Jem Fog controller... Universal?

[Happy Jack]

The newer Jem Technohaze came with a XLR3, which was wired as follows:

 

1 Ground

2 Power (+15Vdc)

3 Control Voltage return.

 

I have a Technofog that has been converted from 5 pin DIN to XLR3. If you can give me a few days I can dig out the pinout of the convertor. It's no good to match the cable colours as Jem seem to just use any bits of 3-4-5 core thats lying around regardless of the core colours. I'm not sure what the extra cores are used for as all of the remotes I have used, be it the simple, standard one, DMX adaptor or the timer module have all used the 3 pin XLR, but I do remember that all 5 pins of the connector in the fogger was wired back to the PCB.

 

any further progress on this?

 

I too would be interested to hear if any progress has made on this.

[KevinE]

The technofog uses Jem's proprietary analogue control system whereby the remote provides a single voltage to the machine to control heater on/off and pump slow to fast....so you can switch the heater completely off without reaching for the smoke machine power switch.

 

PM me with an email address if you need the schematic or pinout of the 5-pin Jem remote.

PS I should add that Jem will happily supply this if you ask them.

[hexdiy]

Hi, Neil Hampson,

 

I do realise this is kind of a late reply. But I am working on a wrecked Jem Technohaze for my job right now, that's why. Just about to revive it!

Only wondering: if the Jem Technohaze takes on a 0-10 V control voltage on XLR pin 3, would I be able to control it from a DMX to 0-10 V demuxer too? Would be great, since we already have a powerful ADB demuxer sitting on the obsolete equipment shelf. This would certainly blow some new life into otherwise obsolete equipment!

Just a bit of lateral thinking, sorry!

Many thanks for the pinout, though!

Hoping to hear from you,

Hexdiy

[NeilVP]

Thanks Zonino for bumping the thread...

I've managed to move on a bit and yes the TechnoFog remote works fine with the TechnoHAZE, I just needed a connector convertor to 3 pin XLR.

 

However, I am now in a position of makinga new remote, mainly as I'm too tight to pay Martin nearly £100 for a new one...

My electronics is a liitle rusty as it's been over 10 years since 'A' level pyhsics, so if any of the elecrtonics wizards can cast their eyes over the pic below I'd be very grateful before I blow something up.

 

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f86/neilhampson/0-10V.jpg

 

As far as I can see the top idea is a bit overkill (I'm prone to over-engineer anything I do) but the bottom figure should work I think. I'm not really bothered about a ready LED or anything, it would be nice but I have no idea how it works.

 

-Mods; Is there any way to re-name the thread slightly to reflect the DIY build?

 

error - gain of of a non inverting op-amp (as like this is ) is 1+ R1/R2, not R1/R2

[tamitche]

I have made a remote control for one of these I bought secondhand without one

 

The DIN pinout is

1 Ground when Ready

2 Ground

3 + 16V DC

4 Ground when Heating

5 0-10V DC Control signal from remote to fog machine: 1.5V for heating (under automatic control of the fog machine) and 2 to 10V for fogging (higher voltage = higher pumping rate).

 

The Jem / Martin remote is a relatively complicated solid state circuit including a timer for periodic fogging.

 

I went for a simple solution using resistors to obtain the voltages and a couple of relays, also included a connector to allow remote trigger of fog and heat off/auto using DMX controlled relays, and remote indicator lights.

 

The indicators are simple: wire LEDs between pin 3 and pin 1 with a 2.2k series resistor for Ready light, and similarly between pin 3 and pin 4 for Heating light.

 

To obtain 1.5V to allow heating, connect a 11k resistor to +15V DC and a 1.3k resistor to Ground, connect the two and at this junction you have ~ 1.5V DC

 

To obtain the variable voltage for triggering fogging, connect a 6.2k resistor to +15V, a 1.8k resistor to Ground and connect these two with a 10k linear potentiometer.

 

0.25W resistors should suffice

 

Then the changeover control relays: I used NEC EA2-12NU 12V changeover relays with 270R series resistor between +15V DC and the coil. I have since read a reverse biased diode across the relay coil is recommended? Note the relay coils are polarity sensitive.

 

One has the NC contact connected to the 1.5V DC source and the NO contact to the variable fogging signal (wiper of potentiometer) The relay is energised by a momentary "fog" switch (which in my case also incorporates the "ready" LED), between the -ve relay coil terminal and Ground.

The centre contact of the relay switch is connected to the NO contact of the second relay, the NC contact is connected to ground and the centre switch contact connects to pin 5 of the DIN plug. The relay is energised by a SPST "heat enable" switch between the relay coil -ve terminal and Ground.

 

A 6-pin XLR was used as an interface for remote indicators and DMX relay triggering of fogging and heat enable (fogging at the rate preset on the potentiometer, for remote control of heating (i.e. to turn the machine off, preventing the automatic heating cycle, energy use and wisps of smoke), the Heat Enable switch is left set to Off.

So the six pins are connected to pins 1 to 4 of the DIN, and the remaining two pins are connected to the -ve side of the two relay coils. External indicators can be wired in the same way as those on the remote. To enable heating, or to fog, the respective negative relay coil contact is connected to ground.

 

Some photos

 

Completed remote (before labelling), alongside a borrowed original remote I had been using to test the machine

 

 

http://www.ex.ac.uk/~tamitche/technofog/technofog%20remote%20external.jpg

 

 

 

Internal view

http://www.ex.ac.uk/~tamitche/technofog/technofog%20remote%20internal.jpg