Headala wrote:...
What do you guys think about these TC's? I can simply drill a hole in the wall and attach it with a 1/4-20 nut. Only 1/2" long though; I'm wondering if that's long enough to detect changes in the BT? I'm not against spending $$ on Omega TC's but don't want to do it if there are cheaper options that are nearly as good...

I don't recall the details of what's needed in the probes but I'm pretty sure that the $3.95 probes are inferior in many ways. When I did the mod, I looked at less expensive alternatives and none of them were good.
One thing that comes to mind is that they're fat which means the length to width ratio is very low so, as I recall, they'll respond slowly to temperature changes which is not good. There's also a whole thing about insulating them electrically from the roaster chassis which my design does and these (I think) would not which results in lots of electrical noise.

I don't know much about the tech side of all this though, so someone else may have more info.

BarryR wrote: I'm pretty sure that the $3.95 probes are inferior in many ways. When I did the mod, I looked at less expensive alternatives and none of them were good.
One thing that comes to mind is that they're fat which means the length to width ratio is very low so, as I recall, they'll respond slowly to temperature changes which is not good. There's also a whole thing about insulating them electrically from the roaster chassis which my design does and these (I think) would not which results in lots of electrical noise.

That's what I was afraid of, but thanks for confirming. I just wanted to make sure I hadn't found a new "good solution".

Headala wrote: OK now I understand better. You had a lot of flexibility and modularity but requires a longer setup. Thank you so much for taking the time to help me understand.

I put everything on a cart which made set up simpler (just attach the laptop if I wanted to use it or just manually record the roast on paper using the BT/ET from the probe read out and a count up clock for time.

Headala wrote: What do you guys think about these TC's? I can simply drill a hole in the wall and attach it with a 1/4-20 nut. Only 1/2" long though; I'm wondering if that's long enough to detect changes in the BT? I'm not against spending $$ on Omega TC's but don't want to do it if there are cheaper options that are nearly as good...

I used that probe inside the electronic compartment of my hottop to read out how warm things got (3rd probe). I did not use them for the roasting temp.



These are the probes I used from Auber:

http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_ ... cts_id=415

I used the M-8 wall attachment option, drilled and tapped the rear wall to take the threaded mount, then secured it on the inside with a shallow nut.