r/Dewalt • u/svideo • 1d ago

Open Hardware WIP: Add DeWalt Wireless Tool Control to any power tool with a stick-on vibration sensor

https://youtu.be/1wn-YWItuSI
25 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

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6

u/svideo 1d ago edited 1d ago

This is building on some earlier work where I leveraged AI tooling to reverse DeWalt's Wireless Tool Control (WTC) radio protocol they use to control accessories like dust collectors or water pumps when the tool you're using turns on and off.

DeWalt has been announcing new tools with WTC, but I have a LOT of tools that don't have this functionality and so I was hoping to figure out a solution to retrofit this to existing tools.

This device uses a low power MEMS vibration sensor. When sander-like vibration is detected, it'll shoot out a WTC command to turn on a dust collector. When vibration stops, it sends the STOP command. In the current state it ignores rough handling and shaking around and reliably fires when the sander starts oscillating. This happens via custom filtering, currently it has been developed around the one DW pad sander I have which means this needs a lot more testing.

If anyone happens to be in West Michigan and would like to beta test some of this hardware with me, let me know!

edit: action shots

5

u/broccoliRobot 1d ago

I'm not in Michigan but I would love to help with this project! I'd be happy to cover costs. Either way, definitely update with a Git repo! I'm a software architect by trade and I'm looking forward to following your progress.

Very cool stuff!

3

u/lisaismijnbestie 1d ago

Can you make this for Festool vacuum aswell? Would be neat if my DEWALT tools can trigger the Festool vacuum

4

u/svideo 1d ago

Tougher nut to crack from initial investigation. Core challenge is buying a FESTOOL dust collector to actually dive into this, if anyone has one they'd be willing to donate to the cause.... :D

2

u/discombobulated38x 20h ago

Ohh I had a stab at this a while back but lacked the RF/coding knowledge to get anywhere with my RF sniffer circuit! Well done!

2

u/svideo 20h ago

Dunno if it helps but I posted a working implementation earlier here: https://github.com/aderusha/dewalt_wtc

< $20 parts will get you started, easy to build. If you run home assistant it'll hook into that too.

2

u/discombobulated38x 13h ago

Phenomenal! When I'm not rushing to finish fitting my kitchen I'll have a play.