While we’re in the middle of building a new smoker, I have ideas floating around in my head for innovations that I haven’t seen yet.  As proven this week, it’s not that nobody else has thought of them yet; I just haven’t necessarily seen them yet.

Case in point:  I called Mark up on Saturday to talk about an idea for multiple temperature probes that connect to a smoker-mounted RF unit that transmits to a laptop to be able to control and monitor temps using the laptop or the RF unit.  Then yesterday, I look at the BBQ-Brethren forum and see a post about Rock’s Barbeque Stoker System.

I talked to Rock’s Barbeque, and they seem to know what they’re doing.  The unit works as basically a web server, so you log into it via web browser and control and monitor everything.

The unit allows expansion to multiple pits or as many food probes as you want, and each probe can be set via the web interface, naming each one.

In addition to all this monitoring, a fan unit attaches to the air intake on the firebox.  Pit temp probes have high, low and target temps, and the unit controls the air intake to the fire accordingly.  This thing is putting me into a geek coma!  They even offer a power supply that will run the unit for up to 40 hours if you don’t have electricity!!!

So I think one more of my prayers has been answered.  I just have to figure out what configuration I want to use, and see if I can work with them to get it to work.  I think drilling holes in the sides of the smoker and feeling the probes through, stuffing the holes with silicone material to keep it insulated, will allow lots of configuration changes and uses. 

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