Variation with two fans and display (revision 8) of the Beef Jerky Maker

2 February 2020

There are many ways to make a food desiccator. My preferred way is to use my fan with a heater mounted on it.

I have also made one using two microwave oven fans and a microwave oven lamp, for the heat source. This one uses the Wemos Lolin32 with OLED display (all based on a verty low costs wifi chip called teh ESP32 found in most smart home appliances)…which reports temperature, humidity and heat index as well as the low and high set-points of the temperature control band. The heart of all of these is a low-cost sensor called the DHT22 and a controller to read and report the humidity and possibly switch a plug socket on and off. The YouTube video shows the monitoring heart of such a set-up.

My mate (friend in Aussie Lingo) posted his Biltong Machine on Instagram. It has no temperature control, uses an incadescent 230V lamp and a computer fan. It is neatly built into a cupboard

Alternatively, The ‘secret sauce’ controller is a controller that can switch the heat source every few seconds, giving better control in making your dried foods. It also allows all interactions via Bluetooth from your mobile phone and if you connect to your local Wifi will show progress on a webpage, how cool is that! It also uses RF to control a plug socket so no electrical connections required. This is the state-of-the-art. If you want to buy a plug and controller it costs $100. Leave a comment we will get your details for an order. You are really going to love it! 👍🌟🥩🌟👍