Auberin PID settings advice?

gary_CO · March 05, 2006, 10:55:53 PM

Hey Nodak,
I'd be sure to do some comparisions w/ your new TC against another thermometer. On my first run, the water boiled out of the pan rather quickly even though I was set on a couple of degrees below boiling. Played around and found out that an offset(Pb) of 7-8 degrees got me perfect...

Here's a chart of that first run:

nodak · March 05, 2006, 11:10:11 PM

Pretty fancy graphs there gary. I had checked mine and it seems to be reading about 4 degrees high. Thanks for the info and advice. Are you enjoying yours yet??? Next weekend will do an overnight smoke with it.

"If you're not living on the edge, You're taking up way too much room, so get the he-- out of my way."

gary_CO · March 05, 2006, 11:18:27 PM

Yea, I'm enjoying mine. Fasinating to watch it, ecspecially during the autotune routine. I started freaking out at first, until I read in the manual that it purposely overshoots during the autotune. I got brave and did an overnighter on my first smoke. I think I'll play with the "I" and "D" parameters a little before I try and do another long smoke. As you can see in the chart, it did oscilate some. Fun stuff.

Arcs_n_Sparks · March 06, 2006, 01:15:43 AM

Good to see some real engineering data.[8D][8D][8D]

Been tuning my PID loops for my home brew unit the last two weekends. Interesting to watch the interactions. I have about eight runs of data with the vent closed. Going to open it all the way and repeat the runs. Should have a different thermal response from the Bradley.

Arcs_n_Sparks

gary_CO · March 06, 2006, 01:51:05 AM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by arcs_n_sparks
 ... my home brew unit the last two weekends...<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Neat. You doing extract or all-grain? Hard to imagine all-grain with electric burner(s), or is your PID setup for fermentation/mashing/?

Since playing with mine [:D] I've thought about applying to homebrewing, but I know if I switch to all-grain I'll have to move to propane in the garage...

bubbagump · March 06, 2006, 06:08:51 AM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by gary_CO
 Hey Nodak,
I'd be sure to do some comparisions w/ your new TC against another thermometer. On my first run, the water boiled out of the pan rather quickly even though I was set on a couple of degrees below boiling. <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Gary - Were you using 212 as your boiling point? If you were, that's where some of the problem may be. Assuming you're elevation is around 5000' your boiling point should be approx. 203, depending on pressure.
I wouldn't determine accuracy of your TC by comparing to another thermometer unless you are absolutely certain it is accurate. Below is the procedure I use when checking mine. I posted this some time ago in another thread.

"The best way to check their accuracy is to get a small pot of water boiling and place the tip of each probe in the water making sure the probes are not touching the bottom or the sides of the pot. DO NOT fully immerse the probes in the water. Since the boiling point of water is dependent on altitude and pressure you can use this link to check what the boiling point should be for your area."

http://www.biggreenegg.com/boilingPoint.htm

Bubbagump

Arcs_n_Sparks · March 06, 2006, 10:39:18 AM

gary_CO,

I meant my home-built PID unit running the Bradley.

Arc_n_Sparks

gary_CO · March 06, 2006, 11:31:53 AM

The boiling point here is supposed to be 201.8. So, I shoot for 200 as a target temp. I have two digital thermometers (Taylor and OregonScientific remote). Both of them are close to 32 in a glass of ice water, read right at 98 if I use them like a medical thermometer (the oral kind, not the rectal kind [:o)]), and 202 in boiling water. The one on the newly fangled PID reads 94 in boiling water. The difference is less at 98 and negligible in ice water. I have no idea if the TC or the controller is off.

But I guess it doesn't matter with being able to offset it. I haven't checked the accuracy near body temp or ice water since adjusting the controller, but figure it soesn't matter much since I do most everything at 200, with the exception of jerky. Might go higher occasionally on a brisket.

I have an ET-73 on order and it's supposed to be here this Thursday. I'm not holding my breath though. The online vendor has shown horrible customer service so far. The OregonScientific model seems to have been accurate so far, but it has limited settings (four doneness levels, eight different meat types). But you can't set custom temps for the alarm. And it limits out at 199 while displaying fahrenheit. Celcius goes higher...

I like measuring stuff and tinkering around, so all this has been fun for me. I'm definitely easily amused!

bubbagump · March 12, 2006, 09:14:17 PM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by gary_CO
 The boiling point here is supposed to be 201.8. So, I shoot for 200 as a target temp. I have two digital thermometers (Taylor and OregonScientific remote). Both of them are close to 32 in a glass of ice water, read right at 98 if I use them like a medical thermometer (the oral kind, not the rectal kind [:o)]), and 202 in boiling water. The one on the newly fangled PID reads 94 in boiling water. The difference is less at 98 and negligible in ice water. I have no idea if the TC or the controller is off.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Hi Gary - What thermocouple wire did you use to connect the mini panel jack to the PID? Was it the Auber wire or the Omega? I found that it makes a big difference if the TC probe wire and the wire used to connect the PID to panel jack are not the same.

I put an Auber PID in a friends smoke generator recently. When purchasing the Auber PID I also purchased the $5.00 TC as well. I then used a short piece of the Auber TC wire to hook up the mini panel jack to the PID and then installed a matching connector on the TC.

When I tested the set up I wasn't happy with the Auber TC at all so I ordered an Omega TC like mine. When it arrived I tested the set up again and found the Omega TC worked much better but noticed the temp reading on the PID was almost 20 degrees higher when comparing it to my ET-73 that was next to it. So I hooked the Omega TC into my smoke generator and my PID read identical to the ET-73. I knew then that the problem was not the TC. I checked the settings on the Auber TC again and everything was correct. I was about to punch in a offset to correct it when I remembered that I had wired the Auber PID to the panel jack with a piece of Auber TC wire, which is different than the Omega wire. I rewired the PID with a piece of the Omega TC wire and BINGO! the temp on the Auber PID and the ET-73 were identical with no offset programmed into the PID. [:)]

Bubbagump

gary_CO · March 12, 2006, 10:29:46 PM

I used a piece of the Omega wire to run from the minijack to the PID.

I finally received an ET-73 I had ordered. I thought it would be interesting to compare the others I have (an Oregon Scientific and a Taylor). The others seem accurate but don't have as many features as the ET-73. Anyway, the ET-73 shows water slightly boiled to be 280 degrees and my body temp at 125 & 255!

What the h... I'm beginning to think I'm in some temperature Bermuda Triangle here.

I still need to do some more camparisions.

bubbagump · March 13, 2006, 12:02:28 AM

The first ET-73 I got had a bad thermistor and then the ET-73 itself went bad, which I returned under warranty.

Bubbagump

Backusmj · March 02, 2013, 10:14:35 AM

Sorry to resurrect and old thread but I was hoping someone could answer my question. If you buy an Omega Thermocouple TJ72-CASS-316U-3-SB-SMPW-M that has pre-made ends and the female mini panel jack RMJ-K-R, where do you get the extra Omega TC wire to wire the jack to the PID? I can only find the wire in lengths of 25'.

Mr Walleye · March 02, 2013, 01:57:34 PM

Backusmj

When I built my first PID I used an Omega TC. I simply took the plug end off and snipped enough wire off to wire the panel jack, then put the plug back on.

Since that time I have built a number of controllers and I use the TC from Auber Instruments. They are a lot cheaper and I have never had a problem with them.

Mike

Backusmj · March 02, 2013, 02:57:03 PM

makes sense... i was under the impression that everyone found the Auber TC's to be less accurate. i think a lot of these posts i was reading were from years ago so possibly Auber improved their TC's. just out of curiosity, which Auber TC do you use?

Mr Walleye · March 02, 2013, 03:29:47 PM

This is the one I use....
http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=20_3&products_id=101

It's thin diameter and length make respone very fast. I've used several of them in different smokers and never had a problem with them.

Mike