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This is a project to create a temperature controller for a slow cooker to turn it into
a DIY sous vide cooker.
Sous vide is cooking food in a water bath at a precise temperature to ensure it is cooked
evenly from edge to centre.
Sous vide cookers cost a lot of money to buy but you can easily make your own.
I already had this slow cooker so wanted to see if I could repurpose it. Using an Arduino
and a temperature sensor I was able to determine that the cooker could reach the temperatures
necessary for sous vide cooking.
So all I needed was some method of precisely controlling the temperature.
You will need one digital temperature controller, i got this one on eBay for about #10.
One project box. A mains power socket. A kettle lead and socket. Some electrical wire. A soldering
iron and solder. and a dremel tool and cutting disc for making the holes in the project box.
Measure up the temperature controller and the sockets.
Mark out the project box. Put on your safety goggles.
Then cut out the holes for the controller and the sockets.
Make sure everything fits. On the temperature controller remove the spring
loaded clips on the sides before inserting it into the box. Push the clips all the way
back up to hold the controller in place. Insert your kettle socket after you've soldered
a short length of electrical wire to it. Connect the temperature probe to pins 5 and
6 on the controller. Attach a terminal block to the mains cable. On the other side of the
terminal block you need two live wires, two neutral wires and one earth wire. Put one
live and neutral wire into pins 3 and 4 on the controller the second live wire goes into
pin 1 on the controller and comes back out of pin 2 into your mains socket allowing the
controller to act as a switch. The remaining live, neutral and earth wires
are then connected to your mains socket. Drill a small hole for your temperature probe to
come out of the box. Assemble your project box and screw everything together.
Connect the kettle lead to the box and at this stage do not have it connected to the
mains. Now comes the moment of truth. I've connected
it up to the mains and all that remains is to switch it on and hope that nothing goes
***. Here goes.
OK well that's a good sign. Nothing went *** and the display is on and it's showing 27.4
degrees which seems a little bit hot but we can test that the sensor is working or not
by putting my finger on it and indeed, the temperature is increasing. So, that's all
good. All that remains now is to connect it up to the sous vide cooker or the crock pot
and see if it works. So let's go test it. The steaks are in the cooker. They've been
in there for about two hours now so they are about ready to take out so let's take them
out and see what they are like. So they look quite good. This one has got
a bit of a pink patch where the heat has not gone all the way through. So they just need
a fry now. Next, throw them onto a very hot pan or griddle.
All you want to do is a minute ether side to seal it and you're done.
Nice! Cooked perfectly. Delicious!
So, there you have it a very easy and very cheap sous vide cooker temperature controller.
Highly recommend it. Very easy to make. The advantage of making an external controller
box rather than hacking the crock pot itself means I can use this to control other things
as well as the crock pot. I can use it to control a heater or a chiller unit or an air
conditioning unit or anything like that. Anything where I need to get precise temperature control.
SO for the cost of about £30-£35 i've made myself a sous vide cooker instead of splashing
out about £200-£3000, something like that if you want too and buy one for your kitchen.
If you want more details then take a look along the bottom of the screen and you will
see the address for my blog. All the information is on there. Or you can contact me on twitter,
Facebook or Google Plus.