I was going to look into getting the new Fireboard controller for my new WSM, but I have a soft spot for the Thermoworks products as they have been absolutely great over the years. I think I might still pull the trigger on the Signals, now that their app and cloud-based products have been upgraded. Some of these new features look amazing!
Got the email as well and it for sure made me go "humm... interesting". Looking forward to see how it will develop. I don’t have huge needs for my basic backyard bbq’ing and grilling. The BlueDOT paired with this would make a nice and not expensive combo.
It's great to see some competition in this space. As one who has used and developed connected devices, this is a very challenging area to get it right; witness the problems Weber has with the software for the SmokeFire. There are so many variables that are unpredictable until lots of products are put into customers' hands.
I've been using the Fireboard Gen 1 now for about fifty long smoking sessions, and it's by far the best combination of hardware and software I've ever seen on a connected device. As with any new product, but especially connected software, I'd be cautious until there's lots of feedback- that is unless you want to become a beta tester.
One of the great features of the Fireboard for me is the ability to add photos at various points during the cook.
If not cooking outdoors, I am cooking on the stovetop with my 14" carbon steel wok, 12" CI skillet, or in the oven with my two Lodge CI pizza pans, or two dutch ovens. I've also got a nifty Lodge carbon steel grill pan that rocks for veggies outdoors.
What's interesting is that this is a completely new app - not an upgrade to the existing Thermoworks app, now renamed to "Thermoworks BBQ". So my saved data in their cloud does not translate from the old app to the new app.
No biggie - I've already installed the new app, and create a cloud account for it, and will add my Smoke Gateway to it tonight when I have time to piddle around in the house. I am hoping it will be much less glitchy than the old app, which even on a cook this past weekend had some graphing glitches that annoyed me. Graphs for a while in the Thermoworks app have looked totally wrong in portrait mode, but if I clicked on it, forcing it into landscape mode on my phone, it would look right.
Let's hope by doing a new app and website they did it right this time.
This is an interesting post. I like the look of the new Thermoworks interface and started to consider getting the Signals since it is on sale and adding the billows. But....hmmmm. Seeing your comment makes me wonder. I love the Thermoworks brand.
My original opinion of the Signals/Billows was based mostly on my experience with the original app. The app looked great but functionally, it seemed to have holes that left my satisfaction with it far behind the FireBoard. I love Thermoworks’ other products but this one, not so much. I haven’t tried the new interface yet but I will soon. I think they will get it right.
I'll be sure to post a review in the next week, after I've done a few cooks and what not. Ordered one yesterday shortly after I posted this and it should be here tomorrow
The Signals arrived earlier today, so I set it up and downloaded the new app, created my account, etc.
Adding it to the app was ridiculously easy, just a couple of taps. It connects via Bluetooth first, then you can enter in the WiFi information and off you go. It prompted me for a firmware update, which took a couple of minutes. The app is really nice and fluid, as is the cloud dashboard.
I didn't have time to cook anything, so I just threw two of the pit probes in for a few hours to get some data and to see how it looked. Really cool, updates immediately, it seemed. I left the house for a couple of hours to run some errands, and would check in regularly on the app to see how it was doing, and it was really cool to be able to do that (never have before).
Here are some pics of the app, as well as the cloud dashboard of the monitoring I was doing. I plan on doing some smoking this weekend, and next week, so I'll be sure to post how it performed.
I’ve been using the Signals for a couple months and as a commenter earlier stated, connected devices are no easy task to get right. The original app was clunky and even things like finding the info for battery strength was a multi-click challenge. The new app has definitely made improvements. Easy tab home page with a settings tab that loads quickly and provides system and device info (including battery level). The device is accurate and includes great probe hardware. The graph is a great tool as well.
I still have 1 major problem with the Signal. They chose an industry standard charge cable (USB-C) and require a non-standard voltage supply to charge the device. What this means is that even though you have literally dozens of usb charging bricks in your house, the only brick that will work to charge your Signals is the 12volt brick that comes with the unit vs the 5volt blocks that every single other piece of tech use. I’d love to hear from the engineer that designed it and would argue that [s)he should have chosen a different connector or adhered to the industry standard for such a common cable.
If you do buy one, save yourself the frustration and hassle of a dead, unchargable battery and buy a few charging bricks out of the gate.
Last edited by ericinmn999; July 18, 2020, 06:39 AM.
I ended up getting the Billows fan control last week. Did a whole chicken earlier today and man is this thing great! I set the temp at 250 and it barely fluctuated. The dips are when I checked on the chicken.
Bronco Pro Barrel Smoker
PBC
Pit Boss 757GD Griddle (2)
Blaz'n Grill Works Grid Iron
Weber Genesis E-310
Original Original Grilla
Smokey Joe® Charcoal Grill 14"
Fireboard 1
Thermoworks ThermoPop
Thermoworks Thermapen Mk4
Thermoworks Smoke Thermometer with gateway
2 iGrillminis - from before they were Weber.
I'm way late on this. My Smoke is at our vacation home with my OG, and I don't get to use it very often. Over the summer and into fall I used the radio receiver more than trying to use the app because it was so glitchy. Getting it connected to a new wi-fi setup was a pain in the butt.
But, last week I got a new phone. Transferred over all my apps, but when I went to connect to the Smoke it told me I needed to update to the new app. Quite a difference. Much easier to get the wi-fi connection setup. Much easier to navigate. Great improvement.
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