Auger/Heat Control Question

[nickeeey]

Hi, i got a Lousiana Pellet Smoker but the App and control in General is not that good / not reliable and my Fan is spinning the same speed to every set temperature (is that normal?)
Your Project seems to be pretty perfect for me! But there are 2 things i don't get. You got the Fan and Auger to control the temps. And you only control the auger by selecting timings? I thought it is much more complex and i need special timings based on the temp i want to use the grill. So if the grill runs hotter the auger have to put more pellets into the fire or did i miss something in your controls?
You don't got an app (compared to some Blynk / arduino projects). Is the Website working good? But without alerts or am i wrong?

Edit:
I life in Europe so can i change the temp settings from Fahrenheit to degrees?
Or should i need to fork your software?

[nebhead]

Hi @nickeeey,

Welcome to the PiFire discussions. I'm not really familiar with the internals of the Louisiana Pellet Smoker (or really the app or controls). However, I can tell you that for Traegers, they don't change the fan speed at all. They will cycle the fan to increase smoke output, but they don't really use it to control temperature.

This is the same for PiFire. The auger is really the main driver for temperature control. The fan itself we use to cycle, to increase smoke output, but only if desired. The PID works by running the auger for different amounts of time during a 20 second cycle, which helps to stabilize around a certain set point. It's by no means perfect, but it works pretty well. I'm not sure how it would compare to a more modern smoker grill like yours, but for some of us with older Traeger grills, it's beats the old (non-wifi) internal controller that came with it.

And for the WebUI, it's a matter of personal preference. I personally like to use the WebUI on both my computer and my phone. I feel it works well enough for me, and what I need. However @weberbox has started to create an Android application for PiFire and he has pushed a version of PiFire that supports this in the development branch. I think it looks incredible, and plan to also give it a try. This might be a little advanced currently, since it requires a little more tinkering with the code.

BTW - In regards to converting the temperature from F to C, I'm going to work on that in a future update - so it's coming soon hopefully.

[nebhead]

I wanted to ask if you intend on supporting float values in settings or if it would be better to convert/round the temps to int when switching to C since settings does not currently allow floats. Currently it seems the set points are ok as they are still int values and not shown as a float anywhere.

Oh, I think we can probably just store those Celsius values in the JSON as int values (without decimals). That would be much simpler and would make life easier for everyone. No need to have that kind of fidelity for those settings. :)

Edit: Can you also let me know if your history chart works when switching to C from F? If I do not restart app.py then history gets a 500 error.

Oh interesting. It seems to work OK for me, as when you are switching from C to F, it should clear history. But I'll do a little more testing on that.

I think the below is supposed to be doing the round but it is still outputting XX.X which is expected with round(x, 1). Was the intent to be a XX.X or just XX?

def convert_temp(units, temp):
	if units == 'F':
		temp_out = int(temp * (9/5) + 32) # Celsius to Fahrenheit
	else:
		temp_out = round((temp - 32) * (5/9), 1) # Fahrenheit to Celcius
	return(temp_out)

Right - The intent was to round to the first decimal place. But in this case, since this function is only used to convert settings in the settings file, we can change that to an int instead of a round. This will solve the above problem of C settings being stored in the JSON as floats.

[weberbox]

I wanted to ask if you intend on supporting float values in settings or if it would be better to convert/round the temps to int when switching to C since settings does not currently allow floats. Currently it seems the set points are ok as they are still int values and not shown as a float anywhere.

Oh, I think we can probably just store those Celsius values in the JSON as int values (without decimals). That would be much simpler and would make life easier for everyone. No need to have that kind of fidelity for those settings. :)

Edit: Can you also let me know if your history chart works when switching to C from F? If I do not restart app.py then history gets a 500 error.

Oh interesting. It seems to work OK for me, as when you are switching from C to F, it should clear history. But I'll do a little more testing on that.

I think the below is supposed to be doing the round but it is still outputting XX.X which is expected with round(x, 1). Was the intent to be a XX.X or just XX?

def convert_temp(units, temp):
	if units == 'F':
		temp_out = int(temp * (9/5) + 32) # Celsius to Fahrenheit
	else:
		temp_out = round((temp - 32) * (5/9), 1) # Fahrenheit to Celcius
	return(temp_out)

Right - The intent was to round to the first decimal place. But in this case, since this function is only used to convert settings in the settings file, we can change that to an int instead of a round. This will solve the above problem of C settings being stored in the JSON as floats.

OK scratch the 500 error for now. I am not sure how I got it to do that as it now seems to be working when switching back and forth. I will watch out for it and let you know if it happens again. It appears for some reason when it was in C it still tried to use the int part of the function from F. Again not sure how I got it to do that as I cannot reproduce now.

[2021-12-08 19:45:47,865] ERROR in app: Exception on /history [GET]
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/flask/app.py", line 2073, in wsgi_app
    response = self.full_dispatch_request()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/flask/app.py", line 1518, in full_dispatch_request
    rv = self.handle_user_exception(e)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/flask/app.py", line 1516, in full_dispatch_request
    rv = self.dispatch_request()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/flask/app.py", line 1502, in dispatch_request
    return self.ensure_sync(self.view_functions[rule.endpoint])(**req.view_args)
  File "/usr/local/bin/pifire/app.py", line 332, in historypage
    data_blob = prepare_data(num_items, True, settings['history_page']['datapoints'])
  File "/usr/local/bin/pifire/app.py", line 1356, in prepare_data
    data_blob['grill_temp_list'].append(int(data_list[index][1]))
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: '14.2'

[nebhead]

Yep - I briefly just reproduced it once, but now I cannot get it to happen again. :( But anyway, it does seem to be an issue with using int. I'll also keep an eye out. Hopefully users won't be switching between C and F frequently. :)

[thomasstrach]

just want to let you know that Celsius is working amazing!
Now I have recalculate the American receipt values to Celcsius ;-)
Everything with the temperature is really working fine, great work also the possibility to switch in the settings.

[nebhead]

Glad to hear! Yeah, it's the recipes that are challenging. :)

[thomasstrach]

Hi James, thanks a lot for your efforts in the Celsius topic here. I have a bit strange behavior in my project: Everything is running fine based on your great description, I am really surprised about the smooth installation. There is only one point a bit irregular. During installation I have selected the default / no hopper sensor selection. Despite this selection I am getting some %numbers in the display about hopper level. When I re-configure and choose the Tof sensor it always shows me 100%, even without any sensor. When I switch back to default / no sensor the value is still alternating with and without the sensor. Have you seen any behaviour like this? Von: James Weber ***@***.***> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 8. Dezember 2021 10:15 An: nebhead/PiFire ***@***.***> Cc: thomasstrach ***@***.***>; Mention ***@***.***> Betreff: Re: [nebhead/PiFire] Auger/Heat Control Question (Discussion #43) Ok I took a look and this does break the Android app if PiFire is set to use Celsius. The Android app is currently written to use integers for the temps and C is being provided as a float. I will need take a look and see how I can adapt the code to make it work. — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#43 (reply in thread)> , or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AL634BZ6AX5IFU2WJJDOWSTUP4OZNANCNFSM5FHT3RGQ> . <https://github.com/notifications/beacon/AL634BZPE4TLO4XM62CKDMLUP4OZNA5CNFSM5FHT3RG2YY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFWFCGS43DOVZXG2LPNZBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGOAANQOAA.gif>

[nickeeey]

okay, now i get it. You order a blank pcb and solder by yourself. Yeah, thats also an option. I mean there are ton of sites with these parts. That should work, but if you can find your order then you can upload it. Thanks

[nickeeey]

bom.xls
i tried it with jlc pcb here is a bom with their internal ids. Maybe you can add it to the guide for some people. Its 40USD for 5 Boards

[nebhead]

I can't wait to see some of these new designs though. I am probably going to go a little bit a different route as I want the power supply to be part of the board. I have a working setup now so not sure when I will get around to designing a new pcb but I will share it when I do in case anyone wants to use it.

Yes! I really wish EasyEDA had some collaboration options because I think it would be fun to actively collaborate on a design. Anyway, if you do take a crack at it with an integrated power supply, I will happily test the design for you. :)

[weberbox]

okay, now i get it. You order a blank pcb and solder by yourself. Yeah, thats also an option. I mean there are ton of sites with these parts. That should work, but if you can find your order then you can upload it. Thanks

Here is the order. You do not need line # 5 as line # 4 will be good enough. This also includes the molex connectors for the 120v side. Line # 13 is also optional. I did not end up using it.

[nebhead]

BTW - Someone else just asked how to order a PCB, so I answered in that thread with more specific instructions (and pictures) on how to order. Link here: #58 (comment)

For Reference:

• @nebhead Original PCB Design - https://easyeda.com/nebhead77/pifire-v2
• @weberbox Updated PCB Design - https://easyeda.com/zipster85/pifire-controller-hat
• @weberbox Button PCB Design (highly recommended) - https://easyeda.com/zipster85/pifire-controller-hat