Fireboard Pellet Drive install in a MAK 2 Star

[akjeff]

The controller in my 10 year old MAK started acting erratically after a power hit. When I tried to order a new Pellet Boss, discovered that MAK no longer exists. So, I ordered a Pellet Drive from Fireboard, and started on the physical install today. I'll follow up with additional posts, when I start on the electrical side of things.

Started off by gutting the MAK 2 Star.

Then made a block off plate to take the place of the Pellet Boss, as well as provide a substrate to mount the new Pellet Drive. Used a piece of 3/16" aluminum, and used the old Pellet Boss for a template. Mounting screws are 8-32, and the hole for a wiring harness pass through, is 7/8". Also drilled and tapped two holes to mount the Pellet Drive small mounting plate.

The Pellet Drive small mounting plate was then screwed to the aluminum, and wiring harness passed through.

Finally, the wiring harness was plugged into the back of the Pellet Drive, and it was anchored to the factory nutserts. The gasket is kinda fiddly, but it all went together fine. Fit, finish, and build quality of the Pellet Drive is excellent.

More to follow, after I dig into the electrical.

 

[schlotz]

Definitely following your progress Jeff. Sure wish I had the skills to mfg that fine looking alum plate. Nice job! Will be interested to see what you decide to do to connect the old (smaller) wire plugs to the Fireboard which I think have larger sized plugs.

 

[akjeff]

Definitely following your progress Jeff. Sure wish I had the skills to mfg that fine looking alum plate. Nice job! Will be interested to see what you decide to do to connect the old (smaller) wire plugs to the Fireboard which I think have larger sized plugs.

Thanks @schlotz. My plan is to replace the full size Molex connectors on the Fireboard, to the Molex mini so they direct connect to the factory MAK plugs. Reason being two fold. One, I have( or will have in a day or two ) a spare MAK fan/motor which will have the mini plugs. Secondly, the hole for the power cord is too small for a full size Molex to pass through. The only wildcard will be the igniter. Odds of getting a genuine MAK FlashFire igniter are pretty slim, and any aftermarket replacement will probably have a full size Molex connector. Haven't decided on that one yet.

 

[schlotz]

Assuming the Fireboard can run the flashfire igniter then isn't it just a matter of changing out the flashfire mini molex to match up with the larger connector from the Fireboard? This way any third party potential replacement igniter should most likely just plug right in. When MAK upgraded to the flashfire igniter I believe it was said to be rated to an astronomically high number of starts. At least more than I would expect to experience over 30 years. But... experience over my 70+ years says that's doubtful.

 

[akjeff]

Assuming the Fireboard can run the flashfire igniter then isn't it just a matter of changing out the flashfire mini molex to match up with the larger connector from the Fireboard? This way any third party potential replacement igniter should most likely just plug right in. When MAK upgraded to the flashfire igniter I believe it was said to be rated to an astronomically high number of starts. At least more than I would expect to experience over 30 years. But... experience over my 70+ years says that's doubtful.

We'll find out soon enough if the Fireboard will run the FlashFire; I'm pretty confident that it will. I may just put the Molex mini connector on the wiring harness, that way, they're all the same. It will be simple enough to replace the connector on an aftermarket igniter, should I need to replace the FlashFire. It's been running for 10 years now, and easily 1000+ cooks.

 

[akjeff]

Got started on the electrical this morning, by clipping off four of the five Molex connectors on the Pellet Drive wiring harness, and replaced them with Molex Mini-Fit Jr, to connect directly to the factory connectors used by MAK. These were the Power, Fan 1, Igniter, and Auger. The Power connection is the only one that demands full attention, as it is critical to get the wiring correct.

This photo, is the completed connection, to show the correct pinout. On the left, is the Pellet Boss. It uses the conventional USA wiring color code for 1P 120VAC. Black is "HOT" and White is "NEUTRAL". The MAK power cord side on the right, is the European/International color code of Brown is "HOT", Blue is "NEUTRAL", and Green/Yellow is "GROUND". The Pellet Drive unit has a Green ground pigtail, and it, along with the Green/Yellow ground conductor of the power cord, will get connected together on the chassis ground post inside the grill.

And a photo of the new Molex Mini-Fit Jr connectors on the Pellet Drive wiring harness. For comparison, the Fan2 leg was left with the original Molex connector, as it will not be used in the MAK.

 

[akjeff]

I was going to wait until the RTD pit probe arrives on Tuesday, but I couldn't help myself! Finished the install of the Pellet Drive this afternoon. The wiring is a birds nest, but I'm not going to tidy it up until the pit probe gets here, as I'll have to tear it all out to install it. Everything fit together great. I did experiment with a cheap igniter off Amazon, but it was only 80 watts, and just didn't quite cut it, so I put the old MAK FlashFire back in.

Plugged it in, and it came on without letting out any smoke! Did some basic configuring to get the Bluetooth and WiFi working, as well as assigning an ambient probe as a temporary pit probe, until I hardwire a permanent internal RTD pit probe next week.

Set it to 250°F and hit Ignite. Fan and auger are spinning, and igniter heated up. And the 2 Star is pooping pellets once again!

And we have smoke! Took it about 10 minutes to go from ignition to 250°F. Let it run for a half hour or so, and then bumped it up to 400°F. Took about 10 minutes to go from 250 to 400. Then cranked it all the way up to 450°F, and let it cook for about 45 minutes to burn out anything left behind from cleaning it.

Super happy with how it worked out, and glad I can keep my 2 Star in service. Look forward to learning how it cooks. I left the profile at the factory default, but they have a menu of various smokers it can emulate ( unfortunately, there's not one for a MAK ). I'll post up some of the initial cooks . Hoping to do some ribs on Sunday. Probably just grill a steak tomorrow. Have a good 4th everyone!

 

[schlotz]

Great work Jeff. This proves there is a solution for all of us MAK owners. I take it the movable internal MAK therm probe won't work with the FireBoard, ergo your order of the RTD probe? So I understand, you simply cut off & discarded the Pellet Drive molex's, redressed them, crimped on new pins to fit and pushed them into the Molex Mini Jr's?

 

[chopsaw]

Great thread !

 

[akjeff]

Great work Jeff. This proves there is a solution for all of us MAK owners. I take it the movable internal MAK therm probe won't work with the FireBoard, ergo your order of the RTD probe? So I understand, you simply cut off & discarded the Pellet Drive molex's, redressed them, crimped on new pins to fit and pushed them into the Molex Mini Jr's?

Thanks, and a huge thanks to Jim Bloomfield and his YouTube channel for the info to make this possible!
If the new movable internal MAK pit probe is a thermocouple, then no it won't work. The hardwired probe circuit on the Pellet Drive has to be an RTD.

Yes, I just nipped off the standard Molex connectors from the Pellet Drive harness, crimped on new Molex Mini-Fit Jr connectors, so the were a direct connect to the factory MAK components.

Great thread !

Thanks!