277b controls for snowblower

[Jaybuild]

I recently purchased a second hand FFC snowblower attachment to use on my 277b. On the right joystick I would like to use the trigger to power a snowblower. I would like to control chute rotation with the thumbwheel. According to the owners manual, the hydraulic "lock" button will work with the trigger. How are these selected? It seems that the lock works just with the thumbwheel. Is there a jumper that must be installed at the pins in the electrical connector? I have 4 buttons on the left joystick that I want to use for chute elevation. Is there a schematic available for these connections? The owners manual references 4 of the pins but there are 8 available. I would appreciate any input from someone that has hooked up a similar attachment. Thanks in advance.
Jaybuild

 

[durallymax]

So you have the work tool electrical control package installed already?

As far as I remember the thumbwheel controls overall flow in the auxillary circuit. Set it to where you want then lock continuous. The Work tool buttons control the functions of it but you cannot use the thumbwheel to individually variably control a seperate function. For chute rotation just have it set so the 2 available buttons on the left joystick control each direction. The other two buttons should be your horn and continuous flow. Some machines also have auxillary switches to change what a button does (aka. changing the 2 speed to the 7th aux function)

 

[Jaybuild]

Thanks for the reply durallymax. My problem is that I need to control 2 "double acting" functions. The 3rd and 4th buttons on the left joystick I wish to use for chute elevation. One button to raise and one button to lower. The snowblower itself has no need to slow down or reverse, hence my desire to use the right trigger. According to the owners manual, the continuous flow lock will lock the trigger. My first question is how do I select the trigger as opposed to the thumbwheel? No mention of this in the owners manual. My next question is it possible to then use the right thumbwheel to control left and right chute rotation. To me, this would be an intuitative way to control the attachment. I believe the joysticks are electric controls. Does anyone have a Cat brand snowblower, and if so, how are they controlled? I am trying to avoid having to add a switch that will be less conveinent. Again, thanks for the reply.

 

[durallymax]

My manual is for series 3 machines, but that doesn't quite sound right to me. The continuous flow locks the hydraulic flow from the skid steer only which is controlled by the thumbwheel. Thats the way it reads in my book. The electrical functions just decide where the work tool needs to send that fluid. In the case of the snowblower I'm assuming that when hydraulics are being sent to it, its running the actual blower part, you need no further activation for that am I correct?

Then you have chute elevation and rotation. Two double acting functions. From the sounds of it your machine does not have the two electrical controls on the right joystick. Those would be controls "3" and "4". The Thumbwheel is "1" and "2", the Trigger is "7", the left stick buttons are "5", and "6" with the trigger obviously being 2 speed. on C series machines the left joystick trigger becomes the 7th function when you flip the switch to toggle between 2 speed control and 7th function as the right hand joystick controls float unlike the B's which use a detent.

Back to your skid, don't need to add more confusion. Basically if you do not have the two buttons on the right stick you have a couple choices. Buy the stick with them from CAT which i don't suggest as I am sure its very expensive. Try to track down some of those factory buttons on a junk machine or something, or just find some cheap buttons that will fit in there and snake the wires down. You are correct that yes the buttons are nothing more than simple on off switches with one wire coming in and one going out, however the actual stick is a pilot type control. Essentially to add your two buttons you will need to punch two holes in that plate, mount the buttons, run the wires down to the plug, get a pin-out diagram from CAT for your machines stick and get some of the pins for that connector, then insert your wires into the connector and you should be good to go. The way they explained it, the machines come pre-wired for most everything. I would get the wiring diagrams and trace everything to the furthest point you can to see what all you might need to add, then add the buttons. Good luck.