My year with the CyberQ WiFi

[dfrelich]

Good reading.

 

[propellerhead]

Try 1.5 first before you revert.

I tried it last night on a ~75 min spatchcock chicken. I was even able to get my firewall punched through so I can control the cook from beyond my home Internet. I tested it with my cell phone through the cell towers with wifi turned off. :clap2:

More on how I got to that milestone in a bit.

 

[propellerhead]

I'd have to navigate the rest of it- including a new firmware update to 1.5- the next day.

And so the day began with that heavy feeling of having eaten way too much pork the night prior. But no matter. I was on a roll. A mission. Today was the day I would step that much more closely to success.

Since I wasn't cooking, I went ahead and brought the CyberQ inside. I set it right next to the iMac and plugged it in. I got exactly nuthin. I waited. And waited. And zilch. No blinky. No ping. Nothin. It wasn't connecting. :evil:

Let's make ourselves comfy at least
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I brought the WiFi extender into the room and plugged IT in right next to the thing. Nothin. What? The extender was still allowing traffic from *other* devices... WTF not this thing? And so began an hour of algebraic-proportion trouble shooting. X+1=2x-5x... Wait. Where the.. It wasn't until I finally moved the CyberQ into the hall to get it closer to one of the 45 new places I'd plugged the extender into the wall that I finally... *FINALLY* got light. I could connect. I didn't know which of the 700 variables I had previously tried rendered success, but I was in. And the 1.5 firmware awaited.

Again, either I didn't apply the instructions for this exactly as they were written or the Google search for 'TFTP command string' led me down the right path. In the matter of a few minutes, I was transferring my first of two .bin files wirelessly to the CyberQ. It was time to reboot and see if firmware 1.5 was applied. ray:


Firmware 1.5. The phantom menace.
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So, in order to watch it boot and look for any improvements, I moved it again from the hall. Right next to the iMac. What did I get on the new 'scan wifi' setting? Nothin. Zilch. Zero. (does anyone see a trend here? I still hadn't seen it.) I could connect to AdHoc, but no matter how many times I scanned for a WiFi network, I couldn't get the silly one in my house to show up! :mad2:

I decided I was going to eliminate weak signal as a possible cause for once and for all. I took the CyberQ into the same room as the main WiFi router. I even plugged it in less than 6 inches from the thing. If it wasn't going to scan and 'see' that thing, 1.5 was a bust and I was going back to 1.2. :hand:

She booted. I scanned. Holy! It saw it in like 2 seconds! WTF? :crazy: Welp. That answers THAT. WiFi works. So now... Hrmmm.. I'm going to leave the CyberQ riiiight here, connect via adhoc, and enter my security passcode for the WiFi network. Diddle this. Diddle that. The old dance to which I'd grown into muscle memory by now. In seconds, I was connected to AdHoc with the iMac. I had the passcode in. I reconfigured to Infrastructure and DHCP 'on'. I chose to reboot the thing and pray. ray:

Dang thing booted up, got connected and even got an IP like it had been doing it all along. It sat there. Looking at me with that stupid look on its face. "What?" Ohhhh, don't you give ME what, missy. :drama: I tested the DHCP address and WHAM! I was in. Oooohhhh... 1.5... not that different. Whatever. DHCP off. Static IP address entered. Aaaaand reboot. Like a good girl you better... :icon_shy

Now, about those instructions...
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:mod:Here's a good time to pick up the trend from before. You guys remember that I would bring it inside, plug it in beside the iMac and it would lose its ever lovin' mind? Yeah. Another one of those little sentences hidden away in the instructions. "Certain wireless devices can interfere with your CyberQ's ability to communicate. Please be sure that you leave space.." or somethin like that. See? I read that. But I don't even have a house phone. No 900Mhz or 2.4Ghz whizzing around here. Just the silly WiFi.. WHICH WONT CONNECT!!!.. Ohhh wait.. On my daughter's iMac, she has a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. That's right. Bluetooth. It's everywhere. It'll unlock your car doors and let you start the thing with a Bluetooth key in your pocket. It lets your cell phone talk to a headset.

And let me tell you this: Bluetooth will completely upset the balance of life for you and the CyberQ WiFi. It wasn't until (now the 3rd time) I'd moved the CyberQ away from the iMac that I realized it. The problem wasn't WiFi signal. It was INTERFERENCE from the devices less than 4 inches away! :doh: Don't get me wrong. I LOVE figuring stuff like this out.. AFTER I figure it out. But as I said early on, I was exactly where I expected I would be. I totally understand it, but I am still completely confused. Why in the WORLD would some low key protocol like Bluetooth p!ss off the CyberQ? It still doesn't make sense. But enough ab that. :tape:

A beer before noon? Hell, it's Saturday.
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As you might expect by now, the CyberQ and I made up after a three hour match. :boxing: My static IP was plugged in as a favorite. I had 1.5 firmware installed. I was one step closer to my ultimate goal: The link between the outside world and a CyberQ cooking at my house.

To be continued.

 

[propellerhead]

Try 1.5 first before you revert.

On my ~ 5 hour (so far) baby back cook today, it's crashed about 5 times. :doh: I will be reverting back to 1.2 this week. For now, it's allllmmost time for ribs! :clap2:

 

[BBQArk]

Great read! I got mine last weekend and had trouble getting it to find my home network, but I sent an email to BBQ Guru one evening and Chuck (with BBQ Guru) called me the next morning and got me fixed up. He got me uploaded to 1.7 and indicated that 1.8 should be out soon.

I did a test burn yesterday (while at work and out running errands), and it worked like a champ all day and into the night. I went home at lunch, fired it up, and set it at 250. I screwed up and didn't get the lid seated well, so I overshot the 250 target. I made a quick trip home to see why it was running hot, fixed that, set it at 275, and it was holding 275 by the time I got back to the office. Before leaving the office for a 4:00PM appointment, I used my phone to set the temp at 250, and it had that dialed in and steady before my meeting was over. As I left the meeting on the way to the grocery store, I set it at 225, and it was holding 225 by the time I finished at the store. From the store, I set it to 200, and it got down to there while I was unloading groceries at home. I decided to use it to do a reverse sear on some burgers for dinner, so dialed it back up to 225. It climbed back to 225 and held that for around 35 minutes until the burgers were ready for searing on the kettle. After that, I closed the top vent to around 1/4 open and set it at 160F (I've read that 160 is a decent holding temperature for brisket). It took around an hour to get down to 160, but it got there and held it. I've read that you can cold smoke salmon at around 110F, so after it held 160 for awhile, I closed the top vent completely and set it at 110. After about 3 hours, it got down to 110. By then, it was time to get to bed and I didn't want it to run out of fuel and go 100% all night, so I shut it down. I suspect that it could probably hold 110 if I started with a thin snake set-up. I doubt I'll try that any time soon. The port forwarding worked fine for when I was away from home, and all I had to do was uncheck one box in the router software to turn off port forwarding when I got home.

Getting it into infrastructure mode was a pain, but I love the idea of being able to do my Monday Night Football cooks on Monday, while I'm at work.

 

[THoey1963]

Very entertaining thread, even for someone without a Guru. Must be the geek in me... :mrgreen:

 

[Bperkins01]

Why use DHCP? What a pain..
You can set a static IP on the Guru and it will always pick right up.
I used No-IP for the free DNS provider on my router..
Can get to the Guru from anywhere easily.
I think I used port forwarding for port 8080 to goto the static IP


Sorry you had so much trouble - it works great once it is up and running.

 

[GrillsGoneWild]

Peeps - I'm going to be going to the CyberQ sometime soon. I'm going to have you com over to set it up for me, because all this makes my brain hurt and I haven't even bought it yet. I'll cook up a rack of beef ribs!!!!

 

[BBQArk]

My first real smoke with the CyberQ went great. I did a 15-hour, overnight brisket cook, and the CyberQ did an excellent job of holding the temp within 2 or 3 degrees for virtually the entire time. The only deviations were when fuel ran low and after refueling, which you have to expect.

There were a couple of minor issues. The grate probe readings were consistently higher than the Maverick readings. I checked them this morning, and the CyberQ grate probe was off by around 15F. Luckily, the CyberQ allows you to calibrate the probes, so I have them dialed in now. The other issue was that the CyberQ lost its network connection a couple of times during the cook. It kept controlling temps; I just couldn't pull up the monitor and control screen. All I had to do was unplug the CyberQ and plug it back in, and it immediately reconnected to the network and allowed me to access the screen again.

I love this thing. The wsm was locked in at 275 when I went to sleep. I slept great, woke up in the morning, and it was still locked in at 275. It was very easy to use and delivered excellent temperature control. The brisket turned out great.

 

[propellerhead]

On my ~ 5 hour (so far) baby back cook today, it's crashed about 5 times. :doh: I will be reverting back to 1.2 this week. For now, it's allllmmost time for ribs! :clap2:

Been awhile, eh? I ended up scared to death of reverting from 1.5 back to 1.2. I had email notifications working (between system farts and manual reboots). I had The Pit Pal app installed and working (also between the crashes). And I cooked for about 8 months with the CyberQ WiFi making sure I was always near home for a manual reset.

And then, the "nerd-breaks-stuff-that-he-didn't-mean-to" virus hit. As far as I was concerned, the whole remote thing was a miss. I would let the CyberQ do its thing locally and just didn't connect remotely for a long time.

And then, the family- and my brother who bought a BGE in Atlanta so long ago it was maroon- were coming up for the holidays. How in the WORLD was I going to show off this thing if it didn't work. But, I got busy organizing things that enabled the cook process- an outdoor fridge, cabinets, new brine buckets, the biggest cookie sheet I have ever damn seen. Stuff like that. I smoked 3 shoulders for Christmas without connecting to the CyberQ Wifi. They were good. My new process rendered (pun!) great results. But something was missing.

In January, I decided to take the process and the BGE XL to the ultimate test: I cooked 4 shoulders. They were also yummy.

My repeatable, reliable, serviceable process behind me, it was time to add some color: a week day, overnight cook set for yesterday. I was determined to connect to the CyberQ. It turns out if you walk away from something for awhile and look at it with fresh eyes, you end up with the most simple resolution. I connected with little or no problems. Until of course, the first crash.

Irritated, I searched for CyberQ firmware. How in the WORLD could they keep a product out there that was this sh!tty? In short order, I found a post (not this one) about firmware 1.7. As documented here, upgrading to 1.5 cost me a 1/2 day. But it was so bad that I decided to risk it and upgrade *in the middle of a cook*! For a nerd, this is the essence of idiocy. But the way I figured it, I wasnt getting sleep on 1.5, I might as well try 1.7 and remediate whatever issues arose. I was ready for an all nighter as my shoulders were left to the old analog temp gauge. Maybe this was actually the essence of desperation.

I transferred the files. The thing rebooted, and I sauntered outside to watch it wet the bed.

But it didn't. Nope. It fired up, said v1.7, and even connected to my WiFi like it new the directions. Email notifications? Check. Web Page? Check. PitPal connectivity via cell? Check. This worked for 30 mins and I carried my very tired, but still very wary tail to bed. I was beat. I figured a mid morning bathroom break would allow me to check if I was making pork or crispy briquettes. It worked all night. I was thrilled. Hell, I still am!

The ramp down feature even worked like it is supposed to! When the shoulder got within a few degrees of where I wanted, it cooled down well below the temp I had increased to get through the stall. But for the pain ran through in detail of this thread, I am thrilled. Now that I think of it, like a hard fought battle for a woman who turns out to be exactly what you'd hoped, maybe the struggle made the victory that much sweeter. I dunno. Been awhile since I fought over a woman. :wink:

And then there's this:

Great read! I got mine last weekend and had trouble getting it to find my home network, but I sent an email to BBQ Guru one evening and Chuck (with BBQ Guru) called me the next morning and got me fixed up. He got me uploaded to 1.7 and indicated that 1.8 should be out soon.

That, dear readers is what you get for dropping out of the forums for almost a full year. The answer was here all along. Long live the brethren. :clap2:

 

[smokin30-06]

You sound too nerdy to purchase an off the shelf solution. For shame!

Have you heard of Raspberry Pi or Heatermeter? I'll bet you one nerd dollar that you can't get an RPI connected to a hidden WiFi network. I'll GIVE you five USD to show me how, because I had to un hide my said to get things working! :/
(Not actually running any HM images yet, just regular RPI ones.)

Glad you bumped this post. Very interesting read.

 

[Ron_L]

And then there's this:That, dear readers is what you get for dropping out of the forums for almost a full year. The answer was here all along. Long live the brethren. :clap2:

See... As I always say, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

OK... That was The Eagles, but you get the point. :-D

For a variety of reasons I haven't used my CyberQ Wifi for a while, but I haven't had any issues with it. But, when I am using it I don't leave the house and just access it from my Mac, iPad or iPhone on my local network.

I pulled it out yesterday for the first cook on my new Southern Q and it just worked. I'm not sure what version I am running. I did upgrade it once, so I suspect it is on 1.2, and since I haven't been using it I never did the 1.5 upgrade.

Maybe I should upgrade to 1.7 or 1.8 before my next cook. :crazy:

 

[propellerhead]

You sound too nerdy to purchase an off the shelf solution. For shame!

Have you heard of Raspberry Pi or Heatermeter? I'll bet you one nerd dollar that you can't get an RPI connected to a hidden WiFi network. I'll GIVE you five USD to show me how, because I had to un hide my said to get things working! :/
(Not actually running any HM images yet, just regular RPI ones.)

Glad you bumped this post. Very interesting read.

I have two Pi's. One of them was my daughter's (age 11) take home from a class last year on futzing with a Pi. I had to unhide my 802.11 network for something, but it wasn't the CyberQ. I think it was a tablet or... Maybe my Android phone... Anyway. SOMETHING around the house wouldn't see the hidden network a long time ago. I haven't tried with the Pi because I haven't needed to.

The thing I broke my CyberQ WiFi with was the external ZWave gateway. I have two thermostats, my alarm system, a property gate, a number of outlets, and some light switches on the network. Now that I think of it, that thing is probably what distracted me away from fixing the CyberQ. Ahh, well.. one nerd thing at a time!:redface: