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Maiden Voyage of the Smobot controller -Pic Heavy

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xiphoid007
xiphoid007 Posts: 536
in EggHead Forum
The maiden voyage with my temp controller went wonderful today. I've linked to the discussion thread from before below. I went with 4 racks of St Louis style ribs. 3 racks were rubbed with DP Raging River and 1 with DP Ghost Pepper. I prefer the 6-0-0 method for its ease and results. I went with cherry wood at 225. I started a little hot, so it took a bit for the controller to come back down, but once the ribs were ready, the cold racks brought the temp down nicely for me.

 http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1163874/my-homemade-digital-temperature-controller/p1




And a little while in. . .



And the controller unit.




The temp was high because this was when I first set the controller up. I was hoping the cold stone would drop the temp more than it did. It was a lot colder (5 degrees F) the last time I smoked than today (57 degrees F).

Ribs at right before saucing at 5.5 hrs, done, and some cut pics.



 
The ribs were amazingly juicy and perfectly tender. Great bark and perfect thick sauce (sweet baby rays). The temp was very stable. I never adjusted once, the Smobot did it all. I just monitored from my phone via the internet since it has Wi-Fi. Here's a screenshot of the temp graph from online.



The low points are when I opened the grill to load, rotate, and sauce. I briefly set the temp down to 210 when I was running hot, but I turned it back up to 225 shortly later. 

The one trick I learned was to close the bottom damper the whole way when I opened the grill. This kept the grill from overheating with the sudden rush of oxygen with the lid up. Otherwise I kept the damper halfway open. The only blips were after that first opening, and the grill got back down to 225 rapidly after saucing. 

For never using it before, it was practically idiot proof. The WiFi was a super nice feature as well. Thanks to @reinhart36 for the design and the unit. I can't wait for my next cook!

www.smobot.com
Pittsburgh, PA - 1 LBGE
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Comments

  • Sardonicus
    Sardonicus Posts: 1,700
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    Impressive.

    "Too bad all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving cabs and barbecuing."      - George Burns

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  • blind99
    blind99 Posts: 4,971
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    very nice!  it's great to see another controller being developed.
    Chicago, IL - Large and Small BGE - Weber Gasser and Kettle
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  • Ragtop99
    Ragtop99 Posts: 1,570
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    Looking good.  The development has come a long way :)
    Cooking on an XL and Medium in Bethesda, MD.
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  • Ozzie_Isaac
    Ozzie_Isaac Posts: 19,168
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    That looks really cool!
    They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That's against their interests. - George Carlin
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  • xiphoid007
    xiphoid007 Posts: 536
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    Very cool. Very easy to use. Looking forward to experimenting!!
    Pittsburgh, PA - 1 LBGE
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  • reinhart36
    reinhart36 Posts: 253
    edited March 2016
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    Thanks xiphoid007 for the complements!

    Ragtop99 - PM me if you're still interested in a test drive (as in I mail you a controller).  Just a few pre-release units made it out to those who I'd been in touch with recently, but the bulk of them are slated to be available in April once we get some hardware completed.

    Check this link out to see what's new.  One thing not mentioned, is that the data observed from beta participants is used to improve the software, and the beta units update software over wifi, so all the goodness is fed back in.

    http://www.smobot.com/

    There's a sign-up link there I think for getting added to the contact list.

    Kind regards,
    Eric
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