MES 30 MODS

BRIAN560 said:

 
HI THERE,

IVE A 30IN MES SMOKER AND WOULD LIKE TO MOD UP W/PID AND BY-PASS THE FACTORY CONTROLER AND ITS TEMP SENSORS.

ANY IDEAS WOULD BE GREAT HELP ESP. IN PID MANUFACTORS, AND SOME STEP BY STEP INST. W/PIC WOULD BE NICE TOO. THAT

I WONT ZAP MYSELF OR BURN UP THE SMOKER OR BURN DOWN THE HOUSE! THANKS

Click to expand...

Hi there and welcome!

For a some detailed info check out my MES mod madness post:

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/261790/mes-mod-madness-teaser-pics

In short check out these pics:

I found this pic online to give you an example of a clear picture of the bottom circuit board.

• Solid Black wire (not braided black) out of the upper right corner is the Hot wire from the MES plug
• Solid White wire out of the upper right corner is the Neutral wire form the MES chord
• Braided Black wire INTO the upper right corner is the to direct the hot wire electricity up to the rollout safety limit switch.  The rollout safety limit switch trips and cuts the power to the heating element should the smoker overheat
• Braided Black wire INTO the upper left corner is to direct the neutral wire electricity directly to the heating element
   

If you connect/splice the Solid Black wire from the upper right hole and the Braided Black wire that goes INTO the upper right hole that will be the rewire of the Hot electricity portion of the circuit


It's kind of hard to make out but if you wire/splice the Solid white wire from the upper right hole to the Black Braided wire that goes INTO the upper LEFT hole then you will have rewired the Neutral electricity portion of the circuit.

Notice the markings of "H" for Hot, and the "N" for Neutral.


That is it.  Ignore any tiny white braided wires those go to the controller unit which is no longer receiving power due to the rewire job.  Rewiring like this means the following:

1. When you plug the rewired MES into an outlet the electricity will bypass the MES controller and circuit board
2. There is nothing onboard the MES controlling the electricity so if you plug it directly into an outlet (DONT DO IT) the smoker will feed electricity to the heating element causing it to simply heat and the only thing that will stop it will be the safety limit switch or the smoker burning down so DONT plug into a wall, plug into a PID controller from this point on!!!
3. With this specific rewire job the Rollout Safety Limit Switch is still included in the wiring circuit which is good.  If your smoker were to overheat the switch should cut power to the heating element by breaking the electrical circuit like a temporary fuse.  The switch will then reset automatically after a while

This is pretty simple to do but there are some other things I highly recommend doing in addition to these rewire steps if you are rewiring the MES.

1. Switch the heating element electrical connectors with some Hi Temp stainless steel 1/4 inch Female Spade connectors.  The ones that come with the MES are not high temp and corrode and fail easily.  You may as well fix this while you are at it (http://www.ebay.com/itm/T1111-Quick...ab-Pack-20-AP5642027-/361636727171?rmvSB=true) 
2. Switch the Rollout Limit Switch electrical connectors with some Hi Temp stainless steel 1/4 inch Female Spade connectors.  The switch connectors are the same crappy corroding connectors that MES uses on the heating element.  You may as well switch these too.  I highly recommend buying a 5 pack of switches when you do this because they can be easily damaged and a 5 pack is only a few bucks  ().  I highly recommend you remove the Rollout Switch, attach the new hi temp connectors on the switch tabs itself and once COMPLETELY on, just crimp/solder the wire to the connectors and then screw the rollout switch back.  This will make it much easier as the roll out switch tabs are flimsy.
3. Cover the splices and newly added connectors with reliable insulation or electrical tape that will not come undone.  I used heat shrink insulation. I highly suggest you slide any heat shrink insulation onto the wire BEFORE you connect it to the rollout switch or the heating element.  Once the wires are connected you can slide the insulation in place but after they are connected you cannot do such a thing unless you are using electrical tape :)

I hope this info helps and best of luck :)

BRIAN560 said:

 
HEY THAT A GREAT MOD, WHAT GEN MODEL MES 30 IS THAT, IT LOOKS LIKE NEWER MODEL..MINE IS AN OLDER ONE GEN 1 WITH ONE

ACCESS PANEL FOR HEATER ELEMENT REPLACING AND WHERE CAN YOU GET PID CONTROLER AT TOO.

THANKS

Click to expand...

My model is an MES40 Gen1. 

There are two panels for this rewire.  

1. The panel for the heating element

2. The panel underneath the smoker towards the back.  You will need to drill out the rivets and replace with sheet metal screws to re-fasten the panel back on once the rivets are drilled out.  This panel is where you see all the wires and stuff in my images.

My HeaterMeter PID is a bit of a different beast as it is a bit techy.

Auberins.com you can buy a plug and play PID controller that many have used and are awesome!  They run about $180 bucks or so but it will do an excellent job.  The model: WS-1510ELPM can handle the amps for a 1200 Watt element. 

If the MES30 has an 800 Watt element (I'm not sure if it does) you can probably use a less expensive PID controller.

I hope this info helps :)