WiFIRE Status Page has been updated (2020-05-20)

[dunawayfamily]

The WiFIRE Status Page has been updated today (2020-05-20) with the following:

Firmware for all Traeger Grills is currently 2.01.02 (as of 2020-05-18)
* Based on the Release Log, it does appear as though there may have been an issue with really long SSID Names (Fix character count when decoding SSID) ...
* They list the same Configuration Version values for the Ironwood 650 & Ironwood 885 that was documented on 2020-03-24, so I am wondering if that is an error/typo and due for correction

The ability to support 500 degrees is tied to the Config data file version for each Grill, and that value is Grill Model specific - see the following: https://www.traegergrills.com/status

04.016 is the current Config data version for the PRO 575 (as of 2020-03-24)
03.010 is the current Config data version for the PRO 780 (as of 2020-03-24)
08.005 is the current Config data version for the Timberline 850 (as of 2020-03-24)
07.006 is the current Config data version for the Timberline 1300 (as of 2020-03-24)
06.009 is the current Config data version for the Ironwood 650 (as of 2020-03-24)
05.009 is the current Config data version for the Ironwood 885 (as of 2020-03-24)
10.005 is the current Config data version for the Silverton 620 (as of 2020-03-24)
09.005 is the current Config data version for the Silverton 810 (as of 2020-03-24)
11.005 is the current Config data version for the Century 885 (as of 2020-03-24)

 

[audis404]

That's great and all...but can we actually receive the update now?

 

[dunawayfamily]

That's great and all...but can we actually receive the update now?

My PRO 780 has been on for well over a week ... just power cycled it ... and nothing is downloading ... will give it til tomorrow ... then calling into support again ...

 

[audis404]

I called support at the end of April and was told a new version of the app will allow a fetch option for updates. They wanted to replace my controller, but from a technical standpoint it doesn't make sense. I never lose WIFI connection and I have run several ping test to the grill with no packet loss. I have a dedicated 2.4ghz network set up just for the grill with excellent signal strength. Coming from an IT background, WIFI was a huge afterthought in the production of these grills.

 

[dunawayfamily]

I called support at the end of April and was told a new version of the app will allow a fetch option for updates. They wanted to replace my controller, but from a technical standpoint it doesn't make sense. I never lose WIFI connection and I have run several ping test to the grill with no packet loss. I have a dedicated 2.4ghz network set up just for the grill with excellent signal strength. Coming from an IT background, WIFI was a huge afterthought in the production of these grills.

I have heard the same regarding changes to the App to allow for PULL updates ... what concerns me is that Traeger Support has told some people that the January Update release revealed an issue where some WiFIRE Controllers were susceptible to Firmware Corruption, and given that, if your Grill UUID matches the "lot #s" they are tracking, they will send out a new WiFIRE Controller that has already been given a more recent Firmware / Config version installation ... To my knowledge, they have not published a listing of potentially impacted Grill UUID values that fit within this scenario ... I know when I set my PRO 780 up in February, it installed the January Updates without issue and I have been stuck at those versions ever since ...

I also have an IT background - 30+ years in Enterprise Networking & Security ... I often have to share the following with people to explain why Traeger chose to implement a Wi-Fi chipset that requires a 2.4GHz Wireless connection:

---------------------

The goal for all IOT-device vendors is to reach the widest possible customer base "out-of-the-box" ... that means targeting the most widely implemented Wi-Fi Standard possible ... the following table is a quick summary of the timeline of the "major" releases with regards to Wi-Fi that have been widely adopted by the industry:

802.11b - circa 2000 - 2.4GHz - 11Mb/sec max data rate
802.11g - circa 2003 - 2.4GHz - 54Mb/sec max data rate
802.11n (aka Wi-Fi 4) - circa 2009 - 2.4GHz & 5GHz - 600Mb/sec max data rate
802.11ac (aka Wi-Fi 5) - circa 2013 - 2.4GHz & 5GHz - 600Mb/sec max data rate
+ wider channels & more streams & higher-order modulation & addition of MU-MIMO
+ Mesh Networks starting to become available 2017+
802.11ax (aka Wi-Fi 6) - circa 2019/2020 - 2.4GHz & 5GHz
+ goal is to provide 4x the throughput of 802.11ac
+ OFDMA introduced for multiplexing

Given the above, almost all IOT-device vendors implement Wi-Fi via a chipset that supports 802.11b/g/n, as that will reach the widest possible customer base, thus creating the requirement for connecting the IOT-device to a 2.4GHz Wireless Network ... what seems a bit "unique" to the chipset used in the WiFIRE Controllers is the inability to connect to a single Wireless Network Name (SSID) that includes both 2.4GHz & 5GHz, thus needing to rename one of the frequencies ... In my setup, I choose to rename the 5GHz channel (idIOT & idIOT 5GHz) ... Traeger is not the first/only vendor to make the "you must have separate Wireless Network Names" requirement, but I would agree that in 2018-2020+, that caught me off-guard, but since I have run into it in the past, I was prepared to make the necessary changes during my initial setup phase of the WiFIRE Controller ...

 

[audis404]

Yea, I use several IOT devices in my home as well. Nothing like having to dumb down a router to get it work with something that came out in the last few years. Most vendors are now moving towards 5ghz(Ring,Nest and Amazon). I have a AX router which is capable of WPA3...It will probably be another 10 years for that to become a standard lol. The problem I am having with Traeger is the lack of technical experience with the WIFIRE.

 

[dunawayfamily]

Yea, I use several IOT devices in my home as well. Nothing like having to dumb down a router to get it work with something that came out in the last few years. Most vendors are now moving towards 5ghz(Ring,Nest and Amazon). I have a AX router which is capable of WPA3...It will probably be another 10 years for that to become a standard lol. The problem I am having with Traeger is the lack of technical experience with the WIFIRE.

They have pulled in a Customer Support outsourcer in UT (probably from down the street) ... all the job postings for that company are for Traeger Customer Service Reps ... so there is a high probability that they are all reading from a script with no technical knowledge of the WiFIRE Controller & Grill itself, or with 802.11 Wireless Networking to any extent ... they truly underestimated that by rolling out WiFIRE and joining in the IoT "revolution" that they instantly became a technology company and needed to have the appropriate support capabilities in place to handle the influx of customer inquiries ... doing it after the fact is a long road full of brand-damage and unhappy/frustrated customers ...

 

[cawatx]

I just got off the phone with Traeger support after a two-hour wait on hold. They are sending a new control panel is their answer. My Ironwood is brand new, just purchased in April. I have had zero issues until the firmware update they sent out on May 18th. My Traeger powers on then power off within 10 seconds.

 

[dunawayfamily]

I just got off the phone with Traeger support after a two-hour wait on hold. They are sending a new control panel is their answer. My Ironwood is brand new, just purchased in April. I have had zero issues until the firmware update they sent out on May 18th. My Traeger powers on then power off within 10 seconds.

Sorry to hear that their Firmware Update bricked the WiFIRE Controller ... Traeger's QA/QC needs some serious improvements ...

 

[FJSonin]

Hello all! I just bought a Pro 575 yesterday, I did the first run following the procedure, I think it went well. During the process, I linked the grill to my app, it started updating and then it kept blocked on "applying updates" during more than 1 hour. I shutdown the grill thinking that maybe something didn't work.

So I tried several times to trigger the update but nothing worked, it's connected to my network, I can control the Traeger from my app and everything. Every time I start the initial procedure from the beginning, it says in this order: "Connecting to network" ->"Checking updates" -> "Downloading files" -> "Finalization" and it's done.

But I am still on 02.00.01 and config version 04.012 and I left the grill ON for the night but nothing happened.

Anyone experiencing the same issue?

Thanks in advance!

 

[FJSonin]

Hello all! I just bought a Pro 575 yesterday, I did the first run following the procedure, I think it went well. During the process, I linked the grill to my app, it started updating and then it kept blocked on "applying updates" during more than 1 hour. I shutdown the grill thinking that maybe something didn't work.

So I tried several times to trigger the update but nothing worked, it's connected to my network, I can control the Traeger from my app and everything. Every time I start the initial procedure from the beginning, it says in this order: "Connecting to network" ->"Checking updates" -> "Downloading files" -> "Finalization" and it's done.

But I am still on 02.00.01 and config version 04.012 and I left the grill ON for the night but nothing happened.

Anyone experiencing the same issue?

Thanks in advance!

The firmware update went through a couple of minutes ago, now it says 2.01.02 but the config file is still 04.012

 

[MikeyR]

The firmware update went through a couple of minutes ago, now it says 2.01.02 but the config file is still 04.012

Can you get to 500F?

 

[FJSonin]

Can you get to 500F?

Hey, no it goes to 450F max.

 

[dunawayfamily]

Hey, no it goes to 450F max.

The Config version is what controls "features" - and you need 04.016 (I believe 04.015 supported 500 degrees as well) for the PRO 575 ...

 

[rlaverda]

The Config version is what controls "features" - and you need 04.016 (I believe 04.015 supported 500 degrees as well) for the PRO 575 ...

my grill has firmware 2.01.02 now too. Waiting for config file update