Bosch Bluetooth Auto Start System for my Festool exractors

[JCB]

I have two Midis and CT 26, all pre blutooth.  I know the CT can be made bluetooth but my Midis cannot.  I saw the  Bosch Bluetooth Auto Start System happened to be $50 off so I bought it because the price was good; I thought it was a good solution for blutooth capabilites; Protool review says it works with any vac, I believe even specificly said festool (other information online seemed to agree with that too I thought the vibration sencing was a great feature; and I have really liked all the bosch tools I've owned! so I tried it on my CT and it didnt do anything, I was bummed.  I have to wait til I go back to work to try it on my midis and I dont have any other auto starts to test it on.  Has anyone here tried the BOsch blutooth  on their Festools?  It could be that mine is faulty.  Also, It seemed to pair just fine, I didnt have any reason to think that was the issue.

 

[ChuckM]

What tool did you try it with since it's vibration based? Yeah, yours could be a defective one and you might need to return or exchange it if that's the case.

Btw, there is a simple hack shared in this forum on how to turn your non-bluetooth capable dust extractors into bluetooth capable using an ordinary remote switch and a simple light.

 

[JCB]

I put it on a Makita circle saw but first I tried depressing the button on the remote; the light switches colors brefly as if the signal to switch has been activated but nothing happens. It's like it doesent have enough power to activate the Auto switch, sorta like the light/remote switch hack that didn't work with LED. 

That hack does work with incandecents, but its no where as versitle as I hoped the BT would be. I gave up on it a long time ago, I felt like I was fussing around with the setup too much! I used the remote for dedicated shop vac for cleanup to wait for better tech to be invented.

Can anyone confirm these have worked with their Festool extractors?  Also, I wondered if multiple remotes could be paired to trigger the switch.  I could see wanting to have multiple tools being able to activate the vac without having to move the remote every time.

IMHO its hard to belive there aren't competing systems to remote activate the vacs, how many people would buy them for their older equipment? And the vibration activation is genius!

 

[JCB]

Update: I tried the Bosch on both midis and it worked! At least, the push button works. I didn’t have a chance to try the vibration activation without a bit of setup so I’ll wait to try that. I guess I’ll have to check it on my CT26 again but it’s the midis I really wanted it for. In fact I have a bt conversion in the box for the ct I just never got around to installing yet!

I am interested to understand why it works on two out of three extractors. Also, I noticed recently my newest midi will allow my sander to power up when the vac is set to man or auto, my older midi (with a classic only garage) does not allow the sander to operate in manual. Does anyone know if this is to be expected or if one is malfunctioning, if so, which one? I like having the tool work in manual, without Bluetooth I can switch to hand sanding and dust cleanup by having a hose connected to the sander hose and just change that connection usually right near to where I’m standing.