Fog Machine troubles - not always ready to fog

[BigRez]

Hi All -

Got my fog machine connected to an RC-4 and I can successfully trigger the fog to come on.  My problem seems to be that the fog machine doesn't always fire... Looks like there's either a cooling down period or some amount of time when the machine will not allow fog to be produced.

I know it's not my connections because when completely running the fog machine stand-alone, I can see its red light come on (indicating ready to fog) and then after a couple of minutes go off for a short while (a couple of minutes).

My problem is how do I program for this?  I mean my program may start its routine and try to produce fog while the machine is in that "off" period.  Has anyone encountered this and if so, do you have a work-around for it?  Do all fog machines perform this way? 

Thanks!

[livinlowe]

Bigrez-
Your not crazy, my fog machine does the same thing. The only thing I can think of, other than just dealing with the fact that sometimes your not going to get fog, would be to somehow make the red light ( its a 120V bulb right? Goes dim when heating, bright when ready to fire? Thats how mine is) an input to the prop-1. But I'm not sure how you would do this. Jon might, perhaps someone else? If you knew when it was heating you could delay your prop?

[JonnyMac]

I've not experienced these problems -- but I tend to be running around helping my friends instead of building my own displays.  If you "blast" the fogger for a long period it may need some "recovery time."  Perhaps some experimenting is needed to determine how much fog you can set free and what kind of recovery period is required afterward.

[BigRez]

I guess I could say it's a random feature - sometimes you get fog, sometimes you don't  :D

The prop itself only blasts for 3 or 5 seconds during it's three cycles.  It's not a recovery time issue because it'll do this without ever spitting fog.  For example, I can turn on the fog machine and let it warm up until the red light comes on. If I let it sit, the red light will go out after a short while and then come back on. 

I do have one free pin to use as an input.  So I'd imagine a 120vAC relay could be used (in place of the fogger's red LED) to close a connection between P3.W and P3.R.  The prop would then need to wait for both the PIR trigger (PIN6) and the FogReady (PIN3) triggers before starting the action?

Not sure if I'd like the results as it may not activate as often as I'd like.

[gadget-evilusions]

What's happening is your trying to trigger the fogger during a re heat cycle. You could always get a higher wattage fogger, maybe even one rated for continuous fog so that it eliminates the problem.

[BigRez]

Dangit!  I'm way over what I planned to spend this year.   :-\

Maybe I can return the second (unopened) one for a larger one and give that a try.  Or I can just deal with the lack of fog some times.

Will that relay idea (previous post) work?

Thanks all

[gadget-evilusions]

I don't see why you could not replace the led with a relay, just make sure to match voltages, etc... I have not pulled apart a fogger trigger tell know exactly the electical specs of it.

The reason the light goes off and then back on after just sitting there is because it is reheating. Even just sitting still, the heater will cool and need to reheat. What wattage is the fogger?

[livinlowe]

Make sure its a LED, mine is a lamp (120V)

[BigRez]

Well I know the light is across the 120vac, but would have to open the unit again to check. 

It's a small 400W fogger from Spirit and has a wireless remote. (I need a small footprint.)  The remote connects using a standard 3-wire power cord. I don't use the remote but instead connect it directly to an RC-4 using Green and White wires from the plug to trigger the fogger.

[JonnyMac]

Did you open the remote to verify that it uses the green and white wires?  Every remote I've hacked has used black and white.

[BigRez]

Yep - just verified it's the Green and White wires.   They connect to the center and bottom of the plug.  The black goes into the remote circuitry and the green and white connect to a relay in the receiver.

[JonnyMac]

Oki-dokey.  Well... chalk it up to being a very small unit, made very inexpensively, and probably doesn't have the performance of the big boys.  Again, with some experimenting you may be able to determine the recovery time for the unit.