Stoker + Mac

The equipment you currently own is all you need (I have the same stuff).

It took me a total of about 30 minutes to get the Stoker out of the box and being controlled from my iphone. I was prepared for some frustration in getting it to work right, but on the Mac, it just worked.

Here's what you do:

Get your Airport Express and plug it in to the Stoker using an ethernet cable. Turn on the AE, but not the Stoker.

Now go to the Airport Utility on your computer, and open up the AE. You need to reconfigure it from broadcasting itunes to participating in a WDS network.






In Leopard, go to WDS by clicking the 'manual setup' button, and click 'participate in WDS network", Now make note of the Airport Express ID (Mine ends in 33:25). Save that configuration, and wait for your Airport Express to reset (turn green again).

Next, go to your Airport Extreme hub, click on 'manual setup', and select WDS. Click on the plus sign to add wireless clients, and enter your Airport Express ID in that box:



You also need to go to the Access tab, and enter the following changes (the form fills itself out after you enter port forwarding and the ip address of your Airport Express http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&Itemid=55&func=view&catid=1&id=736494.

Reset the new settings on your Airport Extreme, and now turn on the Stoker, go back to the computer, and enter the ip address of your Airport Express into the url bar. In the top photo, you can see that my AE ip address is 10.0.1.232. That is what I enter into my url bar in Safari.

Now go to you iphone and do the same thing. OK, so you are now on your home network, but what if you go out (beyond the boundaries of your home network)?

For this, open your Airport Utility, and look at the summary for your Airport Extreme. It will list the ip address of your A Extreme. Now type that ip address into your iphone, computer, whatever internet device, and again, you are in business.

The business you are in is the Stoker's webpage, which allows you to monitor AND change the set pit temperature, food temperature settings, cooking alarms, and Twitter settings.

If you have Parallels or some PC program for your Mac, you can also use StokerLog, which is a free and really fun way to log and control your cooks.

The Stoker fan takes as long to attach and remove from the Egg as it does to open and close the damper. The fan has a tongue on the which fits into the bottom groove on the damper and then into the top groove, and the damper door slides shut on it to create the seal and hold it in place.

Mark

 
Looks like SkySaw answered the Mac connection issue.

The dampers. The 'natural draft' through the blower for the most part a non issue and for me, that would be almost on the bottom of issues in my decision of which unit to purchase.

I have both the DigiQII & Stoker. Yes there can be a natural draft issue with the q2 which may result in overshooting the target temperature. With the q2 I have the Viper (10cfm) blower and usually close down the manual damper to 1/3 or 1/4 open once at target temperature.

By closing down the DFMT (top damper) to almost closed you can prevent any potential problems with a natural draft on either unit.

You will end up removing the blower & mount from the egg no matter which unit you purchase, again not really a buying issue one way or the other.

As I recall the q2 & Stoker were about the same overall price. For complete ease I would have to say the q2 is the easiest.

The Stoker requires a little more button pushing which is not at all a problem. Stoker takes up a little more space. However, the Stoker can control many blowers (eggs) & food probes at one time. I have never purchased a second blower for the Stoker, however, I do use multiple food probes when I cook multiple pieces of meat.

For remote monitoring I am happy using the q2 & Maverick ET-73. Seldom do the two temperatures match on the q2 & ET-73. I just keep the delta on the ET-73 in mind and use the q2 and thermapen to tell me when the food is done.

For remote controlling a cook or monitoring several pieces of meat the Stoker is the answer.

Hope this helps.

GG

Grandpas Grub wrote:

 
The Stoker requires a little more button pushing which is not at all a problem.

I think it all depends on how you use the Stoker. After the first day that I got mine, the only button I ever touch on my Stoker is on/off. The rest is all done from the computer keyboard (or iphone).

Mark

I'm Canadian, eh? :laugh:

When written as a bunch of instructions - first do this and then do that, it sounds fairly involved. Actually, it's very straightforward, and the Mac basically walks you through what you need to do. I have to admit that my only claim to technical expertise is the interest to get the functionality and the willingness to push some buttons.

I hope to get a detailed tutorial up on the web one day.

Mark

Buxwheat, The CyberQ II is a PC based Peripheral. Tim

But, Don't take my word for it contact them at 800-288-4878

Hope this helps.

This will probably end up being a really dumb question.....but I have a Mac and the Time Capsul that I use for wireless connection as well.

I'm assuming that this would allow me to have a similar setup to the "airport" setup outlined above....but could someone confirm??

What exactly is the "Airport" Express? Does it more or less turn the stoker into a "wireless" devise??

The private ip address that you enter into the Airport Extreme should be the ip address of your Airport Express.

The Airport Express' ip address should be something like 10.0.1.2

Your Airport Extreme should be the only device at this point that captures an ip address from your internet service provider (i.e., 169.254.xxx.xxx)

Mark

Yes, that would work. You can use an Airport Express and the Macbook to set up a wireless network without the internet. I think people do this at comps all the time. And it should be very easy with the AE and a Mac.

I also plan to do this at my place at the lake - I just need to get an Egg out there.

Mark

Thank you!