Wanted - Z-Wave Cooking Thermometer

[vbPhil]

I'm envisioning a z-wave remote device that accepts a standard plugin BBQ cooking probe and reports back what the temperature is. I'd buy this today but so far unable to find one. There's plenty of BBQ cooking probe products out there and I've had many but none with a z-wave interface. Anybody seen one or have a way to interface some other cooking probe product with IoX?

[gviliunas]

While we are at it, an IR thermometer with Z-Wave interface positioned on a range hood  might be nice to prevent boil-overs.

There we go, @vbphiland I have opened a new marketplace.

Edited January 14, 2023 by gviliunas

[MrBill]

Not Z-wave like you want, but Meater has a public API which means a node server could be created.  https://pypi.org/project/meater-python/  I received a Meater Block (4 probes) for Christmas.  There is a Home Assistant integration

The Advantage to Meater is there are no wires.. i.e they are wireless probes.

 

[vbPhil]

21 minutes ago, MrBill said:

The Advantage to Meater is there are no wires.. i.e they are wireless probes.

 

That is so cool! Have you tried them yet? Especially interested in the cooking time prediction. I wrote my own program to compute cooking time. I use it with a Weber probe that lets you capture the current temperature data as CSV. I upload that to my website where I do the calculations. Takes a few steps but quite accurate. 

[vbPhil]

5 minutes ago, vbphil said:

I wrote my own program to compute cooking time.

Here’s my cook right now. Boston pork butt on the Big Green Egg.

[MrBill]

12 minutes ago, vbphil said:

That is so cool! Have you tried them yet? Especially interested in the cooking time prediction. I wrote my own program to compute cooking time. I use it with a Weber probe that lets you capture the current temperature data as CSV. I upload that to my website where I do the calculations. Takes a few steps but quite accurate. 

I've used them twice, I have an open ticket with them because apparently I have at least two bad probes, they disconnect.  I need to make time to get the pictures they want and I haven't done it. I hoping they just replace all.  I'll make some screenshots for you when I do, they actually do the time prediction calculation.

Each probe is actually two temp sensors... one embedded in the meat and a second ambient temp sensor.

[vbPhil]

10 minutes ago, MrBill said:

they actually do the time prediction calculation.

I wonder how accurate they are for non-linear cooking profiles?  Especially for slow cooking pork butts. They have a stall period where the temperature stays constant for an unknown period of time. 

[MrBill]

2 minutes ago, vbphil said:

I wonder how accurate they are for non-linear cooking profiles?  Especially for slow cooking pork butts. They have a stall period where the temperature stays constant for an unknown period of time. 

one of the two things i cooked with them actually was a pork butt, and I put two probes it in it.  It was actually disconnecting/reconnecting alot and I was sick with some nasty bug that day and loaded up on cold medicine that was making me silly.  I don't know where all the "recalculating" after re-connections was the problem or not, but it took much longer than predicted to actually finish...  everyone on Traeger forums and subreddit highly recommend Meater.

[ryarber]

I have a brother in law who uses the neater often and he really likes it. I have a bbq guru on my backwoods cabinet smoker and really like it. I slow cook often for large parties. You can get a guru for the egg but mine has 3 temp probes. More than you’d need for a BGE. 
 

if you’re unfamiliar with the bbq guru, you should check it out. It makes charcoal or wood fire cooking a lot easier and it is a self contained system. You can configure it to alert you by email if there are problems or when your meat reaches desired temp. 

[vbPhil]

On 1/16/2023 at 7:18 PM, ryarber said:

I have a brother in law who uses the neater often and he really likes it. I have a bbq guru on my backwoods cabinet smoker and really like it. I slow cook often for large parties. You can get a guru for the egg but mine has 3 temp probes. More than you’d need for a BGE. 
 

if you’re unfamiliar with the bbq guru, you should check it out. It makes charcoal or wood fire cooking a lot easier and it is a self contained system. You can configure it to alert you by email if there are problems or when your meat reaches desired temp. 

I just put the BBQ Guru ULTRAQ KIT W/ PIT VIPER FAN AND CERAMIC ADAPTOR Price: $363.50 on my birthday gift list. hopefully have it next month. Especially like the Wi-Fi compatibility. Bluetooth doesn't have enough range for around the house. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Bumbershoot]

@vbPhil, here's another choice.  I've been using gear from these folks for years, and it's always proven to be accurate and reliable.  Below is an example, useful if you want to want to monitor your cook from the party down the block:

https://www.thermoworks.com/smoke-x/

This also has a controllable fan:

https://www.thermoworks.com/billows/

Here are available software packages for these devices (I'm still stuck in the analog phase of bbq monitoring - I hang around and watch, so I don't use any of these):

https://www.thermoworks.com/software/

[vbPhil]

34 minutes ago, Bumbershoot said:

@vbPhil, here's another choice.  I've been using gear from these folks for years, and it's always proven to be accurate and reliable.  Below is an example, useful if you want to want to monitor your cook from the party down the block:

https://www.thermoworks.com/smoke-x/

This also has a controllable fan:

https://www.thermoworks.com/billows/

Here are available software packages for these devices (I'm still stuck in the analog phase of bbq monitoring - I hang around and watch, so I don't use any of these):

https://www.thermoworks.com/software/

Yikes more to consider. I use the Thermoworks digital instant read thermometers so I'm familiar with the brand. Didn't realize their product line was so huge. Plenty of factors to look at.

[MrBill]

On 2/25/2023 at 9:36 AM, vbPhil said:

Bluetooth doesn't have enough range for around the house.

The Meater Block probes do work, I never updated here after complaining above.  The bluetooth connection is only between the Probes and the Block, the Block connects to Wifi.   When I was having the disconnection problem the block was too far from the probes, it does have to stay VERY close, but I'd rather deal with that than 4 wires.  It is shocking how low power the bluetooth signal in the probes actually is, I figured I should be able to set the block out of the way on top the pellet hopper but it really only works correctly when I put the block on the front shelf.

All that said I do find the alarms in the MEATER app annoying.... they must be acknowledged, although it's really not abd anymore because I'm no longer get disconnect alarms.

 

[vbPhil]

I decided on the Fireboard 2 Drive with the blower. This should work well with my Big Green Egg and regulating the temperature on the long 8-12 hour cooks. Also interested in how well they implemented the Predictive Analysis functionality.

https://www.fireboard.com/shop/fireboard-2-drive/

 

 

[steve-elves]

I bet you could use a Z-Uno board & program it in the Arduino IDE to read a couple of plug-in temperature probes, which are likely to be simple thermocouple or RTD types.  Could be powered by a Li rechargeable battery, and have a small LCD display - maybe in colour!  It would be a cool little project.