Please Post your PB 1150 New Firmwate Update results

[Usmc93]

Okay gents.

my first attempt with the updated controller it was windy as could be and 28 degrees out and it was all over the place.

today it was 34 degrees out and I went out and bought the $129 thermal blanket for the 1100 series (fits my 1150 fine there’s just a circle hole where the temp gauge would be on other models)

after it got up to temp I had to play around with it a little and manually feed pellets to get it up to speed where I wanted it. It was fluctuating around 205-215 when I had it set to 230 so I upped it to 270 and got it up to 230-235 and then backed it down to 230 on the Controller at which point it held right around 226-230.

I put one probe on the left side of the grill and one on the right side. The right side was slightly hotter than the left but they all held pretty steady.

I had the grill on for about 5 hours today and then I had 3 tri tips on for almost the last 2 hours and everything ran great. Tri tips came out beautiful

in my personal opinion if you are in cold weather <40 degrees I would try the thermal blanket.
Grill ran beautiful today.

please ignore the dirty controller I didn’t realize my fingers weren’t clean.

 

[Navigator_04]

Ok here’s an update from my earlier post...
I think I have figured this new updated controller.

1. When I first turned it on I had set it to 350 and it took around an hour to get there. When I finally did it ran ok. When the temp fell to about 340 it held the prime button in for about 30 seconds and let it get back to temp and it held perfect for over an hour. I then turned the smoker off and let it do it’s cool down.
2. I turned it back on after sitting for about 30mins and had it set to 350 again and it only to 25mins this time.
3. While it was running I turn temp down to 270 and it ran fine and when the temp dropped to about 260-265 once again I held the primer button in and when it reach back to 270 it has rand there over 30mins and no problem.
4. Dropped temp down 250 and ran fine. Temp dropped to 240-245 I held the primmer in for about 30secs it reached to 250 and has held there over 30mins.
5. Did the 230 temp and same procedure as the rest.

I’m now a happy customer of this new controller. ( Hopefully it’ll stay working )You just gotta have patience with it and let it learn it’s self.

I emailed Pit Boss customer services yesterday for the first time, told them the temperature variation issues and in less than 24 hours i received an email with my fedex label for the controller reflash . I'll run this exact test after the this weekend (Superbowl) and see how it plays out. I had the PB 1100 for about a month and in November 2020 picked up the new 1150. I did lots of smoking the first month i did notice a difference with holding temps. Will update soon.

 

[lpliv123]

Navigator... Thanks for the input I appreciate it. I posted a couple of questions in a different thread, one of which was about a slow heat up to cook. I was working on 450 and after about 45 mins. it was just at 375. I manually fed the fire and I'm sure I cut a few minutes off the heat up time.
I already had the new firmware so I contacted PB and was told that I needed a new controller. I asked the lady if it would be updated with the new 10 degree smoking temps and she said no. I asked her if it was the updated firmware and she said yes but it was like the original settings. I am a little suspicious as to whether the new board will not just be the old firmware version and I will have to reinstall the updated one. From my perspective PB has very little creditability and I won't believe until I see it work both in smoking and cooking...

 

[lpliv123]

Sorry the firmware update never fixed anything that didn't create a new or different problem.. Lesson learned, I should have known this for spending most of my professional life in the electronics industry.. Never buy a product that has not had several years of revisions or trials.. It was a nightmare but Lowes is great and I will soon take ownership of a Camp Chef Woodwind grill that has been out for several years..
All the best

Phil

 

[TacoTuesday]

Bought the 1150 about 3 weeks ago. Did the firmware upgrade, and then had an issue with the upgraded controller where if I set it to 400, it would never make it to temp. I would have to manually prime to get it up to temp. If I set it to 425, the temp would drop down to 320. Support sent me a new controller with the updated firmware, and that resolved the issue of the temp being able to go up along with the temp drop issue, however it still takes an hour to get to 350. Going from 350 to 425 takes another 45 minutes!

I'll see what support says, but I can see a trip to lowes in the near future.

 

[lpliv123]

There are several of us with the same issue. Mine is a recycle place where Lowes dumped it, I got my money back and that's all that matters. A camp Chef is on its way.... Hang in there

phil

 

[asully65]

Out of curiosity, for those of you that have returned it to lowes, did they require a receipt for return? I just got my updated controller back and am going to try it over the weekend. Planning ahead in case of the worst.

 

[lpliv123]

Yes but an order number will suffice, I did most of the work over the phone. They came out and picked it up...

 

[asully65]

Just got my controller back with updated firmware. Hooked up and ran the 3 step break in method as instructed by pitboss rep I spoke with yesterday. 350 for 40 mins, 200 for 40 mins, 350 for 40 mins, 230 for 40 mins, 350 for 40 mins, 250 for 40 mins. Temps held +/- 3 degrees through this entire process. Today I am running some pork butt burnt ends at 240. Temps have hovered perfectly within +/- 2 degrees the entire cook. Ambient temp here today is ~60 degrees. Very happy so far with the update! To note, I also did the smoke daddy heat shield and gasketed the door shut.

 

[pmizell]

I received my updated controller back. Easy to reinstall. (I took pics of the connections on disassembly, and I needed to refer to them for one connection).

Mine works perfectly. I wanted to see if it would go to 230 without going above 300 first, and it did. It took about 20 mins the first time, with a lot of use of the igniter on the way up, which is clearly on purpose. I ran it up and down temps after that just to see it adjust and it all worked very well. It goes from 230 to 350 in about 15 mins, 350 to 400 in about 10, and 400 back down to 220 in about 15. It was a warm mid 70’s day in Houston.

I then did a brisket at 230, and it worked very well through the night. I decided to not wrap and just let it cook while I slept, and the app woke me up when the temp reached a pre-set 203. The finished product turned out good - great bark. I need to get better, but that’s me, not the smoker. I’ll post a pic.

A note regarding the app. My smoker has a good WiFi connection to my house WiFi. My bedroom is relatively close to the grill, and the app defaults to the blue tooth connection. Blue tooth does not work well from a medium distance, the temps don’t update correctly. WiFi works very good, so I turned off the blue tooth in the app settings. It works very well with just WiFi.

 

[Abe Froman]

Hey guys I haven't posted in awhile. I did the upgrade and it was a bust. The 10 degree increments were nice but it didn't hold very well and I couldn't get the grill up to 400. I returned to lowes and got a recteq 590. Only got to do 2 cooks on it before I left for training but was very happy so far. Hope everyone gets the 1150 working and has better luck than I did.

 

[BlindlyWatching]

View attachment 761View attachment 762

I think I've seen that baffle (or one like it) near the temp gauge for sale before, but can't recall where. Did you buy this from somewhere or make it yourself? If you bought it, where from?

I did my first two smokes with the new controller and it definitely feels like it's lying to me; however, that's a fair point, it's shooting the hottest air right at the temp gauge, so this should help for sure.

I've had run it both times at around 270 to get 225-230.

PitBoss also never mentioned any new break-in process to me like they did with asully, so I'll have to give that a go too.


Not too pleased with the erroneous temps, but it's workable still. That baffle really looks like the ticket.



Edit: I was able to find a heat deflector like the one ccbrown has. https://smokeslikeaboss.com/products/heat-deflector-mod

 

[Kp33]

We are going to start seeing results of the new Firmware coming in for the 1150 owners and we have too many threads that are starting to get chaotic and confusing.

Please do not post anything unless it involves the new 1150 firmware. This will help us understand on how the new firmware is working.

Hands down best brisket I ever made...1st time on PB 1150 the new control never fluctuated more than 5 degrees...when I had the 1100 it would swing up and down 20-25 degrees...this was so moist...put it on at 11pm last night on smoke mode which is 180 when I woke up at 7 internal was about 140 turned heat up to 250 let cook to 165...wrapped in butcher paper til 200...rest for 2 hours. I’m very impressed with the smoke ring the pellet smoker does I was nervouse it wouldn’t come close to a stick smoker and it’s really no different.

 

[jjkz24]

Hi everyone!

New member here, and I thought I'd give everyone an update on this firmware update. Just purchased my 1150 2-days ago (Sunday), and have done a ton of research on everyone's issues with this specific model before I decided to purchase. I purchased knowing completely that I wanted the firmware update.

I just called this morning, and their customer service (so far) seems to be great. I've seen some not so great experiences from some of the members on here, and I thought I'd give them a try. As of a few days ago, they're no longer requiring you to send in your controller. They're now just sending out new updated controllers, and allowing you to keep your old. I already have a tracking number, and should have it in a few days. Not having to send mine in greatly reduces the turn-around time, in my opinion. I haven't used the smoker as of yet, and hope to start off with a good experience when the new controller arrives. Here's an added email that I just received in case anyone is interested on what they're sending out now:

Hello,
Thank you for reaching out! With these new PID control boards, the unit will need to be started a little differently. Start your unit on 350 and let it pre heat all the way up to that temperature. Once that is reached, you can adjust to the temperature you would like.
With these new PID technology, the control boards are programmed to to create the most accurate temperature across the whole grill grate, but it will also prevent the unit from overshooting that temperature and over cooking your food. You will see this more in the lower settings, so that way it will help produce more smoke flavor within your cooking as well. These are learning boards so the more you use them, the better they will work. You will need to cook on a quite a few times for it to start to recognize those temperatures and hold those temperatures. Preheating will allow your PID controller to compensate and achieve your set temperature more quickly. With that being said, if the outside ambient temperature is lower, it will fight with the unit to achieve those higher temperatures and it is normal to do so.

I would also recommend doing 3-4 more burn offs with this control board. By doing this more, it will help the controller hold a more constant temperature. These burns offs can be done at 400 for about 25-30 minutes. The more you use this control board, the better it will work and get more used to those temperatures. I would also recommend setting these temperature with the recipe function on your Pit Boss App. This can also help the unit heat up faster.

If you would like to respond to this case, please reply to this email.

 

[TxTchRR]

Hi everyone!

New member here, and I thought I'd give everyone an update on this firmware update. Just purchased my 1150 2-days ago (Sunday), and have done a ton of research on everyone's issues with this specific model before I decided to purchase. I purchased knowing completely that I wanted the firmware update.

I just called this morning, and their customer service (so far) seems to be great. I've seen some not so great experiences from some of the members on here, and I thought I'd give them a try. As of a few days ago, they're no longer requiring you to send in your controller. They're now just sending out new updated controllers, and allowing you to keep your old. I already have a tracking number, and should have it in a few days. Not having to send mine in greatly reduces the turn-around time, in my opinion. I haven't used the smoker as of yet, and hope to start off with a good experience when the new controller arrives. Here's an added email that I just received in case anyone is interested on what they're sending out now:

Hello,
Thank you for reaching out! With these new PID control boards, the unit will need to be started a little differently. Start your unit on 350 and let it pre heat all the way up to that temperature. Once that is reached, you can adjust to the temperature you would like.
With these new PID technology, the control boards are programmed to to create the most accurate temperature across the whole grill grate, but it will also prevent the unit from overshooting that temperature and over cooking your food. You will see this more in the lower settings, so that way it will help produce more smoke flavor within your cooking as well. These are learning boards so the more you use them, the better they will work. You will need to cook on a quite a few times for it to start to recognize those temperatures and hold those temperatures. Preheating will allow your PID controller to compensate and achieve your set temperature more quickly. With that being said, if the outside ambient temperature is lower, it will fight with the unit to achieve those higher temperatures and it is normal to do so.

I would also recommend doing 3-4 more burn offs with this control board. By doing this more, it will help the controller hold a more constant temperature. These burns offs can be done at 400 for about 25-30 minutes. The more you use this control board, the better it will work and get more used to those temperatures. I would also recommend setting these temperature with the recipe function on your Pit Boss App. This can also help the unit heat up faster.

If you would like to respond to this case, please reply to this email.

Any update on this? Did it work well?