Auber wifi Finally

[normanaj]

Great advice But..

This PID is made for a smoker.

How many of your customers use their smoker indoors? My wife won't let me smoke briskets inside the house

Why not just bring the controller indoors when not in use as the 1520 is completely portable.

Do you expose your MES to the rain when using it or do you use it under cover/protection? When not in use do you cover it?

Enclosing your Auber as is in a box can very well cause it to overheat so make sure there's enough room for air circulation and add proper ventilation.

 

[civilsmoker]

Just saying I don’t know if a single pellet smoker that advertises waterproof controllers, but all do well if covered protected from the nasty weather.

Aubers doesn’t make water proof enclosures but there are many on Amazon. The question to ask them if it’s a solenoid control or SSR. If solenoid you could put it in a water proof box with clear lid as it doesn’t need to dissipate the heat.

 

[chopsaw]

Mines been sitting on top of my MES under a roof , but no cover for 2 years . Not suggesting anyone else does that though .
I used to unplug it and bring it inside .

 

[zwiller]

I paid about 3x more for my Auber than my smoker so I get it. Mine comes in after every use. I have a bucket that is just the right size that I turn over and use to cover it when I am running. We could go down the IP rating rabbit hole but I think the the controller is weather RESISTANT just not waterproof.

 

[crankybuzzard]

Small clear plastic tote from walmart. Cut a 4" x 4" hole in the lid and hot glue some hardware cloth over it. Place the lid on a table, put the PID on the lid, and then put the tote on the lid.

 

[Dashweb]

Tips on connecting to the Auber 1520 H WIFI.

If you get frustration getting the app to work …

After struggling for many hours to get the controller connected, and have the phone app communicate properly, involving Auber technical support and reading many PDF’s and watching u-tube videos and reading the forum here, I have the following tips.

I have an android phone, and very good WIFI in the house.
MES 40, Mailbox mod.

Allow all permissions

• When you DOWNLOAD the Auber WIFI app, ALLOW all permissions.
• When you allow location, allow PRECISE location, not just GENERAL
• Permit NOTIFICATIONS

Have phone on the 2.4 G band on initial set up

Your PHONE should be connected to WIFI in the 2.4 G band. You probably have a 5G band as well, but go to settings/WIFI and make sure you are on a 2.4 band.

Change android battery management for the Auber WIFI app

(if you keep going from connected/ unconnected status)

Go to your Android settings, search Auber WIFI on the top and enter, go to "battery", then change "manage battery usage". Change the option to "Unrestricted" instead. Default option is "optimized". It is based on Android 13 and there should be similar settings for other recent Android versions.


Turn off “pause app if not used”

(If you have to exit the program and restart it every time you want to check it)

Go to settings /WIFI /Auber WIFI, and you will see a switch saying “pause the app if unused." Turn that off.

This is the summary of what I did to get the Phone and Auber to pair, to keep it connected, and to allow me to not have to always exit and re-enter the app.

Auber customer support is good, they get back the next day by e mail. Internet Searching for your specific problem is faster and casts a wider net.

For me, its still finicky with regard to WIFI, not rock solid and reliable. I am using the WIFI feature a lot since I am getting used to it and setting it up. My hope is when I have it dialed in, I won’t need to look at it for more than a few seconds.

My overall view –

Pros

I LOVE the step feature. I have that linked to meat temperature.

• When the brisket is cold the oven temp is 180 degrees,
• 
  
• when the meat gets to 100 degrees, I go up to 200 oven temp.
• 
  
• When the meat is at 160, I go to 225 oven temp,
• 
  
• meat at 180 I go to 235 oven temp,
• 
  
• when the brisket hit 200 degrees, I lower the oven temp to 130 for 4 hours.

I don’t really know if that makes a difference from running at 225 the whole way, or if those settings are optimal, but I am curious.

I LOVE the graphs.

AUTOTUNE worked well for me. I started with the Chopsaw/Tallbm/DrK settings, but that raised the oven temperature too slow. I did the autotune when things were in balance (oven at 200 degrees), it took about 10 minutes.

Cons

Products I had in the last 5 years connect seamlessly to WIFI and I don’t have to dig/ troubleshoot/ call customer service/ do a write up for fellow sufferers. I’m Absolutely frustrated that it won’t stay connected. That may be a “only me” issue. I mean even my cat litter box has WIFI and it worked right away and is great, never an issue.

Customer service at Auber does like to blame the victim, here are some of their responses. (Keep in mind I have NO issues with any of my other WIFI devices.)

“Many factors seem to affect the connection, such as the EMI generated by devices like a microwave, WIFI signal strength, how congested is the Wi-Fi___33 network or particular channel, how well a wireless router handles its internet traffic, how a phone distributes its resources, etc. “

“Our app does not restrict anything. The overall connection status of this app depends on many factors. Our office used to have an old 2.4GHz WIFI router/modem. Whenever my phone was connected to WiFi network generated by this router, the app was constantly reconnecting. But when my phone was connected to a WiFi network that was generated by a much newer router, the connection was very stable. Also, sometimes at certain hours during the day, the connection will become unstable for no obvious reason. It could be that there is much more EMI or there is much more internet traffic competing for the bandwidth. Also, one time a customer told us that he discovered that an ad-blocking app he installed on his phone was somehow causing the connection issue in our app. “


OK I am one step closer to the coveted OTBS membership

 

[crankybuzzard]

OK I am one step closer to the coveted OTBS membership

Indeed you are Grasshopper.... One step closer...

Seriously, that was some good information and well written.

Keep at it, you have some good info so far.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

CB Had me up and running few weeks ago.

Hate to be a bubble buster.
But I would say yeah closer in about 2-3 years.

"Ok I am one step closer to the coveted OTBS membership"

 

[zwiller]

D Dashweb Sorry I didn't get a chance to respond to your previous posts got busy at work to do a deep dive. I am TOTALLY with you that the Auber wifi is weak ESPECIALLY the initial setup. Compared to my Weber Smokefire it's sad actually. Smokefire connects seamlessly each time I run it and I have not done anything with it from when I originally set it up going on 2 years now. One thing that helps me from totally losing it about the Auber is that once the initial programming is done the Auber works flawlessly (does all the step programming etc) even if not connected, so remember the Auber is the brains and the wifi is just a data import. Originally thought it was the opposite. Also, I keep in mine how much easier it is to program compared to the older models...

My personal opinion is that there is something about the how the Auber is constructed (case?) that reduces the wifi reception. When I would program it in the house before connecting top smoker it worked great. Take it outside to use and it turned wonky (and were talking small distances here). I solved MOST of my issues by putting a wifi extender in the garage which is like 20 feet tops from the smoker.

All in all, I am satisfied with the unit but I did expect it be better. Wifi needs improvement and app needs updating to be more user friendly. IE: I don't need fancy GUI with drumstick pics and factory presets for chicken but I do expect to be able to rename presets as "sausage" instead of F1.

In case someone is using this thread to help themselves through setting it up.

https://www.auberforums.com/index.php?topic=1728.0

 

[BGKYSmoker]

So far im not having any wifi prob. Yes way out here in farmvill we have fiber optic internet. router is duel 2.4 and 5 gz

 

[Dashweb]

D Dashweb Sorry I didn't get a chance to respond to your previous posts got busy at work to do a deep dive. I am TOTALLY with you that the Auber wifi is weak ESPECIALLY the initial setup. Compared to my Weber Smokefire it's sad actually. Smokefire connects seamlessly each time I run it and I have not done anything with it from when I originally set it up going on 2 years now. One thing that helps me from totally losing it about the Auber is that once the initial programming is done the Auber works flawlessly (does all the step programming etc) even if not connected, so remember the Auber is the brains and the wifi is just a data import. Originally thought it was the opposite. Also, I keep in mine how much easier it is to program compared to the older models...

My personal opinion is that there is something about the how the Auber is constructed (case?) that reduces the wifi reception. When I would program it in the house before connecting top smoker it worked great. Take it outside to use and it turned wonky (and were talking small distances here). I solved MOST of my issues by putting a wifi extender in the garage which is like 20 feet tops from the smoker.

All in all, I am satisfied with the unit but I did expect it be better. Wifi needs improvement and app needs updating to be more user friendly. IE: I don't need fancy GUI with drumstick pics and factory presets for chicken but I do expect to be able to rename presets as "sausage" instead of F1.

In case someone is using this thread to help themselves through setting it up.

https://www.auberforums.com/index.php?topic=1728.0

Zwiller,

Man, I wish I found the thread you reference above before now.
It largely shows the same path I took on my bumpy WIFI journey.

https://www.auberforums.com/index.php?topic=1728.0

AUTOTUNE
I do have a difference experience with AUTOTUNE. Yes, the autotune numbers were far off from the Forum-recommended values. But, it worked better for me. With Forum values, The oven temp was going up only one degree every few minutes, (going from 200 to 225, after an hour reaching only 215 degrees) I thought "I may as well try autotune". It cycled down to 200, occillated temps for about 10 minutes and then it worked fine, it took scant minutes to rise up to 225 and held there within a degree. The numbers make no sense. I thought "Am I looking for this to work, or am I looking to get pretty numbers?" I only did this once, and plan to repeat it and compare the autotune numbers. My hypothesis is that if you follow the direction, and have the smoker STABLE at around 200 degrees, it works, but if you are doing it in a cold smoker at the start it will have too many variables. Also I had a 15 pound test brisket wrapped in butcher paper for this trial.