Thread: Fog timer problem/question.

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Ok....I'm not that electronically inclined...

I have 3 of the little Spencer's 700W machines (which is also on sale on Spirit right now) that came with timers.

Last year, we had a torrential rain on Halloween, and my 3 fog machines all had the timer remote get wet...and MELT.

Not knowing if the machines themselves worked or not without a remote to trigger them, I ordered a random timer remote off the internet:

IF I hit the manual fog button BEFORE THE MACHINES WARM UP FULLY, the pump fires, and the fog spits. Machines working, good news, right?

Well, once the machine is fully warmed up, the additional lights on the timer remote light up, it will not fire the pump on either manual or timer modes.

Is there anything that can be done to fix this? Is it just an incompatible remote? Is there any way to find a compatible replacement?

I'd prefer to get this worked out NOW, as opposed to waiting for Spirit to open up in the fall to sell seperate timers...

I have a fogger that did this last August as we were testing things and making sure they would be ready. I had several remotes so I swapped in different ones and finally one worked. But then for the heck of it, I put the first remote back on and it worked fine. I think for some reason, even though the lights came on, it still wasn't ready to fire. Setting it out for Halloween it did the same thing and I just waited a while longer and it started working fine and worked all night.

Yeah, I've had the timer part do that before, never the manual button fail.

Guess I'll try again tonight.

I just wish these companies would make universal remotes. GAH!

Originally Posted by UnOrthodOx

Yeah, I've had the timer part do that before, never the manual button fail.

Guess I'll try again tonight.

I didn't say so in my post, but what I meant was the manual button. We use DMX to control the triggering of the fog so I don't know much about the timer devices made for the fog machines. The problem we had was not the fog switch, it was that our fogger took at least a half hour or longer to get hot enough. Once it fogged the first time the reheat cycle didn't take but a few minutes.

Ah. these are just el cheapo foggers I don't even think they're DMX compatible.

No, the pump and foggers work, and will pump just before the other lights come on, but once they come on the remote itself quits working.

Originally Posted by buckaneerdude

I have a fogger that did this last August as we were testing things and making sure they would be ready. I had several remotes so I swapped in different ones and finally one worked. But then for the heck of it, I put the first remote back on and it worked fine. I think for some reason, even though the lights came on, it still wasn't ready to fire. Setting it out for Halloween it did the same thing and I just waited a while longer and it started working fine and worked all night.

I have had that happen to.Just give it some more time.
I was about to trash 3 of them I just left it alone come back and they all worked.

Originally Posted by halloween71

I have had that happen to.Just give it some more time.
I was about to trash 3 of them I just left it alone come back and they all worked.

Good to know...... I have at least 3 that didnt seem to work, so I think I will plug them in and just leave them for at least 1/2 hour see what happens!

Waiting definitely don't work on these 3. Left them on nearly an hour, and they are heating just fine.

Still fires the pump up until the lights come on, however... Guessing it's just an incompatible remote.

Could be some sort of compatibility issue.

We don't use expensive DMX foggers. I just took apart the control boxes for the foggers we have and found the terminals inside where the manual button was. I soldered a pair of wires to those terminals and then ran it to a DMX Relay board. That gives me the ability to complete the circuit (equivalent of pressing the manual button) using DMX. One fogger we had where we didn't use DMX, we put inside of a coffin where the lid would open and close using a wiper motor. I was able to mount a micro switch on the linkage that opened the lid so that when lid closed, the micro switch would complete the circuit and turn the fogger on. Then the coffin would fill with fog and the next opening, it would come billowing out.