thanks I apologize for my rant earlier I was a bit frustrated right now I would be happy if I could just set the temp at one temp and that's it mine s the 1503cph
Beaverhunter,
I agree it is a bit confusing at first. After you get it figured out it is pretty easy. Its a bit like stepping back in time and trying to use DOS vs todays Windows.
The first time you press the set button you will tell the box to cook at that temp until an event is reached, using the "+" or "-" buttons to adjust the temp. The second time you press the set button you are setting the event for that temp. Upon the second press of the set button, if you see a lowercase "t", then when you press set a third time you will set how long the box temp you set will cook for. For example: press set once and set temp for box to 225*, then press again and it says "t", the press again and set to 1.0, that would equal 1 hour. The time is set in increments of 6 mins, so that 10 of them, or 1.0 = 60 mins, so .1 = 6 mins, .2=12 mins, .3 = 18mins, etc. n
Now, if you press set once and set the box temp and press set again and you want to set that box temp to cook at that temp until the meat, or second probe, reaches a certain temp, then you will have to press the "+" button. That will change the "t" to a capital "F". Then when you press again you will be setting the desired temp of the meat probe and the box will cook at the temp you set upon the fist press of the set button (lets say 225* again). So....the box will cook at 225* until the meat probe reaches X temp (lets use 190*) and then it will go to program 2 which you will reach if you hit the set again, and then you will cycle through all 6 of the stages. So pressing once you set the box temp, pressing again you set whether you want time or meat temp (if it reads"F" when you press a second time you can press the "-" button and it will go to temp) and when you press a 3rd time you will set either the time for the box to cook at your chosen temp or to cook until the meat probe reaches the desired temp, which you will set after you press the 3rd time.
See if the steps below help:
This is what you will see when you press set the first time. I used the + and - to set the smoker temp to 225* after I pressed the set button.
This is what you will likely see when you press it a second time. If you see an F instead of the t then press the + and it will change the F to a t. If you see a t then fine. (to change from an F to a t press the - button)
Then press the set button a 3rd time and you will see something like this:
This is setting the time that the box will cook at 225* for. In this case 1.0= 1 hour (again using the + and - to set that time). So I have set the smoker to cook at 225* for 1 hour.
Then when I press for a 4th time I am moving on to stage 2.
This is after I pressed for a 4th time (below). I then pressed the + and - to set the smoker temp to 240. This means that after the smoker cooks at at 225* for 1 hour it will kick up to 240*
After I pressed a 5th time (second time for this stage) I then pressed the + button to get the F instead of the t.
Then when I pressed the set button a 6th time (3rd time in this stage) I pressed the + and - to set the F ,or meat probe temp, to 190*. So I have sent the smoker to cook at 240* until the meat probe reaches 190*
Then press set again and off to stage 3 and so on.......
One thing to remember, if you have any of the stages set to "F" and do not have the second probe connected (meat probe) you will get no output from the PID. Ask me how I know this.