Based on Alton browns small unit, 4 hrs later he dumped 6 large handfuls of sawdust, that's (1.5 * 10hrs = 15 handfuls.) it shouldn't exceed a small bag that I purchase at the local Grocery Store.

Let's estimate by volume, then. I'd say that 6 handfuls would make about one gallon of chips. So a system with a storage capacity of three gallons should be enough for our purposes.

Do you agree?

 

As long as the hopper holds more than can be used in one use it shouldn't matter what size it is. You just need to know a minimum amount. Guesstimate and double that for good measure.
Fill the hopper with gerbil food and get that hamster wheel spinning man. We're getting hungry.

 

Fill the hopper with gerbil food and get that hamster wheel spinning man. We're getting hungry.

Patience!!! ... good things come to those who wait ...

 

I keep seeing the word "ignite" used with regard to the chips/sawdust/pellets. You don't want or need ignition, you need to keep them below the ignition temperature. I have a Brinkman electric smoker, it uses an electric oven element and lava rocks in the pan. The chips(I don't buy them, use trimming's from apple trees instead) never catch fire.

The smoke detector in the stack, to me is a nonstarter, not needed. Just a klixon should work in the stack. I say this because this won't be a thing on a timer. You'll be there to see the smoke coming out in the beginning. With a little experimenting, pretty sure the feeding of new wood can be done with klixon sensors too, in the smoke generation chamber. A low temp one that matches the heat source with no chips. And a higher temp one that matches temp when chips are smoldering. The high shuts down wood feed, the low triggers to feed more wood.

 

I keep seeing the word "ignite" used with regard to the chips/sawdust/pellets. You don't want or need ignition, you need to keep them below the ignition temperature. I have a Brinkman electric smoker, it uses an electric oven element and lava rocks in the pan. The chips(I don't buy them, use trimming's from apple trees instead) never catch fire.

Ignite is a bad word, would scorch be better? or should it be light the chips/sawdust/pellets

feeding of new wood can be done with klixon sensors too, in the smoke generation chamber. A low temp one that matches the heat source with no chips. And a higher temp one that matches temp when chips are smoldering. The high shuts down wood feed, the low triggers to feed more wood.

I thought about this as well, if I do a test at all points during a smoke process by hand, we should have a low/high but, if we applied logic, like a PIC I can output that to a server notification that says "Emergency, Emergency" "SMOKER DOWN, I REPEAT THE SMOKER IS DOWN"

kv

 

That is when you are supposed to put your beer down and get all touchy, feely with the various adjustable do-hickies on that beautiful piece of smoking hot hardware.

 

"Emergency, Emergency" "SMOKER DOWN, I REPEAT THE SMOKER IS DOWN"

I'd prefer something more like "Danger Will Robinson!" ... or "The dilitium crystal fusion chamber is saturated!... divert all power to the smoker!" ...

 

I have to confess my ignorance... I had never heard of a Klixon thermostat until I saw this thread. So I googled it, and realized it's an extremely simple sort of "pop up" thermal switch. An while I admit that simple is better in terms of reliability, I think I'd prefer to use a thermocouple for this application, since I think it would allow for more flexibility.

Several years ago, I designed a small ADC circuit for k-type thermocouples that has been working quite reliably. The circuit is interfaced to an AT89LP4052 MCU, and still has a few pins left that could be used to control actuators, RS232, , PWM and even WiFi if there be need. I intend to follow that path, and share all diagrams and pertinent code once I'm finished.

But right now, I'm going to focus on the physical way of feeding the wood chips into the smoker. I have several ideas about that that I'll be sharing in the next few days.

 

I designed a small ADC circuit for k-type thermocouples that has been working quite reliably.

If you had all the times and temperatures nailed down, I would recommend the Klixons. Until then, Martinez has the answer.
(There are adjustable Klixons, but this beast will live outdoors. Not reliable for a Klixon.)

 

If you had all the times and temperatures nailed down, I would recommend the Klixons. Until then, Martinez has the answer.
(There are adjustable Klixons, but this beast will live outdoors. Not reliable for a Klixon.)

Question, I'm guessing that Klixons (when I googled that thing... the auto-correct feature kept suggesting Klingon ) can be bought at different temperature settings. If that is the case, what would their lowest and highest values be, and at what increments between them?

 

If you had all the times and temperatures nailed down

And that's another thing... different smoker designs behave differently. Sometimes even two smokers of the same type by the same brand have differences, due to their age or manufacturing inconsistencies. That's why I think it's important to (at least at first) design this thing as flexible as possible.

 

1A-200A
-65F - +550F
Typically 10F increments.

http://www.sensata.com/klixon/thermostat-precision.htm

 

(There are adjustable Klixons, but this beast will live outdoors. Not reliable for a Klixon.)

Did you mean "Not reliable for an adjustable Klixon", or "For Klixons in general" ?

 

Did you mean "Not reliable for an adjustable Klixon", or "For Klixons in general"?

As far as I know, all of them don't like rain, but they survive just fine in a metal enclosure like a mobile home type of air conditioner. You can read the catalog as well as I can. If you find one that can live outdoors, ask about the price. I'm pretty sure KV won't like the price.

 

I'm pretty sure KV won't like the price

Interesting... I found one on Ebay for $13.50, and another two in Amazon for $32.00 and $85.00 dlls, respectively.
I guess price is related to its current capacity?

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/klixon-switch
https://www.amazon.com/BevLes-782208-Bevles-Klixon-Thermostat/dp/B00HNQ96TA
https://www.amazon.com/Bevles-782208-Klixon-Thermostat-BevLes/dp/B01LY5GIUG

 

You're being impractical again. If this even winds up with Klixons, it's easy enough to make sure they don't get rained on.

 

You're being impractical again. If this even winds up with Klixons, it's easy enough to make sure they don't get rained on.

Ya, a few tiki umbrella's after we finish our Margarita's

I'm pretty sure KV won't like the price.

I prefer free, and a little labor

I may have to run 2 in series parallel to get the performance of a SPDT. I should be able to locate some in the ranges we need, providing the first Temp Test's work out.

kv

 

My ideal smoker-grill, would be a combination of the three, with the capability of using each feature separately, and with a water-type smoker with a labyrinth technology, just like this one:

View attachment 116297
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I was trying to find what the ideal reverse smoke Temperatures would be, I went to this forum and on Post #5 we see where you got your picture.

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=145849

Now we know what you do in your spare time.

kv

 

I was trying to find what the ideal reverse smoke Temperatures would be, I went to this forum and on Post #5 we see where you got your picture.

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=145849

Now we know what you do in your spare time.

kv

Actually, I found that pic by Googling "BBQ smoker images"

 

no geek... but what about a LED shining into a light senser thing. With the smoke it would become darker, shuting whatever off. Just a thought..