WIFI Help

[Yeadaki]

Newbie here: I've embarked on reading and deciphering the manual for WiFi for my new 3D. Are there any simple versions of instructions available? So far what I've gathered is: For each cook, I'll use the app on my phone to setup that particular cooking session. For example, I'd like to smoke a brisket with smoker temp at 225, finishing meat temp at 200 degrees, then reduce smoker temp to 160 until I pull it from the smoker - say 4 hours. Would this be accomplished by setting up 2 steps while in multi step mode on the phone app? Also - is there an option to have the smoker "turn off" the heating element after a given time? If so, how do I do this? Finally, is it recommended that I leave the smoker plugged in and turned off? Does the unit need power thru the plug to retain any data or is it stored in my app? I'm inclined to unplug when not is use for safety reasons. Thanks in advance. I've found the manual a bit confusing; I'm sure in time my confidence will increase. I appreciate any help.

 

[tostitobandito]

Yes you'd use multi-step mode for your example.  You'd have step 1 do 225 until the food probe gets to 200, then step 2 would be 160 for some long period of time (or until the food probe hits something impossibly high).  If you wanted it to keep at 160 for say 2 hours and then turn off, put a 2 hour timer on step 2 and then have no 0 degrees with no time limit in all subsequent steps. 

In my case I typically just cook with a single step so I disable multi step mode and the smoker will just turn off once the target time or temp is reached.  The smoker is well insulated and retains heat really well for hours, even in cool weather, so I'm not too concerned about keeping it warm inside.  Plus I'm usually around to yank the meat out and throw it in a cooler with towels or whatever as soon as it's done.  But I do see the value in multi-step if you're not going to be home when it finishes.

Turn the power off and unplug the smoker when not using it.  Your settings are stored in the smoker regardless of power, so when you turn it back on again it will fire up the last cook profile you used.  Just connect the app and adjust after you turn it on.  You have plenty of time to get it configured while it heats up.

 

[Yeadaki]

Awesome - thanks!!!!

 

[LarryD]

I wrote this up a while back...  it might help a little bit.  Auber may be able to make a PID, but they desperately need to higher some skilled UI developers because their software usability sucks.  (I'm a long-time professional computer geek, so I'm saying that with a degree of authority. 

 

[Yeadaki]

Thanks - I'll check it out! I'm using an I-Phone - can I set it up to give me an audible alarm on my phone? The sound icon on the app (the bell at the top) always has a line thru it. I'm wanting to set an audible alarm. Thanks!

 

[tostitobandito]

I wrote this up a while back...  it might help a little bit.  Auber may be able to make a PID, but they desperately need to higher some skilled UI developers because their software usability sucks.  (I'm a long-time professional computer geek, so I'm saying that with a degree of authority. 

Yeah, functionally I think the app is serviceable, but it could be so much better with a little work.  More visual/graphing options, an easier way to save recipes/settings, more configurable alarms, and so forth.  But my biggest gripes with it are general sluggishness.  It really shouldn't take it 10-30+ seconds to refresh a few bits of data from AWS or wherever in the cloud they host their service.  That, and the wifi adapter on the controller itself seems to not get great reception and can intermittently lose connectivity even in places where I know I have a very strong 2.4 GHz signal.  Again, not the end of the world as long as it recovers since you don't need constant connectivity, but annoying nonetheless.