Letting The World See Your CyberQ Wifi

We showed you how to set up your router so that you could access the CyberQ Wifi from outside your home network. Well, if you can do it, so can anyone else in the world if they know your IP address. No one is going to guess your IP address, but you might wish to publish it in order to allow others to view your CyberQ Wifi unit. This of course subjects you to the risk that someone might think it's funny to play with the parameters and let you cook your pork butt until it reaches 600 degrees. There is no capability on the CyberQ Wifi to lock out users from making changes, so you should be careful about who you give access to.

Sending Updates Via Email

We showed you the email setup screen earlier, so it should be apparent that you can send emails from the CyberQ Wifi in order to be automatically notified of the unit's status. You have a choice of either sending an email at some specified time interval, such as every 5 minutes, or you can have an email sent only when an alarm occurs. There are instructions for setting this up in the CyberQ Wifi's User's Guide.

Notes About Wifi Operation

Here are a few more observations regarding wifi operation using the CyberQ Wifi:

• Wifi Range: Of course this depends an awful lot upon your wireless router's range as well as the CyberQ Wifi's range, but here's what we did. We placed the CyberQ Wifi on a shelf in the house up against an external wall. We took our laptop for a walk to see how far away we could get and still connect to the CyberQ Wifi. We could connect from about 110 feet away. We then put the CyberQ Wifi unit outside the house and repeated the experiment and were able to connect from about 265 feet away.

• No Signal strength Meter: There is no signal strength meter on the CyberQ Wifi (no bars), so if you are on the border of being able to make a connection, you won't be able to monitor your signal strength. However, if the CyberQ will initially connect without problem, there is a good chance you won't lose your connection since neither the CyberQ Wifi nor your router should be moving around very much.

• Ad hoc Mode Disconnects Your Device From The Network: When you use ad hoc mode, you have to disconnect your laptop or computer from your home network so that you can then connect to the CyberQ Wifi's network. So, you can't browse the web or check email while connected to the CyberQ Wifi in ad hoc mode.

• Troubleshooting Problems: We keep saying connecting is easy peasy, yet folks on various forums are having trouble. We'd suggest a few of things. First, reset your router to its factory defaults. Second, reset the CyberQ Wifi to its factory defaults. Third, there is a troubleshooting FAQ on the BBQ Guru website. When all else fails, contact the BBQ Guru.

• Operating in 802.11b Mode: As we showed in the features list at the start of this review, the CyberQ Wifi operates in 802.11b mode. This means your router must support 802.11b mode. This is an old wireless standard which operates at relatively slow speeds. In order to use the CyberQ Wifi on your network, you must make sure your router supports 802.11b and is set to operate in "Mixed" mode. Also, when using your CyberQ Wifi on your home network, the presence of this 802.11b device requires that the router slow down all traffic to this slower speed. Once you remove the CyberQ Wifi from your network, your router should restore speeds to whatever mode it was operating in previously.

Updating The Software

You can update the software on your CyberQ Wifi when there is an update made available. (The User's Guide does indicate there are a few bugs that are being fixed and will be made available in a new level of firmware.) Once you update the software, any fixes or new features will then be available for use in your CyberQ Wifi.

There are two ways to update the firmware. The first is send it back to the factory. The second method is described in the User's Guide and involves using the tftp (Trivial File Transfer Protocol) program that comes with Windows. However, you may find that your PC doesn't recognize the tftp command. What to do? You need to enable the TFTP Client on your machine. To do this, click on Start->Control Panel->Programs->Turn Windows Features On or Off->TFTP Client and then click on "OK". The TFTP program will be installed and you are now ready to follow the instructions in the User's Guide.

Operating The CyberQ Wifi

So, how does The CyberQ Wifi perform in operation? Well, probably the most important thing you want to know is how well does it control the temperature of the cookers? We did a test in which we allowed The CyberQ Wifi to control a large Big Green Egg cooker at 250, 350 and 450 degrees. We watched it bring the cooker up to temperature and after the cooker settled down, we watched the temperature of the cooker through many cycles to see how big of a "swing" there was between the low and high temperatures that The CyberQ Wifi permitted. Here's the results:

Target Temperature	Average Final Temperature	Temperature Swing
250°	256°	±5.0°
350°	350°	±1.0°
450°	450°	±1.0°

So The CyberQ Wifi controls the temperature very nicely and keeps better control of the temperature than most, if not all, kitchen ovens.

Third Party Software

So far, we have found one application for your PC to monitor the CyberQ Wifi. It is fittingly called the CyberQ Wifi Windows Controller. You can find it at www.wedonet.net. Here are some of the features it provides:

• Chart all probes during smoke
• Zoom into a range on the chart
• Print charts
• Reload chart from a previous smoke
• Update sensor values
• Setpoint and actual temps displayed in a gauge
• Query and export cook data to Excel

Update (05/14/15): NOTE: wedonet.com seems to have gone out of business. We are providing this link to download a copy of the CyberQ Wifi Windows Controller. It is provided as is and we have no connection or special knowledge about this software.

Update (10/10/19): NOTE: We recently found an App for iPhones called CyberCook Mini that costs $6.99 to purchase from the Apple Store. It has been around since 2014 (shame on us!) so it should be a fairly solid piece of software by now.

Update (12/14/21): We have been notified that a later version of the CyberQ Wifi Windows Controller is available. We are providing this link to download a copy of the CyberQ Wifi Windows Controller. It is provided as is and we have no connection or special knowledge about this software.

Summary

The original CyberQ II added "connectivity" to the BBQ Guru line of products, but as we said earlier, achieving "connectivity" proved to be a bit of challenge since it had to start with a USB connection on the system unit. To get a wireless connection, you needed to buy a wireless USB hub, some of which worked and some of which did not. It was best run by connecting it directly to a laptop via USB cable.

The CyberQ Wifi, however, offers easy remote connectivity via wifi and you can be on the network with it in a matter of minutes if you are familiar with a few network/router concepts. We found the new wifi features of the CyberQ Wifi easy peasy to set up (again, our only challenge was trying to figure out what certain features were called in our router). Even if you can't figure it out, if you have a friend who is somewhat familiar with home networking, they will find it easy peasy too.

And not only do you have the option of connecting the unit to your home network, you also have the option of using "ad hoc" mode where the CyberQ Wifi creates its own network. This means you can take the CyberQ Wifi with you anywhere and connect directly to it using any wifi-enable device with a web browser.

Of course, you'll find all the usual features that you expect on a BBQ Guru product, Open Lid Detect, Ramp Mode, Adaptive Control Algorithm, and configurable alarms. But, with this unit, you also can use 3 food probes rather than the usual one. How many times have you seen someone ask about cooking multiple pork butts and ask which one should they stick the temperature probe in?

So, all in all, the CyberQ Wifi is a welcome addition to the BBQ Guru line of products. It does a great job of controlling cookers and lets you remotely monitor and control your cooker.

Contact Information

If you are interested in The CyberQ Wifi, you can contact The BBQ Guru as follows:

The BBQ Guru
353 Ivyland Road
Warminster, PA 18974

215-674-9992
800-288-GURU (4878)

www.thebbqguru.com