"Ignoramus3322" wrote in message
...

On 2013-12-09, RogerN wrote:
snip

PLC 5's are a bit old but their cards are cheap since the 1771 racks date
back to PLC 2's. The downside is the programming software but I have it
on
my work laptop.

What is OK for an outdoor smoker, is not OK for an indoor wood fired
stove, a much more dangerous device.

i

True, if you make a mistake with the program, you may never find out!

However, about everything that can be sensed with electronic sensors can be
fed into a controller and acted upon or at least sound an alarm. So, on a
wood stove you could monitor temperatures, carbon monoxide, or any other
relevant conditions that you might want to monitor on a wood stove.
Controls checking and acting on conditions hundreds of times per second can
catch and correct a problem better than a person can.

I used to attempt to fly R/C helicopters before Gyro's were common to assist
tail rotor control, probably averaged 1/4 tank of fuel between crashes.
After purchase of a cheap mechanical gyro, next crash was around 70 full
tanks of fuel later. The crash after 70 tanks of fuel was due to getting it
too far away and losing orientation, not a control or gyro related problem.

RogerN