Very innovative idea, Patrick.Custom Collector Controller
If you read my last post you might recall how I decided to purchase an X10 "Powerflash Interface" to test out as a controller for my dust collector. My skepticism about how the unit worked turned out to be well-founded. The Powerflash device sends an X10 "on" signal when 6-18VDC is applied to the contacts-but once the voltage is removed, the unit immediately sends an "off" signal. What I was looking for was a way to use a single momentary switch to toggle the collector on and off…so that won't do. In fact, the plan was to mount multiple doorbell-style pushbuttons around the shop and have it wired so that I didn't have to turn the unit off at the same station where I turned it on. Since the Powerflash unit didn't support this, I set out to basically build my own.
I'm not an electrical engineer and couldn't design a circuit to do what I wanted, but I had no trouble finding a few options online. As a kid I used to quite literally spend hours loitering at my local Radio Shack store and would frequently spend what money I had on their "Engineer's Notebooks" and specialty ICs to tinker with. So while I don't fully understand the specifics of the circuits, it wasn't much trouble reading the schematics or assembling the circuit. Of the three circuits I found online, my local Radio Shack store only stocked all of the required parts for one of them. This was, naturally, the most complicated one. It is succinctly if not aptly named Alternating ON-OFF Switch, #2.
A big box of parts…
After a couple after-work evenings, the "DustBunny 3000" was born…
Hooked up to the "Powerflash" for testing…
Labeled and plugged into the volt meter showing ~4.74vdc on the output
And here's the video demonstration of the system in action:
(originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/73)
New Woodshop Construction
81 - 100 of 131 Posts
Thanks, all!Custom Collector Controller
If you read my last post you might recall how I decided to purchase an X10 "Powerflash Interface" to test out as a controller for my dust collector. My skepticism about how the unit worked turned out to be well-founded. The Powerflash device sends an X10 "on" signal when 6-18VDC is applied to the contacts-but once the voltage is removed, the unit immediately sends an "off" signal. What I was looking for was a way to use a single momentary switch to toggle the collector on and off…so that won't do. In fact, the plan was to mount multiple doorbell-style pushbuttons around the shop and have it wired so that I didn't have to turn the unit off at the same station where I turned it on. Since the Powerflash unit didn't support this, I set out to basically build my own.
I'm not an electrical engineer and couldn't design a circuit to do what I wanted, but I had no trouble finding a few options online. As a kid I used to quite literally spend hours loitering at my local Radio Shack store and would frequently spend what money I had on their "Engineer's Notebooks" and specialty ICs to tinker with. So while I don't fully understand the specifics of the circuits, it wasn't much trouble reading the schematics or assembling the circuit. Of the three circuits I found online, my local Radio Shack store only stocked all of the required parts for one of them. This was, naturally, the most complicated one. It is succinctly if not aptly named Alternating ON-OFF Switch, #2.
A big box of parts…
After a couple after-work evenings, the "DustBunny 3000" was born…
Hooked up to the "Powerflash" for testing…
Labeled and plugged into the volt meter showing ~4.74vdc on the output
And here's the video demonstration of the system in action:
(originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/73)
bill- I do actually also have an X10 keychain remote and that works as well. However, I'm not crazy about carrying it around in my pocket and if I set it down it will get lost. Also, with this remote, there are distinct "ON" and "OFF" buttons that you can't readily distinguish by touch…so I have to actually look at the remote. The doorbell type buttons will be discretely installed in the underside of countertops and other convenient but relatively hidden spots. Plus, this cost me only ~$30 (mostly due to the $13 bag-o-resistors as the ones I needed weren't sold individually) and I can hook up as many switches as I want.
well look at that! Ingenious…Custom Collector Controller
If you read my last post you might recall how I decided to purchase an X10 "Powerflash Interface" to test out as a controller for my dust collector. My skepticism about how the unit worked turned out to be well-founded. The Powerflash device sends an X10 "on" signal when 6-18VDC is applied to the contacts-but once the voltage is removed, the unit immediately sends an "off" signal. What I was looking for was a way to use a single momentary switch to toggle the collector on and off…so that won't do. In fact, the plan was to mount multiple doorbell-style pushbuttons around the shop and have it wired so that I didn't have to turn the unit off at the same station where I turned it on. Since the Powerflash unit didn't support this, I set out to basically build my own.
I'm not an electrical engineer and couldn't design a circuit to do what I wanted, but I had no trouble finding a few options online. As a kid I used to quite literally spend hours loitering at my local Radio Shack store and would frequently spend what money I had on their "Engineer's Notebooks" and specialty ICs to tinker with. So while I don't fully understand the specifics of the circuits, it wasn't much trouble reading the schematics or assembling the circuit. Of the three circuits I found online, my local Radio Shack store only stocked all of the required parts for one of them. This was, naturally, the most complicated one. It is succinctly if not aptly named Alternating ON-OFF Switch, #2.
A big box of parts…
After a couple after-work evenings, the "DustBunny 3000" was born…
Hooked up to the "Powerflash" for testing…
Labeled and plugged into the volt meter showing ~4.74vdc on the output
And here's the video demonstration of the system in action:
(originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/73)
All those wires makes me break into a sweat. Electrical and plumbing drive me crazy. I admire you for being able to do all this yourself.Custom Collector Controller
If you read my last post you might recall how I decided to purchase an X10 "Powerflash Interface" to test out as a controller for my dust collector. My skepticism about how the unit worked turned out to be well-founded. The Powerflash device sends an X10 "on" signal when 6-18VDC is applied to the contacts-but once the voltage is removed, the unit immediately sends an "off" signal. What I was looking for was a way to use a single momentary switch to toggle the collector on and off…so that won't do. In fact, the plan was to mount multiple doorbell-style pushbuttons around the shop and have it wired so that I didn't have to turn the unit off at the same station where I turned it on. Since the Powerflash unit didn't support this, I set out to basically build my own.
I'm not an electrical engineer and couldn't design a circuit to do what I wanted, but I had no trouble finding a few options online. As a kid I used to quite literally spend hours loitering at my local Radio Shack store and would frequently spend what money I had on their "Engineer's Notebooks" and specialty ICs to tinker with. So while I don't fully understand the specifics of the circuits, it wasn't much trouble reading the schematics or assembling the circuit. Of the three circuits I found online, my local Radio Shack store only stocked all of the required parts for one of them. This was, naturally, the most complicated one. It is succinctly if not aptly named Alternating ON-OFF Switch, #2.
A big box of parts…
After a couple after-work evenings, the "DustBunny 3000" was born…
Hooked up to the "Powerflash" for testing…
Labeled and plugged into the volt meter showing ~4.74vdc on the output
And here's the video demonstration of the system in action:
(originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/73)
I thought your video quality was excellent! Your match on action camera switches were right on. I appreciate the effort all that takes…so…kudos to you for caring enough to setup and take the effort to do that.Custom Collector Controller
If you read my last post you might recall how I decided to purchase an X10 "Powerflash Interface" to test out as a controller for my dust collector. My skepticism about how the unit worked turned out to be well-founded. The Powerflash device sends an X10 "on" signal when 6-18VDC is applied to the contacts-but once the voltage is removed, the unit immediately sends an "off" signal. What I was looking for was a way to use a single momentary switch to toggle the collector on and off…so that won't do. In fact, the plan was to mount multiple doorbell-style pushbuttons around the shop and have it wired so that I didn't have to turn the unit off at the same station where I turned it on. Since the Powerflash unit didn't support this, I set out to basically build my own.
I'm not an electrical engineer and couldn't design a circuit to do what I wanted, but I had no trouble finding a few options online. As a kid I used to quite literally spend hours loitering at my local Radio Shack store and would frequently spend what money I had on their "Engineer's Notebooks" and specialty ICs to tinker with. So while I don't fully understand the specifics of the circuits, it wasn't much trouble reading the schematics or assembling the circuit. Of the three circuits I found online, my local Radio Shack store only stocked all of the required parts for one of them. This was, naturally, the most complicated one. It is succinctly if not aptly named Alternating ON-OFF Switch, #2.
A big box of parts…
After a couple after-work evenings, the "DustBunny 3000" was born…
Hooked up to the "Powerflash" for testing…
Labeled and plugged into the volt meter showing ~4.74vdc on the output
And here's the video demonstration of the system in action:
(originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/73)
The idea is very cool as well
very cool idea. that must make turning your dust collection on and off a breeze.Custom Collector Controller
If you read my last post you might recall how I decided to purchase an X10 "Powerflash Interface" to test out as a controller for my dust collector. My skepticism about how the unit worked turned out to be well-founded. The Powerflash device sends an X10 "on" signal when 6-18VDC is applied to the contacts-but once the voltage is removed, the unit immediately sends an "off" signal. What I was looking for was a way to use a single momentary switch to toggle the collector on and off…so that won't do. In fact, the plan was to mount multiple doorbell-style pushbuttons around the shop and have it wired so that I didn't have to turn the unit off at the same station where I turned it on. Since the Powerflash unit didn't support this, I set out to basically build my own.
I'm not an electrical engineer and couldn't design a circuit to do what I wanted, but I had no trouble finding a few options online. As a kid I used to quite literally spend hours loitering at my local Radio Shack store and would frequently spend what money I had on their "Engineer's Notebooks" and specialty ICs to tinker with. So while I don't fully understand the specifics of the circuits, it wasn't much trouble reading the schematics or assembling the circuit. Of the three circuits I found online, my local Radio Shack store only stocked all of the required parts for one of them. This was, naturally, the most complicated one. It is succinctly if not aptly named Alternating ON-OFF Switch, #2.
A big box of parts…
After a couple after-work evenings, the "DustBunny 3000" was born…
Hooked up to the "Powerflash" for testing…
Labeled and plugged into the volt meter showing ~4.74vdc on the output
And here's the video demonstration of the system in action:
(originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/73)
Thanks Debbie and trifern.Custom Collector Controller
If you read my last post you might recall how I decided to purchase an X10 "Powerflash Interface" to test out as a controller for my dust collector. My skepticism about how the unit worked turned out to be well-founded. The Powerflash device sends an X10 "on" signal when 6-18VDC is applied to the contacts-but once the voltage is removed, the unit immediately sends an "off" signal. What I was looking for was a way to use a single momentary switch to toggle the collector on and off…so that won't do. In fact, the plan was to mount multiple doorbell-style pushbuttons around the shop and have it wired so that I didn't have to turn the unit off at the same station where I turned it on. Since the Powerflash unit didn't support this, I set out to basically build my own.
I'm not an electrical engineer and couldn't design a circuit to do what I wanted, but I had no trouble finding a few options online. As a kid I used to quite literally spend hours loitering at my local Radio Shack store and would frequently spend what money I had on their "Engineer's Notebooks" and specialty ICs to tinker with. So while I don't fully understand the specifics of the circuits, it wasn't much trouble reading the schematics or assembling the circuit. Of the three circuits I found online, my local Radio Shack store only stocked all of the required parts for one of them. This was, naturally, the most complicated one. It is succinctly if not aptly named Alternating ON-OFF Switch, #2.
A big box of parts…
After a couple after-work evenings, the "DustBunny 3000" was born…
Hooked up to the "Powerflash" for testing…
Labeled and plugged into the volt meter showing ~4.74vdc on the output
And here's the video demonstration of the system in action:
(originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/73)
Thanks, John…I was surprised it worked at all since I'm using Windows Movie Maker which doesn't really have the features you'd want for mixing from multiple sources. I managed to get pretty lucky with a few of 'em though. Thanks!
very cool,Custom Collector Controller
If you read my last post you might recall how I decided to purchase an X10 "Powerflash Interface" to test out as a controller for my dust collector. My skepticism about how the unit worked turned out to be well-founded. The Powerflash device sends an X10 "on" signal when 6-18VDC is applied to the contacts-but once the voltage is removed, the unit immediately sends an "off" signal. What I was looking for was a way to use a single momentary switch to toggle the collector on and off…so that won't do. In fact, the plan was to mount multiple doorbell-style pushbuttons around the shop and have it wired so that I didn't have to turn the unit off at the same station where I turned it on. Since the Powerflash unit didn't support this, I set out to basically build my own.
I'm not an electrical engineer and couldn't design a circuit to do what I wanted, but I had no trouble finding a few options online. As a kid I used to quite literally spend hours loitering at my local Radio Shack store and would frequently spend what money I had on their "Engineer's Notebooks" and specialty ICs to tinker with. So while I don't fully understand the specifics of the circuits, it wasn't much trouble reading the schematics or assembling the circuit. Of the three circuits I found online, my local Radio Shack store only stocked all of the required parts for one of them. This was, naturally, the most complicated one. It is succinctly if not aptly named Alternating ON-OFF Switch, #2.
A big box of parts…
After a couple after-work evenings, the "DustBunny 3000" was born…
Hooked up to the "Powerflash" for testing…
Labeled and plugged into the volt meter showing ~4.74vdc on the output
And here's the video demonstration of the system in action:
(originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/73)
Thanks for the post.
Cool idea. I like that you cold have one switch at every tool so you can just flip it on and off. Good thinkingCustom Collector Controller
If you read my last post you might recall how I decided to purchase an X10 "Powerflash Interface" to test out as a controller for my dust collector. My skepticism about how the unit worked turned out to be well-founded. The Powerflash device sends an X10 "on" signal when 6-18VDC is applied to the contacts-but once the voltage is removed, the unit immediately sends an "off" signal. What I was looking for was a way to use a single momentary switch to toggle the collector on and off…so that won't do. In fact, the plan was to mount multiple doorbell-style pushbuttons around the shop and have it wired so that I didn't have to turn the unit off at the same station where I turned it on. Since the Powerflash unit didn't support this, I set out to basically build my own.
I'm not an electrical engineer and couldn't design a circuit to do what I wanted, but I had no trouble finding a few options online. As a kid I used to quite literally spend hours loitering at my local Radio Shack store and would frequently spend what money I had on their "Engineer's Notebooks" and specialty ICs to tinker with. So while I don't fully understand the specifics of the circuits, it wasn't much trouble reading the schematics or assembling the circuit. Of the three circuits I found online, my local Radio Shack store only stocked all of the required parts for one of them. This was, naturally, the most complicated one. It is succinctly if not aptly named Alternating ON-OFF Switch, #2.
A big box of parts…
After a couple after-work evenings, the "DustBunny 3000" was born…
Hooked up to the "Powerflash" for testing…
Labeled and plugged into the volt meter showing ~4.74vdc on the output
And here's the video demonstration of the system in action:
(originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/73)
Hacking the Delta 50-875 Air Cleaner
(This post is based on a LumberJocks.com forum thread.)
After completing my dust collection system installation, I turned to my air cleaner, the Delta 50-875. I had decided to install it just above my table saw-about 2/3rd's of the way along the wall, where the intake would be in line with the front door and the outfeed inline with the ceiling mounted vent fan. After reading "Woodshop Dust Control" this seemed like the ideal placement and this location had the added benefit of not obscuring any usable wall space-which is at a premium in my small shop.
An Awkward Arrangement
One of the selling points of this unit is the built-in infrared remote control that allows you to install it out of reach and control it from below. The problem is that the remote sensor is in the back of the unit. While the unit location is ideal for air flow, it's rather awkward for IR control as I'd need to walk around to the back of the unit, and to a "far" corner of the shop, to turn it on/off. I've always thought that what I really wanted to do was to control it with a switched outlet. The problem with that scenario is that the control panel built into the unit is solid state and doesn't "remember" the settings when you unplug the unit. That is, if you turn it on and then switch off the outlet it's plugged into, when you switch the outlet back on, the air cleaner will remain "off" until you again manually press the "on" key on the unit or the remote control.
So, there was no way to make this happen…or was there? I reasoned that since it's just an electric motor and a control panel, certainly there would be a way to re-wire the unit, bypassing the built-in solid-state controls so that I could hook to a switched outlet.
Exploration
The air cleaner itself is pretty basic. It's a rectangular metal box with a blower motor/fan in a housing, and a control panel. The motor and control panel are both mounted on the back panel which is simply screwed into the metal box. Once the backpanel assembly, including the blower was removed, I began the process of working out exactly what needed to be done to re-wire the motor. Fortunately, the motor wiring connects to wires from the controller through a nylon connector that, once unplugged provided an easy means of measuring various voltages and resistance. As I knew nothing about wiring AC motors, I began the process with a google search…many of them. Unfortunately, none provided me with anything that I could really use to definitively determine how this motor worked. In fact, I was left with more questions than I'd had originally…who knew there were so many types of AC motors! Initially, as there were 3 colored wires (Red, Blue and Black) and one White (clearly "common"), I assumed there were 3 windings and each color represented one of the 3 speeds that the unit boasts. Based on what I'd read, however, I was now concerned that the large-ish capacitor on the red wire indicated that I might have a "capacitor start" motor which would require something more complicated than simply applying voltage to one of the wires. Perhaps an electrical engineer, at this point, would have provided me a definitive way to check this out…but there weren't any in my shop, so I tried a different tack.
I reasoned that the best way to reverse engineer this setup was to hook up each of the colored wires in turn to my volt meter-using white for common-and turn the unit on, cycle through the various speed settings and note the voltages. This did the trick. Here are the measured results:
Clearly this was going to be as straight-forward as I had first hoped! Red = slow, blue = medium and black = fast. That's all there was to it!
Let the hacking begin…
Now I was ready to start. In thinking through exactly how I wanted to wire this up, I realized that I might want to have the ability to change the speed at some point without opening the unit up. I also figured it would be pretty simple to install a switch that would basically allow me to "undo" this hack and use the unit as nature, and the Chinese factory had intended without having to un-hang and re-open the unit. The solution was a couple toggle switches. Since there's an Ace hardware store right up the street from my office, I decided to stop by at lunch and see what they had. I was looking for a SP3T rotary switch that would allow me to cycle through all three speeds-but the only one they had was rated at 4A max. The fuse mounted in the control panel is rated at 5A, so I figured this switch wouldn't do. The next closest was a SPDT switch, center off-and two speeds seemed "close enough." For the "hack bypass" switch, I got a DPDT. While it seemed like it should be sufficient to switch only the "hot" wire, since I was going to essentially be supplying power to the output of the controller when using the hack (see drawing), I was concerned that a closed common connection might allow a circuit to complete and result in "who knows what"(tm) happening. So, I decided the safest thing to do would be to simply switch both common and hot.
The plan
Here's a basic drawing of what was done:
Moving forward
So the whole point of this modification was to allow me to control the unit by a switched outlet. The switched outlet is managed by an Insteon SwitchLinc which will allow for event-driven activation, such as turning on and off automatically with tools and/or the dust collection unit and wireless RF remote control via an X10 keychain remote. I'll be refining the programming over the coming weeks/months.
(originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/74)
(This post is based on a LumberJocks.com forum thread.)
After completing my dust collection system installation, I turned to my air cleaner, the Delta 50-875. I had decided to install it just above my table saw-about 2/3rd's of the way along the wall, where the intake would be in line with the front door and the outfeed inline with the ceiling mounted vent fan. After reading "Woodshop Dust Control" this seemed like the ideal placement and this location had the added benefit of not obscuring any usable wall space-which is at a premium in my small shop.
An Awkward Arrangement
One of the selling points of this unit is the built-in infrared remote control that allows you to install it out of reach and control it from below. The problem is that the remote sensor is in the back of the unit. While the unit location is ideal for air flow, it's rather awkward for IR control as I'd need to walk around to the back of the unit, and to a "far" corner of the shop, to turn it on/off. I've always thought that what I really wanted to do was to control it with a switched outlet. The problem with that scenario is that the control panel built into the unit is solid state and doesn't "remember" the settings when you unplug the unit. That is, if you turn it on and then switch off the outlet it's plugged into, when you switch the outlet back on, the air cleaner will remain "off" until you again manually press the "on" key on the unit or the remote control.
So, there was no way to make this happen…or was there? I reasoned that since it's just an electric motor and a control panel, certainly there would be a way to re-wire the unit, bypassing the built-in solid-state controls so that I could hook to a switched outlet.
Exploration
The air cleaner itself is pretty basic. It's a rectangular metal box with a blower motor/fan in a housing, and a control panel. The motor and control panel are both mounted on the back panel which is simply screwed into the metal box. Once the backpanel assembly, including the blower was removed, I began the process of working out exactly what needed to be done to re-wire the motor. Fortunately, the motor wiring connects to wires from the controller through a nylon connector that, once unplugged provided an easy means of measuring various voltages and resistance. As I knew nothing about wiring AC motors, I began the process with a google search…many of them. Unfortunately, none provided me with anything that I could really use to definitively determine how this motor worked. In fact, I was left with more questions than I'd had originally…who knew there were so many types of AC motors! Initially, as there were 3 colored wires (Red, Blue and Black) and one White (clearly "common"), I assumed there were 3 windings and each color represented one of the 3 speeds that the unit boasts. Based on what I'd read, however, I was now concerned that the large-ish capacitor on the red wire indicated that I might have a "capacitor start" motor which would require something more complicated than simply applying voltage to one of the wires. Perhaps an electrical engineer, at this point, would have provided me a definitive way to check this out…but there weren't any in my shop, so I tried a different tack.
I reasoned that the best way to reverse engineer this setup was to hook up each of the colored wires in turn to my volt meter-using white for common-and turn the unit on, cycle through the various speed settings and note the voltages. This did the trick. Here are the measured results:
| wire | slow | medium | fast |
|---|---|---|---|
| RED | 121V | 9V | 9V |
| BLUE | 9V | 121V | 9V |
| BLACK | 14V | 14V | 121V |
Clearly this was going to be as straight-forward as I had first hoped! Red = slow, blue = medium and black = fast. That's all there was to it!
Let the hacking begin…
Now I was ready to start. In thinking through exactly how I wanted to wire this up, I realized that I might want to have the ability to change the speed at some point without opening the unit up. I also figured it would be pretty simple to install a switch that would basically allow me to "undo" this hack and use the unit as nature, and the Chinese factory had intended without having to un-hang and re-open the unit. The solution was a couple toggle switches. Since there's an Ace hardware store right up the street from my office, I decided to stop by at lunch and see what they had. I was looking for a SP3T rotary switch that would allow me to cycle through all three speeds-but the only one they had was rated at 4A max. The fuse mounted in the control panel is rated at 5A, so I figured this switch wouldn't do. The next closest was a SPDT switch, center off-and two speeds seemed "close enough." For the "hack bypass" switch, I got a DPDT. While it seemed like it should be sufficient to switch only the "hot" wire, since I was going to essentially be supplying power to the output of the controller when using the hack (see drawing), I was concerned that a closed common connection might allow a circuit to complete and result in "who knows what"(tm) happening. So, I decided the safest thing to do would be to simply switch both common and hot.
The plan
Here's a basic drawing of what was done:
Moving forward
So the whole point of this modification was to allow me to control the unit by a switched outlet. The switched outlet is managed by an Insteon SwitchLinc which will allow for event-driven activation, such as turning on and off automatically with tools and/or the dust collection unit and wireless RF remote control via an X10 keychain remote. I'll be refining the programming over the coming weeks/months.
(originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/74)
6
Very nice write up on the conversion you made. I want to say that your shop is an inspiration and I look forward to your blog postings about it.Hacking the Delta 50-875 Air Cleaner
(This post is based on a LumberJocks.com forum thread.)
After completing my dust collection system installation, I turned to my air cleaner, the Delta 50-875. I had decided to install it just above my table saw-about 2/3rd's of the way along the wall, where the intake would be in line with the front door and the outfeed inline with the ceiling mounted vent fan. After reading "Woodshop Dust Control" this seemed like the ideal placement and this location had the added benefit of not obscuring any usable wall space-which is at a premium in my small shop.
An Awkward Arrangement
One of the selling points of this unit is the built-in infrared remote control that allows you to install it out of reach and control it from below. The problem is that the remote sensor is in the back of the unit. While the unit location is ideal for air flow, it's rather awkward for IR control as I'd need to walk around to the back of the unit, and to a "far" corner of the shop, to turn it on/off. I've always thought that what I really wanted to do was to control it with a switched outlet. The problem with that scenario is that the control panel built into the unit is solid state and doesn't "remember" the settings when you unplug the unit. That is, if you turn it on and then switch off the outlet it's plugged into, when you switch the outlet back on, the air cleaner will remain "off" until you again manually press the "on" key on the unit or the remote control.
So, there was no way to make this happen…or was there? I reasoned that since it's just an electric motor and a control panel, certainly there would be a way to re-wire the unit, bypassing the built-in solid-state controls so that I could hook to a switched outlet.
Exploration
The air cleaner itself is pretty basic. It's a rectangular metal box with a blower motor/fan in a housing, and a control panel. The motor and control panel are both mounted on the back panel which is simply screwed into the metal box. Once the backpanel assembly, including the blower was removed, I began the process of working out exactly what needed to be done to re-wire the motor. Fortunately, the motor wiring connects to wires from the controller through a nylon connector that, once unplugged provided an easy means of measuring various voltages and resistance. As I knew nothing about wiring AC motors, I began the process with a google search…many of them. Unfortunately, none provided me with anything that I could really use to definitively determine how this motor worked. In fact, I was left with more questions than I'd had originally…who knew there were so many types of AC motors! Initially, as there were 3 colored wires (Red, Blue and Black) and one White (clearly "common"), I assumed there were 3 windings and each color represented one of the 3 speeds that the unit boasts. Based on what I'd read, however, I was now concerned that the large-ish capacitor on the red wire indicated that I might have a "capacitor start" motor which would require something more complicated than simply applying voltage to one of the wires. Perhaps an electrical engineer, at this point, would have provided me a definitive way to check this out…but there weren't any in my shop, so I tried a different tack.
I reasoned that the best way to reverse engineer this setup was to hook up each of the colored wires in turn to my volt meter-using white for common-and turn the unit on, cycle through the various speed settings and note the voltages. This did the trick. Here are the measured results:
wire slow medium fast RED 121V 9V 9V BLUE 9V 121V 9V BLACK 14V 14V 121V
Clearly this was going to be as straight-forward as I had first hoped! Red = slow, blue = medium and black = fast. That's all there was to it!
Let the hacking begin…
Now I was ready to start. In thinking through exactly how I wanted to wire this up, I realized that I might want to have the ability to change the speed at some point without opening the unit up. I also figured it would be pretty simple to install a switch that would basically allow me to "undo" this hack and use the unit as nature, and the Chinese factory had intended without having to un-hang and re-open the unit. The solution was a couple toggle switches. Since there's an Ace hardware store right up the street from my office, I decided to stop by at lunch and see what they had. I was looking for a SP3T rotary switch that would allow me to cycle through all three speeds-but the only one they had was rated at 4A max. The fuse mounted in the control panel is rated at 5A, so I figured this switch wouldn't do. The next closest was a SPDT switch, center off-and two speeds seemed "close enough." For the "hack bypass" switch, I got a DPDT. While it seemed like it should be sufficient to switch only the "hot" wire, since I was going to essentially be supplying power to the output of the controller when using the hack (see drawing), I was concerned that a closed common connection might allow a circuit to complete and result in "who knows what"(tm) happening. So, I decided the safest thing to do would be to simply switch both common and hot.
The plan
Here's a basic drawing of what was done:
Moving forward
So the whole point of this modification was to allow me to control the unit by a switched outlet. The switched outlet is managed by an Insteon SwitchLinc which will allow for event-driven activation, such as turning on and off automatically with tools and/or the dust collection unit and wireless RF remote control via an X10 keychain remote. I'll be refining the programming over the coming weeks/months.
(originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/74)
Thanks, Grant! Nice to know it's appreciated by someone. In the "real world" my non-woodworker friends tend to stare at me blankly when I ramble on about this stuff!Hacking the Delta 50-875 Air Cleaner
(This post is based on a LumberJocks.com forum thread.)
After completing my dust collection system installation, I turned to my air cleaner, the Delta 50-875. I had decided to install it just above my table saw-about 2/3rd's of the way along the wall, where the intake would be in line with the front door and the outfeed inline with the ceiling mounted vent fan. After reading "Woodshop Dust Control" this seemed like the ideal placement and this location had the added benefit of not obscuring any usable wall space-which is at a premium in my small shop.
An Awkward Arrangement
One of the selling points of this unit is the built-in infrared remote control that allows you to install it out of reach and control it from below. The problem is that the remote sensor is in the back of the unit. While the unit location is ideal for air flow, it's rather awkward for IR control as I'd need to walk around to the back of the unit, and to a "far" corner of the shop, to turn it on/off. I've always thought that what I really wanted to do was to control it with a switched outlet. The problem with that scenario is that the control panel built into the unit is solid state and doesn't "remember" the settings when you unplug the unit. That is, if you turn it on and then switch off the outlet it's plugged into, when you switch the outlet back on, the air cleaner will remain "off" until you again manually press the "on" key on the unit or the remote control.
So, there was no way to make this happen…or was there? I reasoned that since it's just an electric motor and a control panel, certainly there would be a way to re-wire the unit, bypassing the built-in solid-state controls so that I could hook to a switched outlet.
Exploration
The air cleaner itself is pretty basic. It's a rectangular metal box with a blower motor/fan in a housing, and a control panel. The motor and control panel are both mounted on the back panel which is simply screwed into the metal box. Once the backpanel assembly, including the blower was removed, I began the process of working out exactly what needed to be done to re-wire the motor. Fortunately, the motor wiring connects to wires from the controller through a nylon connector that, once unplugged provided an easy means of measuring various voltages and resistance. As I knew nothing about wiring AC motors, I began the process with a google search…many of them. Unfortunately, none provided me with anything that I could really use to definitively determine how this motor worked. In fact, I was left with more questions than I'd had originally…who knew there were so many types of AC motors! Initially, as there were 3 colored wires (Red, Blue and Black) and one White (clearly "common"), I assumed there were 3 windings and each color represented one of the 3 speeds that the unit boasts. Based on what I'd read, however, I was now concerned that the large-ish capacitor on the red wire indicated that I might have a "capacitor start" motor which would require something more complicated than simply applying voltage to one of the wires. Perhaps an electrical engineer, at this point, would have provided me a definitive way to check this out…but there weren't any in my shop, so I tried a different tack.
I reasoned that the best way to reverse engineer this setup was to hook up each of the colored wires in turn to my volt meter-using white for common-and turn the unit on, cycle through the various speed settings and note the voltages. This did the trick. Here are the measured results:
wire slow medium fast RED 121V 9V 9V BLUE 9V 121V 9V BLACK 14V 14V 121V
Clearly this was going to be as straight-forward as I had first hoped! Red = slow, blue = medium and black = fast. That's all there was to it!
Let the hacking begin…
Now I was ready to start. In thinking through exactly how I wanted to wire this up, I realized that I might want to have the ability to change the speed at some point without opening the unit up. I also figured it would be pretty simple to install a switch that would basically allow me to "undo" this hack and use the unit as nature, and the Chinese factory had intended without having to un-hang and re-open the unit. The solution was a couple toggle switches. Since there's an Ace hardware store right up the street from my office, I decided to stop by at lunch and see what they had. I was looking for a SP3T rotary switch that would allow me to cycle through all three speeds-but the only one they had was rated at 4A max. The fuse mounted in the control panel is rated at 5A, so I figured this switch wouldn't do. The next closest was a SPDT switch, center off-and two speeds seemed "close enough." For the "hack bypass" switch, I got a DPDT. While it seemed like it should be sufficient to switch only the "hot" wire, since I was going to essentially be supplying power to the output of the controller when using the hack (see drawing), I was concerned that a closed common connection might allow a circuit to complete and result in "who knows what"(tm) happening. So, I decided the safest thing to do would be to simply switch both common and hot.
The plan
Here's a basic drawing of what was done:
Moving forward
So the whole point of this modification was to allow me to control the unit by a switched outlet. The switched outlet is managed by an Insteon SwitchLinc which will allow for event-driven activation, such as turning on and off automatically with tools and/or the dust collection unit and wireless RF remote control via an X10 keychain remote. I'll be refining the programming over the coming weeks/months.
(originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/74)
wow. you've got yourself a great dust collection and air purification system there. after all this is done you're gonna have the cleanest shop on Lumberjocks.Hacking the Delta 50-875 Air Cleaner
(This post is based on a LumberJocks.com forum thread.)
After completing my dust collection system installation, I turned to my air cleaner, the Delta 50-875. I had decided to install it just above my table saw-about 2/3rd's of the way along the wall, where the intake would be in line with the front door and the outfeed inline with the ceiling mounted vent fan. After reading "Woodshop Dust Control" this seemed like the ideal placement and this location had the added benefit of not obscuring any usable wall space-which is at a premium in my small shop.
An Awkward Arrangement
One of the selling points of this unit is the built-in infrared remote control that allows you to install it out of reach and control it from below. The problem is that the remote sensor is in the back of the unit. While the unit location is ideal for air flow, it's rather awkward for IR control as I'd need to walk around to the back of the unit, and to a "far" corner of the shop, to turn it on/off. I've always thought that what I really wanted to do was to control it with a switched outlet. The problem with that scenario is that the control panel built into the unit is solid state and doesn't "remember" the settings when you unplug the unit. That is, if you turn it on and then switch off the outlet it's plugged into, when you switch the outlet back on, the air cleaner will remain "off" until you again manually press the "on" key on the unit or the remote control.
So, there was no way to make this happen…or was there? I reasoned that since it's just an electric motor and a control panel, certainly there would be a way to re-wire the unit, bypassing the built-in solid-state controls so that I could hook to a switched outlet.
Exploration
The air cleaner itself is pretty basic. It's a rectangular metal box with a blower motor/fan in a housing, and a control panel. The motor and control panel are both mounted on the back panel which is simply screwed into the metal box. Once the backpanel assembly, including the blower was removed, I began the process of working out exactly what needed to be done to re-wire the motor. Fortunately, the motor wiring connects to wires from the controller through a nylon connector that, once unplugged provided an easy means of measuring various voltages and resistance. As I knew nothing about wiring AC motors, I began the process with a google search…many of them. Unfortunately, none provided me with anything that I could really use to definitively determine how this motor worked. In fact, I was left with more questions than I'd had originally…who knew there were so many types of AC motors! Initially, as there were 3 colored wires (Red, Blue and Black) and one White (clearly "common"), I assumed there were 3 windings and each color represented one of the 3 speeds that the unit boasts. Based on what I'd read, however, I was now concerned that the large-ish capacitor on the red wire indicated that I might have a "capacitor start" motor which would require something more complicated than simply applying voltage to one of the wires. Perhaps an electrical engineer, at this point, would have provided me a definitive way to check this out…but there weren't any in my shop, so I tried a different tack.
I reasoned that the best way to reverse engineer this setup was to hook up each of the colored wires in turn to my volt meter-using white for common-and turn the unit on, cycle through the various speed settings and note the voltages. This did the trick. Here are the measured results:
wire slow medium fast RED 121V 9V 9V BLUE 9V 121V 9V BLACK 14V 14V 121V
Clearly this was going to be as straight-forward as I had first hoped! Red = slow, blue = medium and black = fast. That's all there was to it!
Let the hacking begin…
Now I was ready to start. In thinking through exactly how I wanted to wire this up, I realized that I might want to have the ability to change the speed at some point without opening the unit up. I also figured it would be pretty simple to install a switch that would basically allow me to "undo" this hack and use the unit as nature, and the Chinese factory had intended without having to un-hang and re-open the unit. The solution was a couple toggle switches. Since there's an Ace hardware store right up the street from my office, I decided to stop by at lunch and see what they had. I was looking for a SP3T rotary switch that would allow me to cycle through all three speeds-but the only one they had was rated at 4A max. The fuse mounted in the control panel is rated at 5A, so I figured this switch wouldn't do. The next closest was a SPDT switch, center off-and two speeds seemed "close enough." For the "hack bypass" switch, I got a DPDT. While it seemed like it should be sufficient to switch only the "hot" wire, since I was going to essentially be supplying power to the output of the controller when using the hack (see drawing), I was concerned that a closed common connection might allow a circuit to complete and result in "who knows what"(tm) happening. So, I decided the safest thing to do would be to simply switch both common and hot.
The plan
Here's a basic drawing of what was done:
Moving forward
So the whole point of this modification was to allow me to control the unit by a switched outlet. The switched outlet is managed by an Insteon SwitchLinc which will allow for event-driven activation, such as turning on and off automatically with tools and/or the dust collection unit and wireless RF remote control via an X10 keychain remote. I'll be refining the programming over the coming weeks/months.
(originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/74)
Thanks for the post. I'm going to be making the same modification.Hacking the Delta 50-875 Air Cleaner
(This post is based on a LumberJocks.com forum thread.)
After completing my dust collection system installation, I turned to my air cleaner, the Delta 50-875. I had decided to install it just above my table saw-about 2/3rd's of the way along the wall, where the intake would be in line with the front door and the outfeed inline with the ceiling mounted vent fan. After reading "Woodshop Dust Control" this seemed like the ideal placement and this location had the added benefit of not obscuring any usable wall space-which is at a premium in my small shop.
An Awkward Arrangement
One of the selling points of this unit is the built-in infrared remote control that allows you to install it out of reach and control it from below. The problem is that the remote sensor is in the back of the unit. While the unit location is ideal for air flow, it's rather awkward for IR control as I'd need to walk around to the back of the unit, and to a "far" corner of the shop, to turn it on/off. I've always thought that what I really wanted to do was to control it with a switched outlet. The problem with that scenario is that the control panel built into the unit is solid state and doesn't "remember" the settings when you unplug the unit. That is, if you turn it on and then switch off the outlet it's plugged into, when you switch the outlet back on, the air cleaner will remain "off" until you again manually press the "on" key on the unit or the remote control.
So, there was no way to make this happen…or was there? I reasoned that since it's just an electric motor and a control panel, certainly there would be a way to re-wire the unit, bypassing the built-in solid-state controls so that I could hook to a switched outlet.
Exploration
The air cleaner itself is pretty basic. It's a rectangular metal box with a blower motor/fan in a housing, and a control panel. The motor and control panel are both mounted on the back panel which is simply screwed into the metal box. Once the backpanel assembly, including the blower was removed, I began the process of working out exactly what needed to be done to re-wire the motor. Fortunately, the motor wiring connects to wires from the controller through a nylon connector that, once unplugged provided an easy means of measuring various voltages and resistance. As I knew nothing about wiring AC motors, I began the process with a google search…many of them. Unfortunately, none provided me with anything that I could really use to definitively determine how this motor worked. In fact, I was left with more questions than I'd had originally…who knew there were so many types of AC motors! Initially, as there were 3 colored wires (Red, Blue and Black) and one White (clearly "common"), I assumed there were 3 windings and each color represented one of the 3 speeds that the unit boasts. Based on what I'd read, however, I was now concerned that the large-ish capacitor on the red wire indicated that I might have a "capacitor start" motor which would require something more complicated than simply applying voltage to one of the wires. Perhaps an electrical engineer, at this point, would have provided me a definitive way to check this out…but there weren't any in my shop, so I tried a different tack.
I reasoned that the best way to reverse engineer this setup was to hook up each of the colored wires in turn to my volt meter-using white for common-and turn the unit on, cycle through the various speed settings and note the voltages. This did the trick. Here are the measured results:
wire slow medium fast RED 121V 9V 9V BLUE 9V 121V 9V BLACK 14V 14V 121V
Clearly this was going to be as straight-forward as I had first hoped! Red = slow, blue = medium and black = fast. That's all there was to it!
Let the hacking begin…
Now I was ready to start. In thinking through exactly how I wanted to wire this up, I realized that I might want to have the ability to change the speed at some point without opening the unit up. I also figured it would be pretty simple to install a switch that would basically allow me to "undo" this hack and use the unit as nature, and the Chinese factory had intended without having to un-hang and re-open the unit. The solution was a couple toggle switches. Since there's an Ace hardware store right up the street from my office, I decided to stop by at lunch and see what they had. I was looking for a SP3T rotary switch that would allow me to cycle through all three speeds-but the only one they had was rated at 4A max. The fuse mounted in the control panel is rated at 5A, so I figured this switch wouldn't do. The next closest was a SPDT switch, center off-and two speeds seemed "close enough." For the "hack bypass" switch, I got a DPDT. While it seemed like it should be sufficient to switch only the "hot" wire, since I was going to essentially be supplying power to the output of the controller when using the hack (see drawing), I was concerned that a closed common connection might allow a circuit to complete and result in "who knows what"(tm) happening. So, I decided the safest thing to do would be to simply switch both common and hot.
The plan
Here's a basic drawing of what was done:
Moving forward
So the whole point of this modification was to allow me to control the unit by a switched outlet. The switched outlet is managed by an Insteon SwitchLinc which will allow for event-driven activation, such as turning on and off automatically with tools and/or the dust collection unit and wireless RF remote control via an X10 keychain remote. I'll be refining the programming over the coming weeks/months.
(originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/74)
I knew I should have taken an electronics class…Hacking the Delta 50-875 Air Cleaner
(This post is based on a LumberJocks.com forum thread.)
After completing my dust collection system installation, I turned to my air cleaner, the Delta 50-875. I had decided to install it just above my table saw-about 2/3rd's of the way along the wall, where the intake would be in line with the front door and the outfeed inline with the ceiling mounted vent fan. After reading "Woodshop Dust Control" this seemed like the ideal placement and this location had the added benefit of not obscuring any usable wall space-which is at a premium in my small shop.
An Awkward Arrangement
One of the selling points of this unit is the built-in infrared remote control that allows you to install it out of reach and control it from below. The problem is that the remote sensor is in the back of the unit. While the unit location is ideal for air flow, it's rather awkward for IR control as I'd need to walk around to the back of the unit, and to a "far" corner of the shop, to turn it on/off. I've always thought that what I really wanted to do was to control it with a switched outlet. The problem with that scenario is that the control panel built into the unit is solid state and doesn't "remember" the settings when you unplug the unit. That is, if you turn it on and then switch off the outlet it's plugged into, when you switch the outlet back on, the air cleaner will remain "off" until you again manually press the "on" key on the unit or the remote control.
So, there was no way to make this happen…or was there? I reasoned that since it's just an electric motor and a control panel, certainly there would be a way to re-wire the unit, bypassing the built-in solid-state controls so that I could hook to a switched outlet.
Exploration
The air cleaner itself is pretty basic. It's a rectangular metal box with a blower motor/fan in a housing, and a control panel. The motor and control panel are both mounted on the back panel which is simply screwed into the metal box. Once the backpanel assembly, including the blower was removed, I began the process of working out exactly what needed to be done to re-wire the motor. Fortunately, the motor wiring connects to wires from the controller through a nylon connector that, once unplugged provided an easy means of measuring various voltages and resistance. As I knew nothing about wiring AC motors, I began the process with a google search…many of them. Unfortunately, none provided me with anything that I could really use to definitively determine how this motor worked. In fact, I was left with more questions than I'd had originally…who knew there were so many types of AC motors! Initially, as there were 3 colored wires (Red, Blue and Black) and one White (clearly "common"), I assumed there were 3 windings and each color represented one of the 3 speeds that the unit boasts. Based on what I'd read, however, I was now concerned that the large-ish capacitor on the red wire indicated that I might have a "capacitor start" motor which would require something more complicated than simply applying voltage to one of the wires. Perhaps an electrical engineer, at this point, would have provided me a definitive way to check this out…but there weren't any in my shop, so I tried a different tack.
I reasoned that the best way to reverse engineer this setup was to hook up each of the colored wires in turn to my volt meter-using white for common-and turn the unit on, cycle through the various speed settings and note the voltages. This did the trick. Here are the measured results:
wire slow medium fast RED 121V 9V 9V BLUE 9V 121V 9V BLACK 14V 14V 121V
Clearly this was going to be as straight-forward as I had first hoped! Red = slow, blue = medium and black = fast. That's all there was to it!
Let the hacking begin…
Now I was ready to start. In thinking through exactly how I wanted to wire this up, I realized that I might want to have the ability to change the speed at some point without opening the unit up. I also figured it would be pretty simple to install a switch that would basically allow me to "undo" this hack and use the unit as nature, and the Chinese factory had intended without having to un-hang and re-open the unit. The solution was a couple toggle switches. Since there's an Ace hardware store right up the street from my office, I decided to stop by at lunch and see what they had. I was looking for a SP3T rotary switch that would allow me to cycle through all three speeds-but the only one they had was rated at 4A max. The fuse mounted in the control panel is rated at 5A, so I figured this switch wouldn't do. The next closest was a SPDT switch, center off-and two speeds seemed "close enough." For the "hack bypass" switch, I got a DPDT. While it seemed like it should be sufficient to switch only the "hot" wire, since I was going to essentially be supplying power to the output of the controller when using the hack (see drawing), I was concerned that a closed common connection might allow a circuit to complete and result in "who knows what"(tm) happening. So, I decided the safest thing to do would be to simply switch both common and hot.
The plan
Here's a basic drawing of what was done:
Moving forward
So the whole point of this modification was to allow me to control the unit by a switched outlet. The switched outlet is managed by an Insteon SwitchLinc which will allow for event-driven activation, such as turning on and off automatically with tools and/or the dust collection unit and wireless RF remote control via an X10 keychain remote. I'll be refining the programming over the coming weeks/months.
(originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/74)
taw- Not sure about the "cleanest" but I'm aiming to be at least among the "healthiest."Hacking the Delta 50-875 Air Cleaner
(This post is based on a LumberJocks.com forum thread.)
After completing my dust collection system installation, I turned to my air cleaner, the Delta 50-875. I had decided to install it just above my table saw-about 2/3rd's of the way along the wall, where the intake would be in line with the front door and the outfeed inline with the ceiling mounted vent fan. After reading "Woodshop Dust Control" this seemed like the ideal placement and this location had the added benefit of not obscuring any usable wall space-which is at a premium in my small shop.
An Awkward Arrangement
One of the selling points of this unit is the built-in infrared remote control that allows you to install it out of reach and control it from below. The problem is that the remote sensor is in the back of the unit. While the unit location is ideal for air flow, it's rather awkward for IR control as I'd need to walk around to the back of the unit, and to a "far" corner of the shop, to turn it on/off. I've always thought that what I really wanted to do was to control it with a switched outlet. The problem with that scenario is that the control panel built into the unit is solid state and doesn't "remember" the settings when you unplug the unit. That is, if you turn it on and then switch off the outlet it's plugged into, when you switch the outlet back on, the air cleaner will remain "off" until you again manually press the "on" key on the unit or the remote control.
So, there was no way to make this happen…or was there? I reasoned that since it's just an electric motor and a control panel, certainly there would be a way to re-wire the unit, bypassing the built-in solid-state controls so that I could hook to a switched outlet.
Exploration
The air cleaner itself is pretty basic. It's a rectangular metal box with a blower motor/fan in a housing, and a control panel. The motor and control panel are both mounted on the back panel which is simply screwed into the metal box. Once the backpanel assembly, including the blower was removed, I began the process of working out exactly what needed to be done to re-wire the motor. Fortunately, the motor wiring connects to wires from the controller through a nylon connector that, once unplugged provided an easy means of measuring various voltages and resistance. As I knew nothing about wiring AC motors, I began the process with a google search…many of them. Unfortunately, none provided me with anything that I could really use to definitively determine how this motor worked. In fact, I was left with more questions than I'd had originally…who knew there were so many types of AC motors! Initially, as there were 3 colored wires (Red, Blue and Black) and one White (clearly "common"), I assumed there were 3 windings and each color represented one of the 3 speeds that the unit boasts. Based on what I'd read, however, I was now concerned that the large-ish capacitor on the red wire indicated that I might have a "capacitor start" motor which would require something more complicated than simply applying voltage to one of the wires. Perhaps an electrical engineer, at this point, would have provided me a definitive way to check this out…but there weren't any in my shop, so I tried a different tack.
I reasoned that the best way to reverse engineer this setup was to hook up each of the colored wires in turn to my volt meter-using white for common-and turn the unit on, cycle through the various speed settings and note the voltages. This did the trick. Here are the measured results:
wire slow medium fast RED 121V 9V 9V BLUE 9V 121V 9V BLACK 14V 14V 121V
Clearly this was going to be as straight-forward as I had first hoped! Red = slow, blue = medium and black = fast. That's all there was to it!
Let the hacking begin…
Now I was ready to start. In thinking through exactly how I wanted to wire this up, I realized that I might want to have the ability to change the speed at some point without opening the unit up. I also figured it would be pretty simple to install a switch that would basically allow me to "undo" this hack and use the unit as nature, and the Chinese factory had intended without having to un-hang and re-open the unit. The solution was a couple toggle switches. Since there's an Ace hardware store right up the street from my office, I decided to stop by at lunch and see what they had. I was looking for a SP3T rotary switch that would allow me to cycle through all three speeds-but the only one they had was rated at 4A max. The fuse mounted in the control panel is rated at 5A, so I figured this switch wouldn't do. The next closest was a SPDT switch, center off-and two speeds seemed "close enough." For the "hack bypass" switch, I got a DPDT. While it seemed like it should be sufficient to switch only the "hot" wire, since I was going to essentially be supplying power to the output of the controller when using the hack (see drawing), I was concerned that a closed common connection might allow a circuit to complete and result in "who knows what"(tm) happening. So, I decided the safest thing to do would be to simply switch both common and hot.
The plan
Here's a basic drawing of what was done:
Moving forward
So the whole point of this modification was to allow me to control the unit by a switched outlet. The switched outlet is managed by an Insteon SwitchLinc which will allow for event-driven activation, such as turning on and off automatically with tools and/or the dust collection unit and wireless RF remote control via an X10 keychain remote. I'll be refining the programming over the coming weeks/months.
(originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/74)
Dave- keep me posted!
Tom - Why? I didn't.
Interesting. I have a Jet model that has a very similar control panel. The remote works from almost anywhere in my shop.Hacking the Delta 50-875 Air Cleaner
(This post is based on a LumberJocks.com forum thread.)
After completing my dust collection system installation, I turned to my air cleaner, the Delta 50-875. I had decided to install it just above my table saw-about 2/3rd's of the way along the wall, where the intake would be in line with the front door and the outfeed inline with the ceiling mounted vent fan. After reading "Woodshop Dust Control" this seemed like the ideal placement and this location had the added benefit of not obscuring any usable wall space-which is at a premium in my small shop.
An Awkward Arrangement
One of the selling points of this unit is the built-in infrared remote control that allows you to install it out of reach and control it from below. The problem is that the remote sensor is in the back of the unit. While the unit location is ideal for air flow, it's rather awkward for IR control as I'd need to walk around to the back of the unit, and to a "far" corner of the shop, to turn it on/off. I've always thought that what I really wanted to do was to control it with a switched outlet. The problem with that scenario is that the control panel built into the unit is solid state and doesn't "remember" the settings when you unplug the unit. That is, if you turn it on and then switch off the outlet it's plugged into, when you switch the outlet back on, the air cleaner will remain "off" until you again manually press the "on" key on the unit or the remote control.
So, there was no way to make this happen…or was there? I reasoned that since it's just an electric motor and a control panel, certainly there would be a way to re-wire the unit, bypassing the built-in solid-state controls so that I could hook to a switched outlet.
Exploration
The air cleaner itself is pretty basic. It's a rectangular metal box with a blower motor/fan in a housing, and a control panel. The motor and control panel are both mounted on the back panel which is simply screwed into the metal box. Once the backpanel assembly, including the blower was removed, I began the process of working out exactly what needed to be done to re-wire the motor. Fortunately, the motor wiring connects to wires from the controller through a nylon connector that, once unplugged provided an easy means of measuring various voltages and resistance. As I knew nothing about wiring AC motors, I began the process with a google search…many of them. Unfortunately, none provided me with anything that I could really use to definitively determine how this motor worked. In fact, I was left with more questions than I'd had originally…who knew there were so many types of AC motors! Initially, as there were 3 colored wires (Red, Blue and Black) and one White (clearly "common"), I assumed there were 3 windings and each color represented one of the 3 speeds that the unit boasts. Based on what I'd read, however, I was now concerned that the large-ish capacitor on the red wire indicated that I might have a "capacitor start" motor which would require something more complicated than simply applying voltage to one of the wires. Perhaps an electrical engineer, at this point, would have provided me a definitive way to check this out…but there weren't any in my shop, so I tried a different tack.
I reasoned that the best way to reverse engineer this setup was to hook up each of the colored wires in turn to my volt meter-using white for common-and turn the unit on, cycle through the various speed settings and note the voltages. This did the trick. Here are the measured results:
wire slow medium fast RED 121V 9V 9V BLUE 9V 121V 9V BLACK 14V 14V 121V
Clearly this was going to be as straight-forward as I had first hoped! Red = slow, blue = medium and black = fast. That's all there was to it!
Let the hacking begin…
Now I was ready to start. In thinking through exactly how I wanted to wire this up, I realized that I might want to have the ability to change the speed at some point without opening the unit up. I also figured it would be pretty simple to install a switch that would basically allow me to "undo" this hack and use the unit as nature, and the Chinese factory had intended without having to un-hang and re-open the unit. The solution was a couple toggle switches. Since there's an Ace hardware store right up the street from my office, I decided to stop by at lunch and see what they had. I was looking for a SP3T rotary switch that would allow me to cycle through all three speeds-but the only one they had was rated at 4A max. The fuse mounted in the control panel is rated at 5A, so I figured this switch wouldn't do. The next closest was a SPDT switch, center off-and two speeds seemed "close enough." For the "hack bypass" switch, I got a DPDT. While it seemed like it should be sufficient to switch only the "hot" wire, since I was going to essentially be supplying power to the output of the controller when using the hack (see drawing), I was concerned that a closed common connection might allow a circuit to complete and result in "who knows what"(tm) happening. So, I decided the safest thing to do would be to simply switch both common and hot.
The plan
Here's a basic drawing of what was done:
Moving forward
So the whole point of this modification was to allow me to control the unit by a switched outlet. The switched outlet is managed by an Insteon SwitchLinc which will allow for event-driven activation, such as turning on and off automatically with tools and/or the dust collection unit and wireless RF remote control via an X10 keychain remote. I'll be refining the programming over the coming weeks/months.
(originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/74)
Strangely enought the air filter looks just the same as my Grizzly G0572 Hanging Air Filter w/ Remote, and I really like it.Hacking the Delta 50-875 Air Cleaner
(This post is based on a LumberJocks.com forum thread.)
After completing my dust collection system installation, I turned to my air cleaner, the Delta 50-875. I had decided to install it just above my table saw-about 2/3rd's of the way along the wall, where the intake would be in line with the front door and the outfeed inline with the ceiling mounted vent fan. After reading "Woodshop Dust Control" this seemed like the ideal placement and this location had the added benefit of not obscuring any usable wall space-which is at a premium in my small shop.
An Awkward Arrangement
One of the selling points of this unit is the built-in infrared remote control that allows you to install it out of reach and control it from below. The problem is that the remote sensor is in the back of the unit. While the unit location is ideal for air flow, it's rather awkward for IR control as I'd need to walk around to the back of the unit, and to a "far" corner of the shop, to turn it on/off. I've always thought that what I really wanted to do was to control it with a switched outlet. The problem with that scenario is that the control panel built into the unit is solid state and doesn't "remember" the settings when you unplug the unit. That is, if you turn it on and then switch off the outlet it's plugged into, when you switch the outlet back on, the air cleaner will remain "off" until you again manually press the "on" key on the unit or the remote control.
So, there was no way to make this happen…or was there? I reasoned that since it's just an electric motor and a control panel, certainly there would be a way to re-wire the unit, bypassing the built-in solid-state controls so that I could hook to a switched outlet.
Exploration
The air cleaner itself is pretty basic. It's a rectangular metal box with a blower motor/fan in a housing, and a control panel. The motor and control panel are both mounted on the back panel which is simply screwed into the metal box. Once the backpanel assembly, including the blower was removed, I began the process of working out exactly what needed to be done to re-wire the motor. Fortunately, the motor wiring connects to wires from the controller through a nylon connector that, once unplugged provided an easy means of measuring various voltages and resistance. As I knew nothing about wiring AC motors, I began the process with a google search…many of them. Unfortunately, none provided me with anything that I could really use to definitively determine how this motor worked. In fact, I was left with more questions than I'd had originally…who knew there were so many types of AC motors! Initially, as there were 3 colored wires (Red, Blue and Black) and one White (clearly "common"), I assumed there were 3 windings and each color represented one of the 3 speeds that the unit boasts. Based on what I'd read, however, I was now concerned that the large-ish capacitor on the red wire indicated that I might have a "capacitor start" motor which would require something more complicated than simply applying voltage to one of the wires. Perhaps an electrical engineer, at this point, would have provided me a definitive way to check this out…but there weren't any in my shop, so I tried a different tack.
I reasoned that the best way to reverse engineer this setup was to hook up each of the colored wires in turn to my volt meter-using white for common-and turn the unit on, cycle through the various speed settings and note the voltages. This did the trick. Here are the measured results:
wire slow medium fast RED 121V 9V 9V BLUE 9V 121V 9V BLACK 14V 14V 121V
Clearly this was going to be as straight-forward as I had first hoped! Red = slow, blue = medium and black = fast. That's all there was to it!
Let the hacking begin…
Now I was ready to start. In thinking through exactly how I wanted to wire this up, I realized that I might want to have the ability to change the speed at some point without opening the unit up. I also figured it would be pretty simple to install a switch that would basically allow me to "undo" this hack and use the unit as nature, and the Chinese factory had intended without having to un-hang and re-open the unit. The solution was a couple toggle switches. Since there's an Ace hardware store right up the street from my office, I decided to stop by at lunch and see what they had. I was looking for a SP3T rotary switch that would allow me to cycle through all three speeds-but the only one they had was rated at 4A max. The fuse mounted in the control panel is rated at 5A, so I figured this switch wouldn't do. The next closest was a SPDT switch, center off-and two speeds seemed "close enough." For the "hack bypass" switch, I got a DPDT. While it seemed like it should be sufficient to switch only the "hot" wire, since I was going to essentially be supplying power to the output of the controller when using the hack (see drawing), I was concerned that a closed common connection might allow a circuit to complete and result in "who knows what"(tm) happening. So, I decided the safest thing to do would be to simply switch both common and hot.
The plan
Here's a basic drawing of what was done:
Moving forward
So the whole point of this modification was to allow me to control the unit by a switched outlet. The switched outlet is managed by an Insteon SwitchLinc which will allow for event-driven activation, such as turning on and off automatically with tools and/or the dust collection unit and wireless RF remote control via an X10 keychain remote. I'll be refining the programming over the coming weeks/months.
(originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/74)
NorthWoodsMan- You're clearly luckier than I. The infrared remote with the Delta (looks like an identical control panel) in my shop, in both my "old" shop (garage) and my "new" shop I had to stand pretty much directly behind the thing in order for the remote control to function. It was a major pain. Now I have an X10 RF remote that works from anywhere.Hacking the Delta 50-875 Air Cleaner
(This post is based on a LumberJocks.com forum thread.)
After completing my dust collection system installation, I turned to my air cleaner, the Delta 50-875. I had decided to install it just above my table saw-about 2/3rd's of the way along the wall, where the intake would be in line with the front door and the outfeed inline with the ceiling mounted vent fan. After reading "Woodshop Dust Control" this seemed like the ideal placement and this location had the added benefit of not obscuring any usable wall space-which is at a premium in my small shop.
An Awkward Arrangement
One of the selling points of this unit is the built-in infrared remote control that allows you to install it out of reach and control it from below. The problem is that the remote sensor is in the back of the unit. While the unit location is ideal for air flow, it's rather awkward for IR control as I'd need to walk around to the back of the unit, and to a "far" corner of the shop, to turn it on/off. I've always thought that what I really wanted to do was to control it with a switched outlet. The problem with that scenario is that the control panel built into the unit is solid state and doesn't "remember" the settings when you unplug the unit. That is, if you turn it on and then switch off the outlet it's plugged into, when you switch the outlet back on, the air cleaner will remain "off" until you again manually press the "on" key on the unit or the remote control.
So, there was no way to make this happen…or was there? I reasoned that since it's just an electric motor and a control panel, certainly there would be a way to re-wire the unit, bypassing the built-in solid-state controls so that I could hook to a switched outlet.
Exploration
The air cleaner itself is pretty basic. It's a rectangular metal box with a blower motor/fan in a housing, and a control panel. The motor and control panel are both mounted on the back panel which is simply screwed into the metal box. Once the backpanel assembly, including the blower was removed, I began the process of working out exactly what needed to be done to re-wire the motor. Fortunately, the motor wiring connects to wires from the controller through a nylon connector that, once unplugged provided an easy means of measuring various voltages and resistance. As I knew nothing about wiring AC motors, I began the process with a google search…many of them. Unfortunately, none provided me with anything that I could really use to definitively determine how this motor worked. In fact, I was left with more questions than I'd had originally…who knew there were so many types of AC motors! Initially, as there were 3 colored wires (Red, Blue and Black) and one White (clearly "common"), I assumed there were 3 windings and each color represented one of the 3 speeds that the unit boasts. Based on what I'd read, however, I was now concerned that the large-ish capacitor on the red wire indicated that I might have a "capacitor start" motor which would require something more complicated than simply applying voltage to one of the wires. Perhaps an electrical engineer, at this point, would have provided me a definitive way to check this out…but there weren't any in my shop, so I tried a different tack.
I reasoned that the best way to reverse engineer this setup was to hook up each of the colored wires in turn to my volt meter-using white for common-and turn the unit on, cycle through the various speed settings and note the voltages. This did the trick. Here are the measured results:
wire slow medium fast RED 121V 9V 9V BLUE 9V 121V 9V BLACK 14V 14V 121V
Clearly this was going to be as straight-forward as I had first hoped! Red = slow, blue = medium and black = fast. That's all there was to it!
Let the hacking begin…
Now I was ready to start. In thinking through exactly how I wanted to wire this up, I realized that I might want to have the ability to change the speed at some point without opening the unit up. I also figured it would be pretty simple to install a switch that would basically allow me to "undo" this hack and use the unit as nature, and the Chinese factory had intended without having to un-hang and re-open the unit. The solution was a couple toggle switches. Since there's an Ace hardware store right up the street from my office, I decided to stop by at lunch and see what they had. I was looking for a SP3T rotary switch that would allow me to cycle through all three speeds-but the only one they had was rated at 4A max. The fuse mounted in the control panel is rated at 5A, so I figured this switch wouldn't do. The next closest was a SPDT switch, center off-and two speeds seemed "close enough." For the "hack bypass" switch, I got a DPDT. While it seemed like it should be sufficient to switch only the "hot" wire, since I was going to essentially be supplying power to the output of the controller when using the hack (see drawing), I was concerned that a closed common connection might allow a circuit to complete and result in "who knows what"(tm) happening. So, I decided the safest thing to do would be to simply switch both common and hot.
The plan
Here's a basic drawing of what was done:
Moving forward
So the whole point of this modification was to allow me to control the unit by a switched outlet. The switched outlet is managed by an Insteon SwitchLinc which will allow for event-driven activation, such as turning on and off automatically with tools and/or the dust collection unit and wireless RF remote control via an X10 keychain remote. I'll be refining the programming over the coming weeks/months.
(originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/74)
That said, the remote is just a "bonus" as my other issue with the Delta remote is the fact that it would occasionally run away and hide from me…I'm really more interested in controlling it via my keypads located at both entrances and also programming it to turn on/off automatically (after a delay) with the dust collection system. Neither of these would work with the unit "as is".
I was thinking of moving the IR sensor to the other side of the case, but after looking up your schematic (www.acetoolrepair.com) I see the IR sensor must be integral to the circuit card. I've also overcome some IR sensors (VCR,etc.) by using a small mirror to reflect the IR light or by using fiber optic cableing.Hacking the Delta 50-875 Air Cleaner
(This post is based on a LumberJocks.com forum thread.)
After completing my dust collection system installation, I turned to my air cleaner, the Delta 50-875. I had decided to install it just above my table saw-about 2/3rd's of the way along the wall, where the intake would be in line with the front door and the outfeed inline with the ceiling mounted vent fan. After reading "Woodshop Dust Control" this seemed like the ideal placement and this location had the added benefit of not obscuring any usable wall space-which is at a premium in my small shop.
An Awkward Arrangement
One of the selling points of this unit is the built-in infrared remote control that allows you to install it out of reach and control it from below. The problem is that the remote sensor is in the back of the unit. While the unit location is ideal for air flow, it's rather awkward for IR control as I'd need to walk around to the back of the unit, and to a "far" corner of the shop, to turn it on/off. I've always thought that what I really wanted to do was to control it with a switched outlet. The problem with that scenario is that the control panel built into the unit is solid state and doesn't "remember" the settings when you unplug the unit. That is, if you turn it on and then switch off the outlet it's plugged into, when you switch the outlet back on, the air cleaner will remain "off" until you again manually press the "on" key on the unit or the remote control.
So, there was no way to make this happen…or was there? I reasoned that since it's just an electric motor and a control panel, certainly there would be a way to re-wire the unit, bypassing the built-in solid-state controls so that I could hook to a switched outlet.
Exploration
The air cleaner itself is pretty basic. It's a rectangular metal box with a blower motor/fan in a housing, and a control panel. The motor and control panel are both mounted on the back panel which is simply screwed into the metal box. Once the backpanel assembly, including the blower was removed, I began the process of working out exactly what needed to be done to re-wire the motor. Fortunately, the motor wiring connects to wires from the controller through a nylon connector that, once unplugged provided an easy means of measuring various voltages and resistance. As I knew nothing about wiring AC motors, I began the process with a google search…many of them. Unfortunately, none provided me with anything that I could really use to definitively determine how this motor worked. In fact, I was left with more questions than I'd had originally…who knew there were so many types of AC motors! Initially, as there were 3 colored wires (Red, Blue and Black) and one White (clearly "common"), I assumed there were 3 windings and each color represented one of the 3 speeds that the unit boasts. Based on what I'd read, however, I was now concerned that the large-ish capacitor on the red wire indicated that I might have a "capacitor start" motor which would require something more complicated than simply applying voltage to one of the wires. Perhaps an electrical engineer, at this point, would have provided me a definitive way to check this out…but there weren't any in my shop, so I tried a different tack.
I reasoned that the best way to reverse engineer this setup was to hook up each of the colored wires in turn to my volt meter-using white for common-and turn the unit on, cycle through the various speed settings and note the voltages. This did the trick. Here are the measured results:
wire slow medium fast RED 121V 9V 9V BLUE 9V 121V 9V BLACK 14V 14V 121V
Clearly this was going to be as straight-forward as I had first hoped! Red = slow, blue = medium and black = fast. That's all there was to it!
Let the hacking begin…
Now I was ready to start. In thinking through exactly how I wanted to wire this up, I realized that I might want to have the ability to change the speed at some point without opening the unit up. I also figured it would be pretty simple to install a switch that would basically allow me to "undo" this hack and use the unit as nature, and the Chinese factory had intended without having to un-hang and re-open the unit. The solution was a couple toggle switches. Since there's an Ace hardware store right up the street from my office, I decided to stop by at lunch and see what they had. I was looking for a SP3T rotary switch that would allow me to cycle through all three speeds-but the only one they had was rated at 4A max. The fuse mounted in the control panel is rated at 5A, so I figured this switch wouldn't do. The next closest was a SPDT switch, center off-and two speeds seemed "close enough." For the "hack bypass" switch, I got a DPDT. While it seemed like it should be sufficient to switch only the "hot" wire, since I was going to essentially be supplying power to the output of the controller when using the hack (see drawing), I was concerned that a closed common connection might allow a circuit to complete and result in "who knows what"(tm) happening. So, I decided the safest thing to do would be to simply switch both common and hot.
The plan
Here's a basic drawing of what was done:
Moving forward
So the whole point of this modification was to allow me to control the unit by a switched outlet. The switched outlet is managed by an Insteon SwitchLinc which will allow for event-driven activation, such as turning on and off automatically with tools and/or the dust collection unit and wireless RF remote control via an X10 keychain remote. I'll be refining the programming over the coming weeks/months.
(originally posted at http://tenonandspline.com/blog/archives/74)
Interesting modification you have made. Does it work to your satisfaction now? How's this unit for dust removal?
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