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bobvoeh

Greetings from South Florida !!

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Hi all, let me introduce myself. I'm the soon to be happy owner of a Black Tiled / Dark Charcoal Grout Gen II OTB Ultimate. Well, let me rephrase that. I'm the happy soon to be owner..... I think I'll name him Dragó (from Rocky 4).

I'm a Senior Network Engineer, therefore this KK will be the one of the few things in my house more expensive than my PC, although not by much. The only thing I'm not decided on is whether to run a Lan jack to the patio or setup a spare Wireless Access Point for a Stoker. What good is a Grill if a computer geek can't monitor it in his web browser? :smt024

As soon as Dragó arrives, I'll post some pictures. Should be in around 2nd week of May. Ahhh, the long wait begins !!!

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Welcome to the club :D

Soon, you will be cooking up a storm. Im in Central Fl, so between the two of us, we should keep the people in between us perpetually hungry with the smells of our successes I guess its a good thing that area is sparsely populated :wink:

Im a technical trainer for a software company, so I also have a tendancy to over-engineer anything technological. When I moved in I wired every room in the house with a few data jacks, and made a network run into the lanai as well. I also covered the house with wireless using 2 access points, to ensure solid coverage throughout, and on the patio, too.

I have to admit the stokers web interface is the only thing that gives that unit appeal to me. But after a year of going back and forth, I think I am on the guru side of the fence. They have some nice features, such as the ramping option, and the simplicity of just plugging it in and having it work has to be worth something. I haven't bought one yet, because I am waiting and hoping that the procom (wireless model) gets the same overhaul the competitor model got last winter - waterproof aluminum housing, etc. Besides, I work from home when I am not on the road teaching classes. It gives me an excuse to put the laptop down, and be more productive by going out to check the grill and smell the goodness coming out of it :lol:

You will be amazed at how stable the KK is without the assistance of a temperature controller, too.

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Hawaiian Pirate, I know what you mean. Its bad enough now and I just placed the order. I'll really be hating life when its a week or two out.

Firemonkey, I feel your pain about over engineering. I have Gig throughout the house as well as a 54g Wireless Network. I'm about to upgrade the Wireless to N and setup a mesh with several AP's. The Mesh will run on the 802.11a backbone and the clients will run on the 802.11g (all at N speeds). Not because I need to, just because I can :D .

As far as the Stoker goes, I'm thinking of getting it in case I need to leave the house for any reason during a smoke. If a server or network component goes belly up, I need to head into the office asap.

The 2 reasons I'm leaning towards the Stoker is

1 - The Web Interface. I see it as a great tool if I'm not at the house to monitor a cook, I can check in on it from wherever, even on my phone. Windows Mobile is a beautiful thing.

2 - My friend at work (The one wearing the cast in my Avatar) has one and has had great results on his BGE with it.

I also know what you mean by "Sparsely Populated between us", we visit Mickey twice a year and the drive up the Turnpike gives BFE a new meaning !!!

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I have the stoker and I use a wireless gaming adapter to connect it to my network. I also run a 3rd party program to control and monitor the stoker, nice little program written by a guy over at the Virtual Weber Bullet forum.

Here is a screen shot of StokerLog

Pq1PyAk0.jpg

You can read about the StokerLog here:

Virtual Weber Bullet Forum

Man that is cool. The inner geek in me would love this type thing. But until Stoker puts it in a package more like the Guru, I just can't see it. Be cool if Guru added web capabilities to their controller.

-=Jasen=-

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Nice !! Now I can actually get a notification on my blackberry that I would actually care about :D I think that just made up my mind to get the stoker. I was pretty much already there, that just nudged me over.

thanks !!

I have the stoker and I use a wireless gaming adapter to connect it to my network. I also run a 3rd party program to control and monitor the stoker, nice little program written by a guy over at the Virtual Weber Bullet forum.

Here is a screen shot of StokerLog

Pq1PyAk0.jpg

You can read about the StokerLog here:

Virtual Weber Bullet Forum

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Man that is cool. The inner geek in me would love this type thing. But until Stoker puts it in a package more like the Guru, I just can't see it. Be cool if Guru added web capabilities to their controller.

-=Jasen=-

I don't know Deej - I have been checking this thing out from head to toe. Turns out that the web client built into the Stoker can be accessed from outside your private LAN. Just gotta play with the Router settings. I have heard reports from people using the web client bundled with the Stoker and the software from Amir to send alerts to wireless devices, change settings using their data-enabled cell phones, etc. I like the Procom, but this gives you an infinite range as opposed to 600 ft. line of sight! :D Also, with Amir's program you can save cooks. Now you can look back at how long that 14 lb. turkey took to cook and at what temp. you used! I'm leanin' towards the Stoker right now but still doing homework. I'll meet up with the Guru guys tomorrow at the MABA show in Lancaster, PA.

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DJ has a valid observation...the stoker folks need to refine their housing. It is in a case that one would expect to find mounted on a panel in a comm closet, where the guru is in a small housing.

I have always been drawn to the stoker for the network features, but reality is that I work from home, so the web interface would broadcast no further than my laptop on the sofa. For all of that, the guru has its simplicity, since its completely self contained, and it just a handheld receiver that I could set on a nightstand or something when doing a long cook.

Now, if the guru could do the logging that the app shown above does, it would be perfect. (And if the guru could handle multiple probes/blowers like the stoker that would be even better!)

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DJ has a valid observation...the stoker folks need to refine their housing. It is in a case that one would expect to find mounted on a panel in a comm closet, where the guru is in a small housing.

Exactly what I meant. Man that enclosure just kills the Stoker for me. Great features and I love to mod stuff. But my Guru unit attaches right there on the fan and is a pretty simple package. Maybe if I had an outdoor kitchen or tables around my grill it would not make so much difference. But fact is, I don't and space is in high value.

Of course the other thing is I work an hour from home and 12 hour shift. Never gonna be a time I cook while I work. So the trend and save feature interest me most on the Stoker. But the Guru's small remote actually makes more sense while I am working in my shop or kicking Firemonkey & Majestik's butt on Xbox live...hehe!

-=Jasen=-

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All good points gents! That must be why I got a DigiQII today at the MABA event in Lancaster, PA. I hung with Shotgun Larry, BBQ Bob, Kenny, and Brent. All great guys.

Deej - a little insight - be patient and BBQ Guru will grant your wish on a LAN controlled ATC. Rest assured, the BBQ Guru guys are not letting any grass grow under their feet! It will be SWEET and probably available in the next 6 months or so... BBQ Competition season is coming up so you know where their attention will be! (but you didn't any of this from me!) ;)

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All good points gents! That must be why I got a DigiQII today at the MABA event in Lancaster, PA. I hung with Shotgun Larry, BBQ Bob, Kenny, and Brent. All great guys.

Deej - a little insight - be patient and BBQ Guru will grant your wish on a LAN controlled ATC. Rest assured, the BBQ Guru guys are not letting any grass grow under their feet! It will be SWEET and probably available in the next 6 months or so... BBQ Competition season is coming up so you know where their attention will be! (but you didn't any of this from me!) ;)

Good deal on the DigiQII. Neat little controller. I have one of those too.

I think you mean Shotgun Fred? Yeah, trust me, they have gotten an ear full from me about these suggestions. I actually wrote them a list of new features I want on the procom....we will see.

In case you did not know, I also admin the forum for the BBQ Guru folks too. ;)

-=Jasen=-

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All good points gents! That must be why I got a DigiQII today at the MABA event in Lancaster, PA. I hung with Shotgun Larry, BBQ Bob, Kenny, and Brent. All great guys.

Deej - a little insight - be patient and BBQ Guru will grant your wish on a LAN controlled ATC. Rest assured, the BBQ Guru guys are not letting any grass grow under their feet! It will be SWEET and probably available in the next 6 months or so... BBQ Competition season is coming up so you know where their attention will be! (but you didn't any of this from me!) ;)

Good deal on the DigiQII. Neat little controller. I have one of those too.

I think you mean Shotgun Fred? Yeah, trust me, they have gotten an ear full from me about these suggestions. I actually wrote them a list of new features I want on the procom....we will see. :roll:

BTW, I also admin the forum for the BBQ Guru folks too. ;)

-=Jasen=-

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All good points gents! That must be why I got a DigiQII today at the MABA event in Lancaster, PA. I hung with Shotgun Larry, BBQ Bob, Kenny, and Brent. All great guys.

Deej - a little insight - be patient and BBQ Guru will grant your wish on a LAN controlled ATC. Rest assured, the BBQ Guru guys are not letting any grass grow under their feet! It will be SWEET and probably available in the next 6 months or so... BBQ Competition season is coming up so you know where their attention will be! (but you didn't any of this from me!) ;)

Any idea if will support more than 1 food probe?

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I'm sorry Bob, I never saw your question on this post.

The DigiQII only supports one food probe. Also the ports are not assignable.

The Stoker can support multiple food probes and you can stick any probe, or fan in any of the receiving ports due to the use of "intelligent" probes. Neat feature. Actually, pound for pound the Stoker is a great product and well priced. However, the simplicity of the DigiQII is what won me over! :D

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