Controlling Fans Remotely - SOLVED

idbruce

Hello Everyone

I am on the final stages of designing my furnaces, tools, and foundry layout, but I am currently unhappy with a portion of my design and layout.

I have attached a layout of the two furnace foundry for reference, but I am currently unaware whether the the uploaded size will be legible. Anyhow, there are two furnaces within a giant sandbox, and the area of the sandbox to the right of the furnace will be used for casting, pouring ingots, etc... The furnaces are the two squares with circles in the center and the blowers extend rearward, as represented in the layout, by short and long rectangles. Occasionally these blowers will have to be shutdown, either for fueling or casting purposes. The blowers currently utilize toggle switches for on/off operation. These switches are at the rear of the casting area, which makes it a serious inconvenience and potentially a hazardous situation to turn on and off. In an effort to make it safer and more convenient, I am now considering remote control of these blower units, which are 12VDC.

Any ideas or suggestions?

msrobots

First question, how remote?

usually you can run 12 volt lines for at least 10-25 feet without much problem, as long as thick enough.

Then there are mechanical solutions, a Bowden-wire(?) like brakes on bicycles can work easy on a longer distance and throw/push a switch.

Or you can use electronic solution like Bluetooth, serial, Ethernet and some MC but this can go expensive fast.

Just my two cents.

Mike

idbruce

Mike

The main power source (12V battery) will be approx. 5 feet behind the blowers, and the blowers have a metal faceplate, which would hold any supporting electronics.

I have been bouncing around the idea of redisigning the faceplate to incorporate a 90 degree bend and swap out the toggle switch for a pull chain switch. I could route the chain through a series of eyes along the blower pipes and out to the front of the furnaces.That would probably be the cheapest solution.

D.P

idbruce wrote: »

Mike

The main power source (12V battery) will be approx. 5 feet behind the blowers, and the blowers have a metal faceplate, which would hold any supporting electronics.

I have been bouncing around the idea of redisigning the faceplate to incorporate a 90 degree bend and swap out the toggle switch for a pull chain switch. I could route the chain through a series of eyes along the blower pipes and out to the front of the furnaces.That would probably be the cheapest solution.

5 ft? Take some Cat 5 solid core plenum and for ultimate conductivity use two pairs for the + and two pairs for the - and move the switch where ever you want with reason.

Or use the pull chain, that has the Rube Goldberg feel.

mmowen

Relays?

Alexander (Sandy) Hapgood

Crydom and Crouzet have a range of DC relays that will do the job. I've used them in the past and had good results. Littelfuse is a good source for heavy duty suppression diodes.

idbruce

In an effort to keep things simple, I purchased two pull chain switches earlier today. I am on my way to the dungeon to see if I can come up with a good way to use them and a new design for the blower faceplate. If not, then most likely I will go with RF and relays. I was also thinking about IR, but I think RF would be better, although more expensive.

As for running wires to place the switches at a different location, I don't particularly like that idea, because they would either have to be buried, laid across the sand of the casting area, or just laid on top of the ground, out of the casting area, in which case, they would become a potential tripping hazard around extremely hot objects.

Crydom and Crouzet have a range of DC relays that will do the job.

Yea, those Crydom relays are nice.

geo_leeman

idbruce wrote: »

In an effort to keep things simple, I purchased two pull chain switches earlier today. I am on my way to the dungeon to see if I can come up with a good way to use them and a new design for the blower faceplate. If not, then most likely I will go with RF and relays. I was also thinking about IR, but I think RF would be better, although more expensive.

As for running wires to place the switches at a different location, I don't particularly like that idea, because they would either have to be buried, laid across the sand of the casting area, or just laid on top of the ground, out of the casting area, in which case, they would become a potential tripping hazard around extremely hot objects.

Crydom and Crouzet have a range of DC relays that will do the job.

Yea, those Crydom relays are nice.

What about multiple pull chain/toggle switches like you'd use for a 2 or 3 way switched lighting setup in a house? I'd be worried of the pull string running all around failing at a bad time.

idbruce

After messing around with the pull chain switches, I came to the conclusion that they work very well, however I overlooked one very important factor. By utilizing pull chain switches, it would become necessary to place your face in very close proximity to a temperature of 1200 degrees fahrenheit, in addition to molten aluminum, so I have ruled out that option.

Here is something of interest, but the guy failed to add an EEPROM, thus making it worthless to me. Close, but no cigar. engineeringshock.com/learning-relay-control-kit.html

idbruce

Okay this does not have an EEPROM either, but it appears that it would work. Nice and neat.

two channels of IR

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XY65JAS?psc=1

EDIT: OOPPS appears to be RF operating at 433 Mhz

geo_leeman

idbruce wrote: »

Okay this does not have an EEPROM either, but it appears that it would work. Nice and neat.

two channels of IR

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XY65JAS?psc=1

EDIT: OOPPS appears to be RF operating at 433 Mhz

What about plugging the fan power supply into a remote controlled outlet like this one?

Shawn Lowe

idbruce wrote: »

After messing around with the pull chain switches, I came to the conclusion that they work very well, however I overlooked one very important factor. By utilizing pull chain switches, it would become necessary to place your face in very close proximity to a temperature of 1200 degrees fahrenheit, in addition to molten aluminum, so I have ruled out that option.

Here is something of interest, but the guy failed to add an EEPROM, thus making it worthless to me. Close, but no cigar. engineeringshock.com/learning-relay-control-kit.html

I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, but why do you need EEPROM?

idbruce

geo_leeman

What about plugging the fan power supply into a remote controlled outlet like this one?

Here's the scoop... Although I provided a layout for the foundry, this layout is just for me and for anyone else that wants to set up a foundry this way, and this layout may not be readily accessible to 120V. These furnaces and accessories are intended to be sold commercially, and the blower units are intended to be powered either by a 12v wall wart or a 12V battery. Basically, the furnace is portable and can be used at home or at a very remote location. So I must design for both wall wart and battery applications.

Shawn Lowe

I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, but why do you need EEPROM?

I am not sure that it does, but one guy wrote that if power is lost, the devices must be learned again to function.

idbruce

I originally thought I might go high tech with some sort of a Propeller solution, but I have now decided to go with a low tech solution.

As stated earlier:

After messing around with the pull chain switches, I came to the conclusion that they work very well, however I overlooked one very important factor. By utilizing pull chain switches, it would become necessary to place your face in very close proximity to a temperature of 1200 degrees fahrenheit, in addition to molten aluminum, so I have ruled out that option.

My new solution is too extend the pull chains upward. Referring to the attached illustration, I will either drive extension rods, with attached eyelets, into the sand of the casting area sand, directly behind the furnaces, as represented by the red dots in the illustration, or I will drill and thread a hole into the furnace base plate, and screw extension rods, with attached eyelets, into the furnace base plates, as represented by the blue dots in the illustration.

I will most likely thread the base plates for a rigid and permanent solution.

Problem solved!

idbruce

I forgot the illustration in the previous post

bte2

At the delis in a local supermarket chain there are gas pump-like nozzles they use to fill the fryers. The system has a tank in back pressurized with nitrogen so as to not expose the cooking oil to oxygen (yes it oxidizes and goes rancid).

It came up that in the event of a fire, the hose could melt and result in pressurized oil being fed to a working kitchen fire.

I was hired to create a workaround, and I used a PIC to monitor a lighted pushbutton near the dispenser (and control the light) and control an electric valve so the nozzle went dead until the valve was activated. The PIC was (is) located in back by the tank and valve.

In thinking it through, it dawned on me that if the wiring melted and touched together, the valve could open, and that wasn't any better than what they had to begin with.

I ended up writing it so that a single and distinct press of the button was the only way that the valve would open- if it was less than 250 milliseconds, nothing. If it was more than 500 milliseconds, nothing. If they tried to hotwire it, the valve would close. After 5 minutes it would close. If they laid a mop handle against the button, it would close. The valve would only open upon release of a proper-length button press- press it for 375 milliseconds and the valve would open when you let go of the switch, and light the switch so they would know it was 'hot'.

It worked like a charm, satisfied their insurance writers, and they bought a bunch of them for every store in the chain (which I got to install too).

For some reason, reading this thread reminded me of that. Maybe because it is a foundry the OP is working on.

idbruce

bte2

Your story sounds very interesting. I would imagine that same principle could be applied to many different types of valve and fluid delivery systems, instead of just oil. Perhaps water, steam, hydraulic fluid, etc... It may be worth while to think of potential applications, besides the super market chain.