New Combustion Inc. Wireless Thermometer: first impressions

[das85]

Have been using my pre-ordered intermittently for last couple of months, but was limited before the Android app arrived. Now that I have that - very exciting! - was able to use it more thoroughly last night cooking a rump roast. Some initial thoughts:

* I wish it could hold a charge for longer when not in use. My instinct is to charge it after use...so far I keep forgetting that I need to recharge immediately before use if it's been a couple weeks since last time.

* Using the display to repeat the signal so that I could monitor the cook on my phone worked great.

* Android app very straightforward to use and helpful displaying the various temps and predictions in an easy-to-read way.

* I was in a rush, so I cooked at higher ambient temp than I normally would...as a result most of the roast was overcooked by the time the very center was rare. I pulled it at "core" temp of 115...but I do wonder if I could have used the multitude of sensors to see what was going on - if I was just poking at it with an instant-read then I would have pulled significantly earlier. Curious chefchrisyoung if there is or may be a way to "peek under the hood" and see more readings? Or if I think about surface temp in the right way would it help me here?

* I love that you are working on carry-over predictions! I am just one user but would definitely prioritize that over the stall - even if related I would imagine a much easier problem mathematically, and so many people crutch in stall anyway..

Overall love this product and am excited to keep using and experimenting with it!

[chefchrisyoung]

Next app updates will let you see all 8 sensors and have graphing. This is, hopefully, about 1 week away.

And, yes, carry-over predictions will come before stall predictions. Although I’m hopeful that the solution for the former will make the layer easier.

Finally, we are working on a few things to improve standby time. More news on that in March.

[das85]

Awesome - thanks and looking forward to!

[RonB]

Hey Chris - I tried emailing Combustion, but the email link doesn't work on my pc using chrome.

I'm trying to get the app to work on my android phone without success. I am putting the thermometer inside a Weber Kettle and the display is on the table next to the kettle, (maybe 6" from the kettle).

The readings on the display seem to be correct, but on my phone, all I get is the screen that shows the cook settings with the words "Listening for thermometer" below the settings. However, when I place the thermometer and the display on a table with the phone close, I get connectivity and everything seems to work.

Is there anything I can do?

Thanks ~ Ron

[RonB]

chefchrisyoung - Firmware is current on the android app and hardware you just released. All are ver 1.1.0.


And your link above doesn't work for me...

[chefchrisyoung]

If the link isn't working, that's an issue with the AmazingRibs forum. Email address tested and definitely working, you might just need to type the email address in manually. I've passed this along to the dev team to see if they have any thoughts of what might be going on.

[chefchrisyoung]

RonB just had chatted with our Android engineer. Our hypothesis is the Bluetooth stack on your Android phone has gotten a bit corrupted (this tends to happen to both Android and iOS over time). A hard restart of your phone will clear it and will probably fix the problem.

But we also suggest a factory reset of the Display by holding the backlight button and Start/Stop until the display turns off. You'll need to re-associate your probe(s) after doing this.

[SmokingSteve]

chefchrisyoung My first two cooks were for chicken thighs on my CC Woodwind pellet smoker. They went fine. Third cook was on some hamburgers on Grill Grates. Had a situation where the probe (I think,) moved a little bit when they were cooking. The angle of the probe changed and got close to the grate. I flipped them and rested the ceramic portion of the probe on top of another patty. My 1st question is whether doing so would affect the probe temp readings or hurt anything? My 2nd question is if the probe tip ends up extending beyond the meat, will it damage the probe? Or will the sensor on the tip be ok? The burgers turned out great by the way.

I really like the system and went ahead and ordered the additional probe last week. Thanks for the discount.

[chefchrisyoung]

So, the answer is it depends. Probably not, as there is a margin of safety build into our 100C limit. If it’s still functioning, it’s likely fine.

[chefchrisyoung]

So, not sure if this is proper Pitmaster Forum etiquette, but I thought folks following this thread might enjoy the infographics showing and explaining the real temperature around your food, as measured by the Predictive Thermometer. While this is from inside an oven, the same would be occurring in a BBQ pit. Relevant section starts around 3:44

https://youtu.be/SWJN1dZIbDk

Edit: Good question about how fast airflow in big offsets lets the pit master run them hotter. That’s a whole ‘nuther video. But there is a balance between convection and evaporative cooling that can flip things around where faster airflow reduces the surface temperature. Hope to do a video on this in the future.

[GolfGeezer]

The video on YouTube is flagged as “private”. Can’t open it.

[SheilaAnn]

I got right in….

[chefchrisyoung]

Sorry, typo in link earlier. Fixed.

[Smoking77]

Got sick and tired of y'all talking about this thing... so I bought one Will use it with a steak tomorrow.

[SmokingSteve]

Welcome to the early adapters club! You will be pleased.

[Yelnoc]

Didn't realize this product had been out. Just saw it on a GMG Owners FB page. There is a lot of good info in the threads above and can't read it all yet, but my concern is the claim that our predictive algorithm to tell you exactly when your food will reach the perfect temperature" All snarkiness aside, this would mean that on pork butts and briskets it can predict the length of the stall Needs to be formally tested and added to the thermometer data base - I don't see it there.

[GolfGeezer]

Yelnoc if you read through this thread, you will see that they are working to include carryover and then stall calculations to their predictive algorithms. No commitment yet on when, but it will be a firmware/software update, so buying now does not preclude getting these features when they are available.

[chefchrisyoung]

Correct, the stall or other very low-and-slow cooks will confuse the Prediction Engine right now, but this is mostly a function of not having a large enough data set for training. But it’s been growing rapidly with the help of customers. I’m feeling somewhat confident we’ll have carry over cooking in beta by early summer. Stall predictions are a bit more open ended, but based on the data I’m looking at I think we’ll solve it this summer.

[STEbbq]

The Combustion worked well enough for my cook yesterday. I did save my output but haven’t looked at it yet.

I did notice that the thermometer would disconnect every few minutes and notify me but then nearly immediately reconnect and the numbers would still keep updating.

Is there a way to perhaps extend the time before notifications are sent out to maybe a minute or two? That would seem to eliminate the issue.

The console was sitting next to the smoker at the end of the driveway while I was in the house if it makes a difference.

[chefchrisyoung]

Yeah, there is a small bug causing those disconnect notices to fire too frequently. The occasional disconnect is actually somewhat normal—interference is the norm—and our system is pretty good at just managing and recovering from it. But there is a bug causing the notifications to keep re-firing. We're working on the fix already and it should be out shortly, along with a bunch of other improvements.

[gboss]

Just an FYI for anyone considering ordering this: they charge your card at the time of ordering, regardless of when the device actually ships.

I'd be more comfortable with the standard "pre-order, but we actually charge the card when it ships" method of doing this, frankly, but I'm really just itching to try this thing out.

Mine "Ships in May" so the waiting should be over soon....

[glitchy]

Agree to disagree then. I’ve been charged for several things over the last 3 years weeks before I got them. Including thousands of dollars of furniture from a nation wide chain.

[chefchrisyoung]

Because we never touch your credit card details (Shopify is our payment processor) we don’t actually have a choice in this matter. Since we don’t store your card (or have access to it directly), we don’t have a way to run your card later. We can only process refunds.

What I’ll add is that this isn’t really a pre-order like a Kickstarter, you can always get a refund. Your order is actually a liability for us until we ship. And the good news is production has already started.

[chefchrisyoung]

Will also add that this is normal for any business that isn’t their own payment processor and willing and able to go through the difficult process of becoming PCI compliant (the requirement to directly hold customer credit card details). As a result nearly every business uses a third-party payment processor like Shopify or Stripe to handle the credit cards, and these processors give businesses a very short window to run a charge (usually 7 to 14 days IIRC).

[MauleGuy]

I was going to order the original thermometer but realized the Bluetooth range with the lid of a Recteq grill closed was going to be marginal at best. I will wait for the extended range unit. At this point I am assuming the Android app is up and running relatively bug free.

I have a Brisket cook coming up on July 22 so I am betting the new extended range unit will not be available in time for that cook. Even if it were here it would be a secondary source from my wired probes but a good side by side test.

[STEbbq]

To be fair, my cookers sit at end of a driveway while I monitor them in the house. It works fine.

[GolfGeezer]

MauleGuy There are still issues with the App on Samsung Android phones as far as I know. The App will frequently disconnect from my probe. They seem to have fixed that same issue with their App on Apple IoS devices - my probe will stay reliably connected. I've been using the probe in both my MAK and kitchen oven. The Display does help with distance and connectivity on my MAK with the hood closed, and the Display about 20 ft from there, and then to my iPad about another 30 ft away in the house.

[chefchrisyoung]

Newest app release added a bunch of fixes for Samsung’s, umm, idiosyncratic Bluetooth stack. It should be more stable. Other Android phones seem to be pretty stable based on the crash analytics reports Google shares with us.