P10 Firmware and Updates

[Habanero Smoker]

After communicating with Bradley on why there are different versions of firmware for the North American locations they did reply. I hope that I got their information correct, because the employee that was answering my questions would reply in a short sentence, and not fully answer all questions in my emails. I'm not sure how knowledgeable he was on the P10, or if he was just relaying the information from another employee or was just following a flow sheet, or just being purposely vague.

From what I understand Bradley has made a change in their circuit board. The new board and the earlier board are not compatible. This new board; the "blue circuit board" original release was b019, it was later updated to version b021. This board can accept future upgrades. The earlier models that have a green circuit board, have the firmware version b002. Those that have this version cannot update their firmware. That is not what was advertised when it was sold. To make matters worse, those that have version b002 if they attempt to update their board to b021 will do permanent damage to their board. You would think that this is important for the end user to know. If one doesn't know this, there is the possibility for a person with b002 to contact another user to send them the update file b021 and attempt to install it.

This is from a document that the employee sent me:
Original Operating Firmware for BS1019 is b002 and it can not be updated........If the update is used for an earlier version, it will render the memory module UNUSABLE and the entire circuit board will have to be replaced and it will not be covered for warranty.

Now does this mean this particular update cannot be used to update version b002, or the b002 cannot be upgraded at all, either now or in the future. Or if an update is needed they will program a different file to update this version. That was one of the questions the employee failed to answer.

For those who want to know what the update from b019 to b021 fixed:
"This upgrade fixes the issue where meat probe 1 and 2 internal temperature was not available to check during the smoking session."

When I stated that version b002 was not able to check the internal temperature during the cook, he replied:
"To view the current meat temp with your smoker, you will cancel the target set temp, and press the button again to view the current temp."

This is correct, but I would consider this a bug. Why would a company program it this way, and make the end user take extra steps to have to reset the target temp? This is not a big deal for me, but may be for others. I don't use the Bradley meat probes for two reasons; 1) You can't hear the alarm when it does go off, and 2) It's a chore to check the internal meat temperature during the cook. At least they could have done would be to have the meat temperature display alternate from current temp to set temp. I just came up with a third reason; without Bluetooth or Wi-Fi you still need to go to the smoker and manually push keys to get a reading.  So I will continue to use the meat probes of my Thermoworks Signals.

[RockyMtnGuy]

Wow! Your probably not too pleased with their answer.
Thanks for checking and relaying what info you received.  Sounds like it's good to have the version b021, while it remains to be seen if any significant updates are still to come. If your info is correct then we may both be out of luck if they do come out with a way to add Bluetooth or better yet Wi-Fi to the P10, as they may make another motherboard change rather than a firmware update if that is their policy. Seems their electronic engineers may not be their strong point.
I can confirm that I can get a temp probe reading during my cooking session by just pushing either of the temp probe buttons.  I have used this so far primarily to check the accuracy of the probe comparing it to my hardwired thermaQ thermometer which I trust and have used for many years, trying to learn how well and accurate the internal probe measurements are.  I have also been comparing internal temp of smoker to the internal temp probe using the thermaQ.  Your previous posts with internal temps, recovery times, and even your bread test helped me to decide to purchase the P10.  I never really used the internal probe in my previous masterbuilt smoker because it was quite inaccurate.
I also have a signals thermometer so when I'm all set up and want to check multiple temps remotely for larger cooks, especially if we have guests or activities such as Super Bowl parties, etc,  I'll be set. Right now I'm trying to monitor and evaluate the P10 to learn how much and what I can trust so am staying quite close to the smoker to watch everything.  Thanks again for trying to sort this out and passing on the information.
Seems for all you have done for them, maintaining this forum and answering all the newbie questions such as my random ones, they should send you the new blue circuit board for you to replace yours but that may cause a big issue for them if everyone with the green board demands a change, especially with the current semi conductor chip shortage.
Thanks again!

[Habanero Smoker]

You're welcome.

The things that you are doing is the best way to learn how the P10 cooks.

Now that you mentioned the Super Bowl; have you been watching the "Thermopen One Live Classes". Susie Bulloch (Grill Hey Grill) has a video on how to make Bacon Wrapped Meatballs. Her recipe make 16 large meatballs (serves four as an entrée), but she states you can make them smaller for appetizers that will serve 10 - 12. I'm going to try to make these either today or tomorrow. I'm going to make them in the P10.
Bacon Wrapped Meatballs

Besides the change in the circuit board, the document also refers to a "power-supply board", so I not sure if that would have to be replaced also. So it may not be as easy as swapping boards. Also the document that was sent to me had a picture of both boards, on one board a cable connector looks different, and on another board there seems to be an extra cable connector.

I used to help out on another site. You may have come across a reference to it; SusanMinor site. Which provided help to Bradley users. It suddenly shut down with little notice, and a lot of information that had been convenient to access was no longer available. So by working on that site, I learned a lot about the various Bradleys'. Being a Barbecue judge, over the years I've learned a lot about barbecue and grilling.

[RockyMtnGuy]

Yes I tried some of the old links to the SusanMinor site and was disappointed I missed all that in the past.

Thanks for the meatball link, they sound awesome and will try that soon. Was not aware of HeyGrill Hey, have already downloaded their app, and checked it out, will be fun to try some of their recipes sauces and rubs.

Seems like your are giving me a personal education to up my game, I really appreciate all your thoughtful and experience answers and advice.  I recently retired from a pretty demanding career and have just done my own thing grilling and smoking for many decades.  Now I have time to explore the web to learn from all the experienced cooks and smokers who are willing to share their secrets and of course taste their recipes and share with my family and friends.

I think your presence on this website was a major factor for choosing the Bradley P10, it's an obviously awesome smoker but the content on this website was also a big factor for me as I knew it would help me to learn how to use it from all the experienced members. I'm learning so much from reading previous post and questions.

I'm not quite a ThermoWorks fan boy, but I own and have used many of their products for more than a decade. I said I'm not quite a fanboy as I have not yet sprung for a Thermapen One. A little hard to justify as my multiple MK4's and earlier models just keep on working, since I'm not in a hurry, waiting for them to go on special once the mk4's are sold out, should be about coincident with Black Friday. I'm sure you know they have periodic sales on different items and it's always a bonus to save a few dollars on their excellent line of products. They have obviously worked out the Bluetooth Wi-Fi issues of monitoring temperatures, so the lack of the ability to remotely monitor the internal temperature and internal temp probes is a minor issue, since I can also use my signals unit. Internal probes are a lot cleaner though than routing the extra wires to an external thermometer.


I read some posts regarding a form to document and keep track of cooks, seems like a useful thing for me since my memory is not as great as it once was. Would you know where the link is for that form!  Otherwise seems like a great idea to keep a notebook of cook results to continue to tweak my recipies and techniques.

Finally it's a shame that they changed boards and a replacement sounds so complicated. I think they should replace your personal smoker to the newest P10, especially so you can continue to advise us newbs.

[Habanero Smoker]

When I first saw a "Hey Grill Hey" video I thought she was a YouTuber just trying to be fancy, but I got to like her. Others that you may want to look at, if you haven't already is "The Mad Scientist BBQ", "Malcolm Reed", and "Harry Soo; "Diva Q"; all on YouTube. There are so many others, but they do the best in explaining what they do. My alleries are acting up today, so I didn't get around to making the meatball, and the forecast is for rain tomorrow. Hoping to do it Sunday.

I'm a ThermoWorks junkie. I have several of their products. Make sure you are on Thermoworks email list. Last week the Thermopen One went on sale for the first time at a 20% discount. It was their first Black Friday sale. They are having a different sale each week. They send out an email on Wednesday of each week. This week the Alarm Chef is on sale. I'm sure The One will be back on sale again during this holiday season.  Although I already had a MK4, and the original Thermopen, I did purchased The One. I'll give my original Thermopen to one of my nieces.

Here is a link to the post that you can download the logs
Smoker Logs

The replacement of the circuit board may be difficult, but the replacement of the whole display panel would be easy. But I believe the cable hookups are different between the two. At this time I don't believe there in not that much difference between the two models.