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My year with the CyberQ WiFi

P

propellerhead

Knows what WELOCME spells.
Joined
Mar 30, 2014
Location
South
About Me
-------------------
I'll start with the disclaimer that I have read so many frustrated users of this device write: I've been doing the networking thing since we connected at 300 baud. Once I learned that companies were actually connecting machines to bigger machines for stuff like file storage and security, I was freakin hooked. 24 years later, I was as bumfuzzled with this CyberQ as a cat with a laser pointer.

My year with a really expensive fan and temp probe.
-------------------
And so, off and on for a year, when I was especially bored, left alone by my family in deep, slow cook with my BGE, I would hit the menus again. Just to see if that would be the magical day I could get the WiFi working. :frusty:

See? The fan and the temp probes, and the steady heat and the food... ALL GREAT. No breeze? No problem. Whirl that thing up and zamma! HEAT. But I am a nerd after all. I paid up for the silly thing bc I wanted to spin the propeller hat (now you get my name). I NEEDED WiFi. I have talked SO many friends into upping their smoking game since I got the BGE. Every freakin one of 'em laughed at me 'cause the nerd couldn't get the nerd thing to work. :mad: I deserved it.

I followed what the company called 'directions.' :confused: Those things aren't 'directions.' They're a plastic ball on a string. Confusing. Unpredictable. Over here. Over there. BOING! BOING! I GOT this, rt? I been doin' this since.. since... Well since I could do other things I can't do any more. :boxing: Rip open the box, chuck the instructions and get to whackin'.

Yeah. That didn't work. Adhoc mode? Who even *uses* that? OK, fine. Drag out a notebook. Sees nadda. Nothing. No networks. No 'CyberQ WiFi' or whutever. Damn thing is surely busted.
  • Next time, I tried my phone. Nope.
  • I got a NEW phone! Nope.
  • Then, I brought it inside and tried my PC with a wireless card. Nope.
  • I since bought a tablet. Curious? Nope.
It wouldn't give me the prompts on the display. Entering WiFi passcodes for 'Infrastructure mode' was freakin impossible with those 5 little buttons on the CyberQ. Who knows if the thing wants capitals, lowercase, or what? I was in a digital wasteland with little else but well cooked food to keep me sedate. For a year, I stayed pretty close to home during my cooks. Not a terrible thing. I like it here.


Maybe 2013 was just bad luck?
-------------------
And so came this year's first smoke. A bargain on a couple of 10lb pork butts. Hunted and gathered by my beautiful bride. Nothing like an endorsement of the spousal kind to get the season started. Maybe serendipity was on my side? Maybe this was the key. I needed HER to be at one with the cook. What do I know? Works on pretty much everything else.

And so, I did some things differently for this, the first smoke of the year. I wont say too much about the prep, cause that's not what this is about. But suffice to say, I approached the meat so differently than I ever had, I suppose I did the same to the silly WiFi. I did begin pretty much the same way I always do. I checked online for any new directions. Hey! New 1.5 firmware to replace my 1.2! Hoorayyy!! Now if only I could connect to the little b@stard. :mad2:

Like the other times, I read through the directions. Then, for some reason, I sat down at my daughter's iMac. Little person desk and all, I decided to give it a shot. The previous week, I'd actually masterfully diagnosed AND corrected a Mac networking issue for my aging mother. She could print by the time I left. I felt awesome. She felt proud. By the second time to fiddle with iOS's networking twists, I was an old pro.

Here we go again
-------------------
I decided to reset the WiFi to factory settings. Press all 4 arrows. It returns as they intended, set to AdHoc. Set to it's goofy name. With it's WEP40 encryption and simple password. None of *this* had been the problem before. *Seeing* the stupid thing as a network with a PC or an Android device was the problem!

So there it sat. Controlling the fan and monitoring temps about 20 feet from my daughter's iMac. Tap the networking... uhhh.. 'thing' on the iMac and it thinks. (Nothing new here) But wait! What is this? :shock: Under (not networks but) 'Devices' is listed.... CYBERQ WiFi!? W...T...F...? :doh:

HOLY SHIZZLE! WiFi *works* on this d@mn thing! It was the very first time I had seen evidence! It was my Ritz cracker in a sea of saltines. I held my breath. I looked around for cameras. I checked the instructions for the simple password. It didn't work. I tried it again. Nothing. I got bold.

I whacked the default WEP40 encryption. I set it to 'open.' WTF needs encryption on a d@mn smoker anyway? Guess what? You have REBOOT to get the silly CyberQ to apply settings. Gee. THAT'S not annoying. :evil: But there the 'Device' was: On the Mac again. I connected to it right away. The blue buttons on the CyberQ blinked! I was.. wait. What's the IP address?

Ohhhhhh... You need DHCP *enabled* to make it give the Mac an address so that you can then... enter it... into... a browser.... !!! Oh. Wait. Reboot the CyberQ.... :pray: IT WORKED! PAGES! Hyperlinks! Temperatures! Setup! Config! :clap2:

I nearly passed out. :sick:

To be continued
-------------------
I'll need to continue the rest of this narrative some other time. I plan on including some more concise 'best practice' information for this thing. I will say that this first victory was about two hours into the cook and after ab an hour (on this day) of fiddling with the CyberQ WiFi.

I am stubborn. I accept failed attempts as just another step towards success. I'd walked a mile with this thing and I wasn't about to stop now. I *needed* Infrastructure mode so I could connect to it from any device on my network. I *deserved* it. And I was apt to get it. :heh:
 
propellerhead said:
I *needed* Infrastructure mode so I could connect to it from any device on my network. I *deserved* it. And I was apt to get it. :heh:
Click to expand...
And so, I was determined. Now that I could actually SEE the silly thing on a device with a real kybd, I knew I was that much closer to my end game- Controlling my cook from anywhere.

It was with reverence and caution that I navigated the 4 or 5 pages available to me. The most interesting ones a tie between seeing live temperature on my smoker and the WiFi Config page. I was happy to see the temps. Giddy even. I needed to take in the config page. All blanks I'd filled before on thousands of devices in hundreds of places. Why in the WORLD was this one so different?

So I took the same deep breath I usually take when I am about to embrace something that will likely still confuse me even after I fully understand it. Slowly, I deciphered what the instructions said- how they were written- how that translated to my experience- and then how that applied to the function I desired. I also realized I had something I never had before: A known good config. I could break this thing 9 ways to Sunday and always end up back at the iMac keyboard in AdHoc mode. All would never be lost again.

I have a working WiFi extender in my home. I know it gets signal where the smoker is, but I wanted to be double dawg certain. I plugged it into an extension chord right next to the smoker. 'Interference' was NOT going to be my problem. Just as I had with dozens of tablets for little people visiting my little person, phones for house remodel guys, and more notebooks than you can shake a stick at, I began configuring the WiFi network on the CyberQ.

This is a point to which I alluded above, but here's where it is most applicable: The two modes- AdHoc and Infrastructure- are mutually exclusive. If your known good config is AdHoc, then every time you select Infrastructure, you WILL lose the known good config. You WILL lose your ability to configure again with the AdHoc device (my iMac) until using the keys on the CyberQ you physically change the CyberQ BACK to AdHoc, BACK to DHCP=ON, and the REJOIN the AdHoc network from your device. This is a dance so familiar to me rt now that I am not sure I can ever 'un-learn' it. Pain has a way of sticking the memory.

I don't even know how many times I did it. I don't know which time it was that I again consulted the instructions. I KNEW it was right! I KNEW the pass code, encryption, and IP addresses were on target. I even switched it to DHCP to get myself an IP address in the hopes that it would take. Nothing. And then wouldn't you know it. A small line in the instruction's FAQ section:

"If you are certain your Infrastructure configuration is correct, but are getting the 'no network' error, wait for up to 2 mins. Some networks are slow to issue DHCP. You will know that you are connected when the lights begin to blink."

Wait. What? Why is it that every freakin device I have 'sees' the network and gets an IP address right away but.. this.. one...? BLINKY! WE HAVE BLINKY! I felt like singing. I was even MORE excited. If it is possible to move in a whisper, I did it. I quietly navigated the config menu on the CyberQ. Wifi... IP address... 10.x.x.x?!! Wait! You mean.. IT GOT AN IP ADDRESS!! Wooohoooo!!

Now, remember above. My iMac was still looking for the AdHoc CyberQ. It is deaf and dumb. No Internet, no CyberQ, nadda. They have to be on the SAME network to see one another. And so, we join the WiFi extender's network. My experience and my expectation of this silly thing are about to align. I can FEEL it. In a browser, I type in the IP address displayed by the CyberQ. My iMac can get to the Internet, it can 'see' the World... can it SEE the CyberQ at the same time?

YES!!!! YES IT CANNNNN!!! I danced around like Ace Ventura for at least a minute. Web pages! Temperature! Wifi! I can see it allll!!! The next tests flow from me like a man who's just connected two cross country fiber networks in his own back yard. Can I see it on my PC? YES! Can I see it on my phone (connected to WiFi) YES! The tablet! The notebooks! EVERYWHERE!!!!

I like to cook. Don't get me wrong. But I also really dig the work I do. I love it when stuff works. When stuff talks to each other- especially when it's wireless. I get woozy thinking about how cool that is. So to have these to things together at the same time.... I got myself a beer.

And you know what? That was good enough for this cook. I got to show off my year old toy to my mom and dad. They got to be proud of a persistent son who wouldn't let go. My friends who came over for the meat got to see that I actually DO have some value from the world's most expensive fan and temp controller.... It was a good day.

But I wasn't done yet. I wanted something that would always have the same IP address. That I could save a link for in my favorites and always go back to when I cook. And I wanted it to email...no TEXT me! And I wanted to get to it from anywhere... Not just anywhere in my house... ANYWHERE... ANYWHERE...

And that would have to happen another day. My twin 10lb butts defeated the stall and ramped up in time for a pull and some pulled BBQ nachos. It was a great night with family and friends. I'd have to navigate the rest of it- including a new firmware update to 1.5- the next day.

To be continued....
 
Wow. I see you live in the south. I hope it's close to me. You sound like a guy who'd be good to know. Way to go bro!
 
Congratulations! I have been looking for a wifi enabled device for some time now, as my drum is usually located quite a long way from the main house, yet I have a wireless network linking the two locations (via Ubiquiti Nano Loco Radios). Like you I have also been hooked on network communication between devices since dial-up days, and now work with Wireless Networks professionally.

One thing that struck me as a problem with the entire device is this from the specs:
2.4 GHz, IEEE Std. 802.11b, Wi-Fi certified (WFA ID: WFA7150)

Now, I see a lot of devices that turn off support for the old 802.11b because it slows down the network for other users.

Just a thought, but worth looking at perhaps on your network, to make sure legacy support is enabled on the AP´s it´s connecting to in infrastructure mode.
 
I feel like I'm reading an American Classic...Boy meets ATC, Boy loses ATC, Boy discovers Infrastructure mode... I hope you're able to figure out the static IP address assignment. So have you been able to set up port forwarding yet? Good luck.
 
CambuiAl said:
One thing that struck me as a problem with the entire device is this from the specs:
2.4 GHz, IEEE Std. 802.11b, Wi-Fi certified (WFA ID: WFA7150)
Click to expand...
GIANT +1 :thumb:

Yep. This also became clear to me as I was diddling the thing to success. Wireless B? On a device this expensive? I mean, it doesn't have to be the absolute latest and greatest... Well wait. Yes it does. The thing cost more than the tablet I use to monitor it. :confused:

I checked both the extender and the Netgear Wireless N device (WNDR3000 I think) and found that I had maintained my commitment to ease of future use by enabling all the protocols possible. I am aware that folks think 802.11b may affect other services, but nothing wireless on my network needs super fast connectivity. Nickelodeon can only stream so fast. :hand:

To be clear, at this point in the story, I *am* officially connected in infrastructure mode. Once I read that we must wait a minute or two to get an IP- or as it turns out we must also do with DHCP=Off and a static IP assigned- Infrastructure was working. There was more to be done, however. And the next morning provided just the quiet time I needed... For another 3 hours. :doh:
 
Thanks for the summary. I'm about to pull the trigger on a CyberQ. I'm sure this post will pop up in my frantic search to get it working properly :wink:
 
Nice narrative! I'm sure others will be able to learn from your experience.

If anyone with a CyberQ Wifi is using AT&T Uverse and the AT&T (2Wire) Home Gateway, I posted a complete tutorial on using the CyberQ with the Home Gateway a while ago, including screen shots. It should show up in a search of the forum.
 
Is the reason for these internet controllers so you can see temps from miles away from your smokers? :noidea: My atc collects dust anyways but this need to see temps from a smart phone/computer (to use the word) bumfuzzles me. :p
 
Fwismoker said:
Is the reason for these internet controllers so you can see temps from miles away from your smokers? :noidea: My atc collects dust anyways but this need to see temps from a smart phone/computer (to use the word) bumfuzzles me. :p
Click to expand...
I expect that if you asked 100 CyberQ/Stoker owners that use the wifi logging/tracking features why they got that instead of just a simple ATC, the prevailing answer would be "because I can and because I'm a techno geek" :)

The same reason I have a Nest Learning Thermostat, a home security system that is mobile device enabled, a Slingbox, etc...
 
peeps said:
The same reason I have a Nest Learning ThermostatNo clue what that is..lol, a home security system that is mobile device enabled, a Slingbox,The only reason i know what a slingbox is from a college football forum i'm on and people talk about using those while travelng to see their games. etc...
Click to expand...

You techno's crack me up. :laugh:
 
Nest Learning Thermostat is just a wifi enable thermostat with a processor that learns your schedule so you don't have to fiddle with setting up the time schedule for optimal AC/heater usage.

16B0F172-0553-4E90-B054-651CAAA24E99.png


I can see how much my compressor has ran per day and how any manual changes I made during the day affected that usage.

C8FC21A0-3202-4A3A-8A0B-645B3FBD8004.png


I use my slingbox mainly during football season when I am away from home or to broadcast TV to my patio :wink:
 
I'm not happy with the v1.5 firmware and I reverted to v1.2.

I had system crashes on the first low and slow cook after I upgraded to v1.5, but absolutely none since purchase in May 2012 until then. That's why I reverted.

In v1.5, you no longer see the error messages about missing probes upon bootup. I didn't see anything else new except the new crashing issue. For that reason, I can't trust it to maintain temps when I'm at work or sleeping. When it crashes, the pit is on its own.
 
man i was totally saving for one of these, maybe its best to get the regular guru...
 
The combination of Guru and Wifi quite appeals to me for overnight cooks. The drum is up at the BBQ house, (which has a wifi bridge link to it from the main house), and I have wifi in the house too.

Therefore it´s about the only technology that is going to enable me to receive an alarm during the night if something goes wrong.

The wireless part doesn´t phase me - the trickery of maintaining a steady temperature with the use of a fan - now that still baffles me! Does a Guru work well on a UDS and how often do Guru-UDS users wake to find the thing has gone out, and the fan has been blowing ash over the food for the past six hours??
 
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