New Mak 2-Star, need help!

[heraldstorm]

Yeah things did run a lot more smoothly, but I was still seeing significant overshoot, by any temp monitor you care to look at...the PelletBoss thermocouple, the Tappecue, and I'm pretty sure the K-style thermocouple probe on the PelletBoss would agree. I did just get a FireBoard2, so tomorrow I'm going to run some more numbers. It should make it easier to send data back to MAK. Tappecue makes it a bit uncomfortable to share that data out.

[heraldstorm]

Yep. Hopefully MAK will agree and have some recommendations. The firepot is cleaned out entirely (and even brushed out) prior to each test I run. It does indeed have holes in it. It's the darndest thing...I can't figure it out, but hopefully they can.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

heraldstorm got the new firmware uploaded today, so far VERY happy with it. No overshoot on startup. It did run a tad higher than I would prefer in smoke mode (180 average, I prefer 170 for jerky) but that might come down after a few uses. When I changed it from smoke to 225 it immediately went to 225 and ran there no overshoot. Once you figure out whatever your mechanical issue is, I think you'll be happy the firmware seems to be dialed in this time.

I'll test it harder with the fireboard later this week

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

If the pellets are up to the auger, it can cause burnback. Also if the grill is dirty (vents, etc...) it can blow smoke out there (though this is a new grill so can't be that). Somone accidently installed their fan backwards on the facebook group once too.

[GolfGeezer]

Dunno, and we are not there to help diagnose, but it sure reads like a problem with the fan. Maybe either the connector to the controller (Pellet Boss) is not secure, or broken or connected to the wrong prongs (unlikely to be sure) or somethin'. Since the fan runs continuously, it is hard to understand how smoke would come out through the hopper if the fan is running. But, heck, my input is just a WAG.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I've had 0 problems going hot, and the only time I ever had smoke out of the hopper was when I forgot to empty the firepot after 2 days of very long cooks. MAKs very rarely suffer burn back, something seriously weird is going on. Definitely check your firepot like Glitchy said, there's a chance something might be screwy with it.

[glitchy]

It seems like something else has to be wrong with your grill in addition to the issues with the controller/firmware. I’ve never seen even a puff of smoke come through my hopper, nor has it taken more than 20-30 mins to get to 350. This is a really silly question, but did they somehow forget to drill the holes in the fire pot?

[heraldstorm]

OK well I had a nice, detail post all prepared, with pictures and explanations, and praise and gripes. That ended horribly. Long story short:

I swapped out the PelletBoss controller, and I saw a tremendous improvement. Unfortunately, things are still not what I would consider to be "market-ready". The grill takes almost exactly 1 hour to ignite and reach a set temp of 350. I did not test at high temps or low temps, because I ran out of time. I didn't expect it to take an hour to reach a middle of the road temp.

As alluded to by ItsAllGoneToTheDogs, I still have some serious questions about temp skew. I'd notice wide variances in sensed temperature...40-50 degrees in some cases, higher and lower than what the PelletBoss is displaying.

That said, I applaud MAK for the tremendous and good-faith effort they have put into getting to the bottom of the problem. The grill behaves much more smoothly now, and I can tell that the logic is a lot more reliable. Unfortunately, it just takes forever for the darn thing to heat up.

Another problem I'm having is that smoke vents out of the pellet hopper rather than the back or side of the cooking chamber. This ultimately generates a great deal of condensate in the pellet hopper. You guys all know what happens to pellets when they get wet. So, in addition to the 1 hour of burning pellets to get the grill up to temp, if there are any pellets remaining in the hopper when I turn it off, I can kiss a large portion of those pellets goodbye too. All this for the price of $3000? Nope, not quite ready for primetime, yet.

Anyhow, sorry about blowing the first post with pics. I may try again later, but that's a summary of what my tests found today.
Hope y'all had a great weekend!

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

heraldstorm correct. Some people will put their probe on the grate then be mad at the temp difference, but if you put the probe near wherever you have the thermocouple it should be really close. The only difference will be the MAK thermocouple reads an average over a certain time vs near live updates if your tappacue is like my fireboard. On the fireboard the MAK was within 2 degrees over time so more than good enough for me.

[heraldstorm]

Hopefully I'm understanding you @ItsAllGoneToTheDogs...You're talking about putting the probe connected to the Tappecue in the same place that the built-in Temp probe on the grill is?

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Just remember to put the probe wherever you have the thermocouple or it's gonna be off. Keeping my fingers crossed this works out for us

[heraldstorm]

Hi ItsAllGoneToTheDogs! For me, they just sent out a replacement controller board, and I got that in the mail yesterday, and I'm about to swap it out. I will try to do some testing today, but I've got a sick kiddo, and we have to go get a test for C19 to see if we have to quarantine and all of that. At the very least, that would give me some quality time with the controller! I'll post what I get from my Tappecue when I run the tests.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

@heraldstorm not sure how many update units they have, but mine was sent out yesterday. My guess the new controller had different memory requirements than the old one. I've never upgraded the firmware at home, my old MAK got the newest firmware by default when I upgraded to the k-probe unit. So we'll be on this adventure together

I'd keep my fingers crossed that I might be posting fireboard confirmed results by this weekend, but shiping has been iffy to my neck of the woods lately.

[heraldstorm]

$15 for a 2 lb package of cubed chuck roast today, ItsAllGoneToTheDogs. Prices are starting to hurt!! I sure hope the producers and processors can hang in there until things even off!

[heraldstorm]

Redwng Suffice it to say that it was a problem with the build of the controller board. Basically it impacts the base fan speed. If I remember correctly, the fan was operating at too high of an RPM. They were able to write the firmware to detect if the board is one of the "problem" boards, and adjust the programming accordingly. I don't feel comfortable giving out all the details as they were given to me, but that's the gist of the issue.