I will never own a grill that has to connect to wifi. In fact, I actively avoid any appliance that adds unnecessary IOT functionality.
What sort of grill needs a firmware update lol
Submitted 3 weeks ago by Gork@sopuli.xyz to [deleted]
https://sopuli.xyz/pictrs/image/928fb2a8-f5cc-437a-a07e-be196244e09e.webp
Comments
N0t_5ure@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Zwiebel@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
That was me until HomeAssistant and ESPHome
SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Oh shit, I didn’t know about ESPhome. There goes my free time!
MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
At least with ESPHome and other local-only devices they only update when you actually tell them to update.
riskable@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
I know, right? Why send my BBQ data to the cloud when I can just cook with a handful of GPUs, locally? To start the grill you just ask the animated waifu to dance and sing a random, AI-generated song that matches your taste in music. Then the fans spin up and send scrumptious GPU heat into the grill, cooking up a delicious hallucination where you’re animated waifu sings, “That looks yummy! Yummy yummy yummy hai hai hai!”
Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Perform Bad Apple using the most complex geometric shapes possible.
Taleya@aussie.zone 3 weeks ago
We’re starting to add some IoT stuff (mostly sockets and leak sensors) but it had to wait until i’d built a beefier firewall and the HA server. 'Cos that shit is not leaving the house
unmagical@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
What are the chances they shipped it on Thanksgiving vs Thanksgiving being the first time in a while the user turned it on?
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
This, but why does it need a firmware update and why couldn’t it be setup to update on shutdown rather then power on?
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
Why does it have firmware?
AnitaAmandaHuginskis@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’m an IT nerd but they could not pay me to buy a grill that requires software updates. What a bunch of nonsense.
rumba@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Pay me? Fuck yes, I’ll rip that crap out and replace it with a couple of relays or maybe get fancy and arduino -> home assistant.
I’m betting that someone pay a LOT extra to get that garbage though.
Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Sending a temp updates to your phone so you don’t have to be standing near it the whole time is a nice feature.
Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
My dad’s smoker is also able to set key frames so you can have it ramp up or down in temp at various points while cooking. And it can either be set to change temp at a time or when one of the probes reaches a certain temp.
5too@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Okay, I’m not a huge griller, but wouldn’t it be better just to build in a thermostat? Let it maintain its own temperature?
Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It’s better to just purchase a temperature probe with wifi. Those are handy as hell.
howrar@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I agree, but that should be a separate device. One that I can use in any grill or oven. There’s no reason for the grill itself to have that feature, especially if it can potentially brick the whole thing.
Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I will never need a wifi connected kitchen appliance. A grill fits that category. My daily driver is a 2009 Toyota. Its great. No screens and easy to fix.
mndckr@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Just out of curiosity… What are you doing to your grill that you need a new one every few years? Mine is prob. 10 years old and still no reason in sight to replace it.
ThirdConsul@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
I’m an IT guy, if my printer made a noise I don’t recognise I’d shoot it.
tankfox@midwest.social 2 weeks ago
I have a Masterbuilt that has optional firmware updates sometimes, nothing mandatory and certainly nothing automatic. It’s a gravity fed charcoal grill that works like a computer controlled forced air rocket stove. Gets up to 700 degs from cold in 10 mins if I want or hold 225 for the rest of time as long as I keep feeding charcoal into the hopper and emptying the ash bin. The computer is adding actual value.
No soggy pellets, no weird feeding issues, the biggest problem I’ve had with it was the hatch sensors all going out over time, but once I jumped the circuit past them it worked fine again to this very day, going on six years now.
ThirdConsul@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Gets up to 700 degs
That’s a furnace. Aluminium melts at 700 degrees. Gold at 1000.
Cataphract@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
which minecraft mod is that?
setnof@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Yesterday my WIFI air purifier crashed after changing the speed with the app and turned itself off and even caused the Ethernet switch to crash and hang.
seejur@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Actually the smoker is probably the only one thing I want software on and wifi (but yeah we could do without the updates unless there is some sort of bugs that turn it into a killing machine)
keyez@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
As an IT nerd I got one of these and put it on a different subnet and it’s not able to reach out to anything external but my phone can hit it from a different subnet. Thing works great.
HappySkullsplitter@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It’s a smoker with wireless controls
Instead of having to keep checking on it for several hours, an app on your phone will show the temperature and allow temperature adjustments online
Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
ok but why aren’t you outside with a beer…pretty sure that’s a part of the meat smokers law
InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Some people also think the point of fishing is to catch fish and not to chill out by the bay with some light beers.
HappySkullsplitter@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Funny enough that’s what I’m doing now, then my cousin leans over with his phone to show me his brisket is sitting right at 225
chiliedogg@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Because I live in Texas and being outside in the summer for extended periods is dangerous.
humorlessrepost@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Not for a brisket though. I’m too old to stay up that long.
boonhet@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
I mean that’s what I do when it’s something small, but when it’s something that takes 10+ hours, that’s a lot of beer and standing.
Though right now I just have an alarm to check it every half hour. Considering wiring up something with an arduino and appifying my meat without any proprietary tech.
ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
You can also just get a normal smoker and a wireless thermometer that works with RF, which has a range of like 700-1000ft, and while it has some theoretical security flaws it results in a situation that is infinitely more secure than a WiFi/app situation. Even if someone bothered to sniff the rf traffic what are they going to do, see the temperature of your brisket? Oh no
adubya@feddit.online 3 weeks ago
Just waiting for the day an evil hacker leaks someone's smoker data to the neighborhood, exposing they cranked the smoker to 375° when they bragged about their brisket cooking 225° the whole time.
habitualTartare@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The perfect brisket heist.
rockstarmode@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You make some good points.
I live a mile and a half from the ocean and run my smoker for long periods. It’s really nice to monitor and change the temp when I’m drinking the beer you refer to from the sand. I make a few quick runs back up the hill to tend to things, but mostly I’m free to be elsewhere for the 12-ish hours the smoker is running. It’s really nice, not a hard requirement, but really convenient.
6nk06@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
BS. They update that expensive crap because it’s full of security holes.
shalafi@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
OK, that seems smart. But why would it need updates? Been in IT 30-years, I get updates, but something that simple should have been hammered out before it left the factory.
vivi@slrpnk.net 3 weeks ago
It’s because of the reliance on hundreds of thousands of third party web dependencies that are constantly updating and constantly getting security patches (and introducing vulnerabilities)
InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
For that and fear the company getting bored and pulling the plug on servers, leaving me with a paperweight, is why I didn’t get much into the IoT stuff.
One time I bought some under armor shoes with bluetooth. They would connect to my phone and an app would take measurements on my stride and angle of my foot in my runs. At some point they decided to make the app a subscription. They wanted a whole $15/mo! I decided to just run like a caveman instead.
adubya@feddit.online 3 weeks ago
Knew someone who had to rush a family pet to emergency vet and they were able to keep an eye on the brisket cooking.
Keep it Low & Slow!
cobysev@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I guarantee this update didn’t drop on Thanksgiving. Photo OP probably hasn’t turned it on since their last BBQ months ago and is just noticing - on Thanksgiving - that an update pushed a while ago that they now need to install to get started.
Pro tip: Start up your electronics a day or two in advance of events, so you can pre-patch anything that needs it.
Source: Former IT guy here, who had to ensure that updates ran at the most convenient times possible for thousands of users. “Patching Tuesday” is an unofficial but well recognized “holiday” for IT folks. It’s not first thing Monday morning, which could throw off the workflow for the week, but it also gives the max amount of time to resolve any issues that patching might cause, so we (hopefully) don’t have to work through the weekend.
Pay attention to when your stuff requires patches. A lot of the time, it’ll pop up on Tuesdays.
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
pro tip
I get it. I hate it, but I get it.
another pro tip from someone else in IT: see that appliance with the digital screen? fuck it. don’t get it. get the old shitty one that’s $800 less that doesn’t have WiFi or non-tactile buttons. you know what doesn’t need firmware updates? a charcoal Weber grill.
mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Source: Former IT guy here, who had to ensure that updates ran at the most convenient times possible for thousands of users.
I used to work at a theater owned by a city. So we used the city’s IT department, and their network. During COVID, live-streaming took off. The city wanted us to install a streaming video package. After a month or two of installing a full video system, we finally get around to testing the stream. Boot up AWS, and it runs fine. We’re streaming in full 4K. Great!
So the show rolls around. It’s Saturday, 7:30pm start time. We start the show… And the stream instantly shits the bed. Like we go from full gigabit upload speed, to less than a single megabit. We’re lucky to get 56kbps speeds. We’re getting one or two frames per second if we’re lucky.
Sunday, we test the stream ahead of time, and it works flawlessly. Show starts, and the upload speed drops to fucking dial up.
Monday morning rolls around, and IT strolls in to check their tickets. Sees a hundred from us, and gives us a call. They run a test on their end. No issues. They run a test on AWS. No issues. They run a test on the fiber backbone between the theater and city hall. No issues. They call the ISP. ISP said they didn’t have any issues over the weekend. IT shrugs, and marks the tickets as solved.
Next weekend, same thing. We’re wondering if IT is automatically throttling us, or if we have a malicious user on the network. We’re asking about QoS, or maybe automatic port control kicking in when the stream starts. Monday rolls around, and IT marks it as solved again.
Third weekend, same thing. This time, the city manager’s office is getting calls from angry patrons who paid for streaming and can’t watch their streams. Monday morning, IT rolls up. They run some more tests, and still can’t find anything wrong. They swear up and down that it’s nothing on their end, and it must be something on ours.
After four months of this back and forth, IT finally admits that they have all of their maintenance tasks to run at 7:30 over the weekend. Every single computer, server, and fucking toaster connected to the city network begins their updates at exactly 7:30. Thousands of city devices, all singularly focused on devouring our upload speeds. Servers run off-site backups. Those backups consume all of the upload speeds for the entire city network. IT refuses to change the time, because “this is what works for us. It’s after city hall closes, so we don’t have any users who are affected. It hasn’t been a problem in the past.”
rekabis@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
And in those four months, did no-one think of firing up WireShark to see what was floating across that network during that time period?
Seems like someone dropped the debug/analysis ball…
zipzoopaboop@lemmynsfw.com 3 weeks ago
Pro tip: don’t buy a fucking BBQ that connects to the Internet.
No appliances in general while we’re at it
ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Seriously. “Start it a day early” My brother in Christ why does your grill need wifi? Do you get updates when the steak is ready?!
ZMonster@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Have tons of devices that can connect to the Internet. Apparently I’m the only one here resourceful enough to not connect them
outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Pro tip; use electronics that are stable and user focused.
Good shout on patvh tues tho.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Thanks, but i prefer most utilities without wifi and need of patching.
Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Tuesday is the perfect day for it. Finish up the update on Friday, review it and fix where you probably fucked up something and didn’t notice on Monday, push it the next day.
ChiefPulaski@startrek.website 2 weeks ago
when you buy a wifi-grill you kind of missed the point of grilling.
Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It’s great for smoking though. I’ve done it the old fashioned way of staying up all night to feed wood into the smoker and I’ll gladly take the wifi-enabled pellet smoker with a temperature probe over it.
cantstopthesignal@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Why do you need wifi? You turn a knob and fill it with pellets every couple hours.
tnarg42@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
…The sort of grill I will never buy.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
A grill should run on charcoal. It needs to get very hot and that’s literally it.
There’s a universe where I attach some electronic controller with a PID loop or something to a smoker, to maintain consistent temperatures via damper control. I’m not buying that off the shelf built into the machine though.
Skullgrid@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
A grill should run on charcoal.
Someone insert the KOTH reference, I’m too tired, I tell you hwat
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
grue@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Hank is wrong. If all you care about is the “heat,” you might as well go inside and cook on your stove!
Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Traeger makes pellet smokers. They have a hopper full of wood pellets and a micro controller that feeds in pellets to maintain a set temperature. You can get ones with a temperature probe to stick in the meat and let you know when it’s done, which is what the Wi-Fi is for.
There’s a legit use case for them because they save a ton of time and effort over smoking the traditional way.
grue@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
There’s a universe where I attach some electronic controller with a PID loop or something to a smoker, to maintain consistent temperatures via damper control. I’m not buying that off the shelf built into the machine though.
I really ought to finish putting together my HeaterMeter.
Bluewing@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
While I agree that real charcoal is superior in every way, a good grill and the person running it needs to be able to control the temperature while cooking. It might be just fine to burn those hot dogs or hamburger patties, but if I want to roast a potato or an onion, I need to be able to control the heat to something less than the surface of the sun.
tankfox@midwest.social 2 weeks ago
You’re describing the gravity fed charcoal grills from masterbuilt and I love mine. Especially when I toss in a cast iron pan full of bacon and run it at 450 for half an hour.
muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I like my home automation tech but it needs to serve a purpose. Just being connected to wifi is not a selling point for me. Lights that turn on in the morning when I need to wake up are great. A thermostat that can reduce energy usage when nobody is home is also great. But a grill….what the fuck does Internet access do to improve the grilling experience?
And if it requires the cloud to work, I don’t consider it a functional product.
cley_faye@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Grill, Dehumidifier, Air con, Fridge, Dishwasher, Washing Machine, Lightbulbs, Ovens, Doorknob…
None of that should be smarter than “press button, get action”.
samus12345@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Imagine a grill without the latest firewall
Kolanaki@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
Ah hell yes. Fire 2.0 finally dropped.
Goldholz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Can we go back to dumb tech?
this@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Probably a security update to try and keep it from being part of a botnet maybe? What would work better though is never connecting it to a network or even better, just don’t make it smart for no dam reason, lol.
Reygle@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I have a friend who’s really big in to smoking meats for hours and hours and days at a time. He loves this kind of thing because he can monitor the smoker without physically being in front of it.
I think he’s crazy af for involving the damned internet in it but I guess it is what it is when you’re “cooking” something for 9 hours.
cheers_queers@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
I love my charcoal grill
Wolf@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
There was a silly little movie in the 80’s called “Maximum Overdrive”, written and directed by Stephen King.
In it Aliens somehow cause machines to ‘turn’ on human beings and attack us.
They could remake that movie now but instead of Aliens causing the machines to attack people, it could be malicious ‘hackers’ that do it, and it would be more believable that the original film.
PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Why does a grill need a screen and buttons? Maybe I’m living in the stone age, but what I call grilling involves putting charcoal to a flame.
NutWrench@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
But supposed they invented a whole new kind of meat and your grill wasn’t ready to deal with it? How would you feel then? Pretty darn silly, that’s how!
sundray@lemmus.org 3 weeks ago
“Le Firmware? WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?”
pxlkttn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
I have a Christmas tree with built-in LED lights where I can change their colors and make patterns and animations. Every year I get it out I have to do a firmware update on my Christmas tree before I can use it 😂
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
Yet more reasons that charcoal/firewood is superior.
davidagain@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The same kind of grill that can be bricked remotely if you stop paying for software updates.
JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Idk I just simply wouldn’t buy the wifi grill
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The nosy kind
AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
What happens if the grill resets anyway? You get back to the default wallpaper?
SandraBollocks@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
poor baby. who grills out on thanksgiving? also my charcoal grill never does this
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I have a Traeger and saved $200 because it was the model without WiFi.
I made a delicious turkey breast on Independence Day
derg@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Jokes on you when they invent a new kind of meat your grill can’t cook
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It can do bread and the best tasting broccoli and Brussels sprouts you’ve ever had
match@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
raw shrimp on a grill staying completely uncooked next to grilled chicken and steak because you don’t have the DRM for SeaPak©️ shrimp (photorealistic, art station, comedy, vivid)
6nk06@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Are you live from your backyard where you’re smoking meats?
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Nah, I’ve got a Bluetooth thermometer so I can track it while I play video games
Inaminate_Carbon_Rod@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
🎵. meat like a brisket. 🎶