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

[dunawayfamily]

My grill had the config version 04.016 yet still wouldn't allow the temp to be set to 500. Back on May 23rd I posted that I had the latest firmware AND config but was still not able to go to 500. There must be something else besides the firmware and config updates that also has to happen.

That sounds like your controller may have had a file lock issue or a process that had not restarted/refreshed on the WiFIRE Controller "as expected" after the updates ... one of the challenges of IoT-based devices is the lack of end user accessible insight into what goes on during startup and updates ...

Our controller performed both updates while in Sleep mode, and as soon as I verified that the latest Config Version was installed, I was able to select 500 degrees via the dial and within the app ... a couple other people I saw post on various Traeger-related FB pages who had similar experiences as yours, stated that once they powered off the controller and completely closed out of the app, and then powered back on and relaunched the App, they were then able to select 500 degrees going forward ...

 

[sbaishya]

For some unknown reason, every time the WiFIRE Controller checks-in to the Traeger Cloud back-end, I see Checking Files briefly, followed by Downloading Files briefly, on the controller display and no updates have actually been downloaded/installed (it also never shows the Applying Updates message on the controller display - this is when you know something is actually being installed) ... I don't believe anything was downloaded either given how short the message was displayed on the controller ... you can Factory Reset a WiFIRE Controller and you will see this behavior ...

I did a Factory Reset on 05/19 to see if I could "force/trigger" the May Updates to install ... nothing happened except the behavior described above ... then, while in sleep mode a few hours afterwards, my PRO 780 received/"applied"/installed the 2.01.02 Firmware Update, and approximately 12 hours later, the 03.010 Config Version update ...

Hi, I'm glad it worked out for you.

I recently (Jun 15th) bought a 780 from home deport. I have been trying to get the firmware update to the latest since then with no luck. "Tech support" people at Traeger - half of them doesn't have a clue what is going on. Have been in call with them probably ten times and each of them had a different suggestion. I'm stuck with 02.00.01 and config 03.007. My grill is on standby mode since Jun 15th. Any suggestion?

 

[dunawayfamily]

Hi, I'm glad it worked out for you.

I recently (Jun 15th) bought a 780 from home deport. I have been trying to get the firmware update to the latest since then with no luck. "Tech support" people at Traeger - half of them doesn't have a clue what is going on. Have been in call with them probably ten times and each of them had a different suggestion. I'm stuck with 02.00.01 and config 03.007. My grill is on standby mode since Jun 15th. Any suggestion?

The is an FAQ that we discuss here quite often ... the May Update release was available from May 19th-27th before it was put on "hold" due to a subset of WiFIRE Controllers unexpectedly shutting off ... Traeger is working on a programmatic "fix" ... once it is released to the Traeger Cloud back-end, they will restart PUSHing down update(s) to all registered Grill UUIDs ... the WiFIRE Status Page (https://www.traegergrills.com/status) is the only place to monitor this (and admittedly, Traeger is not known for their self-help documentation - relative to timeliness and/or accuracy) ... so at the moment, you are running the latest available Firmware and Config Version until they release the next set of update(s) ... Since Nov of 2019, their release cadence is approximately every 60 days, so that would put the next release sometime during the 2nd/3rd Week of July if they stick to that schedule ... with the 4th of July coming up next, and their problematic release history around the Super Bowl and Memorial Day Weekend, one could assume they will be sticking to the historical schedule to avoid any potential issues ... but that is all TBD

 

[sbaishya]

The is an FAQ that we discuss here quite often ... the May Update release was available from May 19th-27th before it was put on "hold" due to a subset of WiFIRE Controllers unexpectedly shutting off ... Traeger is working on a programmatic "fix" ... once it is released to the Traeger Cloud back-end, they will restart PUSHing down update(s) to all registered Grill UUIDs ... the WiFIRE Status Page (https://www.traegergrills.com/status) is the only place to monitor this (and admittedly, Traeger is not known for their self-help documentation - relative to timeliness and/or accuracy) ... so at the moment, you are running the latest available Firmware and Config Version until they release the next set of update(s) ... Since Nov of 2019, their release cadence is approximately every 60 days, so that would put the next release sometime during the 2nd/3rd Week of July if they stick to that schedule ... with the 4th of July coming up next, and their problematic release history around the Super Bowl and Memorial Day Weekend, one could assume they will be sticking to the historical schedule to avoid any potential issues ... but that is all TBD

Thanks for your quick response. Really appreciate it. Honestly couldn’t stop laughing when I read “programmatic fix”. Wondering what QA process they have? Do they do Agile or BDD or both? Did the dev folks blamed QA folks or vice versa ??. Jokes apart, the last tech rep I spoke with, did say that they are working on combining the 2 step process to 1 and will take a month to release which is in line with what you mentioned. I suggested her that they should update their website to say max temp 450 instead of 500 until the issue is resolved. It’s misleading. Anyways, I can live with it for now and will see in a months time. Thanks.

 

[dunawayfamily]

Thanks for your quick response. Really appreciate it. Honestly couldn’t stop laughing when I read “programmatic fix”. Wondering what QA process they have? Do they do Agile or BDD or both? Did the dev folks blamed QA folks or vice versa ??. Jokes apart, the last tech rep I spoke with, did say that they are working on combining the 2 step process to 1 and will take a month to release which is in line with what you mentioned. I suggested her that they should update their website to say max temp 450 instead of 500 until the issue is resolved. It’s misleading. Anyways, I can live with it for now and will see in a months time. Thanks.

I got the updates on May 19th, and luckily the WiFIRE Controller in our PRO 780 was not susceptible to firmware corruption, so we can select 500 degrees ... the "subset" of controllers that were susceptible to firmware corruption had to implement the workaround of staying disconnected from Wi-Fi altogether until the fix is released (and that assumes the "new" update(s) can be installed quickly enough before the controller shuts off - if not, there are going to be some PO'd grill owners who will then need to be sent replacement controllers)...

Traeger has been sending out replacement controllers with 02.00.01 to some customers who call in - it is unclear how they determine who gets sent a replacement controller versus who is told to wait and grill via Dial & Display (manual) ...

 

[Ek575]

I had the issue with my grill shutting down when connected to WiFi, I was contacted by Traeger to say I can now reconnect and it should be working as normal. Only done a short test run and it seems to be working. Will be smoking some short ribs this week, so fingers crossed we don't get any unexpected shut downs

 

[dunawayfamily]

I had the issue with my grill shutting down when connected to WiFi, I was contacted by Traeger to say I can now reconnect and it should be working as normal. Only done a short test run and it seems to be working. Will be smoking some short ribs this week, so fingers crossed we don't get any unexpected shut downs

Can you report back with the Firmware and Config Version values installed on your WiFIRE Controller? Thanks!

 

[Ek575]

No worries, it's on 02.01.02 and config version 04.015

 

[dunawayfamily]

No worries, it's on 02.01.02 and config version 04.015

So latest Firmware and -00.001 away from the latest Config Version - they must have been able to put a programmatic change/fix on the Traeger Cloud back-end to communicate to the WiFIRE Controller at startup to prevent/suppress the unexpected shutdowns that were previously occurring ... if they had updated the Firmware version to resolve the issue, they should have incremented the version number in some manner to reflect the change ... will be interesting to see what the next set of updates provide relative to version numbers and documented changes ...

 

[EddieH]

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 ...

 

[EddieH]

Guys, My Network band is 5 GHZ. What can I do?? I'm with Century Link WiFi

 

[RemE]

Guys, My Network band is 5 GHZ. What can I do?? I'm with Century Link WiFi

You will need to add a 2.4Ghz network, either by adding a cheap access point, connected to your router or some other method as the Traegers only have 2.4Ghz radios.

 

[strollin]

Guys, My Network band is 5 GHZ. What can I do?? I'm with Century Link WiFi

Are you sure your router doesn't support BOTH 2.4 and 5Ghz? It's pretty unusual for a router to only support 5Ghz since there are so many devices out there that only support 2.4Ghz.

 

[dunawayfamily]

Are you sure your router doesn't support BOTH 2.4 and 5Ghz? It's pretty unusual for a router to only support 5Ghz since there are so many devices out there that only support 2.4Ghz.

Agreed with strollin that all Wi-Fi Routers that support 5GHz are really Dual-band (2.4GHz & 5GHz) ... really OLD Routers are Single-band, but they only support 2.4GHz ...