Hi guys, like many here i have the ET-73 and i couldn't be without it, definately a must have imo. However i have noticed that quite a few users here have range issues including myself, or the signal is getting blocked by walls etc, well the other day whilst doing some searching on the ET-73 i came accross this thread at the Virtual Webber Bullet site. Maybe some of you already know about this? but anyway.
Apparently some of the ET-73's have an internal antenna, and some don't?, even the ones with the antenna have signal/reception issues?, now i must say that mine works great with the receiver in the kitchen, but upstairs it's not so good, when i first got mine, i was using it right next to me at my pc, but that isn't very accurate i've since found out.
Although the range thing isn't really a problem for me, as i'm just happy at the fact that the ET-73 allows me to read temps without opening the door or disturbing anything, it would still be nice to see the Maverick perform in the way that it was apparently meant to.
So as we have a lot of members here that like to mod and improve on things, i thought i'd just post this link in case anybody is interested.
If the ET-73 was available in the u.k. which it isn't, i would do this mod to mine, but i just don't want to take the risk, but for anybody that's interested here's the link:
http://tvwbb.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1780069052/m/7290051153/p/1
Obviously anybody doing this mod, does so at their own risk, be carefull with the on/off switch.
If anybody has already done this, did it make a big difference?, it should do by all accounts. ;)
Excellent post LS, I am like you and have no intention of operating on my ET-73 because, living on this side of the pond, we are stuffed if something goes wrong!
However to our US/Canadian friends here on the forum this may well prove useful.
Interesting that some units appear not to have an antenna whilst others do. The range of my unit is just about adequate for my needs in most instances but certainly less than advertised!
Well spotted. ;)
Interesting post; but I have no desire to try this. Although the range is not as good as advertised, when I use the ET-73 I can generally situated it in an area where if I can't see it I can hear the alarm. I also have an inexpensive baby monitor which I can place in front of the receiver to monitor the alarm.
clever idea Habs!
Quote from: West Coast Kansan on January 30, 2007, 06:55:19 PM
clever idea Habs!
It's a tip that I picked up somewheres. I generally use the monitor so that I can hear the Raptor/Guru alarm go off.
The more I read the thread that LS posted the more it increases my curiosity. I hope I can control myself and not tamper with my ET-73. ;D
QuoteThe more I read the thread that LS posted the more it increases my curiosity. I hope I can control myself and not tamper with my ET-73.
Me too! :-[ I actually had it in my grubby little hands (the ET-73 that is!!) last night, screw driver at the ready and all set to have a skeet. Common sense got the better of me in the end, the range on it is adequate and I don't actually
need to modify it!! :D :D :D
habs: those baby monitors are indispensible. A friend in law (fish/game) enforcement uses a battery operated model as 'spy gear' as their state budget is pitiful! I believe my bride and I will retain ours as our children age thru the teenage years, perhaps for potentially useful insights?????? ::)
mld
Actually I use a baby monitor to monitor my "babies" (toys) in my detached garage. I keep the monitor in my bedroom. I can here someone walk up to the outside of the garage. They are unbelievable for sensitivity. I have tested several of them and have found the First Years Clear and Near 2.4 GHz Monitor to be the best for clarity, background noise, distance and volume control. It really does work fantastic for monitoring an area for any reason.
Mike
My et73 works fine, in my kitchen which is over 100ft from the garage i get great readings.
nepas
Quote from: manxman on January 31, 2007, 02:00:55 AM
QuoteThe more I read the thread that LS posted the more it increases my curiosity. I hope I can control myself and not tamper with my ET-73.
Me too! :-[ I actually had it in my grubby little hands (the ET-73 that is!!) last night, screw driver at the ready and all set to have a skeet. Common sense got the better of me in the end, the range on it is adequate and I don't actually need to modify it!! :D :D :D
Hahaha! i'm glad you guys have had these urges, i'm getting them to, i keep thinking, if i do the mod, i'll be able to sit watching tv, or be at my pc, and still know exactly what my temps are without even having to get out of my chair! ;D
I've managed to restrain myself so far, if this urge should get the better of me, i'll let you know what happens, but for now i have calmed down ;D ;)
I GOT THE URGE, It just probably won't be for a while, Unless I get too curious tonight. I will be out of town for a few days, but I'm definitely doing this, Mine is only 15 ft through the kitchen window and loses transmission at times usually in the middle of the night. If I could get this to reach to my bedroom, I could hear right away and shut it off with little disturbance to the Mrs. as she now hears it and wakes me up.
I, for one, would never get an urge to tinker with electronic stuff. ::) I know my limitations and my limits with electronics is the battery replacement and moving the on/off switch. ;D
Yes I have limitations also, but man's desire for a better mouse trap drives me more than my common sense telling me not to do it. I will probably shelling out another $40.00 for a new ET-73.
P.S.
The bright spot is I won't be able to electrocute my self :D. My hero is Wild-E-Coyote cuz he has try and never gives up no matter how beat-up he gets.
Well guys, my urge got the better of me just like i knew it would :o yeah i bit the bullet and went for it ;D.
Ok, i don't want to keep everybody in suspence, so here's the verdict...................it works! (http://www.emotipad.com/artists/aiwan/yahoo.gif)and damn well at that (http://www.emotipad.com/newemoticons/Dancing-Chilli.gif)
On that link, some of those guys soldered a wire to just one terminal, and it worked, others didn't have any luck and soldered to three terminals, and bingo! it worked, i tried one terminal and saw an improvement, but not much to shout about, so i decided to do three terminals and that did it, and was what i was hoping for.
I'll give you an idea of the difference, before the mod, if my BS was in the garage and my receiver was in the kitchen at the window, right next door to the garage i could get a good reading, anything after that was a bit hit and miss. Now i can have the transmiter in the garage, and the receiver in any room upstairs or down, and it works a treat!.
I was very worried about doing this mod as the ET-73 is very precious to us on this side of the pond, but i'm glad i did it now ;)
Anyway for those that are considering doing this mod,here's a little guide of how i did mine, this is not for the squeamish ;D nah just kidding, it really isn't that difficult, ok here we go:
Take the batteries out of the receiver, remove the 6 screws carfefully, ok now here's the bit where you need to take extra care. The 2 halves should come apart fairly easily, mine did, but some have reported silacone/glue from the on/off switch sometimes sticks the 2 halves together, very steady pressure should get them apart, apparently some have used a very small screwdriver to ease the glue away.
Try and just seperate the 2 halves, without side to side movement.
Ok, once apart this is what you should see:
(http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s62/Gitster59/mav1.jpg)
The arrow points to where some ET-73's sometimes have a wire, although the horseshoe shape on the circuit board is said to be the anttena?
Anyway mine didn't have a wire, so obviously that's the next step, i used some multi strand wire about 1mm thick.
So i soldered the wire as shown:
(http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s62/Gitster59/mav2.jpg)
Ok, next i wanted to fit an anttena mast to keep the wire neat and safe, so first of all i drill a 1/8th of an inch hole on the rear section of casing:
(http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s62/Gitster59/mav3.jpg)
Next job is to fit the mast, when doing this don't let hardly any of the mast penetrate too far into the casing as this will foul the circuit board when reassembling. I fitted mine flush to be on the safe side.
The mast is an anttena mast from a model RC truck, it has a small rubber end cap to keep the wire anttena tidy. The mast is a snug fit in the 1/8th hole, but i used a dab of hot glue to secure it.:
(http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s62/Gitster59/mav4.jpg)
And the end cap:
(http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s62/Gitster59/mav5.jpg)
Ok like i said after doing a test, there was an improvement, but not enough imo, now this could have been a bad bit of soldering on my part?, i don't know, but after reading the link again, i decided on plan b.
So i took everything apart again(easier second time round) and decided to solder the wire accross the 3 terminals:
(http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s62/Gitster59/mav7.jpg)
I carefully tinned the other 2 terminals, and resoldered the wire accross all 3, i then measured the wire from the point of solder, and cut it to a length of 6 1/2 inches. i fed the wire through the mast and reassembled everything.
Now this time it was on the money!, to test it i went into the garage with my cell phone and the transmitter, my wife was in the house with the receiver and another phone, she went from room to room, and we checked with each other our readings. it was spot everywhere we tested it, updates were quick also.
So i've concluded this a big success, if i were doing this again, i would just do plan b, and use the 3 terminals because i know it works, although on the link some say just 1 terminal works?
Anyway here it is all back together:
(http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s62/Gitster59/mav6.jpg)
Hope i explained clearly guys?, but if anybody wants to do this i'll help in any way i can.
Bye for now guys..............LilSmoker(http://www.emotipad.com/newemoticons/Tip-Hat.gif)
VERY, VERY, nice LS. How much booze did you have to consume to get your hands steady enough to solder that up? ;D :D
Your hired!!! :)
Quote from: iceman on February 08, 2007, 12:27:53 PM
VERY, VERY, nice LS. How much booze did you have to consume to get your hands steady enough to solder that up? ;D :D
Your hired!!! :)
Haha! hey iceman you just know how scared i was, my wife said she could smell the fear! :o ;D
You are more fearless than I with electronics and I am on the other side of the pond where they are readily available. Nice job!
Thanks Wildcat, well i figured if i messed up, i would have to suck up to Kirk or iceman to organise a replacement Maverick, and i already owe manxman, icerat4 and a few others enough beer to open a bar.
So i thought a few more beers can't hurt ;D ;)
Great job!
Excellent job!
I know I won't be able to keep my hands off it for sure now!
;D ;D ;D
Mike
Thanks guys, i'm looking forward to my next overnight smoke/cook, i'll be able to drift off to sleep whilst watching temps from my bed! :o
Don't know what the wife will say?, then again she knows how important decent pulled pork is ;D :D
I gave it a shot but I didn't see any improvement. Both my garage and house are stucco so of course they have stucco wire. I don't know if this has an effect or not. The garage and house are about 60 feet between them. My house windows are Low-E and Argon filled, again I don't know if this has an effect on it. Prior to soldering I scraped the 3 pads with a razer knife to remove the coating, tinned them and the wire. I tried re-soldering as well thinking I may not have had a good enough connection but still no improvement. I guess on the bright side... It still works!
Mike
Quote from: Mr Walleye on February 12, 2007, 08:32:13 AM
I gave it a shot but I didn't see any improvement. Both my garage and house are stucco so of course they have stucco wire. I don't know if this has an effect or not. The garage and house are about 60 feet between them. My house windows are Low-E and Argon filled, again I don't know if this has an effect on it. Prior to soldering I scaped the 3 pads with a razer knife to remove the coating, tinned them and the wire. I tried re-soldering as well thinking I may not have had a good enough connection but still no improvement. I guess on the bright side... It still works!
Mike
Hi Mike, sorry to hear it didn't improve, did you cut the anttena wire to 6 1/2 inches?, as by all acounts this can make all the difference. Is the stucco like reinforcing steel rod?.
I gave mine a good test at the weekend, i had some paperwork to do, so i had the maverick on my pc desk, it worked a charm, i have seen a huge improvement with mine.
My house is built from twin skinned brick (cavity wall) which is quite typical in u.k., and my garage is single skin brick.
I suppose there's lot's of factors to be taken into account?, mine was very limited to short range before the mod, so it must have been the anttena issue in my case.
Anyway might be worth checking the wire length?
LilSmoker(http://www.emotipad.com/newemoticons/Tip-Hat.gif)
Hi LilSmoker
I did trim the wire to 6.5 inches from the solder joint. The stucco wire is a wire mesh with something like a 1 or 2 inch opening, kinda like chicken wire if you are familiar with that. I've always had limited success with the Maveric inside the house. I can track the reading just outside the door but not inside it. This is the same result prior to the mod. I may have to get a magnifing glass and have a closer look at the solder connections. That's all I can think of.
Mike
I did sneak mine apart the other night, but that is one small hole. I'm not sure on me soldering so I thought I would just stick a wire in it like the one forum talked about. Do you think is a good idea?
I don't know Nodak. If it came lose or even sticking through the other side it might short something out on the board. I'm no expert here by any means so hopefully somebody with a little more experience will chime in.
Mike
Hi nodak, i think it would be ok from what that guy on the forum said?, but personaly i would prefer solder.
The thing i don't get, is that some who have done the mod with success, have either soldered to just 1 terminal, or all 3, but it seems to work either way?
As i said in my earlier post, when i tried 1 terminal, it wasn't much of an improvement, maybe i had a bad connection?, but after doing 3 terminals, it's spot on, but Mr Walleye did the 3 terminals without any luck?, unless it is the stucco wire causing a bad signal?
I have to say, if ever i got another Maverick i would perform surgery on it straight away, as the performance difference has been major in my case. Then again hindsight is a wonderfull thing i guess ::)
@ Mr Walleye, did you do your wire running inside the case or out?, just trying to cover all the options ;)
I haven't performed surgery yet. Can't figure it out I put My maverick far away through many walls and it now seems to work perfect. But I used to loose signal when I smoke. Regardless I'm going in! Brought wire home from the office tonight. If I get time I will perform surgery. Maybe I knocked something into working when I took it apart?
LilSmoker
I did run the wire out the same as you did, although I haven't got my hands on something that I can use like the RC antenna to run the wire through. I got my self big magnifying glass with a light in it. Now I'll be able to see that sucker and check that solder joint a little better! ;D
Gettin' older ya know! can't see as good as I used too!
Mike
I tried out my new illuminated magnifying glass. Man did it work good!
Oh ya the solder joints look fine. So right now I don't see anything else other than possibly the building construction issues.
On the weber link where the discussion regarding this took place I noticed a couple of people mentioned thinking about having a look at the transmitter to see about adding an antenna. unfortunately nobody posted anything further.
Any other ideas? I may have to open up the transmitter! ::)
Mike
Hi Mike, yeah you're right somebody did mention the transmitter, but as you say no more was said, i suppose you could try just soldering to the 1 terminal, you know the one with the hole in, but not sure if that would do the trick?
That actual terminal is linked to the one right next to it by the looks of my circuit board, so i suppose in theory it's really 2 terminals that we've soldered and not 3?
I was thinking maybe to find out if the stucco wire is causing the problem, you could take your ET-73 to a friend or relatives house, and if you get a good signal through a few walls, that would probably indicate that it's the stucco?
I hate it when things don't work properly ::) ;D ;)
I did it, I just snugly put the wire in the hole, no solder. It seems to through several walls, but the real test will be if it keeps signal all night on bed stand, as I'm doing a brisket overnight. I think and hope this is going to be great. THe wife will like it that I'll hear it go off, so she won't have to listen to it for a while than wake me to go out to the kitchen to shut it off, and do my stuff. Will report back in the morning.
Quote from: nodak on February 16, 2007, 08:50:25 PM
I did it, I just snugly put the wire in the hole, no solder. It seems to through several walls, but the real test will be if it keeps signal all night on bed stand, as I'm doing a brisket overnight. I think and hope this is going to be great. THe wife will like it that I'll hear it go off, so she won't have to listen to it for a while than wake me to go out to the kitchen to shut it off, and do my stuff. Will report back in the morning.
Hey that's great news mate!, i'm sure it'll be ok now, as long as the wire stays put, it's unbeleivable when this mod works, just how much difference it actually makes. The thing i still can't work out is that you've used the 1 terminal or 2 really as they look linked, and i had to use the extra terminal to get the right result?
Anyway i'm glad it works ;)
Not perfect, but better. Wasn't always updating in my bedroom, although this is asking a lot. bedroom is on oppisite side of house and garage is on other and smoker outside that. But in kitchen did not lose signal, and ussually after several hours I would. Over all satisfied, perfect no, but than again not everything can be like me! ;)
I want to thank LilSmoker for providing this modification to the forum members, and also allowing us to host it on the recipe site.
This modification can now be viewed at this link.
Maverick ET-73 Modification (http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?p=909#post909)
Thanks for the advice.
I used this advice on the ET-72 I owned already that I was having range issues with.
There was already an antenna soldered on but, it was wrap around the body inside and the range was aweful. I took the antenna and made it exit out the side.
Like magic,.... it works much better now.
I know I am resurrecting an old post here, but I have to say that I got my ET-73 today and fired it up and did a range test and was not impressed. I took 10 minutes and did the mod that is described here in this thread by soldering across all the terminals. The improvement was dramatic to say the least. I placed the transmitter in my garden shed and had solid reception throughout the house including the basement. Anyone with an ET-73 should seriously consider this modification! Thx a lot guys for another great tip.
I did this last night, took 10 minutes. Works alot better now. Used a piece of speaker wire I had laying around, tinned the end and soldered across the 2 left spots not the hole. If you look at the board the 1/2 circle top right is the antenna so the hole is not even connected to it but the pad on the left is. Cut a hole in the top and ran the wire straight up and put a little caulk around the hole.
I also have a question about the ET-73. if I want to confirm the acuracy of the smoker prod, do I do the boiling water test. the manual says not to emerse the probe in water..
Mike has answered my question! Thanks again Mike!