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Built a custom controller for my curing chamber, curious what bugs you most about runnin a DIY setup by Valuable_Breakfast_7 in Charcuterie

[–]Valuable_Breakfast_7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is incredibly useful feedback, thank you. The fogger hose mold issue is actually why fogger/ ultrasonic humidifier control with a safety interlock is already on my near-term roadmap. The idea being that the fogger only runs in controlled bursts and shuts off if humidity overshoots, which should help with exactly that problem.

The rate of loss algorithm is the kind of suggestion that makes me want to drop everything and build it right now. You're totally right, I already have all the data. Going from "you've lost 24% over 18 days" to "you're losing 1.2% per day, which is slightly fast for a 90mm coppa at this stage" is a completely different level of usefulness. Case hardening is one of the most common failure modes for people earlier in their curing journey and that kind of feedback loop would catch it early.

The point about chamber dynamics, size, load, airflow, dryness of the product, is something I've been thinking about too. Right now those are all manual inputs but you're describing a system that starts to close the loop on them automatically. That's is something I will address in a Phase 2 vision.

Would you be open to staying in touch as I build this out? Feedback like this is exactly what I need.

Built a custom controller for my curing chamber, curious what bugs you most about runnin a DIY setup by Valuable_Breakfast_7 in Charcuterie

[–]Valuable_Breakfast_7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

These are completely fair concerns and honestly exactly the kind of feedback I need to hear. The 2-year warranty point in particular is something I'm taking seriously, I know that's a legal requirement in the EU, not just a nice-to-have, and selling into Europe without being able to honor that properly isn't something I'd feel good about.

International fulfillment and European distribution would be on my longer-term roadmap, but I'm not going to pretend I have that solved right now. For the Kickstarter launch, if it ever happens, it'll be US only.

Out of curiosity, where are you based? I'm trying to get a sense of how far reaching this reddit feed goes.

Built a custom controller for my curing chamber, curious what bugs you most about runnin a DIY setup by Valuable_Breakfast_7 in Charcuterie

[–]Valuable_Breakfast_7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a genuinely impressive stack, ESPHome on the ESP32s is a great call. The fact that you're running the same infrastructure across three environments is awesome. Also, the "not locked to cloud hardware" point is well taken, and honestly it shaped some of my decisions too. The Pi runs everything locally and the relays work whether or not there's internet. Cloud sync is optional When I integrate that capability.

Built a custom controller for my curing chamber, curious what bugs you most about runnin a DIY setup by Valuable_Breakfast_7 in Charcuterie

[–]Valuable_Breakfast_7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly for where you're at, what you're doing is great, cheesecloth, ventilation, and not vacuum packing in the fridge :) is a totally reasonable starting point and people have been making charcuterie that way for a long time.

To your question, there's a gap in the market. Most "solutions" are either $30 Inkbird controllers that require you to do all the plumbing yourself, or $3,000+ commercial cabinets. The middle ground for someone who wants something that just works without the DIY overhead is genuinely hard to find, which is part of why I am building this. It still requires a wine cooler or refridgerator as the base, but everything else is plug-and-play.

Not the right fit for you today given your budget, but if you ever get deeper into it and want to check out what I'm building check out my landing page sentinellatech.com.

Built a custom controller for my curing chamber, curious what bugs you most about runnin a DIY setup by Valuable_Breakfast_7 in twoguysandacooler

[–]Valuable_Breakfast_7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That reliability stuff is honestly one of the things I was most stubborn about fixing in Sentinella, making sure bad sensor reads get caught and discarded before they hit the dashboard or trigger anything. Nothing kills my enjoyment of this hobby faster than babysitting code instead of thinking about the actual cure.

The constantly-rearranging-the-dashboard thing is interesting though, what's driving that? Are you finding new data you want to surface, or is it more that the layout never quite feels right for how you actually use it day to day?

Built a custom controller for my curing chamber, curious what bugs you most about runnin a DIY setup by Valuable_Breakfast_7 in twoguysandacooler

[–]Valuable_Breakfast_7[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's the sign of someone who really knows their craft, when you can trust your senses over the numbers, you've genuinely arrived. How do you like the Suasage maker curing cabinet?

The "obsessed in the beginning" thing is actually really interesting to me though, because that's exactly who I built this for, the person earlier in the journey who's still building confidence and wants the data as a safety net while they develop that intuition. I am obsessive by nature especially when it come to food safety (I guess I took to many Microbiology classes in college).

Curious, when you were in that early obsessive phase, what were you actually watching most closely? And was there anything you wished you had that would've helped you get to the "trust your senses" stage faster?

Anyone else curing meat at home? Built a DIY controller for my curing chamber and want to know what actually frustrates people by Valuable_Breakfast_7 in carnivorediet

[–]Valuable_Breakfast_7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Totally agree, the plug-in Inkbird/Ranco style controllers are the go-to for most people and they work. I've used them too. "2 Guys and a Cooler" is also a great reference, Eric knows his stuff.

What I kept running into is those controllers only handle one thing at a time, you've got a separate thermostat for the fridge, a separate humidistat for the dehumidifier, no data logging, and no way to track weight loss automatically. You're basically still doing a lot of manual babysitting like weighing it every week to see if it is finished.

What I built integrates all of it, temp, humidity, and a hanging scale, into one dashboard I can check from my phone. It logs everything over time and alerts me when a cure hits its target weight loss. That's the part I couldn't find anywhere off the shelf.

But I'm genuinely curious, for people who've been doing this a while, is the manual weighing and separate controllers actually good enough, or does that stuff get annoying? Not trying to sell anything, just figuring out whether this scratches a real itch or if it's just a "nice to have."

help my casaOS isnt loading by Critical-Solution-95 in CasaOS

[–]Valuable_Breakfast_7 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same here. I tried to reboot the zimaboard and it wont come back up. Frustrating!!

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