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My Fireboard arrived midcook! (Impressions)
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I live near Seattle ... in fact, I live in one of the rainiest places in Western WA that you can, shy of living on the Olympic Peninsula. I get approximately 70†rain per year at my house. I have never bought the FB cover and I routinely cook with the FB in wet weather. If it is really bad, I stick the FB inside a sandwich bag.
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The Fireboard is incredible. I have to say, I left mine sitting out in the rain for a number of hours one day (after a cook the day before). I brought it in, left it to dry for a few days, then powered it up, and it has been fine. I would recommend this, as I know it isn't supposed to be waterproof or even "rain resistant", but I was super pleased I didn't have to spend another $200 on a new one - and I would have!
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The absolute beauty of the FireBoard/Drive cable is the variable fan speed. No other system that I know of does that I believe. May be wrong, but the very reason for the baffle in the viper fan itself is because that system runs the fan either on or off.
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Here are my ongoing results today with Chubby G2, Fireboard and Viper Fan. I have the Fireboard cable. Set point is 235. The first drop in temp is when I put the roasts and butts on. The second big drop was when I opened up and pulled out the grates for both butts and the roast to check on status. Also to add another grate with 3 racks of baby backs. Recovery time was about 24 minutes. Would have been much less if not for the addition of the cold ribs. Left home for 3 hours during this cook.
Last edited by jlazar; January 12, 2019, 02:43 PM.
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It looks like an 8 pin mini-DIN. Which is interesting. I suspect only a few pins are used. One has to be the ground, one for fan control, and one for charging. But is there anything else?
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Assuming the controller sends a 12v signal. If it sends a lower voltage it could still work, with the right relay. And if the controller connector is three (or more) pins, charging of the battery is possible, if you know which pin does that. But then things start to get complicated unless you are experienced in such things. If the PID is on the cable, forget it. Still possible, but more as a "because I can" thing. At a greater cost because raspberry pi or arduino required.
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Thermostatic control would still be there. The pit temp probe and the fireboard does that. When the temp is low, a signal is sent that turns on the fan. When temp=set point the fan stops or slows. Alarms are sent when temp is X degrees above or below the set point. What a simple relay wouldn’t do is allow charging of the battery or variable fan speed. It would be on or off. 100% speed or 0% speed.
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Well since powering my fan is really the only thing it doesn't currently do, why doesn't that make sense?
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no PID at all, as a matter of fact. So, you can power the fan but nothing else. Which wouldn't really make much sense.
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If the fireboard main unit sends a 12v signal to the fan cable, it will be easy to make your own. This plan will NOT allow the external power source to charge or power the main unit and will NOT have variable fan speed. but it will cost $10-$15 unless you have a 12v wall wort at at least 2 amps output already, in which case leas than $10. The unit sends a low amp signal, which opens the relay, which powers the fan. Again no speed control and no charging ability. But cheap. And ugly.
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