New controller software and app update

[sntwilliams]

Another greatly descriptive set of release notes from Weber

 

[rexster314]

When I see this, it makes me think they had some really bad code, and don't want anyone to know about it

 

[JpsBBQ]

I think it’s pretty much common in the industry ( IT/ phones/ grills) to use that verbiage. They usually only go into more detail if they are adding specific features or addressing a specific problem in a monumental way. “Bug fixes” is a pretty common term for a reason.

That said, I’m with the rest of you left wanting to know exactly what they addressed.

 

[MojoBones]

Heh, it looks like a developer was a bit lazy putting in a check-in reason to me but that's probably my own experience bias showing through. 25+ years as a software engineer skews your perception on these sorts of things I guess.

 

[NoCoEX6]

Did the update and my temp probes are now bouncing all over the place. Pretty much useless don’t know if it’s the individual probe or the update.

 

[sntwilliams]

Yeah the latest update has made my temps quite erratic. Still cooked the chicken for Xmas dinner perfectly fine, but was nowhere near as controlled as it usually is.

 

[abmet]

Mine updated after I finished quick queso and then did meatballs, so didn’t use the temp probes. The ambient seemed to hold steady even in 19 degree weather, but I didn’t use a separate probe to monitor it.

 

[rexster314]

Did the update and my temp probes are now bouncing all over the place. Pretty much useless don’t know if it’s the individual probe or the update.

The probes or the led lights on the controller?

 

[NoCoEX6]

The probes or the led lights on the controller?

Probes found one that worked could be the probe rather than update but never had the problem before.

 

[AHoneyman]

I have always ran about 20+ degrees lower on the air probe than the controller. Including right now. I have done all of the appropriate checks and everything points to the PID and how it processes info. I just have to adjust the set point to get the desired results at the appointed time.

 

[Dassman5]

I have always ran about 20+ degrees lower on the air probe than the controller. Including right now. I have done all of the appropriate checks and everything points to the PID and how it processes info. I just have to adjust the set point to get the desired results at the appointed time.

Same here, but I attribute that to the fact that the controller probe most likely has a band-width within which it does not report incremental changes.

When I used to program industrial PID controllers we determined a bandwidth within which temperature and/or pressure changes did not materially alter the quality of the process and so did not report those changes on the operators screen unless it became out of range. Meanwhile the PID controller continued to fine tune the input variables to achieve steady state. This was largely to keep the operator from “tweaking” the set-point trying to fine tune the process.

 

[sntwilliams]

The usual behaviour for my EX6 is the pit probe reaches the set temp in advance of the ambient probe that is positioned right next to it. I fully expect this as the pit probe and it's display on screen is a bit more complex than just displaying a temperature reading.

Over the course of about 5-10 mins after the pit reaches target, the ambient probe catches up to to the pit probe.

Once the ambient probe has caught up, it usually stays within about +-5 degrees of the pit probe, with minimal fluctuations for the entire cook. Whether that's two hours or twelve hours. I was quite happy with that level of consistency, heck, it holds temps better than my kitchen oven!

Today, the first cook since the recent software update, was much different.

Pit was set at 220c, it got up to this temperature quite quickly with the ambient at about 200ish. However, the temp then dropped back and for nearly the entire two-hour cook, the pit temp was reading between 165 and 190 and never reached 220 again. The ambient was hovering around 180-200 the entire cook, but never reached 220...

The chicken cooked perfectly, so no complaints there. Just a little concerned about the sudden introduction of temperature irregularity when it was working just fine before.

I agitated the pellets a few times to make sure there was no bridging going on, but I've never really suffered from that particular issue.

 

[AHoneyman]

This is about what I have always seen using the controller and an ambient probe. However, I saw something new today. I did a run (not to be discussed) and went to shutdown. The shutdown proceeded until the point where you should see the "It is now safe to shut off" message. The fan quit and the controller froze right there. I did a hard shutdown (flipped the switch) and will check it out when I start up next time. I wonder if I will get an error message.

 

[Dassman5]

This is about what I have always seen using the controller and an ambient probe. However, I saw something new today. I did a run (not to be discussed) and went to shutdown. The shutdown proceeded until the point where you should see the "It is now safe to shut off" message. The fan quit and the controller froze right there. I did a hard shutdown (flipped the switch) and will check it out when I start up next time. I wonder if I will get an error message.

Following...

 

[bbqking]

Did the update and my temp probes are now bouncing all over the place. Pretty much useless don’t know if it’s the individual probe or the update.

Happened to me also. Used a temp probe for ambient for the first time. It was showing 60 degrees low....