber PID since the introduction on their new Dual Probe Smoker Controller. With the permission and assistance of Suyi Liu of Auber Instruments we will try and answer a few of the questions.

Q - One of the first questions seems to be, do I need a PID to control the Bradley Smoker?

A - No, maybe not. But it will improve the performance and ease of use of your smoker. The Auber PID will allow you to set your smoking and cooking temperatures and maintain that to a very precise degree.

Foods like pork butts, ribs or beef briskets can take the temperature fluctuations and turn out fine, they are pretty forgiving.

Smoking fish or sausages are different. Smoking to fast and at too high of a temperature can cause the dreaded boogers on fish or sausage too fat out resulting in a poorer quality result.

Q - Another question I've seen asked is will the smoker get hotter with the PID?

A - No, it will not. You still have a 500 watt heating element and that will not change.

Q - OK, if you've read this far, you must be interested in a PID. Next question, do I get the single or dual probe?

A - Either one will work and work well. They have both have the same temperature control and that is the main point of using a PID. The dual probe can automate the smoking more by adding temperature versus time only into the ramping control feature.

SETTING UP YOUR PID: (Now we have decided on which one and have it out of the box. Let's hook it up and get going.)

With the OBS you can hook it up like this:



Power connection of the controller and smoker -
Green Arrows - The generator is connected to the outlet by the power cord from Bradley.
Blue Arrows - The input of the controller is connected to the female receptacle on the generator by the power jumper cord provided by the Bradley.
Red Arrows - It is the cord that used to connect the generator to smoker. The controller output is connected to the smoker by the power cord.
Yellow-Green Arrow -The temperature sensor (Thermocouple) is connected to the sensor port on the controller.

For a DBS it will be connected this way:



Power connection of the controller and smoker -
Green Arrows - The generator is connected to the power strip by the power cord from Bradley.
Blue Arrows - The input of the controller is connected to the power strip by the 16 AWG power cord supplied.
Red Arrows - The controller output is connected to the smoker by the optional 18 AWG power cord.
Yellow-Green Arrow - The temperature sensor (Thermocouple) is connected to the sensor port on the controller.
The temperature sensor cord from the smoke generator to the Bradley tower will need to be connected also.

If you connect a DBS with one power cord, it will turn off after 9:40 unless you reset the smoker so using 2 power cords is the best way to go.

The temperature sensor from the PID can either be routed through the top vent or the door, either one works. Auber also has an optional wall mount sensor that they can provide when ordering.

Using the preprogrammed feature:

Let's turn it on and smoke some salmon. It comes preprogrammed for salmon using Kummok's recipe so it's an easy starting point.

The initial program setting for the controller is for smoking the salmon. The temperature profile is programmed to start at 120°F for 1.5 hour of smoking, rise to 132°F for 2.5 hours and finish at 175°F for 1 hour. (I let it preheat to 120°F, then turned the Auber PID off and back on before loading)

What we have done is set the Auber PID to run the smoker for 1.5 hours at 120°F, and then ramp up to 132°F for 2.5 hours and the last step of 175°F for 1 hour. You will still need to rotate the racks and total time can vary depending on the size of the pieces. The batch of fish I just smoked took a total time of 5.5 hours (I added more time at 175°F) and they came out perfect.

The same ramping feature is also used when making sausage. You have a total of six steps that can be programmed into it.

With the dual probe, you have the option of ramping up using temperature versus time only. You can also use it to ramp the temp down once you meat has reached you desired IT. EG, you're doing a brisket and want an IT of 195°F, once it's at that temp, you can have the Auber drop the smoker to 175°F for a time you specify to hold it. Works kind of like FTC'ing the meat.

When doing sausage, you can start at 130°F until the meat is 110°F, then ramp to 150°F until the meat is 130°F and then 170°F until the meat reaches 152°F. Then you can have it hold 155°F for 30 minutes to let the temp of the sausage even out but not over cook it.

Auto-Tune:

One very powerful feature of the Auber PID is the auto tune. It comes tuned for the thermal dynamics of the Bradley smoker, but if your not satisfied with the temperature control, (or in my case, I've added a second heating element that changed things) you have the option of running Auto Tune.

Before using the auto-tune function, you must set the cooking equipment up in the exact configuration it will be used. For example, to tune the Bradley smoker, place the sensor in the room temperature chamber filled with meat to be smoked and plug the Bradley into the controller. Set the controller to the appropriate power level. Turn the smoker on, and then enter the desired set point temperature close to your normal cooking temperature.

To activate auto-tuning, just enter code 166 to get into the PID setting menu. Set AG to 1 then exit the menu (see Fig 5). The display will start to flash alternately between AG and the current smoker temperature, which indicates auto-tuning is in progress. When the display stops flashing, the auto-tuning is finished. Now, the newly calculated PID parameters are set and are used for the system. The new parameters will store in the memory even when the power is off.


The duration of auto-tuning depends on how fast the system is responding to the heating and cooling cycle. If the temperature of the smoker takes a long time to drop -when heater is off- the auto-tuning could be a very long tuning process. This is especially true with a well insulated smoker. The auto-tuning should be able to tune most of your chosen temperatures with fairly good results.



Manual-Tune: You also have the option of manually tuning the PID. To do this you have 3 setting, P, I and D.

P =
Proportional band. It is in 0.1 degree units. This parameter control the output of the controller based on the difference between the measured and set temperature. Larger the P number means the weaker the action (lower gain). e. g. If P=100, the proportional band is 10 degree (100 x 0.1=10). When the sensor temperature is 10 degrees below the proportional band (10 degrees below the setting), the controller will have 100% output. When the temperature is 5 degree below the set point, the output is 50%. When the temperature is equal to the setting, the controller will have 0% output (assuming integral and derivative functions are turned off). This constant also affects both integral and derivative action. Smaller P values will make the both integral and derivative action stronger. Please note the value of the P is temperature unit sensitive. If you found an optimized P value when operating the controller in Celsius, you need to multiply the P by 1.8 when changing the temperature unit to Fahrenheit.

I=
Integral time. The unit is in seconds. This parameter controls the output of controller based on the difference between the measured and set temperature integrated with time. Integral action is used to eliminate temperature offset. Larger number means slower action. e. g. assuming the difference between the measured and set temperature is 2 degree and remain unchanged, the output will increase continuously with time until it reaches 100%. When temperature fluctuate regularly (system oscillating), increase the integral time. Decrease it if the controller is taking too long to eliminate the temperature offset. When I=0, the system becomes a PD controller.

D=
Derivative time. The unit is in seconds. Derivative action contributes the output power based on the rate of temperature change. Derivative action can be used to minimize the temperature overshoot by responding its rate of change. The larger the number is, the faster the action will be. e.g. when the door of incubator is opened, the temperature will drop at very high rate. The derivative action change the controller output based on the rate of change rather than the net amount of change. This will allow the controller to act sooner. It will turn the heater to full power before the temperature drops too much

A couple of other features of the Auber PID are, offset that lets you adjust the temperature of the probe +/- 20 deg and temperature display of either Celsius or Fahrenheit.

I hope this has helped answer some of the questions on the Auber PID.

A big thank you to Suyi Liu of Auber Instruments for his help.

[Jonnie-star]

Thanks TedEbear for your reply. So from what I can get from this, am I just trying to do an auto-tune in order to get the Auber to control my smoke generator???

[cathouse willy]

Jonnie The pid controls the oven temp, it is not meant to control the smoke gen.Plug the pid into the wall socket,plug the oven into the pid and plug the smoke gen into the wall socket and hang the temp probe in the oven.Run the auto tune on the pid to optimize its control of the oven.The smoke gen stays on and chugs along making smoke as long as there are pucks.