Rocks BBQ, aka, Stoker Has Closed

Hi @Rock - thanks for responding to this thread.

I'm hoping that we can maintain a way to enable existing customers with a DIY solution for replacement probes and blowers.  I realize you have hung up your hat with Stoker, but if you wouldn't mind sharing a solution to this, I'd greatly appreciate it.

It doesn't have to be an elegant solution, but if you were able to share with us a way to keep us supplied with the more consumable portions of the stoker, we would really appreciate it.

Thank you!

Very cool for chiming in @rock

brentm said:

Rock said:

Keep in mind the DS276x chips have temp sensors inside that do cold junction compensation. it is difficult to solder thermocouple wires hence the crimps on the wires. They terminate right next to the chip to get the most accurate compensation. I will be help out with info as time permits. I am the designer of the hardware.

Huh?  Where are the crimps?  I only used my pick tool to pull back the front of the board.  The adhesive is still intact on the back and sides.  It should be good.  There's a certain amount of strain relief built into the OD of the heat shrink.

I'm quite impressed overall.  I mean I was always impressed with the unit, but after taking it apart...  a whole new level of impressed.

I'd already looked at sourcing these chips and possibly throwing something together in pad2pad software.  But I couldn't find stock of these chips anywhere that seemed like a legitimate source.  

My guess is you knew this was a threat and purchased enough chips for your customers to survive the heat death of the universe with.  But I'm always the optimist (not really).  

I hope you are well.  Thank you again for responding.

The DS2760 have been discontinued, the DS2762's are sill available. Findchips.com is your friend. The crimps are made by JST and are made to fit in a 2mm JST housing (not used).

Hi Rock, I do not really have any interest, but others here are trying to ensure they have a way to replace sensors down the road should one fail. It appears as though your probes have some sort of circuitry on them that was custom spec'd. If you could share the details of this, the forum members could be able to keep their products in use for some time. 

Is it not possible to simply replace the cable that goes to a temp sensor with a short cable that goes to a K-type connector, then use K-type temp sensors that are readily available? Rock used to sell such an adaptor. 

brentm said:

Rock said:

The DS2760 have been discontinued, the DS2762's are sill available. Findchips.com is your friend. The crimps are made by JST and are made to fit in a 2mm JST housing (not used)

Ah I'm an RC hobbyist.  I'm familiar with JST connectors. You must have some right angle pins off the boards then to connect these to?

The crimps are attached to the wire to enable soldering to the pcb. It is very difficult to solder thermocouple wire. There are no pins on the board. It is  very important to measure the temperature at the point where the thermocouple wires terminate to a different metal type (the crimps) The DS2760 has a temperature sensor inside that is used to measure the cold junction. The cold junction temperature is used to formulate the actual probe tip temperature. Without accurate cold junction compensation your measured temps will be inconsistent and not accurate.

Sadly, if something weren't available off the shelf that we could adapt, I'm afraid this might be the end of the road for probe supplies.  I don't see a breakout board for the DS2762 unfortunately.

I do see a DS2413 breakout board.  So blowers might live on...
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-1-wire-gpio-breakout-ds2413/overview

Rock said:

The crimps are attached to the wire to enable soldering to the pcb. It is very difficult to solder thermocouple wire. There are no pins on the board. It is  very important to measure the temperature at the point where the thermocouple wires terminate to a different metal type (the crimps) The DS2760 has a temperature sensor inside that is used to measure the cold junction. The cold junction temperature is used to formulate the actual probe tip temperature. Without accurate cold junction compensation your measured temps will be inconsistent and not accurate.

I see...   That makes sense...  I'll have to see if they made any provisions for that on this board.

Interesting reading though on cold junction temperature monitoring https://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data%20Sheets/Parallax%20PDFs/28022.pdf

Are pit and food probes the same up until the stainless cover/tip?  I noticed the pit probes have red LEDs and food have yellow.  I'm not sure if it's a multicolor LED or if they're physically different diodes.  Or any other differences beyond that?

Thank you again.  These Stokers will be a cult classic, if they aren't already.

What website can you use to connect stoker to now ?

I posted a brief tutorial on how to make your own probes here.  I figured it was time to start a new thread as the topic has drifted.

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1222399/diy-probe-for-rocks-stoker

I'm happy to report that the creator of StokerX has posted his final compiled version on GitHub.

@Hipplewm

Maybe we can help.

If you can find your adapter and fan on eBay, I can get you a blower board so you can connect it to your stoker.

brentm said:

@Hipplewm

Maybe we can help.

If you can find your adapter and fan on eBay, I can get you a blower board so you can connect it to your stoker.

I have 2 blowers, I can use them.  It is the adapter I need to go from the square mount on the fan output to the round pipe on the new smoker.

I have checked ebay, youtube, FB market place etc.  I found one guy who looked like "The bigger the blob better the job" welding school dropout made one.  That is the avenue I am persuing now.

Here I am stumbling for a picture and I may have found the answer...

http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=14_40&products_id=346

Hipplewm said:

brentm said:

@Hipplewm

Maybe we can help.

If you can find your adapter and fan on eBay, I can get you a blower board so you can connect it to your stoker.

I have 2 blowers, I can use them.  It is the adapter I need to go from the square mount on the fan output to the round pipe on the new smoker.

I have checked ebay, youtube, FB market place etc.  I found one guy who looked like "The bigger the blob better the job" welding school dropout made one.  That is the avenue I am persuing now.

Here I am stumbling for a picture and I may have found the answer...

http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=14_40&products_id=346

Hopefully you'll find something that'll work.

If you end up needing an additional blower (adapters won't fit, or you just don't want to modify an existing), there's a thread on DIY probes that also includes some helpful info on making your own blower.

That's a trip.  

I was able to reverse most of the code.  It's probably not useful as a github project because the hardware requirements to run the software are so specific and the specific combination of hardware doesn't exist anywhere except in Stoker IIs.

Anyway, unfortunately it's a dead platform.  Root it, enjoy, it, use the source that you've decompiled as a guide to make a new platform perhaps?  I believe the peripherals are viable for other platforms if someone wanted to carry it forward.  Or just stick a fork in it, it's done.

I have some probes for the units though, who knows.... it could survive as a cult classic

-Brent

It's a curious design choice, and it's why we are where we are.  Which is, recreating these darned probe and blower electronics.  

The other curious design choice is using 5V instead of 12V for the power rail.  I have a photo of what looks like a "charge pump" for a larger blower fan.  Basically, it efficiently converts 5V to 12V.  It seems like there is a wider selection of choices for fans rated for 12v.

The other units seem to put the probe and blower electronics on the mainboard.  Which really uncomplicates the probe and blower replacement part business.  It's easy enough to order these parts from asia with headphone plugs on the end.

But also, this means that you're stuck with however many inputs and outputs it was designed with.  And it's obviously in the manufacturers favor as they'd love to sell you another unit for your new egg

Where moving the electronics into the cable gives you freedom to use a "bus".  He didn't have to assign ports to inputs and outputs.

I think three blowers would be pushing the limits of the internal power rail though.  Didn't Rock sell external power for larger blowers? 

And you never know, there may just be another product or project that emerges from this effort.  I mentioned earlier that we'd found another interested party with some technical chops and resources.  So hope is not lost.