K-type t-couple temp sensor for BBQ/brewing/ect using Xively.com, Zapier.com and iOS app

Projects
1

My current project:

The t-couples are from thermoworks.com, and I am using the MAX31885 breakout board from Adafruit to read the t-couples. The project is sitting on a 8800mAh battery that will power it for days. Currently, I am sending two data streams to xively.com, which allows me to plot both sensors data over time. I love to BBQ, so I use one sensor to read the grill temperature and one to read the meat temperature. It is perfect for long cook times like a brisket. xively.com has great libraries for lots of languages, and I modified an example app for the iPhone to read the datastreams from both sensors.

I connected xively.com to zapier.com to send sms messages to my phone whenever a temperature event was triggered. I am working on adding local notifications to the iOS app.

Currently, I am using both SPI busses on the imp for each chip. Can I just use one bus and trigger the chips with different chip select pins?

Next steps in the project.

  1. Get it all in a case with a smaller battery and charging circuit.
  2. Install an LCD for local read-out. TFT?
  3. Add Core-Plot to the iOS app to plot data.
  4. Add bluetooth integration for times when WiFi is not available.

I’d love to get ideas and feedback on this.

2

Any plans to implement a PID controller?

3

Yes, I have thought about that. I just got my imp002 from smartmaker yesterday, so now I have more pins to work with. I’ve considered adding something like servo-based control for the air intake on my bbq grill. I use a Kamado Pro from Vision Grills, which is similar to the Big Green Egg. The Pro has circular intake knob instead of the slide mechanism that the BGE has, so it shouldn’t be hard to add a control structure.