Can't Pair New TID with CT-26

[MartyDavis]

I have the CT-26 with a Bluetooth module. It works fine with the remote control.

I just got a TID 18 Impact Driver and PSC Jigsaw Combo Pack with the nifty Bluetooth batteries. But I am unable to pair them with the CT-26. (I have only one remote and no other batteries paired with it.)

Switch CT-26 to Auto, depress button until rapidly flashing, insert battery on drill, turn on. No pairing.

Same but depress button once until slow flashing, repeat other steps. No pairing.

There is a Bluetooth button on the battery pack which will flash when the green light button is depressed for a few seconds. I've tried it with and without this flashing blue. No pairing.

What is the secret to pairing a BT battery?

 

[Frank-Jan]

Why would you want to trigger the vac with an impact driver? Have you tried it with the jigsaw?

 

[MartyDavis]

Why would you want to trigger the vac with an impact driver? Have you tried it with the jigsaw?

Because I'm a silly man with way too much on my mind to actually think about the tool I'm trying to pair. (My mother was hospitalized and they had to amputate her leg and I'm pretty stressed. I was hoping to get a little Festool therapy going for myself.)

I went out to my workshop, picked up the Carvex and paired that bad boy like a German professional.

Thanks for snapping me out of my daze!

 

[mrboult]

Yeah the TID doesn’t seem to trigger the Bluetooth. Mine doesn’t either, but every other 18v festool I have triggers it fine. T18, C18, BHC, Carvex, HKC etc. .

You’ll be fine as you have the remote control anyway, but I was mildly disappointed the TID won’t trigger it as I often use a drill to remote trigger the vac when I’m walking around hoovering up patches of dust. . No biggie.

Sorry about you mother! Best wishes. 

 

[xedos]

I thought the batteries themselves are what triggered the BT module ?

If you use the TiD battery in the jigsaw , does it trigger the BT module ?

 

[squall_line]

I thought the batteries themselves are what triggered the BT module ?

If you use the TiD battery in the jigsaw , does it trigger the BT module ?

While the bluetooth transmitter is in the battery, I think that there is also circuitry within the tool itself that tells the battery to transmit its signal.  I don't know if that's based on overall current draw or what, since the BT batteries aren't as old as the battery-powered tools.  The flip-side is that the TID might be programmed by the factory to disable the bluetooth transmitter in the battery.

I think Sedge talked about it in one of his Festool Live events, but it's been a while and there are so many of them to look through.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

I would assume that they do this so that you don't have to deal with the CT coming on with every trigger pull. Think about how long you actually hold the trigger down with a driver. The stay-on cycle of the CT would be longer than most driving jobs, then off a few seconds and drive another. To stop this you would have to go to the CT and turn it off of auto. Then you go to the next tool and it doesn't come on because you forgot to switch it back. That would get old quickly.

 

[mino]

With my DRC I have noticed a special "drill mode" for the auto-start when the battery is used with it.

Not sure it will work with a TiD, but worth a try:

When a paired BT battery is inserted in a drill/driver, it will NOT honor the pairing (but will keep being paired) unless explicitly re-paired for use with a drill.
To explicitly pair the battery for auto-start use with a drill you need to re-pair it while in the drill and this will work only on the first power up of the drill. If the drill was powered up at least once, the pairing/activation of the "auto-start-by-drill" will not activate.

The presumption is that when you switch a battery from your main tool, say a PSC, you - generally - do not want it to trigger a vac when you just need to drive a screw.

Here is the procedure that works with my DRC, it should be the same with a TiD:
0) This applies regardless of the battery is already paired or not from other tool
1) Remove the battery from the drill, wait a bit for any residual energy to dissipate from the drill
2) Insert the battery in the drill but DO NOT power up the drill
3) Initiate pairing on the CT
4) Power-up the drill, this will make the pairing. This must be the first power up of the drill after the battery was inserted.

After it is paired it will work as a usual until the bat is removed from the drill after which it will again expect to be "re-initialized" for use with that drill.

It is wonderful when one knows about, a complete PITA when one does not...

 

[squall_line]

There is a special "drill mode" for pairing when the battery is used with a drill.

*snip*

1) Remove the battery from the drill, wait a bit for any residual energy to dissipate from the drill

Presumably, depressing the trigger with the battery out will dissipate the residual energy by attempting to light the LED and turn the motor, like pressing the brake pedal on a car to discharge any residual energy after removing its battery?

It is wonderful when one knows about, a complete PITA when one does not...

I feel like this statement applies to so many things that appear in the "supplemental" manuals...

Thank you for posting this, [member=61254]mino[/member]!

 

[mino]

Presumably, depressing the trigger with the battery out will dissipate the residual energy by attempting to light the LED and turn the motor, like pressing the brake pedal on a car to discharge any residual energy after removing its battery?

I just wait a few secs, maybe it is not necessary even. But there are capacitors in the tool which may not allow it to correctly register the battery was removed if done very fast.

Thank you for posting this, [member=61254]mino[/member]!

Please test it - I realized the TiD may completely disable the feature unlike a DRC and I do not have one to try .. have edited the post to reflect.

My first reaction was that the battery is broken ... but it was consistent with all of them. Then I accidentally triggered the pairing after a lot of messing around, investigated the scenarios a bit more, and found out it works only on first power-up.

 

[FestitaMakool]

Have you thought about Festool deliberately did not want the TID to work with an extractor?

The TID is intended to screw fasteners only. This very rarely creates dust..

The other drills on the other hand is to be used for drilling holes too, thus creating dust..

 

[squall_line]

Have you thought about Festool deliberately did not want the TID to work with an extractor?

The TID is intended to screw fasteners only. This very rarely creates dust..

The other drills on the other hand is to be used for drilling holes too, thus creating dust..

I think I mentioned this before as well.  I thought Sedge talked about it on one of his Festool Live videos, but I can't for the life of me remember which one; it was either a DC episode or a drill episode.  I know he discussed the PDC/T18/T18-E triggering the DC because of the DC collar that's available for drilling holes (especially the hammer drill on concrete).

 

[AlexThePalex]

I know he discussed the PDC/T18/T18-E triggering the DC because of the DC collar that's available for drilling holes (especially the hammer drill on concrete).

Wouldn't it be best to run the vac full time here, if you don't the collar drops off.

 

[WillB]

Hoping this helps those that experience problems like I did...
purchased the pair, remote and base unit for CT26
Although many show its a 15 second process, for me, 1.5 hour pairing process...
I have paired thousands of BT devices in my life, I am no rookie...
It's always a decision, call tech support and stay on hold, or just keep plowing through....
but this time, it was Friday night, and they were not avail till Monday, so I pushed through
hopefully this will help others who have problems...

1)  First if you bought the pair, they are supposed to be pre paired, not the case with mine.  I watched Peter Parfit video, he claimed he had one that was not pre paired, seems to be hit or miss?  But assume the two are pre paired first.  See 3 below, basic pairing.  QC should confirm this when u buy a pair, this is why we spend so much for Festool tools..
2) Read manual, very poorly written for pairing to Vac vs. Batteries...
3)  Press Vac BT button long enough for FAST circular pattern, then press MAN button on remote, and whamo, it pairs, just like the videos... not for me.  tried it 5x, it looked so easy in the video.  All the lights seem to be lighting up on remote as they should be.
4)  Unpair, then pair, no go.
5)  Remove battery in remote, no go.
6)  reinstall base unit, no go (some in videos show this as the fix)
7)  Checked battery voltage, almost 3.2V, FULLY charged, no go there... if it reads below 3.05, replace it to be safe, electronics are finicky regarding coin cell batteries.  Some electronics I have fail at a bit under 3.1V
8)  Put closer to base unit, like a few inches, no go...
9)  After all I exhausted all the videos, websites, manuals....
I took battery out, and pulled up the bottom contact pins just a tad to put additional pressure on the battery....  it worked just like it should as explained in 3 above.

How does it work?  Not as good as I had hoped... the location of the BT switch matters.  BT is not a super strong signal in my experience.  In the past, I used to use remote control systems that you plug into, small remote on vac hose, 15 yrs, several in use, never a single failure and about $30 each.  This is $88 and very finicky, but if you want to pair to batteries, well, its quite convenient.  I wont be doing that for my work flow.  I realize I can return it, but I have so much labor committed to it, I feel compelled to keep it now   Will see how it does in the next 30 days...
This forum has provided me a lot of help with gracious contributors, so this is one of my small contributions.  Don't mean to offend the Green KoolAid drinkers, but I buy a lot of their tools, I have the right to share my experience, which hopefully will help others.
Like all electronics, they can be quirky at times.  Which is why I rarely mix electronics with my tools, unless hard wired, like blast gates.

 

[six-point socket II]

It's been too long, but if I recall correctly I had no issues pairing the remote with my Midi. That went smooth/ as it should on the first try.

What was a nuisance was pairing my first BT battery pack with it. That did definitely not work as described in the manual. It worked at some point, but if you asked me what steps I took, I couldn't tell. It was just like not working for countless times, and then suddenly it would after doing whatever. ...

If I remember correctly, back then I had the feeling that there was some sort of delay in the transmission of the signal when you turned the power tool on to pair it with the dust extractor.

And to be fully honest, I use the remote so, so much more instead of starting the dust extractor by a power tool with BT battery pack installed. So I don't even bother anymore to pair battery packs/tools on startup ... Maybe it's just me?  [scared]

Kind regards,
Oliver

 

[WillB]

>  What you describe is definitely not consistent with what many folks here observe.

                That might be true, or maybe not...hard to know what % of people the pairing works on first pass.  Would be interesting to poll.  Based on the videos I watched, seemed like it worked on fist pass, but that is only a handful.  I mentioned I have paired thousands of electronics in my life... they are not 100% perfect either...If I had to guess, prob. 95% success on first try.  (in last 5 years)  But in that case, u are pairing products from different manufacturers, which is not the case w Festool.

                  I have held off on Festool BT, as I feared it might be finicky... BT does not seem to be as strong and consistent as non BT remote systems.  The fact the remote does not turn on the vac 100% of the time so far might be too problematic for me to keep this system.  I moved the remote around and there is certain areas in relationship to the vac, it wont start, but in all fairness, its 95+% effective so far.  So certainly not horrible, so dont let this deter potential users.  But we expectations, and IMO turning on a vac should not be quirky.  I even tried the vac outside, same issues, so its not external electrical interference.  Will report back with more use...
Anyway, its great this forum exists so others can benefit from our feedback, specially for electronics, which many ww are not experts on . 

Oh, and to previous poster, the manual in my kit does state, when you buy them as a pair, they were paired at the factory...which makes sense.  Maybe that was not the case in the past....mine was manufactured a few months ago, things change through time.  Maybe this was something Festool changed vs. older models?  dunno....

 

[Chainring]

When I got the BT module for my CT 48, I either forgot or didn't know they came paired as a unit. So, I proceeded to do the 3 second press on the receiver until the blue lights spun quickly. I then hit the MAN button on the remote and the two were paired. Easy peasy. Pairing a remote to my GF's MIDI I was easy, too.

I just looked at the manual and it states a receiver module will pair with five remotes. On the flip side, only one BT battery is held in the receiver's memory at a time. An FYI there, more than anything.

Transmitter/remote reset: Hold both buttons for 10 seconds until the LED flashes purple.
Receiver reset: Put the vac in Auto mode. Press and hold the receiver pairing button for 10 seconds until the flashing LED goes out.