It has 8 Maverick type meat probes, a pit probe and a thermocouple probe for measuring higher temps like the transfer tube or the drip pan. The temps are displayed on the 2x16 display, 4 probes at a time every 2 seconds. The timestamp and temperature data is saved to a SD card for review after the cook.
The charts have to be made after the cook is over using a spreadsheet app like openoffice calc. Annotations to the chart were added by a graphics editing tool.
I learned a lot building this controller and having multiple probes for the data logging. This helped document some interesting cooks and experiments to help understand how to load my smoker and get different size and shape meats done at the right time.
Also used it in an attempt to study the differences in contact, convection and radiant heat components. Radiant heat is the toughie, but I am still interested if you know how to make a radiant heat target for a thermocouple probe.
Its the radiant heat that causes the bottom racks to cook faster.
The last photo is a test where I cut up a pork loin and placed equal sized pieces on different racks to see the difference in cook times. The real eye opener was how much the transfer tube (fire) temperatures fluctuate using natural lump charcoal. Big lumps drop the fire temp and smaller ones make the fire burn hotter. See how the fan is at 100% in the first section of the cook, but the fire temp is going up and down as the gravity fed charcoal of different sizes is being consumed. Eventually the pit temp climbs to a point where the fan duty cycle % is cut to keep the chamber at 225 though.
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. I figured that you were measuring in the transfertube. I like the approach a lot. For me, as non BBQ guru, measuring and logging takes a lot of guess work out of the equation. That's why I like sousvide so much. Once you know the time and temperature for a product/recipe you can't go wrong. No more under or over cooked product when entertaining a larger group.
