Auto start cyclone?

[Jeff Bartley]

Happy new year SMC!

The title may be a little misleading…..I had an interesting thing happen a few minutes ago. As I was sitting at the bench laying out peg locations on my current project my cyclone turned itself on. It’s an old Clearvue which is started through a plain-Jane garage door opener controlled relay.

Could it be a neighbor has their garage door opener set at the same frequency or is there some other mechanism that could trip the relay? Anyone else ever experience this?

I generally unplug the dust system when I leave the shop but it’s still a little disconcerting to have it suddenly power up!

[Jim Becker]

Happy New Year, my friend!

It's not inconceivable that another RF producing device/remote could have triggered your system. For example, if a neighbor was adding a remote (such as a Homelink equipped vehicle) to their own system and for some reason, it paired with yours in the moment, it could cause that issue. I actually recently read about that exact kind of "timing is everything" moment when a neighbor's new vehicle suddenly started opening the writer's garage door. Then again, it could just be an electrical anomaly or a failing component. You might do a wipe and re-pair to set your system up again to insure nothing else is paired externally by accident.

[Mark Bolton]

Kinda reminds me of the friend/neighbor/whoever who has a TV remote that works on some of your stuff and creeps up to the window giggling playing pranks. Or the wife popping the trunk lid on the dad in the driveway. Be thankful its not on your tablesaw or shaper.

I did away with the remote on the cyclones in the shop for this very reason (not that it ever happened) a long time ago.

[Jim Becker]

Hah...I did away with a remote (or four) because they were never where they needed to be anyway or even accidentally carried into the house. I just used a centrally located wall switch that controlled the contactor that powered the cyclone in the closet. It was at most three or four steps from anywhere in the shop, not really inconvenient and very functional.

[Jeff Bartley]

I’m gonna check all the wiring tomorrow. I really need to build an sound-proof enclosure for the cyclone so I’m more apt to just let it run. In an ideal world I’d have auto blast gates that open when I turn on the tool.

I was also thinking I might get all my neighbors to hit their garage door openers to see if one of them can trigger my cyclone. That could be fun for everyone!

[Curt Harms]

Hah...I did away with a remote (or four) because they were never where they needed to be anyway or even accidentally carried into the house. I just used a centrally located wall switch that controlled the contactor that powered the cyclone in the closet. It was at most three or four steps from anywhere in the shop, not really inconvenient and very functional.

That's what I did as well. My shop is small enough that the dust collector switch is less than 6 steps from any working area. I bought a specific purpose contactor to control the dust collector. It has a 120 volt coil so no transformer or anything required. A $1 light switch controls it. If I had a larger shop I'd probably have multiple start/stop switches. I can't lose switches screwed to the structure.

[Alan Lightstone]

Kinda reminds me of the friend/neighbor/whoever who has a TV remote that works on some of your stuff and creeps up to the window giggling playing pranks. Or the wife popping the trunk lid on the dad in the driveway. Be thankful its not on your tablesaw or shaper.

I did away with the remote on the cyclones in the shop for this very reason (not that it ever happened) a long time ago.

I remember the old days when you could drive down the block pushing the button on your Sears garage door opener, and open half of your neighbor's garage doors. Not that I ever would do such a thing...

[Jim Becker]

I’m gonna check all the wiring tomorrow. I really need to build an sound-proof enclosure for the cyclone so I’m more apt to just let it run. I

I HIGHLY recommend this, Jeff, both the closet for sound mitigation and letting the system run while you are moving between machines and processing a batch of material. Frequent on/off is not recommended anyway. You saw the closet at my old shop. It did a masterful job with both the cyclone and the compressor. I plan to duplicate that when I have a new building up here at the new place.

[Alan Lightstone]

I HIGHLY recommend this, Jeff, both the closet for sound mitigation and letting the system run while you are moving between machines and processing a batch of material. Frequent on/off is not recommended anyway. You saw the closet at my old shop. It did a masterful job with both the cyclone and the compressor. I plan to duplicate that when I have a new building up here at the new place.

+1. Doing this, I was able to reduce noise in the shop by about 20dB when the cyclone is running, which is impressive and very helpful for your hearing.

[Clifford McGuire]

Happy new year SMC!

The title may be a little misleading…..I had an interesting thing happen a few minutes ago. As I was sitting at the bench laying out peg locations on my current project my cyclone turned itself on. It’s an old Clearvue which is started through a plain-Jane garage door opener controlled relay.

Could it be a neighbor has their garage door opener set at the same frequency or is there some other mechanism that could trip the relay? Anyone else ever experience this?

I generally unplug the dust system when I leave the shop but it’s still a little disconcerting to have it suddenly power up!

When I shut off my Onieda using the supplied remote, the upstairs ceiling fan turns on...and vice versa.

I assumed there was nothing I could do about it and stopped using the dust collector's remote.

[Tom Bain]

Ghosts, Jeff … you have woodworking ghosts in your shop that came with all that old iron you have

[tom lucas]

Reminds me of a time, back in the 90's, a friend of mine had a watch with an IR remote built in. It would learn just about any code from another remote. He'd program it up with all the remotes in the office (VCR's and the like in those days). Then he'd sit in a meeting driving the presenter crazy by messing with the equipment. Turning it off, pausing it, fast forward, change the channel from ch 3 on the TV monitor, etc. Knowing what was going on, I really had a hard time keeping a straight face. He was completely stone-faced and very slick at hiding what he was doing. It was hilarious.

[Kris Cook]

Reminds me of a time, back in the 90's, a friend of mine had a watch with an IR remote built in. It would learn just about any code from another remote. He'd program it up with all the remotes in the office (VCR's and the like in those days). Then he'd sit in a meeting driving the presenter crazy by messing with the equipment. Turning it off, pausing it, fast forward, change the channel from ch 3 on the TV monitor, etc. Knowing what was going on, I really had a hard time keeping a straight face. He was completely stone-faced and very slick at hiding what he was doing. It was hilarious.

Not to hijack this too much further but I was sitting in the airport in Pocatello, Idaho and the "news" was blaring on the TV. I used my phone to turn off the TV. No one even looked up... Tells you something.

Tried it again in the SLC airport a few months later but it didn't work; must have the port blocked on the TVs.