Pit Talk -- Comments and Questions Regarding These Pellet Pits > MAK

MAK Discontinues M4 Probes for K-Style Probes

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glitchy:
Won't other probes work on the older MAK controllers? I took their e-mail as they are having a hard time finding a US Manufacturer of the barrel plug probes, but if you knew the specs, I'd guess someone else's probes would work just fine from Thermoworks, Fireboard, or generics from Amazon. I don't have experience with the old controller, but my understanding is that there's a lot to gain from upgrading to the new. I thought I heard that the older controllers will not run the latest firmware. The new controller and firmware have a lot of claimed improvements over the old. I only say claimed because I don't have any experience with the old to compare to. Type-K probes are universal. MAK's new probes appear to be great quality, but you should be able to use any type k probe with the new controller.

To the point of maintenance, that's always a risk with tech. Pellet grills move more and more tech all the time with WiFi, apps, probes, etc. The tech around them will become obsolete with time. New WiFi 6 standards and routers are coming out that use a new 6GHz band. I haven't studied it much yet, but I wonder if it's penetration will be better than 5GHz? If it is, 2.4GHz could start disappearing over the next few years. 2.4GHz is the only thing all the pellet grills I've seen support. When will support for old standards quit getting added to all routers (802.11 a/b/g/n)? As well, how long will companies support old grills in app updates? They have to update their apps frequently for OS updates, if they change things in the data formats over time (likely to improve things with newer models like more information or better tracking), they could have to maintain differences between several different grill models and grow tired of it over time and just start dropping app support for older grills.

As far as going to gas, Weber has new models out this year with an integrated Smart Connect hub and probes. So, they're likely on their way to become standard on most of their gassers over time. Moving to gas might not save you any headache. With the Masterbuilt and CharGriller Gravity Feeds drawing tons of attention, it sure looks like charcoal is heading to full on tech as well.

You old xxxxxx better run out and get your offsets, kettles, and WSM's now before they start moving them into the current times ;) It will be scary and funny when an old Traeger with the classic Smoke, Lo, High only settings are the most sought after pellet grills and start fetching tens of thousands on eBay.

Bar-B-Lew:
The old MAK barrel style probes are the only thing that works on that controller to my knowledge.  I know I have tried Thermoworks barrel style probes and they didn't work.  I am pretty sure I read somewhere there is something in the electronics of the MAK probe that makes theirs the only one that works with their controller.  I think Memphis was the same too.  They all wanted a piece of the replacement parts revenue and profits rather than giving it to someone else.  It may also save them a headache of telling people its their probes fault and not the MAK/Memphis/ETC controller issue.

glitchy:
I would find it hard to believe they put something in them to make them only work with a MAK since they use a standard connector and wouldn't have anything to read a signal from a chip or something unless it was RF, but then they'd need to deliver power to a RF chip somehow and not interfere with the probe readings. However, they could be using a strange resistance, which might be why they're getting harder to source too. If you lived closer, I'd bring my drawer full of probes over and we could test them all out to see if any happen to work. Then we could try to figure out where the probe was from  8) I built a HeaterMeter years ago so bought a few different probes playing with that, I wasn't smart enough to label each one though.

I know Fireboard has two different resistances available on their regular style probes and one of them will work with Thermoworks devices and the other won't.

02ebz06:
Correct about the resistance (impedance).
Different manufactures use different impedance in the probes.
If you could find ones with same impedance you "should" be OK.

elenis:

--- Quote from: Bar-B-Lew on July 01, 2021, 12:21:28 PM ---The old MAK barrel style probes are the only thing that works on that controller to my knowledge.  I know I have tried Thermoworks barrel style probes and they didn't work.  I am pretty sure I read somewhere there is something in the electronics of the MAK probe that makes theirs the only one that works with their controller.  I think Memphis was the same too.  They all wanted a piece of the replacement parts revenue and profits rather than giving it to someone else.  It may also save them a headache of telling people its their probes fault and not the MAK/Memphis/ETC controller issue.

--- End quote ---

So the probe that came with my Mak died a long time ago. I had a Maverick branded Redi-chek ET-7 that came with two probes and thought it couldn't hurt to try those on the Mak and they work fine. The replacement probes from Maverick are like $17 for 1 or $27.75 for a two pack direct from Maverick. The model is PR-005 – 6-FOOT HIGH-HEAT PROBE. Maybe it isn't supposed to work, but I have been using them on my controller on my 2 Star for 5 or 6 years now after my first Mak probe died.

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