So I’ve been making my own beef jerky using a small dehydrator recently. It’s turning out relatively good, but I’m looking to upgrade to the heady heights of proper South African biltong.
@Sponge_Bob, being the resident meat expert will be the official quality-control-type-person.
Looking on YouTube etc, you can knock up a simple drying chamber with a cardboard box, a computer fan and a lightbulb, but that’s soooooo small fry for SLMS.
I’m looking to build a ply box, lined with silicone or some sort of foil, with a bulb, fan and dehumidifier controlled by arduino.
There are perfect conditions for drying meat and apparently the UK climate is not that great for it. Being able to control the relative humidity and temperature of the box, whilst having a constant airflow through the box should see us making decent biltong that will not poison anyone…that is very high on the mission statement list!
@unknowndomain - as the guru of all things arduino, I thought I’d pose this to you: I’ve been doing some light reading and it appears it’s relatively simple to have a temperature/humidity sensor set up to monitor conditions and activate/deactivate a bulb and dehumidifier to keep the conditions within an optimal range. But how easy would it be to have the box connected to t’internet so that I could monitor the conditions remotely and/or wirelessly alter the parameters or override the temperature controls?
@Dermot - do you have any input into making this project a success? Your work with the hot box for the signage must’ve seen you working out how to best monitor the conditions within the box? Any pitfalls I should be aware of?
I have a few more pressing projects I need to deal with before starting this, but definitely want to make a start on it asap. I think it will be a decent intro into Arduino & coding and a good way to get some electronic experience.
Anyone else interested in this sort of thing…feel free to join in when it all kicks off. Nothing saying we can’t make a few cabinets at the same time.
I will only need a dehumidifier/vapouriser if the RH in my house wildly differs from what is considered ‘ideal’ (which i think is around 40-50%). If it’s a lot higher, will have a mains powered dehumidifier attached. If a lot lower, will have a mains powered vapouriser. Bulb will also need mains power too I think.
There was a guy making a jerky/biltong box in the space last year, and he used a peltier element (gets hot on one side, cold on the other) and a fan in an airtight-ish laser cut box. The fan cycled the air so that after passing over the meat, the warm air passed the cold side of the element - causing the moisture to condensate and drip out of a drain hole. Then the dry air passed over the hot side of the element before hitting the meat again. Struck me as very clever! Can’t remember who he was though, I’m afraid.
I think it might have been the same guy who was using a webcam and a machine learning algorithm to open his catflap. Possibly my all-time favourite project.
I have a couple of projects that could be combined to help you on this one…
Firstly, around the space, I have wifi temp and humidity sensors. these are for monitoring to make sure the equipment is within its upper and lower limits and to see what the swing is in the space (example of one of them - https://thingspeak.com/channels/197562 )
Secondly, Dermot has another project of mine that he is re-purposing. my version was an accurately controlled oven for surface soldering whereas Dermot’s version is for melting hot glue in signs but the same principles apply. Close temp monitoring and an accurate heat source controlled using PID (https://www.eurotherm.com/pid-control-made-easy).
I’ll be at the space on Thursday (as long as the Beast from the East doesn’t return) if you want to talk all things Arduino, PID and Biltong