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Anyone know of a cheap 2 seconds on cycle timer?

L

little-soldier

Active member
Helo ICMAGERs,

I am looking for a cheap/reliable cycle timer for my pump. It would have to do 2 seconds ON/10 minutes OFF when lights are on and 2 seconds ON/30 minutes OFF when lights are off. I can't seem to find one that has 2 settings in one for lights ON/OFF. Plus the ones that have less than 5 seconds ON cycles are hard to find too. Thanks
 
AgentPothead

AgentPothead

Just this guy, ya know?
I don't know of anything premade, but that doesn't sound too difficult to roll your own with a microcontroller and some relays.
 
L

little-soldier

Active member
Im not really good with circuit boards and all. I would rather pay a little more with no headaches unless there is a DIY tutorial somewhere that integrates 120v ac 15 amp capacity and a light sensor.
 
Last edited:
Drop That Sound

Drop That Sound

Well-known member
not exactly sure if you can program the infinite cycle time to do different things at fifferent times, I havent played with mine that much.

You might be able to do something with the dual timer version, timer 1 control lights on, and timer 2 during lights off. But then you would need another pump and secondary set of sprayers.

I see what your getting at though, if they made a little photo cell attachment for these cheap $16 timers that could alter the cycles depending on the light you would have it made..
 
Drop That Sound

Drop That Sound

Well-known member
If you could figure out how to add the photocell and some relays or whatever, you might be able to mod the dual nearpow timer the way you want. So both timers can be hooked to the same pump, but the photo cell switch determins which timer is powering it at any givin time..
 
Drop That Sound

Drop That Sound

Well-known member
Or, add another cheap timer or use the dual one) with some sort of 3 way switching solenoid valve. During the dark cycle, the valve could power on and redirect the flow through the 3 way back to the res during the 2 extra 10 minute cycles. Hope that makes sense.

Good luck, i'm out of any more ideas without getting to technical and big price tags..
 
Rodehazrd

Rodehazrd

Well-known member
Don't be scared of a board level project.
The 724 timer from Altronix runs on 12vdc or 24vac so no shock hazard. It does 50 events per day or 350 a week in increments of 1 sec. $100 gets a 24v xfmr and the board. Mostly I put up a piece of plywood on the wall and mount the timers on it. I use them to limit access to doors during some hours or days. The transformer is a wall wart and I run power to the board with 16ga speaker wire.
Good luck
 
AgentPothead

AgentPothead

Just this guy, ya know?
I'm still somehow out of rep, but
yeahthatsign.gif
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-known member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
I have been growing F & D for several years. It is simply NOT necessary to change the lights off cycles


hth
 
L

little-soldier

Active member
Drop That Sound: Thx man, I have just emailed the Nearpow company to see if their infinite loop can work for me.

RodeHazrd, 50 events per day is not enough, I would need 72 for when the lights are on and 24 when the lights are off for a total of 96 events per day.

Petflora: who said anything about flood and drain??????????? I'll be doing DTW aeroponics

CrushnYuba: I am a little lost with these things, maybe someone can show me how I can do this, which one to buy and all. PLC, damn, I'm really rusty with electronics ...
 
f-e

f-e

Well-known member
Mentor
Veteran
Personally, I would be looking at an ANLY timer, based around the 555 chip. It's a cyclic timer, using the charging time of capacitors. So you would set it for 2 seconds 10 mins. Then using a feed from your lighting to power a relay, you would bring in a cap to triple the 10 minute times cap in size. Or you could use light sensing, but why when you have the result of light sensing available straight from the lights.
 
L

little-soldier

Active member
Nearpow answered their timer won't work for me. So I was thinking of getting 2 CAP ART-DNe cycle timers. put both of them on a different regular timer with a 12 hour schedule for both, set the first CAP to 2 seconds every 10 minutes the other at 2 seconds every 30 minutes. I would then skin the pump wire and and hook up another 3 prong male plug so the pump can hook up to both timers.
 
AgentPothead

AgentPothead

Just this guy, ya know?
f-e said:
Personally, I would be looking at an ANLY timer, based around the 555 chip. It's a cyclic timer, using the charging time of capacitors. So you would set it for 2 seconds 10 mins. Then using a feed from your lighting to power a relay, you would bring in a cap to triple the 10 minute times cap in size. Or you could use light sensing, but why when you have the result of light sensing available straight from the lights.
Click to expand...
Is there anything a 555 can't do? No. The answer is no.
 
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