I was looking at the Penn Industries DC controller. It's about a hunnert Dollas maybe more.  But I opened the electrical panel on my brand spanky new Felder RL and oh boy is that intimidating. There's a lot going on in there.  Relays that open on a timer because of the type of motor they use.  The start capacitor has to be engaged till the motor spins up and then it has to be disengaged.  I couldn't identify most the things in there. 

So I went back to the drawing board.    I need a method that wouldn't fry my electronics and void the Felder warranty in the bargain.

 

I made a pull cord start-&-stop gizmo. Yank on a cord and a lever trips the push button on the main panel of the DC.  Worked Great.  But it was not terribly expandable.  I'd placed  the pull handles for on/off  centrally so it was OK.  But it was dumb.   The cord stretched and  there was friction at each bend point.  I called it the Three Stooges solution.

 

Now I have an expandable solution that uses 12VDC to trigger two solenoids . One starts it up and the other shuts it down. They push the push buttons the same way one would using one's fingers.  I padded 'em  with neoprene to keep it soft touch.

 

In case you are interested in doing this

Two,  3.1 Kilogram force 12VDC solenoids from the Flea bay  part # 271532419384

 

Momentary switches from the flea bay I got a bunch so I can expand the system to any workstation I please.

part number 252407903739 and  201677209868

 

one, 12VDC 5A switching PSU  Product # 352 from AdaFruit

https://www.adafruit.com/products/352?gclid=Cj0KEQjwqfvABRC6gJ3T_4mwspoBEiQAyoQPkXiqS0SbDOUPPoV7d0WTWW2r1Y916vAaZ2pxSKPkaZcaAoGS8P8HAQ

 

When buying little PSUs ya gotta be sure there's enough ooomph for the job  the little wall adapters tend to have too few Amps to do much work.

 

One 250 Foot roll of 18AWG  4-conductor unshielded thermostat cable from a local supply house  About $40.00

This stuff is rated to control a 24 volt system so it's plenty big for this job.  I bought a lot more cable than I'll prolly use.

 

Some metal scrap bits and pieces I had around that I used for mounts.

Some solder and that  tubular heat shrink insulator material

I didn't have any tiny metric screws to mount the solenoids so I re tapped them to 6-32 but that's just me refusing to  get the right screws.

 

 

Oh Look the first Switch  It's made from whatever scrap I had around.  I've got a ton of those tiny screws I found in a barn  I used to own.

 

 

 

Here are the solenoids: I did say something about using metal scrap left over from other things - - well it works great. I used two of the bolt holes on the machine to mount the rig.  That was metric. 

 

There is even a feature movie directed by Cecil B Demille starring   the beautiful Ha Nui Lee in a bikini, but for the moment Google says it's still processing it.  so that'll have to wait I guess

Edited November 6, 20169 yr by Cliff
gay abandon

here it is.  I couldn't get the model release for the hot bikini models so  ~ ~ ~ ~

 

Well this video was OK but I had my heart set on the Cecil B Demille version...I really didn't have much of a clue what you were explaining Cliff, but the video made sense...This is really cool...so cool, I had to watch it several times in amazement. Thanks for sharing your creativity.

My DC is 220V.   I simply wired in a DPDT switch next to where I work and turn the outlet off and on from there.

That is a cool way of going about it.  The title said remote and wireless came to mind.

7 hours ago, HandyDan said:

That is a cool way of going about it.  The title said remote and wireless came to mind.

My thoughts as well, but that is a clever solution.

And they said you were wrong when you wanted chicken for breakfast!

 

simply amazing!

Well it took me several starts and stops, but I not have a remote  On/Off  switch at each of my work stations they work flawlessly and I'm happy.  My DC is complete. 

Good going.

4 hours ago, Cliff said:

My DC is complete. 

I bought this dust control system a few years ago on line. It didn't cost much and you only buy the remotes you need. I think I have less than $30. I ordered it so that 2 switches start the vac. You can get up to 5 remote locations one this model. They have other models

The batteries are still going strong into the 4th year. The name is ZAP

Edited November 15, 20169 yr by Ron Altier
correction

Just now, Ron Altier said:

I bought this dust control system a few years ago on line.

 

Glad it's working for ya.   I opened my electrics  up and was dazzled at the complexity of it  It's not just a relay switch.  I's a bunch of them and timers and sensors and boards with multiple connectors.    Plus it's 240 VAC  meaning I'd need a 240 rated  gizmo to handle it.  I closed it up like one might a ticking bomb and decided to do it all differently. Everything now happens outside the box.

 

Felder sells these little Current sensor switched you can put on your machines but ( a) they only work on  240 and (b) they force the huge current inrush to occur for both the machine you are starting up and the DC at the same time.  I prefer to start one machine at a time. That way I am not risking under-volting a motor

 

Now that's different. Thinking out side of the box...