Landis Vinchattle

Purpose

I recently purchased an Ivation barbecue thermometer which is supposed to be a pretty decent similar build to the Maverick 733 (I believe).  Of course, one of the first things that comes to mind is how to tie this in to some type of IP connected system so I don’t have to rely upon the included receiver and its limited range, and can instead take advantage of wifi, Internet, and the smartphone I always have with me.  Turns out it should be pretty feasible in conjunction with the Raspberry Pi I already have plans to set up as a sort of garage controller.  That device will be connected by ethernet and will have a constant and reasonably close proximity to my smoker and grills already.  This post is for my notes on links that will be useful when (if?) I actually get around to making this work.

Software/code links and notes will come later, after I actually get the equipment to start testing.

About the BBQ thermometers

The Maverick (and presumably Ivation) transmit on the 433.92MHz frequency using OOK.  The Hackaday link to Bob Blake’s article below describes the communications protocols and encoding.

Links

• https://wiki.pilight.org/doku.php/receivers
  • Comparison of some 433MHz/434MHz receivers and also some information on low pass filters to reduce the amount of time the Pi will have to spend filtering noise.
  • Related: https://github.com/SpenceKonde/ATTinyCore – ATTiny support for the Arduino IDE
• http://wiki.openpicus.com/index.php?title=Wifi_bbq
  • Page with information on an existing product (Flyport) that can be used to achieve the same result I’m looking for, though all would be an additional cost and device for me, as I’m looking to tie this into something I’m already doing – and learn a bit about it.
• https://hackaday.io/post/15045
  • Good article on the reverse engineering of the Maverick protocols, which should be pretty similar (if not identical) to the Ivation.
• http://www.ebay.com/itm/12-10-5mm-ASK-Wireless-RX-Receiver-Modules-5V-433MHZ-108dBm-Super-heterodyne/271525372597
  • 433MHz receiver (simiar to #2 in the pilight.org link above), ordered.
• https://www.safaribooksonline.com/blog/2013/07/25/an-arduino-powered-bbq-thermometer/
  • Related, how to build a thermometer from an Arduino.
• https://github.com/mokus0/et73/blob/master/NOTES.md
  • Protocol decode notes for another model, likely similar.
• https://github.com/bob-blake/et732_logger
  • On Dangerous Prototypes platform.  May need a little modification.
• https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433
  • Code for several projects, including the Maverick 73x series (see under /src/devices)
• https://github.com/btodcox/BBQduino
  • This may just work native, have not tested it yet.
• https://tech.scargill.net/rflink-and-node-red/
  • I don’t think RFLink natively supports the Maverick protocol.  If memory serves, it allows you to capture on multiple protocols and demux them, so adding it in would be kind of useful and would allow it to potentially work with both the BBQ sensor and the doorbell.  The NodeRed integration is also a pretty handy deal for routing stuff to other endpoints.
  • Actually as I’m rereading some things, I’m thinking that it’s the RFSwitch application/platform that doesn’t support the Maverick… this one does Manchester, so it may be workable.  Per https://community.home-assistant.io/t/project-rflink-to-mqtt-using-esp8266-and-arduino-ide/7131 – some good info on that thread in general.
• https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DdtVtSsN25nwP6BZI5q6C9yDGz37tUWjw2SQ1RGwBxU
  • Pretty good list of devices that are compatible with “433toMQTTto433 / OpenMQTTGateway”
  • Long thread on that platform/app here – this may be key to multi-device.  https://community.home-assistant.io/t/433tomqttto433-gateway-device-list/7819/186
• https://www.mysensors.org/
  • Just ran across this today (12/22/18), haven’t looked into its potential.

 

Update 10/9/16

Spent some time trying to get this working with my On Networks N150R over the past couple of days without much luck.  May have to give it a try with one of my Raspberry Pi’s and see if I can get it working there, if for no other reason than to verify that the receiver module I purchased is functional and/or that I have it wired somewhat properly.