"Stoker BBQ Controller. It comes with the usual probes you’d use to
when cooking a gigantic animal, but also features a completely
programmable computer controller that can be programmed to sustain a
particular temperature inside your dome piece."

<http://crunchgear.com/2006/11/28/gobble-gobble-ping-assign-an-ip-address-to-your-turkey/>

Kevin S.Wilson wrote:
> "Stoker BBQ Controller. It comes with the usual probes you’d use to
> when cooking a gigantic animal, but also features a completely
> programmable computer controller that can be programmed to sustain a
> particular temperature inside your dome piece."
Their web site is at http://www.rocksbarbque.com and then there's the
Pit Minder BBQ guru at http://www.pitminder.com

And that brings is to the musical question... has anyone here used
either, or both, of these devices?

As someone who has trouble keeping their fire under control, it sure
sounds attractive to be able to put a bunch of lump or wood into the
fire pit, set the controller and go to bed knowing the pit will stay at
the desired temperature.

But... how does the reality compare?

The Pit Minder is supposed to be able to go into a holding mode when the
meat reaches it's done temperature.. the fire is banked, the heat is WAY
low.

Now then... we put a wifi adapter on the Stoker, and set a PC to monitor
that, and send alerts to my beeper, cell phone or Palm...... it sounds
cool....

Mike

--
....The irony is that Bill Gates claims to be making a stable operating
system and Linus Torvalds claims to be trying to take over the world...

Mike Avery mavery at mail dot otherwhen dot com
part time baker ICQ 16241692
networking guru AIM, yahoo and skype mavery81230
wordsmith

"Mike Avery" > wrote in message
news:mailman.13.1164998082.45514.alt.food.barbecue @mail.otherwhen.com...
> Kevin S.Wilson wrote:
>> "Stoker BBQ Controller. It comes with the usual probes you’d use to
>> when cooking a gigantic animal, but also features a completely
>> programmable computer controller that can be programmed to sustain a
>> particular temperature inside your dome piece."
> Their web site is at http://www.rocksbarbque.com and then there's the Pit
> Minder BBQ guru at http://www.pitminder.com
>
> And that brings is to the musical question... has anyone here used either,
> or both, of these devices?
>
> As someone who has trouble keeping their fire under control, it sure
> sounds attractive to be able to put a bunch of lump or wood into the fire
> pit, set the controller and go to bed knowing the pit will stay at the
> desired temperature.
>
> But... how does the reality compare?
>
> The Pit Minder is supposed to be able to go into a holding mode when the
> meat reaches it's done temperature.. the fire is banked, the heat is WAY
> low.
>
> Now then... we put a wifi adapter on the Stoker, and set a PC to monitor
> that, and send alerts to my beeper, cell phone or Palm...... it sounds
> cool....
Looked at them both awhile back--bought the guru--great tool--when I hook it
to one of the Backwoods Smokers easy to get steady temps with absolutely no
touching for 10+hrs!!
Think if you are more of a 'geek' type the stoker offers alot of interfaces
and the ability to control more than 1 cooker---for me I just drink so the
guru works fine<bfg>

Buzz