Your pit’s autopilot · Prototype C

Low & slow,
minus the
babysitting.

PitPilot clips beside your smoker, watches grill temp and humidity in real time, and mists your meat on the schedule you set — so the bark builds, the stall breaks, and you get your Saturday back. It watches the fire. You take the credit.

Launching on Kickstarter · first run limited to 500 units · early list gets the lowest price we will ever offer

LIVE FIRMWARE PitPilot · Prototype C
this is the real UI, running live — tap the screen to mist
⚡ The 10-second version

Dry meat is a choice.
Stop choosing it.

Four things PitPilot does while you do literally anything else.

24/7

It watches

Pit temp via K-type thermocouple, humidity at the meat, ambient outside. Three sensors, zero lifting the lid.

PSSST

It mists

Food-safe pump fires on your schedule — every 30 minutes, on the hour, or the moment humidity drops. Apple juice, tallow spritz, your secret mix.

YELLS

It guards

Temp spikes past your target? PitPilot sprays it down, sounds the alarm, or both. You pick per cook.

LOGS

It remembers

Every cook saved: temps, mists, weather, weight. Nail brisket once, replay the exact program forever.

⚡ Three steps. That's the whole manual.

Set it. Smoke it. Sleep.

01Program the cook

Four taps: target temp, minimum mist temp, schedule, duration. Under two minutes on the built-in touchscreen — no app required, no account, no cloud.

02Walk away

PitPilot holds watch: live pit temp, humidity, weather, and a countdown to the next mist. Check it from the couch on your phone over WiFi.

03Take the credit

Perfect bark, juicy slices, and a cook log to prove it wasn't luck. Save the program and run it again next weekend, identically.

🔬 The 10-minute version

For the ones who read spec sheets for fun.

We are those people too. Everything below is real, measured, and in the firmware today.

SENSE Sensing & measurement
Pit temperatureK-type thermocouple, MAX6675 cold-junction-compensated converter, 0–1024°F range, 0.25°C resolution, 220 ms reads
Humidity + ambientBosch-class digital sensor at the meat shelf, ±3% RH, ±1°C
BatteryHigh-side current + voltage monitoring with live % on every screen
WeatherOpen-Meteo over WiFi: current, 3-day, hourly rain probability — no account, no key, free forever
MIST Misting engine
Pump12V food-safe diaphragm pump, MOSFET-switched, flyback-protected
Schedules3 modes: clock times (WiFi-synced), fixed interval, or quick-pick (30 min / 1 hr / 2 hr / custom)
Burst length1–300 s per cycle, guidance presets: light 3–5 s · standard 8–12 s · heavy 15–20 s
Coal protectionMinimum-temp lockout: below your floor, the mist skips instead of soaking the fire
Cycle limitsRun forever, or stop after N cycles and hand off to temp-only or humidity-only watch
Manual overrideHold-to-spray any time — never resets your countdown
GUARD Alarm logic
Over-tempThree responses, your pick: Spray It (auto-cool until back at target), Yell At Me (full-screen alarm + buzzer), or Don't Worry
Humidity bandSet low/high %. Drift below adds mist; above skips cycles. Same three-way response choice
Hardware watchdogPump self-test on every boot; sensor-fault detection with on-screen flags
BRAIN Compute, UI & connectivity
ProcessorESP32 dual-core @ 240 MHz, WiFi + Bluetooth
Display2.8" color touchscreen, 320×240, sunlight-shaded bezel, ember-animated UI with 26 purpose-built screens
Firmware17,000+ lines, written for one job. Boot-to-cooking in seconds. No cloud dependency — WiFi adds features, never gates them
Phone viewBuilt-in web app at pitpilot.local — add to home screen, no store download
Cook logName, meat, weight, per-cook mist totals, temp avg/max, weather snapshot, duration — replay any cook in one tap
PowerRechargeable battery + USB, charge-while-cooking
PlacementClips beside the pit; only the stainless probe and mist line enter the heat. Electronics stay cool, battery stays safe
⚡ Two ways to never dry out a brisket again

Choose your fighter.

Prototype C

The full smart mister. Everything above, in the box, ready for smoke.

  • PitPilot controller + 2.8" touchscreen
  • K-type pit probe (stainless, grill-rated)
  • Food-safe pump, line & mist nozzle kit
  • Bottle cradle — fits a standard spray-neck bottle, mist anything
  • Humidity + ambient sensing, weather, cook log, phone view
  • Internal meat temp — probe it old-school
$— Kickstarter early-bird price revealed to the list first
Notify me at launch
Most wanted

Prototype C + Meat Probe

Everything in Prototype C, plus a wireless Bluetooth thermometer living inside the meat.

  • Everything in Prototype C
  • Wireless BT internal-temp probe — no wire through the lid
  • Internal temp on the PitPilot screen & phone view
  • Doneness alerts: pull-temp alarm with carryover heads-up
  • Mist logic that can react to the meat itself, not just the pit
$— Kickstarter early-bird price revealed to the list first
Notify me at launch
🔥 Why we give a damn

Born at 2 a.m., next to a smoker.

Every pitmaster knows the ritual: the alarm at 2 a.m., the flashlight walk to the pit, the spritz bottle, the guess. Is it too dry? Did the temp creep? Should I have come out an hour ago?

"We didn't want to automate the craft. We wanted to automate the anxiety."

PitPilot started as a pile of parts on a workbench and a stubborn belief: the craft of BBQ is fire management, seasoning, patience, and taste — and none of that requires losing sleep to hold a spray bottle. So we built the tool we wanted: obsessively detailed where it matters (read the spec sheet — we dare you), dead simple where it counts (four taps and walk away).

Every screen, every alarm, every timing mode in this thing exists because one of us stood next to a real fire and wished for it. This is Prototype C — the third full rebuild — and the first one good enough to put your name on a brisket.

⚡ 500 units. First list, first served.

Be there on launch day.

The launch list gets the lowest early-bird price we will ever offer, build-log updates, and first pick of the 500-unit first run. No spam — just smoke.

Wire this form to your email provider (Mailchimp / ConvertKit / Beehiiv) — see the HTML comment in the code.

🔥 You're on the list. Go preheat something.