Traeger issues

[Chris__M]

Stoker control of Traeger grills - there has been talk of it at various time on pelletheads.

At one point there was even some semi-official testing of an adapter built (I believe) by the guy behind the Stoker. From what I gather, it wasn't completely successful, and he had enough on his plate, already, so the experiment was dropped. Since then, other folk have been developing their own stoker interfaces, with varying success.

The slightly confusing thing is some people are/have been using Stokers with Traegers to maintain the temperature by controlling the auger, while others are using them merely to monitor and log the temperature while experimenting with other means of control, like PID controllers.

So you have to read some of the topics for context, whether the Stoker is a controller or a measuring instrument (or both).

Also what needs to be considered is that (by my reading of things) some folk have achieved a certain measure of control using the Stoker, that many people (including myself) would be delighted with. But it wasn't quite perfect enough for them, so they have moved on to bigger and better things. Doesn't mean that what they was doing was wrong, though.

See BMerrill's comment on this topic that I started, which gives some hints.

http://pelletheads.com/index.php?topic=7393.0

[Chris__M]

A quick summary of BMerrill's Stoker method, as I understand it.

Instead of a blower, a blower lead, with 5V DC, is connected to a solid state relay, which in turn controls the 110VAC (or in our case 240VAC) power for the Traeger. Originally he controlled both the auger and fan, but encountered a soot problem. Having the fan set to 100%, and having the Stoker/SSR control only the auger solved this problem.

This was the first method used, but he found it gave quite large temperature swings. The really inventive bit came next - he wired the relay so that when the Stoker was not telling the auger to move pellets, control switched to the original Traeger 3 way controller, in Smoke mode.

He described this as using the Traeger controller as a "pilot light":

1) While smoker is coming up to the set temperature, the Stoker is signalling the relay, resulting in the auger running all the time.

2) When the smoker reaches the set temperature. the Stoker cuts out, and the auger is now controlled by the Traeger controller in "Smoke" mode, putting pellets in 1 minute in 4.

3) Eventually the temperature will drop, and the Stoker signals the relay again, resulting in the auger running until temperature is reached again.

This way, rather than the pellet feed being either "on" or "off", it is "on" and "low", which seems to limit the extreme swings.

Please note that this is written purely from reading the various topics on pelletheads, and I would advise anyone wishing to try this to go there and get the info from the horses mouth. My notes are only to give a rough idea of what the method is.

[joker smoker]

Could this be of any use to anyone?......http://pelletgrilloutlet.com/inc/sdetail/49035/304

[British BBQ Society]

Could this be of any use to anyone?......http://pelletgrilloutlet.com/inc/sdetail/49035/304

John you are a star!!, just rebuilt and had to replace all parts for my 3 Treagers, the first was interesting, there was a knack, and if no knack found a hammer lol used all my spares time to order somemore.

[Chris__M]

John you are a star!!, just rebuilt and had to replace all parts for my 3 Treagers, the first was interesting, there was a knack, and if no knack found a hammer lol used all my spares time to order somemore.

Just checking - so your 3 Traeger's are US built ones and not from Jackie? Note that parts from pelletgrilloutlet.com will be 110V, not 240V

[British BBQ Society]

Just checking - so your 3 Traeger's are US built ones and not from Jackie? Note that parts from pelletgrilloutlet.com will be 110V, not 240V

Its the augers, heat rods, pellet pit etc that I am after, I do have to source another board but use the faulty one, which runs on high for grilling at the moment.

[joker smoker]

also its possible to do a complete conversion to 110 parts for $218 including digital control board

[Chris__M]

also its possible to do a complete conversion to 110 parts for $218 including digital control board

Yes, I think that's what would be required if one wanted to use any US-sourced components, and then run on a step down transformer. As far as I can work out (and once again, I would be delighted to be corrected on this) the one thing you can't do is run on a mixture of components.

Having sent back my converted controller, I am now wary that any other (converted) controller I buy will have the same problems - old controller with old logic, and circuit board too big to fit to Lil Tex without a hacksaw. I'll be interested to hear what Mark's (dieselracer13) NZ controller is like.

For the moment, I am going to continue with the 3 way, and keep an eye on the experimenters over on pelletheads. If I end up going down that route - stoker or PID - I am better off with the 240V components I already have.

[dieselracer13]

also its possible to do a complete conversion to 110 parts for $218 including digital control board

Yes, I think that's what would be required if one wanted to use any US-sourced components, and then run on a step down transformer. As far as I can work out (and once again, I would be delighted to be corrected on this) the one thing you can't do is run on a mixture of components.

Having sent back my converted controller, I am now wary that any other (converted) controller I buy will have the same problems - old controller with old logic, and circuit board too big to fit to Lil Tex without a hacksaw. I'll be interested to hear what Mark's (dieselracer13) NZ controller is like.

For the moment, I am going to continue with the 3 way, and keep an eye on the experimenters over on pelletheads. If I end up going down that route - stoker or PID - I am better off with the 240V components I already have.

Hi Chris

Just got back from St Lucia and spotted your post about your controller so was a little worried. My controller had been delivered to the workshop while we were away so I called in on Saturday to pick it up. The total cost was £125.33 and luckily no import duty, Tim had also included a replacement Hot Rod that I wasn't expecting; so well pleased with the price and service. The best part of all it fitted with no problems in about 15-20 minutes and appears to function well, I've attached some photos so you can compare it with the unit you received from Germany; however I will have to wait for the first smoke up to evaluate properly and give some feedback.

All the best

Mark

[Chris__M]

I'm rather relieved for you, actually. That is a later controller to the one I had, as mine had 180 degrees as the lower "non-smoke" temperature mark, not 225, as yours has. From memory, I believe that even later designs went back to 180 degrees, but I shouldn't worry about that.

More significantly, your controller, and the later 180 one, had the "new" logic. The temperature control logic works roughly like this - when the grill temperature is lower than that set, the auger runs full time. When temperature is reached, the controller reverts to "smoke" setting to maintain the temperature, until it falls below set temp, requiring the auger to come on full again.

With the old controller, the smoke setting it defaulted to was 1 minute on, and then 3 minutes off. With the newer controllers, this was switched to 3 minutes off and then 1 minute on. This may not seem important, but it meant that under the "old" logic, the grill temperature would reach that set, and then - in "smoke" mode - would continue to feed pellets for another minute. This caused noticeable temperature swings in the original controller.

So if I am correct, your controller should be fine.

With regard to the fit, my circuit board was only millimeters smaller than the face plate, which meant it wouldn't fit in the hole. This was a known issue with one of the earlier controllers. In retrospect, I am somewhat relieved at this, as it indicated to me exactly what controller I had received.