Corded tools with cordless vacs

[NeilCA]

The tool triggered vac on and off is the most important feature to me. Looking at the new Festool cordless vacs, it seems they only support this feature for cordless tools though. Am I reading that right? Specifically, I’d love to use my domino (corded) with a cordless vac and using tool triggering, but it doesn’t seem to be available. It looks like the suggestion is to use the remote on the hose instead, which defeats the entire purpose of tool triggering (which is that you don’t have to remember to turn on and off the vac).

Has anyone found a way to use tool triggering with a cordless vac and a corded tool?

 

[squall_line]

The tool triggered vac on and off is the most important feature to me. Looking at the new Festool cordless vacs, it seems they only support this feature for cordless tools though. Am I reading that right? Specifically, I’d love to use my domino (corded) with a cordless vac and using tool triggering, but it doesn’t seem to be available. It looks like the suggestion is to use the remote on the hose instead, which defeats the entire purpose of tool triggering (which is that you don’t have to remember to turn on and off the vac).

Has anyone found a way to use tool triggering with a cordless vac and a corded tool?

Corded tool triggering happens with corded vacs because you plug directly into the vac, which then triggers the suction when current is called for through the plug.  Since you're not plugging directly into the vac, the only other option is a Bluetooth button of some sort.

The only corded tool that I know of in Festool's current offering that will trigger a Festool extractor without actually being plugged directly into the extractor is the new RG 130 ECI, which has an integrated Bluetooth module in the tool (likely due to its high current draw, you wouldn't want to burn out your extractor running it through the extractor's wiring).

Perhaps the next iteration of the Domino will feature integrated Bluetooth similar to the RG 130 ECI, but since such a tool has yet to be announced, it doesn't solve the immediate problem.

Honestly, the button is so unobtrusive that it wouldn't take much to strap it to the motor of the Domino or to your wrist or to some other more convenient location that you would be able to turn it on when you turned on or off the Domino.

Quite frankly, if I was running a cordless extractor, I would still want to have a button rather than use the tool itself to trigger the extraction, as I quite frequently will leave my Domino spinning in between mortises, and a long, continuous run of a cordless vac will just suck the battery dry before you can get much useful work done.

For the rare instances where I would wish I had a cordless vac but still somehow had mains power to run my domino, I would just use the button.

My apologies that I don't understand the use case at all here, given the need for mains power on the domino itself.

 

[NeilCA]

No apologies necessary. To clarify the use case, I want to be as cordless as possible, so a cordless vac makes sense to me and it works great with cordless tools using Bluetooth tool triggering. But I would also like to use that same vac with tool triggering for the categories of tools that don’t yet have a cordless version (the domino is a good example of that). Hence the need for tool triggering a cordless vacuum from a corded tool.

 

[timwors]

Sort of related to this, does anyone know if you can have multiple batteries/remote switch paired with one extractor at the same time?

I have a corded vac with the Bluetooth remote, and was wondering if I bought Bluetooth batteries would I need to pair them each time with the vac, or is it just a one-time pairing operation that the vac will remember?

 

[mino]

Sort of related to this, does anyone know if you can have multiple batteries/remote switch paired with one extractor at the same time?

I have a corded vac with the Bluetooth remote, and was wondering if I bought Bluetooth batteries would I need to pair them each time with the vac, or is it just a one-time pairing operation that the vac will remember?

No/Yes.

You can have up to 5 remotes. But only one battery.

When you pair a new battery, it replaces the one that was paired before.

Also, the remote pairing is stored permanently. The battery/tool pairing is not. Not sure how it is with the CTCs, but if you unplug the CT 26 with BT module from mains, it clears the battery pairing while the remote pairing(s) are not affected.

===
Frankly, I would advise to stay away from "everything cordless" using the CTCs. They are a very specific tool /lots of suction, very limited runtime/ and you may be better off spending the (CTs) battery money on a SYS POWERSTATION or similar power bank and using the standard mains-powered vacs with it.

You will need 4 8Ah packs for any sensible usage with the CTCs ... so that is $1000 in batteries right there ..

 

[Bencan]

You can do it sure but it’s not really set up to use the domino with the cordless vacs. I would probably avoid that option if you can. The CTC vacs are very useful despite subpar runtime but for that use case it’s not worth it imo

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[nvalinski]

For what it's worth, Metabo makes a device very similar to the Festool bluetooth remote, except for the fact that it picks up on vibrations instead of needing to push a button. This means that strapping the device to the end of the hose and turning on a corded or cordless tool plugged into the hose will trigger the switch. I don't know if this will trigger any of their cordless vacuums, and I haven't seen it available in North America, but it may potentially be an option depending where you live.

 

[timwors]

You can have up to 5 remotes. But only one battery.

When you pair a new battery, it replaces the one that was paired before.

Also, the remote pairing is stored permanently. The battery/tool pairing is not. Not sure how it is with the CTCs, but if you unplug the CT 26 with BT module from mains, it clears the battery pairing while the remote pairing(s) are not affected.

That's really useful to know, thank you.

 

[Coen]

The problem is of course that nobody bothered to standardize this Bluetooth triggering.  [sad]

[...]
The only corded tool that I know of in Festool's current offering that will trigger a Festool extractor without actually being plugged directly into the extractor is the new RG 130 ECI, which has an integrated Bluetooth module in the tool (likely due to its high current draw, you wouldn't want to burn out your extractor running it through the extractor's wiring).
[...]

How would it burn out the extractor wiring? It will trip a breaker long before that.
Even with 120V it's only 23A when going full blast (1200W extractor + 1600W RG 130 ECI). That's only 15% above the nominal rating of a 20A breaker, so it will take "forever" to trip. Besides neither running continuously at quoted power anyway.

Either way: I didn't know that about the RG 130. It's a non-issue for me anyway in 230V land.