Exorcist wanted for Shop Fox remote switch

[Jane & David]

Has this happened to you? Was sitting in my big comfy chair yesterday, when I heard a roar from the basement. Demons seem to have taken possession of my dust collector. Or more accurately, the Shop Fox remote switch that controls it. At any rate the dust collector started running by itself, making me wonder if that has ever happened before, like when we've been out of town for a few days.

It's not too convenient but to be safe I'll have to unplug the remote box everyday. If it was convenient to get to the DC, I wouldn't need the remote (it's a real bitch to get back to that corner). I may need to hardwire a switch in a convenient place for the remote system, of course if I do that why would I still need the remote (anyone wanna buy a really good remote switch)?

Since I have to take precautions now, I won't even bother trying to diagnose the problem - we have 3 old TVs, 2 VCRs, 1 DVD player, 1 CD player, stereo tuner/amp, cordless phones, cell phones, wireless computer network, and a garage door opener, and probably some other stuff - all with remotes. Each was added one at a time to fill some perceived need, now we're overrun by technology. Maybe one of the cats walked on a remote, or someone driving by zapped us with something, or there could be multiple causes. Crap! Time to simplify a bit.

Maybe this is why the Shop Fox was so much cheaper than the Long Ranger. So has anyone else had their Shop Fox or Long Ranger remote triggered by surprise?

PDX David (I realize that with all the world's problems, this one isn't very high on the serious scale)

[Bigpole]

[Swingman]

I actually came back from getting a cup of coffee in the house one morning and found my DC running, but I had the Rockler remote in my apron pocket and assumed that I had somehow turned it on by accident.

From previous experience/testing, the Rockler remote unit I have will operate the DC from the front porch of the house with the shop doors closed.

[Greg G]

No, but I HAVE had the air compressor come on in the middle of the night - subsequently scaring ourselves and half the neighborhood out of their beds...

I got a used and broken Long Ranger from someone here on the wreck. (Who, incidentally, doesn't seem to come around anymore...) The Long Ranger is an RF encoded digital remote. I'm not sure what the Shop Fox is, RF or IR. IR is pretty much line of sight, but there are plenty of RF devices that can play havoc with a poorly designed RF unit - Garage Door openers, Car Remotes and Alarms all come to mind... Have you tried reprogramming the remote to another binary pattern? Does it even use digital encoding? Or is it a simple carrier trigger?

At any rate, I fixed it and it has never done this in 4 years of use and having constant power applied. Look on the back of the unit - if it says Made in China, well, now you know the _rest_ of the story...

FWIW,

Greg G.

[David]

I've got 2 of the Shop Fox remotes. They sometimes turn on by themselves, as you've experienced. I even tried a replacement unit--same thing. I've got sensor lights all over the house, and once in a blue moon, a light will go on by itself. Or a particular light will go on when we turn off the master bathroom light. some sort of spike in the wiring, I presume. I try to remember to unplug both of the Shop Fox receivers before going on vacation. They usually come on in the middle of night...

I know there's something weird with our house wiring because we can't use ac intercoms except at 2 receptacles--all other locations fail to work.

Dave

[Upscale]

I've had similar things happen. I finally traced it to the line conditioners I had on my computer system and my stereo system. Once those were unplugged, all the other receptacles worked as they should.

[David]

We've got 3 UPS's running in the house, but no line conditioners. Did you leave the conditioners off line permanently?

Dave

[Mark & Juanita]

Mine comes on when I lean over wrong: I keep the control in my shop apron pocket. I've had to start taking it out of my pocket when I'm doing tasks that require a lot of bending.

The mystery with mine is that I will occasionally hear "beeps" coming from the digital switch. Sometimes I can cause this by squeezing the remote case, other times, it seems to happen on its own.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[wood addict]

You want weird. Here in Everett , Wa garage doors started opening and closing them selves at odd times and other radio operated devices went nuts, after 3 or 4 months they traced the culprit to one of the radars that the U.S.S Lincoln uses when the enter or leave port

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