Newbie needs help adding a remote to winch

[agrimonyx]

Hello everyone!

I am an electronics newbie, though I do have minimal training (electronics class in grad school!), and am helping my father with a project. He has a Chicago Electric Power Tools Electric Hoist with a Remote (Sku#93251 from Harbor Freight). He would like to add a second, or even a third remote to this hoist so it can be operated from different locations.

How can I accomplish this? Hopefully as easy as possible!

MANY MANY thanks in advance!

-Natalie

 

[Harald Kapp]

A word of caution in advance: that winch has a corded remote control unit. It is possibly for safety reasons that there is just one remote control unit with a limited cable length so the operator has to be near the winch to observe it while operating it.

The remote control seems to have an on-off-on pushbutton only to either hoist the load up or down. This may be easy to re-wire.
You may be able to get a replacement remote control, add a longer cable to it and wire it in parallel to the existing controller.
Or you may open the controller, analyse the circuit (it should be failry simple, I assume) and roll your own controller from a suitable case, pushbutton and some cable.

The problem is that you somewhow have to ensure that only one remote is ever operated at a time. If two remotes are operated at the same time and give conflicting commands, all sorts of havoc can be created, depending on how the circuit is constructed - something I don't know.

It may be better to stick to the one remote that you have, with the option to use a longer cable to make it usable from more distant locations.

 

[agrimonyx]

Thanks, Harald! Your safety points are well taken, and I'll be sure to keep them in mind.

Yes, I was considering buying a replacement controller and then wiring it in parallel. I had not considered the issues that may arise from having the 2 giving conflicting commands. Is it possible to wire the 2 controllers through a relay or other controller so only 1 is active at a time? Now that I think about it, I'm not really sure how that would work...

 

[Harald Kapp]

That depends on how the controlers are wired internally. You could use a switch to connect either one or the other controler to the winch. Maybe a dual-pole double-throw (DPDT) switch would be required.