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Last updated: 2018-08-29

The Tank ^{MeatForge blog (Blog Post)}
All started with the renewal of our heating system. After the disassembly of our old heating system, I was faced with a freshwater tank, marked for disposal. Until then I newer thought of owning or even building my own smoker. I always prefered grilling on open fire with real wood. I always loved this puristic way of preparing food. But then I fell in love with this tank. Which already looked like it was always intented to become a smoker one day. Though I believe, that the german manufacturer in the 70th didn't have BBQ in mind when they designed the tank. ;) The start was easy, as this was a freshwater tank. So it was clean and beside some chalk, it was in good shape. So mainly I used an angle grinder to core the tank, and to cut the door into it. Then I packed it into our car to modify it with the plasma cutter and the welding mashine of a friend. The plasma cutter was the ideal tool to get a round hole into the tank as a let out for the chimney. The welding mashine on the other hand was ideal to seal the numerous holes of the tank. I just left two holes open, which were at good position to let some fresh air to the cole. So finally I mounted: a standard chimney of a sweden oven, a handle to open the lid and two hinges to hold the lid A mounting hint for beginners (like me ;) ): I mounted virtually everything with screws. When drilling the holes into stainless steel, you should always fixate the part that you are trying to mount (e.g. with the first screw). Otherwise you are easily drilling a few millimeters beside the hole of the mounting part, as the surface of the steel is such flat and hard.
Last updated: 2018-05-03

Fire in the box ^{MeatForge blog (Blog Post)}
After the tank was ready, I couldn't await the first fire tests. To do the tests I needed a rack, which I built as a first draft out of old pallets. This was better then nothing, but not satisfying in a long term. Then I started with a burning test. I used some coal brickets and later wood to test how the air flow works and if the chimney is functioning. The results: Wood or coal should be heatened up outside, for example in a charcoal chimney. The airflow was good when the temperature was high enough as the chimney sucked enough air then. Without heating it up externaly, you need to actively blow air into the box (like the lotus grill does). Without any additional measure, the box can hold a constant temperature of 160°C. => So all in all, it sounded promising. Seems like it is realistic to get a temperature range between 50°C and 200°C in the box, with higher peaks when grilling above the blaze.
Last updated: 2018-05-31

Testing ^{MeatForge blog (Blog Post)}
The first test was obviously done with some pork and some sausages. Those are easy to handle and easy to find a workaround if s.th. doesn't work as expected. I had actually some problems with the positioning of the meat above the blaze, but it was not critical. I also tried to give it some smoke flavour, what was amazing. Even when grilling above a light blaze, just put a small piece of a thin limb into the blaze and close the lid for a few minutes. I used parts of an old plum tree from our garden, but I guess that many trees will do the trick. At the second test I was even a bit more brave and tried to smoke a beer can chicken. The temperature of this chicken is 160°C. So it seemed to be a perfect match for my little smoker project. I bought a fresh chicken from the market, as I want to have a good feeling, that it didn't have to suffer so much. Then I used a very basic rub and placed it on a chicken holder and filled some dark beer into it. Note, that I didn't use a beer can, though the dish is named after it. The sealing of the cans is usually not resistant against such high temperatures, as well as it isn't that healthy, I guess. Therefore please use such a device which is really cheap, and worth it's money! The result was amazing. It was by far not the best chicken that I have ever eaten, but I blame the rub for that ;) The amazing thing was, that it was totally well done, but the outer meat was smoky and red. Later I learned, that this is a natural effect of the smoke. And you really encounter this effect very often when using hot smoke over a longer time.
Last updated: 2018-09-01

The Rack ^{MeatForge blog (Blog Post)}
Over winter the project was suspended. But now in spring, I continued the work on the rack. Like I wrote before, the pallet solution didn't really satisfy me. Now my idea was a much lighter, but stable rack, which was made of (guess what) metal ;) Like always, I mainly used spare parts, lying around. I used four stands, which I screwed to the tank using simple but solid brackets. They had an original length of 80cm. So to stabilize them over the length I fixed four cross bracings roughly in the middle of the stands. Finally, I mounted two small weels to the two stands at the back. This makes it possible to move the whole device with few effort. It had the additional effect to have a much better stand on uneven ground, as the gum compensates a few millimeters. Before mounting the wheels, I already thought about using only three instead of four stands. So after mounting the wheels, I was glad that this was not necessary, and the gum solved this issue.
Last updated: 2018-08-19

Spare time for the ribs ^{MeatForge blog (Blog Post)}
After I enjoyed using the smoker as a grill for some time now, I spontaneously felt into a more brave project again. I bought some ready-to-grill spare ribs at my dealer of choice. As I wanted to use those pre-rubbed and glaced ribs I was falling into the problem, that I found totally no recipe for it. Seems like everyone who is taking the time for seriously smoked ribs, does the full 3-2-1 method, which goes like this: rub the ribs with only spices smoke them at 120°C for 3 hours pack the rib with some apple juice, beer or similar, into aluminium foil steam it at 120°C for 2 hours add the glace smoke it at 120°C for 1 hour I read, that 4 hours for those ready-to-grill ribs should be enough. I thought about it, and decided to adopt it to this method: pack the ribs with only some apple juice into aluminium foil smoke them for 2 hours unpack them smoke them for another 2 hours My thoughts were: Smoking first doesn't work, as it will dry out the glace The steam will be essential that the meat doesn't dry out After the planning we came to the practical part. I tried to build a minion ring, which became more of a minion field. To get the poisen out of the cole brickets, I heated it up one hour ahead. After that I added the ribs, which were wrapped into the aluminium foil. Becaus the cole had to much contact to the neighbors, the field burned down to quickly. It was no pain, as I had only 4 hours, where I already was grilling the rest of the stuff in the last hour. I simply heated up some new cole after 3 hours. This was in fact two hours after I added the ribs. I extended it with some dry wood and added some additional cole brickets for the final grilling process. Hint: When adding cole or cole brickets, you need to take care, that it is heatened up already. Otherwise it might produce some unhealthy steam at the beginning. I am using a simple charcoal chimney to heat the cole brickets up outside of the tank, before adding them. Result: The result was Ok, but not amazing. It was real fun, and the ribs were really good. But I missed a bit of spice and a better carameliced glace. During the process I encountered, that I have problems holding the heat, as the tank is to huge. When I think about elecetrification, I will need to add some protection against unwanted, external air to the cole area.
Last updated: 2018-09-01

Electrification ^{MeatForge blog (Blog Post)}
After the first tests with the SoftPWM on a breadboard, I now soldered everything together and pressed it into an old PSU case of an old PC. Actually this is a prototyping case, but I know how long those things are lasting usually. I guess, if it works, I will just improve it slightly, but leave it ;) Technically it looks pretty good. As you can see in the video, I can set a temperature, which my simple regulation in CODESYS tries to hold. I published the data and the control element in a web visualization, so that I can control the smoker from my smartphone. I tried to keep the regulation circuit as slow as possible. But I defined myself a tolerance which the circuit should compensate in a given time. The regulation should react on a deviation of 5 degrees after 10 seconds. But currently this is just a mind game, and I will for sure know more after the next weekend ;)
Last updated: 2018-10-21

Post by ingo on Electrification discussion ^{MeatForge blog (Post)}
No I meant 25, as I have read this somewhere. But practically I reduced it much more, as I don't need such a high speed, and I want to have it running stable.
Last updated: 2018-09-28

Post by aliazzz on Electrification discussion ^{MeatForge blog (Post)}
You probably mean 2.5 MHz?
Last updated: 2018-09-28

Post by ingo on Electrification discussion ^{MeatForge blog (Post)}
Update Neither the temperature sensor, nor the driver were the problem. Just the SPI speed was not correctly set in the SPI master. After limiting the speed below 25MHz, it works like a charm ;)
Last updated: 2018-09-01

Post by ingo on Electrification discussion ^{MeatForge blog (Post)}
After the test... Sadly the temperature sensor didn't work relyably. Furthermore I had the known issue with the air, which is sucked through the gaps of the lid. So my todos: - fix the SPI driver - fix the lid The good thing: The ribs have been the best which I have eaten since years. Really amazing. So you see that the electrification is not mandatory, but convenient.
Last updated: 2018-08-26

Post by aliazzz on Electrification discussion ^{MeatForge blog (Post)}
Definatly a fun little project ;-) Thumbs up!
Last updated: 2018-09-28

Post by ingo on Electrification discussion ^{MeatForge blog (Post)}
Sorry! Your mail was in my spam folder. Just found it ;) I didn't run it such long, yet. But after 6h my 20000mAh Anker seemed to have max 1/3 of power lost. So feels like I could reach 18h w/ it. But I guess, that a default Raspbian will also eat more. As then more services will run in the background. I used wharfie, but you could also try to disable all unnecessary services in a Raspbian image.
Last updated: 2018-10-21

Post by bhess on Electrification discussion ^{MeatForge blog (Post)}
This is a very interesting project! Can you tell me how large your battery pack is and how long it lasts powering the fan and Raspberry Pi? Sometimes I smoke large cuts of meat such as brisket and pork shoulder that can take upwards of 14 hours total. Currently I adjust temperature the old fashioned way - by fiddling around with the vents and frowning while looking at the temperature. This gets old after 6 hours or so, no matter how much beer I drink
Last updated: 2018-10-03

Home ^{MeatForge home (WikiPage)}
Download package Preface Prerequisits Raspberry SD image CODESYS GPIOMods SPI Temperature Install the MeatForge package Wiring Preface This application implements mainly two things: A web based user interface to control the smoker with a smartphone. A small regulation circuit to hold a given temperature It is implemented on a raspberry Pi with a SoftPWM output. But it will work on every other PLC, which can read a temperature and output an analog value, as well. So feel free to take and adapt the code to your needs. The following procedure describes just how it is done with a Raspberry Pi. Prerequisits Raspberry SD image You can use Wharfie to get a pure Debian based Root Filesystem. The biggest advantages of using debian are: You can more easily conform to the included open source licenses. The system is much smaller and only relevant processes are running. The image has a lower risk of getting corrupted. I used the CODESYS image from the examples. But you can also start with a Raspbian image. CODESYS Download and install the CODESYS package from the CODESYS Store. After the installation, you can install the debian package via Tools > Update Raspberry Pi. GPIOMods This package contains the SoftPWM driver, which can be used to emulate an analog output on the Pi. It can be found on Forge. SPI Temperature This package contains an generic driver for SPI temperature sensors. As I based my system on Raspberry Pi and "debian stretch", I had to manually set the frequency of the SPI bus. This is a known issue of the Raspberry Pi kernel, starting from stretch. Install the MeatForge package Use the download button at the top of the page to install the project. Wiring Here are the schematics which I used. But this is no rocket science. You can use every other temperature sensor or amplifying circuit.
Last updated: 2018-08-29

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