Need everyones help on a PID problem

Mr Walleye · April 25, 2008, 02:58:20 PM

Quote from: Wildcat on April 25, 2008, 02:50:04 PM
I have some crown and sprite in the kitchen, so if you got some - Here's to ya.

Hey... Can you guys at least pour/drink one for me! I'm still at work..... ::)

Mike

Wildcat · April 25, 2008, 03:00:08 PM

Just finished mine (this made me thirsty) so I will drink the next one for ya. :D

Mr Walleye · April 25, 2008, 03:08:10 PM

Quote from: Wildcat on April 25, 2008, 03:00:08 PM
Just finished mine (this made me thirsty) so I will drink the next one for ya. :D

Excellent!... I feel all better now! :D

Only 52 minutes till the real thing! ;)

Mike

Arcs_n_Sparks · April 25, 2008, 06:46:17 PM

As usual, I am drinking at a distance....... 8) 8) 8)

Arcs_n_Sparks

Tiny Tim · April 26, 2008, 07:23:52 AM

Quote from: Wildcat on April 25, 2008, 02:50:04 PM
I have waited each time for the PID to be consistant for at least an hour or two before modifying.

What would happen if you didn't do any modifying? Would your set point and the read temp maintain an offset of X degrees?

Wildcat · April 26, 2008, 08:54:47 AM

No. That is one of the problems. :-\ Most of the time I would be smoking about 15 degrees higher than the PID indicated. Once I even tried just lowering the set temp, then the actual temp would swing 10 degrees lower than I wanted. My problem has been two fold. The offset and then the temp swings being too great. ??? That being said, after my last post last night, the off set stayed right on the mark, but the swing was about 12 degrees so I ran another auto tune. After that the off set remained stable and the temp swing was 199 to 202 with the set temp at 200. Absolutely perfect. :o :) Next smoke I will leave everything alone and hope that everything remains constant. If not I will simply adjust the set temp and see if it will again become stable. If not I will try to find an expert locally or just go back to smoking without a PID. Had less monitoring without one. The only reason I wanted a PID to start off with was so that I could leave the house while smoking or get more sleep on the overnighters.

Tiny Tim · April 26, 2008, 09:23:06 AM

Sounds like you got it now. Hope it continues for you.

I've never worried too much about how close mine was. I just set it at 10 degrees above what I really want, since my PID probe is on the lowest rack, and I cook on the next one up. Have my Maverick alarms set 40 degrees above and below the desired temps. And just let it be.

Might worry about it a little more if I was doing sausage or bacon, but I'd also be using a lower temp than needed and slowly ramping it into the sweet zone.

Cheers.

Wildcat · April 26, 2008, 09:26:00 AM

:D Yeah, I want to eventually do some of those other things, but I gotta get this thing going right first.

Smoking Duck · April 26, 2008, 03:55:29 PM

I hope you get it where you want it Wildcat. My PID is going right where I set it. Usually my Maverick is 7 degrees less than the PID. I figure that I'm probably somewhere right in the middle of the two, which is no real problem when doing pulled pork. Might want it a little more exact, but I find the more I fool with something, the worse I make it. I wish I had your patience in dealing with things like that.