Smart Stove Controller on Blaze King

She is up and running, test burn yesterday went well with only minimal changes to the default program.
I made a few more tweeks today, lots of parameters to adjust Impressed so far.

My original plan was to tap into the outside air tube and control with an automotive type throttle body.
Decided to ditch that idea due to the O.A. system not being air tight enough to control with. Too many small leaks to deal with, and opportunities for future air leaks. These things don't flow much air, as we all know a small leak isn't good.
So i went with an easy backup plan, just for the heck of it. Didn't expect much from this set up but was pleasantly surprised.

Rossco said:

Cannot + or - the install because It puzzles me.

Please explain what's being controlled?

And I kinda like the through the wall fan. Is that connected upto the OAK?

Ok well I found THIS

Not on sale to the general public thou eh?

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The wall fan is part of my convection loop, got lucky, the furthest and coldest room backs up to the stove room
The servo is just turning the existing t stat shaft. Wasn't the original design but figured this was pretty quick/easy and i would get a chance to mess with the controller. Figured i would at least have a remote control for my stove...lol.. It ended up working pretty good. I was surprised the t stat and controller worked together so well.

mellow said:

Ahh gotcha, so you are controlling the tstat and also blower speed?

Where did you mount your thermocouple?

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The thermocouple is mounted on the stove top. I tried to find a spot that was influenced by the cat temp some but not too much. I am going to try a few different spots.

charger4406 said:

Glad to see it on the stove, cannot wait to see the results
of a complete burn, looks like a fairly simple install.
The BK seems to have a really good system, what kind
of improvements do you hope to see?

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Going to be hard to improve on the awesome BK I will post up some data logs from the controller soon. I had a 10 hour burn log from yesterday and lost it trying to graph it... ooops..
Was kinda blown away, it had 18 degrees F of variation from the set point for most of the burn. It did tail off during coaling stage, but not much. I had it set up to keep bumping open the air near the end of the burn. Kept the temps up and burned down the coals.
Is any of this better, who knows. I do like the automation and adjustability of how you burn the wood. It would be very handy if your stove is in a different room or downstairs.
The first few burns i brought the controll panel to bed with me, lol.. I could keep track of the stove without getting out of bed. The wife made me mount it on the wall :O
A few features i like are, Overtemp alarm, Add wood alarm and a add wood timer.

Joe

mellow said:

Are you controlling the blower speed as well?

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Yes, it can be run Automatically or manual.
One of the above pics shows the temp, draft position and fan speed on the display. On the Rt there are 2 button to control fan speed up or down and an Auto button to go back to auto fan.

Joe

mellow said:

Just a thought, I haven't seen anyone else with a k type thermocouple like this, since you are moving yours around a lot it might be worth getting since it is easy to move and is magnetic. It goes up to 750, not sure how hot you are running on top.

http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=20_3&products_id=233

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Thanks for the link, that looks like a better idea than drilling and tapping holes on my stove top.

BrotherBart said:

I have auberins magnetic K theromocouple on my 30 and the thing reads so far off as to be useless. You can adjust for thermocouple error but I have to bump it up almost a hundred degrees to agree with my IR gun and a Rutland that is dead on with the IR gun. At room temp the un-adjusted thermocouple is dead on. As the stove warms up it ain't even close.

Right up there with my worst wastes of money.

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A concept that looks cool but doesn't work to well. Thanks for sharing
I am pretty happy with the current T/C location but wanted to try a few different spots.

kennyp2339 said:

TurboJoe - you have the same scratch or should I say mark that I do on the left hand side of you door

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I noticed that the door hits there when all the way open.

Rossco said:

Not on sale to the general public thou eh?

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Sure it is, Just give Dan a call, super nice guy. Since it's a retro fit install he does make sure your capable of the nessasary skill set for your application.
If you have had a chance to check out his forum you will notice most of the installs involve some serious fabrication. I am a fabricator but wasn't going to cut up my BK... I would be shunned from the BK forum...lol
Mine was a 3 hour job tops.
My TN-19 is next, i am not afraid to do some serious fab work on that one. Next year..

NinjaTech said:

I bet its so far off because of how bulky it is. It is going to act like a big heatsink with a lot of surface area. I bet if you put a couple wraps of fiberglass exhaust header insulation on it after its stuck to the stove it would read a lot more accurate. Thats what I did with my little magnetic rutland magnetic one. The air from the blower would blow across the top (and most importantly under the bottom where the actual bimetalic coil is and it would read super cold when the blower was on. Made a gasket to seal the underside to the stove so the air from the blower couldn't get under it anymore and it reads much more accurately when the blower is on now.

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I like the idea but thought the same way. My surface mount T/C is effected by the blower. I had to insulate mine from the blower
I may instument mine up with some surface mount stuff we use at work. Easy to make your own.. We have a spool of K Type T/C wire. Bare the wires, bring together. We tig weld them. I have heard you can solder them. The point were they are joined becones a K Type thermocouple.
I get crazy I'll tig weld probes everywhere on my stove...lol

This was a reload at about 260F, temp set point was 300F
I was only able to capture 6 hours of the burn cycle. Need to adjust my capture time to fit the whole burn in.

bobdog2o02 said:

Way cool, i was thinking about this on our princess ultra. my initial thought was a hvac servo for the damper control. something like this that can mount to the side of the sove and slip over the stat shaft......

http://www.accutherm.com.au/product.asp?Product=Belimo NMU Actuator&ProductID={3B96AF39-1641-44F9-8596-05286615FFEA}#Belimo NMU Actuator

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Good stuff... i wonder if they have any that a can run full range. The one said open and closed. That wouldn't work so well.
I started to make an adapter to mount the servo on the end of the shaft. It didn't have enough travel.

Automation isn't for everyone. I am loving it. I'm busy as heck and don't have much time to mess with a stove.
I push the add wood button, draft goes to 100%, load the stove, leave the door cracked for 2 or 3 minutes. Close the door and by pass and I'm done. I have it set to stay at 100% for 6 minutes ( Add Wood function ) then the draft controls to the set temp.
Now, when life slows down. i will be all about tweeking my stove and hanging out here...lol..
Come on retirement
Joe