is it possible to patch in an external WiFi antenna on Gen 1 (AC) 1300 Timberline?

[smokeOnwater]

I am a ham radio guy, an EE, so I think I might take on the job, but is it possible to attach an external antenna... does the internal controller circuit board accept such an external antenna?
Or is the controller PCB using and dedicated to a strip antenna on the PCB?

Thanks for any help.

 

[KraZ440]

See: https://www.traegerforum.com/threads/ironwood-wifi-antenna.254/

 

[smokeOnwater]

Thank you, much appreciated I went through it, and it provides some direction to look at. Though the schematic is a bit incomplete as I posted on that thread. But more research will probably find out the rest of the info needed to slap on a connector and gain the benefit of an external antenna.

 

[smokeOnwater]

btw there is another option for extending wifi range.
Use these HomePlug adapters which basically run ethernet over your home AC power wiring. So it comes with a pair of devices, one attaches to your home internet router and an AC plug. The other device goes near your grill, presumably where you plug it in, into an AC network, and then this second device also has a 2.4G WiFi access point, which your Traeger can hook up to with full signal.

However, I heard these homeplug adapters have problems with the ethernet signal crossing across circuits in the fuse box, so not sure if they work or not. I will try a pair and let yal know.

 

[KraZ440]

I use a couple of powerline adapters so that I can have a Wi-Fi AP close to my grill. The two endpoints are on two different circuits, but they sync up fine. When I run speedtest through them, they provide more than enough bandwidth for handling the grill (I probably wouldn't want to download an MMO across it, but that isn't its purpose).

 

[smokeOnwater]

Thanks for sharing that. I just ordered a pair of homeplug devices with a wifi extender on one end.
Alternatively I can just homeplug to homeplug and put an AP out there, too, as you've done.
I just got a very good deal on the wifi extender version on Amazon (refurb).
I was concerned about different circuits but as long as the two outlets are on the same leg or phase in the panel, then despite lower throughput, as you pointed out, it will be way more than enough to connect traeger to the app.

If this wifi extender works as well as it should, I shouldn't even have to Forget the current network and repair, but something tells me it wont be that easy.

 

[KraZ440]

90% of the reason I went with my chosen solution is because I had all the necessary parts sitting in a bin on the shelf.

 

[smokeOnwater]

The access point I'd like to clone and extend is a ceiling AP, with no clone button on it.
So I hope to use the web management interface of this TP link device to set it up as a WiFi extender.
(Your solution gets around all of that and is my backup method)

All this to check the temp on a piece of meat I am cooking.

What would a cook from even 50 years ago think!!

 

[KraZ440]

All this to check the temp on a piece of meat I am cooking.

If you want to check the temp of the meat you are cooking using the Traeger controller, I'd suggest you rethink things. A lot of people here on the forum have confirmed that the Traeger meat probe is not reliable and have chosen to get an Inkbird or Fireboard for monitoring temps (do a search for threads here, there are a lot). I have a Fireboard for monitoring both pit and meat temps. I use my Traeger app only for control.

 

[smokeOnwater]

Most def. I have up and running an Inkbird. Just for fun, I found in my case at least, that the 4 inkbird probes, once the internal temps stabilized (10 min after preheat was done), that all 5 sensors (4 inks + 1 traeger RTD) were roughly within 10-15 deg of each other. This is with placing the Ink so that none of them were touching the metal and measure the air temps only, in 4 various locations, once next to the grill RTD.

My used Timber didn't come with a meat probe, so I'll see how that agrees with the Inks, once Amazon gets it to me.

But surely I will rely on the Inkbird for more accurate reading, and will plan to have a third brand just to make sure that I have three different probe types, so I can understand if any one of the three is out of agreement.

 

[KraZ440]

I'm one of the lucky ones. My Traeger pit probe is +/-10F from Fireboard (at the extremes; the standard cooking zone is real close). I've never bothered trying the meat probe, because I already chose to get a Fireboard and I wanted all my temps in one place.

 

[smokeOnwater]

I really like the Fireboard graphing I've seen on this forum, that is very cool, which helps one deeply learn how the traeger behaves and cooks food. I might switch to that brand once I play around the Ink's and see how/if I can export the data to graph it.

Thanks for the info.

 

[MidwestSmoker]

Thanks for sharing that. I just ordered a pair of homeplug devices with a wifi extender on one end.
Alternatively I can just homeplug to homeplug and put an AP out there, too, as you've done.
I just got a very good deal on the wifi extender version on Amazon (refurb).
I was concerned about different circuits but as long as the two outlets are on the same leg or phase in the panel, then despite lower throughput, as you pointed out, it will be way more than enough to connect traeger to the app.

If this wifi extender works as well as it should, I shouldn't even have to Forget the current network and repair, but something tells me it wont be that easy.

If it does not work, I can suggest a simpler solution. Like most I am sure you have a previous generation router lying around. Just wire it directly to your current router and set it up as an access point only restricted to 2.4 GHz. Call this WiFi network a completely different name than your regular network. Because it is 2.4 GHz it will have a very wide range and easily cover your whole house. Now move all your IoT devices, including the Traeger, to this network.

 

[smokeOnwater]

I have better than that already, I have multiple access point on both bands, named all differently, so that IoT devices like Traeger can always be bound to a 2.4GHz access point name. They are just not having enough range through all the walls and outside to the BBQ area, and with the Traeger facing away from the house. Hence, I need a wifi transmitter outside, and I am going to put it inside my BBQ island where there is a weather protected outlet. I am betting that one layer of cinder block and stucco won't attenuate the signal enough to lose the Traeger connection. I think it will be fine this way.

Ideally I'd patch an antenna onto the Traeger PCB, but after looking at some websites, it would be a $400 penalty if I got it wrong and had to buy a new controller.

 

[smokeOnwater]

Problem solved. Got a wifi extender that is the TP-LINK AV-600 ($39 refurb on amazon).
It actually comes with a wifi access point built in, two little boxes with AC plugs, the first connects to your home network and forwards all the traffic on your home power lines to the second little box which connects that traffic to the WiFi built into it.
Plug one unit into home AC outlet (on same leg of the breaker panel as your Trag), and the other end with the WiFi access point into an outlet near the Traeger.

In my case, the first box went in the kitchen, plugged into a kitchen desk outlet and an ethernet jack which was unused at the kitchen desk (the ethernet jack is part of home network pre-wire for Ethernet). The second box went outside in my gas grill station which has an outlet box inside the cinder block structure which is more or less water proof. The traeger is on the other side of this cinder block, facing away from the cinder block, however the signal is strong enough to bounce around the patio furniture and get through the front panel to the Traeger WiFi.

BTW, once you've connected your phone successfully the traeger like it's an access point, it's so easy to add the Grill to the app later, it just always works. That was the hack for me which allowed me to connect. What you do, if you're having problems adding the grill to your app for the first time, is Menu -> WiFi Information and Forget Network just to erase all previous network settings. Now the Traeger is looking for a phone app to connect to it. So open your phone WiFi, and look for another WiFi service called Traeger-1234, where 1234 is your device number (see under hopper lid, or in the WiFI Information menu. For the password enter in the UUID in the WiFi Information Menu, and you'll connect. Of course you can't do anything else, that's just to have the phone now know the Traeger WiFi set up.
Now connect back to your regular WiFi network that you usually want to use to talk to the Traeger (making sure that that WiFi signal can reach our treager from the house) through the regular add Grill workflow on the App, and it should work smoothly every time. Note you need to be connected to your home wifi service before you start the app, otherwise the app will try to connect the Traeger to the wrong WiFi service.

The flow goes like this, hope i am not confusing anyone:
- Forget Wifi settings on Traeger, Traeger now turns into a WiFi access point.
- Connect your phone via WiFi to your Traeger using your grills UUID (found on WiFi Information) as the network password
- Connect your phone back to the normal home wifi that you use.
- Start Traeger app
- Traeger app will confirm that your normal home wifi is the one that the grill should connect to. Select it to confirm yes.
- Your Traeger app on the phone then connects to the Traeger using the settings it remembers from step 2 above, you skip the whole UUID entry process which seemed very flaky for me.
- Your Traeger app sends your home wifi name and password to the Treager grill (yea, not that safe!)
- The app on your phone disconnects from Traeger, the Traeger grill now tries to connect to your home wifi using the name and password that your Traeger app/phone passed to it in previous step.
- Now your Traeger app waits a while ... assumes the grill must have connected to the home wifi, and they start talking to each other over the home WiFi network.
- what I don't know is how they find each other, how/if/when do they learn each others IP address, but there are ways to do that, and that is not the hard part per se. The major accomplishment is to get them both on your home wifi network with IP addresses that can talk to each other.