# Fog timer hack help



## Erebus (Jul 28, 2009)

I have one of those common fog remotes, the ones you can get at walmart, spirit, etc. Anyways, I took it apart to see which wires were hot, neutral, and which one tripped the fog. (Picture below). I also got my voltage reader out and started testing. When the unit is in standby (power on but no timer) here is what the voltages are:
Green and Black - 124v
Green and White - 64v
White and Black - 45v

When the timer is on, or the fog button pushed, heres what happens:
Green and Black - 119v
Green and White - 0v
White and Black - 124v

So, I a guessing the power is coming in from the green and black, and the power going back to the unit to trip the fog is the white one. Does this sound right to everyone else? I thought the white and black wires would of been the power wires, but they probably did this to keep people from working on them. Am I missing something or what?


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## DarkLore (Jan 25, 2009)

Maybe this link will help you sort it out. (I just grabbed a link that came up from the internet.)

Controlling a fogger

To control the one button remote on the fogger, they open the remote and look where the manual switch is connected. It's an old link but probably the same on most common foggers. (You haven't shown us the front of the remote in your photo.) Notice in the link I pasted, the button to shoot fog is on green and white. It appears that the ready light (heat up cycle) is on green and black.

In the photo they show with a timer, you can flip the remote, as you show above, and see which connections trigger the fog.


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

> So, I a guessing the power is coming in from the green and black, and the power going back to the unit to trip the fog is the white one.


That sounds reasonable based on your description. A pic of the whole controller board would be more useful. Does the trace from the white wire go to one or two solder point(s) only? If so, that makes it even more likely to be the control wire. The green and [edit:black] look like they go to respective power rails.

Is this a digital volt meter? I think your 64/45 volt readings may just be some floating voltage on the white wire. Digital meters will show 'ghost' readings down to very small current flow. When you close the circuit, you see 0V because both the wires are at the same potential.


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## Erebus (Jul 28, 2009)

Yes it is a digital volt meter.


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## DarkLore (Jan 25, 2009)

Erebus - what's your final goal? Are you wanting to control the fog machine through the remote? Or...connect the fog machine up to some kind of controller without the remote? In essence, de-soldering the three wires and trying to trigger the fogger in some way?


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## Erebus (Jul 28, 2009)

Darklore, I am trying to combine 2 remotes into 1. The remote that came with the fog machine does not have a timer, and the plug is a 7 pin plug. Therefore, I am having to use their remote, and some how combine the cheap ones we can get at walmart (pictured above). I think I have it figured out. Just need to stop and get a relay that will work on 24 vdc. Once I get that, it should be just connecting wires.


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## DarkLore (Jan 25, 2009)

I've got a couple 24vdc ice cube relays at the house. That's a bit of a drive from Rowlett (I'm near Cowboys stadium). And I don't have any extra relay sockets.

I'd like to get rid of the remote all together. Wire the connection directly to a relay. But I haven't really spent the time to look at whether it's as simple as I think it is.


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## niblique71 (Dec 2, 2009)

I have a cheapo fog machine that I got last year. It has the standard remote with the green light indicator for "ready" and the red button to start shooting fog. I would like to attach one of those spirit timers to it. The problem is that the remote doesn't unplug like other remotes in other fog machines. It's hard=wired into the fog machine.

So a hardwire hack must be done. I've seen this done elsewhere but I can't find the exact instructions. Has anyone else successfully done this? I like this little machine and want to use it to spray small amounts of fog at regular intervals into a cauldron.


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## niblique71 (Dec 2, 2009)

I was just WAY to curious and had to do some experiments. I took the covers off of both remotes. Using Radio shack double ended alligator clips I hooked up Green wire to green. Black to black etc and it worked like a charm. So in this particular case it's a No-brainer. You can easily hack the hardwired remote in favor of a timer remote. The sad part is that I think the timer cost about the same as this fog machine LOL. But I had a few extra timers already and this little fogger is perfect for my cauldron.

I went a step further and grabbed an old computer extension wire with the right end and used that from my (Disposable) little fog machine so I didn't have to cut the wires on my remote timer.

It was too simple (at least in this case)


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## Darkmaster (May 9, 2009)

When you open the fog controller, the solder side is where you can connect 2 wires needed.

Behind the area of the green switch, the one that activates the fogger manually, solder a wire to each point of the board of the switch. That way the wires then go to the controller unit. I used a simple one from Cowlacious.

I program the controller to work when I want it to, and it in turn will activate the fogger as needed.

Simple solution.


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