Twetch ·
long story short: I found out why the owner didn't want to sell the product, although he wasn't upfront. #1 BBQ controller had fatal flaws and expensive fixes. Here was my takeover site to build the business:
Ending: https://www.stokerparts.com/
Twetch ·
If I was going to do it, I had to service/support existing units. So I'd spent time reverse engineering the temperature probes. Building blowers. Although I thoroughly enjoy the art of reverse engineering. I'd forgotten about the "stuck blower" incident.
Twetch ·
I'd amassed enough hardware to run some tests. To recreate my Thanksgiving "stuck blower". I updated my 2nd gen unit (there were 3 major revs) to the latest firmware. Something I was hosting on my website since Rock bailed.
Twetch ·
Anyway, I suddenly felt incredibly liable for the flaw in the software by supporting the units, in an unauthorized format. Rock wasn't responding to my emails, and implied he'd just let me have the biz? What? 25k followers on Twitter and free?
Twetch ·
Took me about 15 minutes to recreate stuck blower with "Please wait" on the screen. The blower just runs forever regardless of the temp in the pit. It's a hot mess. OpenWRT platform. Locked up java code that I'd have to decompile. abort.
Twetch ·
1) Safety issues with Stoker... the only time I've seen a Stoker melt a probe was when I left
the lid off my WSM to run an entry when cooking solo. I had a cooker fire when I get back,
not unexpected.
Twetch ·
The anecdote in general references that I cooked in camps for a few years
with multiple Stoker II users at contests and they complained to me
Twetch ·
about every single
hiccup they saw. Stuck blowers never came up. Safety issue? Liability issue? Should I be
offering you free consulting for you or calling an attorney?
Twetch ·
That was the developer, not Rock. I started chatting him up after Rock went dark. Anyway, it was going to be cool. I estimated he'd sold 10k of these units. They had a loyal following, although owners weren't online.
Twetch ·
You'd only hear from owners if they had a problem. I didn't have a customer list. Even with insurance, too much risk that one might burn down the back of someone's house. And the owner shirked responsibility according to CA law after 12 months out-of-biz.
Twetch ·
wasn't a complete loss. I learned quite a bit more about prototyping hardware, more about electronics and using Eagle from AutoDesk. And I find it fun tracing circuit boards and recreating them. But it wasn't a great use of time either.