Last time, I detailed mechanical (functional) mods. This time electrical.
There really isn’t too much to do, since the electronics are a big part of the allure of this particular smoker.
Hopper Switch bypass
This one sounds a lot more confusing than it really is. This basically jumpers out the hopper sensor switches. Both hopper doors have spring loaded switches that alert the smoker that a hopper door is open and shut off the fan. This mod bypasses the switches which are prone to failure due to dust and ash.
Remove the wire tray from the back of the hopper (remove the screw from the fan housing and then just loosen the two on the back of the hopper)
Disconnect all of the quick disconnect terminal cables, and just short each of the cables to itself. Do not mess with the molex (white plastic) connector. Once complete, replace the cable tray and tuck all the wires in.
It’s not necessary to short the switches (too and left side connections in the photo above) but it’s cleaner and keeps from having loose connections in the box, should someone try and figure things out later)
Here’s a schematic of what’s going on:
Power source
Powering the smoker is easy enough…. It comes with a power brick, but honestly, this means if you trip on the cord or pop a breaker or even have a power outage, you lose your cook. The system requires 12VDC, and not much current.
Battery packs are cheap, and many of them even come with solar chargers:
Much like the drill battery adaptor I wrote about previously, it’s another great item to have on hand, should you need it. For that matter, the drill battery adaptor (with 12v to 12v cord) could easily handle the controller and fan.
Using the battery pack above, one additional necessary item is a 5V to 12V boost cable (ISB to barrel connector):
Note that this cable has a circuit in it to boost the voltage, so it’s not just a passive cable!