Problem with my new DBS.

Habanero Smoker · September 13, 2007, 02:03:41 PM

Quote from: Arcs_n_Sparks on September 13, 2007, 12:46:31 PM
Quote from: johnchitown on September 13, 2007, 07:49:51 AM
When I got up this morning - I found that only about 7 or 8 bisquettes had been used. When I opened the door the I found the bisquette
on the heat plate was nothing but ash, the next one in was smoldering and the one next to that was singed a little.

Did they not feed, or did they hang up?

That my question also. Around 12 bisquettes, the bowl will fill up with spent one, which could interfere with the bisquettes feeding properly. Why were you apply so much smoke. Generally 4 hours is good enough for larger items.

johnchitown · September 14, 2007, 07:19:27 AM

The pucks did not feed.

When I would press the feed button - I hear a solenoid pulling in be no feed occurs. After pressing 3 or 4 times it will eventually advance a puck.

I called the factory - told them of the problem and was told a new generator would be sent out immediately. Not even one question.

Makes me think they know they have a problem. At least they stand behind their product. The new generator should arrive in ten days.

NePaSmoKer · September 14, 2007, 07:25:14 AM

Quote from: johnchitown on September 14, 2007, 07:19:27 AM
The pucks did not feed.

When I would press the feed button - I hear a solenoid pulling in be no feed occurs. After pressing 3 or 4 times it will eventually advance a puck.

I called the factory - told them of the problem and was told a new generator would be sent out immediately. Not even one question.

Makes me think they know they have a problem. At least they stand behind their product. The new generator should arrive in ten days.

Thats whats so great about Bradleys customer service. Sometimes i think batches get bugs in em.

nepas

adboom · September 16, 2007, 06:50:39 AM

I think that the reason the last 2 pucks did not burn is because there was no way to push them on the burner. You need to add a few extra pucks (which will be wasted) or get your self a set of 3 Bubba Pucks from Bryan and yardandpool.com. If you want 1 hour of smoke you need 3 pucks to burn then an extra 2 or 3 to push the smoking pucks along.

That is just my 2 cents.. ;D

johnchitown · September 19, 2007, 07:57:49 PM

Been gone for a few days, sorry for not replying.

They did not get hung up. The problem appears to be with the pusher mech. Upon finding the situation I would push the advance button the it would drop another bisquette and push it forward. Sometimes it might require 2 or 3 pushes before the motor would cycle.

Bradley sent a new smoke generator out. I try it out this weekend.

The amount of smoke one likes is a very subjective thing. But if the Bradley designed the generator to hold 28 bisquettes - the water pan should be sized to hold the spent ones. Seems like a simple enough thing.

Habanero Smoker · September 20, 2007, 02:11:20 AM

Quote from: johnchitown on September 19, 2007, 07:57:49 PM
Been gone for a few days, sorry for not replying.

They did not get hung up. The problem appears to be with the pusher mech. Upon finding the situation I would push the advance button the it would drop another bisquette and push it forward. Sometimes it might require 2 or 3 pushes before the motor would cycle.

Bradley sent a new smoke generator out. I try it out this weekend.

The amount of smoke one likes is a very subjective thing. But if the Bradley designed the generator to hold 28 bisquettes - the water pan should be sized to hold the spent ones. Seems like a simple enough thing.

True, the amount of smoke is subjective, but using that much smoke can double or triple the cost of meat. Just kidding, but it has some truth in it. :)

You can do what many have done, use a larger aluminum pan with more water in it.

Artmiester · October 01, 2007, 08:44:06 AM

Just got through helping my buddy get his digital smoke generator replaced from Bradley (no computer). He had exactly the same problem and after many phone calls and a lot of failed suggestions on a fix they replaced it.
During the time Bradley tried to talk him through a fix I had a chance to watch it's operation from inside and try to figure out what was amiss. I think I read somewhere here that the pushing arm alternates between a CW and CCW rotation, (Walleye, maybe?). My buddy's unit would cylce normally, maybe 3 or 4 times in the CCW direction and then attempt a CW rotation at which time the arm would swing 90 degrees and stop instead of the 180 degrees required to pull the shelf back to drop the next puck causing a misload. During the next cylce it reversed direction and the puck would drop and advance normally. Really looks like the problem is mechanical rather than digital unless the switching direction is programmed. Anyway, I plan on picking his up and trying to repair it as a backup but in the meantime my DBS shipped at the same time as my buddy's has started doing the same thing. Here we go again. ??? >:(

Mr Walleye · October 01, 2007, 11:09:07 AM

Hi Art

I'm just thinking out loud.

I think the motor has to rotate one revolution for a complete cycle and it would appear it can run in either direction. Based on this, there must be some form of position sensor that allows the motor to stop in the correct position otherwise once it got out of sync it would never get back into sync. The other thing I wonder about is, does it continue to rotate one direction until it meets too much resistance, then it reverses and continues to function in this direction unless it meets resistance again. If it is resistance that causes it, it could be caused by a couple of different factors such as binding of the slide or a week motor.

Hmmm........

Mike

Habanero Smoker · October 01, 2007, 01:56:53 PM

Some while back, a member solve the problem of getting the motor back in sync. I can't fully recall what he did, but it was something like interrupting the power supply at a certain point, then restoring the power.

Mr Walleye · October 01, 2007, 03:12:35 PM

Habs.... I think I remember something about that as well.

Mike

Mr Walleye · October 01, 2007, 03:20:20 PM

I just did a quick search and I found it.

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=2145.0

Mike

Habanero Smoker · October 01, 2007, 03:24:59 PM

Great!

I meant to have save that tip just incase I had that problem.

Artmiester · October 02, 2007, 06:31:41 AM

Thanks, Mike & Habs!
Great post by Manxman! There are several points touched on that I had been wondering about.
I've got a generator on the way from Bradley now and can't wait to get into this one and work out the problem. By the way, when my buddy got his generator replaced the first one he recieved was an OBS gen. The DBS gen. arrived a day later after Bradley called to acknowledge the mistake and told him to keep the OBS. Evidently, Bradley's main interest is pushin' pucks. I'm thinking about hanging it on an offset smoker my brother got from Lowes and controlling it with a Digi Q. haven't worked out all the details yet but it should prove interesting. Thanks again guys! ;D ;D

Problem with my new DBS.

NePaSmoKer