New Smoker from Canada

yul · February 22, 2008, 05:29:50 PM

So.......let me get this straight, :-\

PID Smoke Gen Smoke Box

I tried this layout at low temp setting on the PID but it cycled the smoke generator too.
This would play havoc with the puck feed unless the time taken smoking is shorter than the time it takes to reach the required cooking temperature
I will take the Bradley cord to the hardware store tomorrow and see if I can match the original plug and socket and replace the yellow ones.
Maybe this is just a ploy by Bradley to get us to buy the Digital unit ;D

Mr Walleye · February 22, 2008, 05:44:29 PM

Brian

What most of us do is plug the generator into the wall outlet by itself. Next, plug the PID into the wall outlet as well and plug the back of the tower into the PID. This way the generator has power all the time and the tower only is controlled by the PID. If you have the OBS make sure you set the temp slider to the max.

Mike

yul · February 22, 2008, 06:05:40 PM

Hi Mike, I see how that will work but Bradley seem to have changed the plug and socket for the type that are normally found on computers. Here is a pic of the male plug on the back of the tower.

A regular female outlet does not fit. Maybe I will have to find an old computer power cable and cut the male end of and wire that into the PID

Mr Walleye · February 22, 2008, 06:09:46 PM

Brian

That's exactly what I used was a power supply cord for a computer. I cut the end off it and wired it into the PID. I have the DBS and it has the same plug on the back of the tower as yours.

Mike

yul · February 22, 2008, 06:11:52 PM

Thanks Mike ...the fog is clearing. Thanks for your patience. :-[

Mr Walleye · February 22, 2008, 06:17:15 PM

Quote from: yul on February 22, 2008, 06:11:52 PM
Thanks Mike ...the fog is clearing. Thanks for your patience. :-[

Not a problem Brian. I'm sure if you looked back a couple of years ago it was me asking all the questions. ;) :D ;D

yul · February 22, 2008, 06:42:20 PM

Hi Mike, I guess I had better get my friend to check his OBS to see what type of connections he has on his unit. We are waiting for his components to arrive but if he has the old type plug and socket arrangement I will just give him this unit and build the next one to suit mine. He bought his OBS in July 2007 so maybe he will have the old set up.
Printed out the Canadian Tire coupon. Going to Ottawa tomorrow so I will see if they have any different flavors. A couple packs of pucks and a couple of fishing lures should soon get me up to the $40 mark. I see you can print and use more than one coupon, they are good until March 2nd.

Mr Walleye · February 22, 2008, 06:50:24 PM

Brian

I would bet your friend's will be the same as yours. Although I guess you never know if it was older stock when he bought it. It's worth checking into but if all else fails it's easy enough to just change out the one cord.

I always use at least 2 or 3 of the Canadian Tire coupons when they email them to me. Hey, what the heck, they wouldn't send them to you if they didn't want you to use them. ;)

Mike

Mr Walleye · February 22, 2008, 06:54:54 PM

One other thought on the PID, did you wire in any fuses?

The original plans where designed for the PID to go between the generator an the tower. By doing it that way the power is coming from the generator and it has a fuse in it.

By supplying power directly from the wall outlet to the PID there is no longer a fuse in it.

Mike

Mr Walleye · February 22, 2008, 07:16:09 PM

Brian

If you are interested here is the thread where we were discussing putting fuses in the PID. I used 2 fuse chassis style fuse holders. One with an 8 amp fuse for the main power coming into it. The other with a 1 amp slow blow fuse to protect the PID Controller itself.

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=4639.0

Here is the type of fuse holder I used. They are available from The Source by Circuit City in Canada.
http://www.thesourcecc.com/estore/Product.aspx?language=en-CA&catalog=Online&category=Fuses_Holders&product=2700364

Mike

yul · February 23, 2008, 03:45:18 AM

Hi Mike, you must have read my mind. After I logged of last night I seemed to recall an old thread that said you did not need a fuse if you used the set up as shown because you were protected by the fuse in the Bradley unit. You have saved me a lot of time and have supplied the fix to boot. So it's of to Le Source this morning. Thanks again. ;D

yul · February 24, 2008, 10:35:05 AM

It was so nice to get a break in the weather. We have some very spring like temperatures here so I decide to take out OBS and get her seasoned. I am not using the PID at the moment (see the above post) just the smoker plugged into the wall outlet via an extension. I have a digital thermometer in through the top vent and so far it looks like the Bradley dial thermometer is about 10 degrees out. Put 4 alder pucks in but I am having to manually feed the last two, they are out of reach of the puck pusher. Now I see the need for the Bubbapucks.

It smells just great. Let's hope the weather is nice for next weekend too.

Mr Walleye · February 24, 2008, 10:39:42 AM

We are having some above average temps too Brian! Ya gotta love that! ;D

We are above 0 degrees F, just melting a bit and very little wind.

Mike

yul · February 25, 2008, 02:35:06 PM

Hi Mike, finally got the fuse holder and fitted it in the box. I checked out your previous post (how I missed that one I do not know) I see you managed to shoe horn it into a 4" 45 degree piece of pipe. Very neat. I have not mounted the SSR on a heat sink. A friend looked at the set up a said he did not think that heat would be a problem. Do you get any significant heat from the sink?
I made some alloy pucks and was about to ask if anyone had drilled them to reduce the weight when I found your other post on just that subject ( gotta love this board ) .
Went to Canadian Tire to use the coupon but the branch I went to had no stock. Strange thing, they had the "Cetrino" smoker in with the rest of the BBQ but the Bradley tucked away at the back of the store with the fishing tackle and not a pack of pucks to be found.
Going to try another branch tomorrow.

Mr Walleye · February 25, 2008, 02:42:56 PM

As far as the heat sink goes I think you will find alot of people don't use one. Having said that there definitely are that have. I believe it was Arcs that said the way to test if it is too much heat is to hold your thumb on it while it is in operation. If you can keep your thumb on it, it's fine. If you can't, you need a heat sink. I have held my thumb on my heat sink and although it's not hot, it does get fairly warm though. I just salvaged an old heat sink off an old computor and trimmed it to fit.

Mike