Tappecue possibly bad?

[jlevin75]

So I went and bought the Tappecue so I could monitor my smoking from my phone.  I went thru the setup and everything worked fine.  I put a probe into my pork butt that I had taken out of the fridge 2 hours prior and it kept reading 107  ??? . So I grabbed my other digital thermometer  and it registered 55.  Everything is in the smoker now and both probes I'm using from the Tappecue are reading 55 degrees higher than the Bradley's cabinet and the probe in the pork butt.  Any ideas?
Bradley cabinet temp - 227
Tappecue cabinet temp - 292

redi-check meat probe - 65
Tappecue meat probe - 119

[tskeeter]

J, I'm with you.  I suspect your Tappecue isn't giving you good readings.

If your Bradley cabinet temp was higher than your Tappecue, I could understand that since your Bradley sensor is probably on the back wall, above the heating element (I'm not sure where the sensor is on the various models.  But, my digital is on the back wall.), where it would get more heat than a sensor in the middle of the cabinet.

You might want to validate your Tappecue by taking readings in ice water (should be 32F)  and boiling water (should read 212F, depending on your elevation).  May not be dead on, but should give you an idea if your Tappecue is as far off as it appears.

[CoreyMac]

I checked the web site and it said temps reading higher than normal is due to the probe getting moisture in it. For what its worth.

[jlevin75]

Thanks guys, I contacted Tappecue and apparently they've had some issues with the latest batch of probes.  They asked me to run the boiling water test and if the probes fail they're going to send me a new set and they've asked if I was interested in being a beta tester.

Email from Tappecue:
I'm sorry that you are having problems already.

Can you verify your existing probes in boiling water and also check the other two probes and do a reboot of the Tappecue?

It could be that the probes are having problems.  This last order of probes that we received is causing more grief.  We've ordered probes from another manufacturer that could do chamber probes also that seem to have sturdier cables.
Would you be interested in beta testing?  This next order will also have chamber probes and clips.
I can send you 2 meat and 2 chamber to test when we receive them in about 3 weeks.
I can also send out existing probes in the meantime if you find that the tests above failed.
Let me know what you find out from testing out all four probes.

[jlevin75]

Just as a follow up, after talking with Gina at Tappecue, it turns out the problem was "user error".  The new devices are shipped with Firmware version 1.00.  I read thru the instructions with the device real quick and saw that I need to update the firmware, which I did.  Unfortunately the instructions were for older devices that had firmware version .01  The update actually downgraded my firmware to .02 which was the root of the problem.  After updating back to 1.00 the Tappecue is dead on.

[dave97402]

That's a good thing, but what I want to know is do you still get to beta test the new probes??

[jlevin75]

That's a good thing, but what I want to know is do you still get to beta test the new probes??

They put my name on the list to get a set to beta test when the new probes come in.  Should be in about 3 weeks.  :D