# Light timer



## 90gal (Jan 7, 2008)

All,
I'm in need of automating some things around the house since I can't get around (blew knee ligament). Is it possible to plug the light fixture into one of those devices from a harware store to turn the lights on and off automatically? Or will this cause problems? Thanks,
Rob


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

Hi Rob,

Newbie myself, but have some recent experience in this area. My old setup had a 20 watt standard flo strip light with magnetic ballast over the tank and a lower cost Intermatic "Appliance Timer" which was rated of 1875 watts and it worked well.

My current setup has a AH Supply 96 watt compact flo light with an electronic ballast and when I tried the new light on the old timer the timer almost immediately got very hot and started to smell. I immediately unplugged it, went to Home Depot, and purchased an Intermatic "Heavy Duty" timer. It handles the 3 prong ground plugs, and it is working well on my system with no heat problems.

Hope this helps!

Roy


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

You can always use the cheap, mechanical Intermatic timer, the one that you push little plastic clips around the rim to control the on and off times with. Those will operate almost anything. But, ballasts for fluorescent lights will often destroy an electronic timer. Intermatic had to stop selling some of their electronic timers because they all would fail when used on fluorescent fixtures.


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

Radio Shack sells a remote control timer that operates modules plugged into wall sockets anywhere in your house. They make a module for fluorescent lights. I have been using this kind of timer for my aquarium lights for years, and have not had any problems. It is accurate to the nearest minute, which is more accurate than the mechanical timers. Maybe it would be safer to say that Radio Shack used to sell this timer. I have not checked to see if they are still selling it.


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

I like the Brinks heavy duty digital model from WalMart. It has a battery backup in case the power goes out for an extended period of time.


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## DaveS (Jun 9, 2006)

I have been thinking about trying a power strip / timer combination device for some time now. There are several available that are marketed towards the hydroponics industry (and thus fluorescent lighting I believe) such as this one: http://www.daytonhydroponics.com/product_info.php?products_id=364

Once I try it out I will give a full report.

Dave


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

I have used a power strip plugged into a heavy duty timer that I got at a drug store. Works fine. It was a three prong. It has the little pins you pull out to set when it comes on and goes off. No problems, nothing fancy, and cheap!


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

DaveS said:


> I have been thinking about trying a power strip / timer combination device for some time now. There are several available that are marketed towards the hydroponics industry (and thus fluorescent lighting I believe) such as this one: http://www.daytonhydroponics.com/product_info.php?products_id=364
> 
> Once I try it out I will give a full report.
> 
> Dave


Lowes used to carry them, but no longer does. I have a couple of those powerstrips for timers as well as the Brinks model and both work well.


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## 90gal (Jan 7, 2008)

I forgot to say that it's CFL, 2x96. I guess I just need to find the heaviest duty timer available, three prong. Thanks for all the advice - 
Rob


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

The nice thing about the Radio Shack model is that it can control a number of different appliances independently. Each appliance can have its own weekly schedule. It sends on or off signals through the house wiring to the modules for each appliance.


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## D.C._United_Caps_Fan (Mar 11, 2008)

hoppycalif said:


> You can always use the cheap, mechanical Intermatic timer, the one that you push little plastic clips around the rim to control the on and off times with. Those will operate almost anything. But, ballasts for fluorescent lights will often destroy an electronic timer. Intermatic had to stop selling some of their electronic timers because they all would fail when used on fluorescent fixtures.


I use one of those exact same timers, and its on my 10G which has two 14W "daylight" CFL's, and I have never had any problem. Do you know what causes the timers to go bad when being used with Fluorescent bulbs, and... is this problem only with the specific fluorescent ballasts, and not with the screw in socket types that the curly CFL's will fit?

Thanks!


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

AaronT said:


> Lowes used to carry them, but no longer does. I have a couple of those powerstrips for timers as well as the Brinks model and both work well.


You are right Aaron, Lowe's, Home Depot, Wal Mart, Target, all used to have them, but no more for some strange reason.

I actually got two of them at Target about a year ago on clearance for $5 each.

I went back to get more about 6 months ago, and Gone, vanished into thin air, not one place carries them anymore.

DaveS, thanks for the link, If I need more I know where to get them.

Price is kind of hard to swallow, compared to the $10 Target used to sell them for, but they are nice and handy to have.

You know for about the same price, Coralife makes one just like it, but two of the four timed outlets run on the off cycle, you know for moonlights. I have two of these also and they are really nice if you use moon lights.

HeyPK, for the price of the one DaveS showed, I wonder how much more for the Radio Shack system (If they still make/sell them). You got a link to it by any chance?


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

D.C._United_Caps_Fan said:


> I use one of those exact same timers, and its on my 10G which has two 14W "daylight" CFL's, and I have never had any problem. Do you know what causes the timers to go bad when being used with Fluorescent bulbs, and... is this problem only with the specific fluorescent ballasts, and not with the screw in socket types that the curly CFL's will fit?
> 
> Thanks!


I don't know the exact reason, but it is probably related to the inductance of the load the timer has to control. Mechanical switches have no problem with that, unless the inductance is really very high, then arcing can occur when the load is shut off. But, electronic switches are different. It is possible that the problems with fluorescent lights is limited just to Intermatic digital models, since those are the only ones I have found in my hardware stores and the only ones I tried. The last time I looked for one, the store manager told me he had removed all of them from the shelves because of that problem.


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## D.C._United_Caps_Fan (Mar 11, 2008)

hoppycalif said:


> I don't know the exact reason, but it is probably related to the inductance of the load the timer has to control. Mechanical switches have no problem with that, unless the inductance is really very high, then arcing can occur when the load is shut off. But, electronic switches are different. It is possible that the problems with fluorescent lights is limited just to Intermatic digital models, since those are the only ones I have found in my hardware stores and the only ones I tried. The last time I looked for one, the store manager told me he had removed all of them from the shelves because of that problem.


Ahhh! They make "digital" ones with the little grey push down clips? Didnt know that. I use the old fasioned manual ones. ( at least I think it is.. its just the cheap 6-8 buck one you can get most anywhere, i got mine at petsmart) I guess that would explain why I never had a problem because it only affected the digital timers?


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## overboard (Mar 11, 2008)

I have several of the Coralife timers (the smaller less complicated one) and have had no problems, but the strongest lighting load is one with 2x65w CF. I only wish they had three "day" plugs and one "night" plug (for the air pump), instead of two and two. They also tend to drift... I set them all the same last weekend for the time change, and one is already about six minutes fast! The other two got about five minutes apart since last October.


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## trag (Jan 9, 2008)

The discussion here seems to say that the electronic timer which had trouble with fluorescent lights was a two pronged timer. My guess is that the problem arises because the fluorescent fixture is not grounded properly and so transient currents and/or voltages show up on the other prongs, damaging the timer.

A simple solution would be to run the two prongs through the timer and run the ground prong directly to the ground hole in the outlet. I've run lights this way before. Takes a bit of creativity to get the ground prong over to the socket separate from the timer though.

I would like to see a seven outlet power strip where all the outlets are timer controlled. Furthermore, I'd like all the outlets to be settable with (almost) an unlimited number of on/off changes. With modern microcontrollers and cheap memory, there's just no reason you couldn't store a few hundred on and off times per socket in an electronic timer. 

Of course, you'd probably never want to do that many cycles. But if you wanted to do a complex light cycling where two bulbs come on. Then later they go off as four bulbs come on. Then later the two bulbs come on again for the midday intensity. The off again. Then the four bulbs go off and the two come on again as it moves into evening. And finally off again. That's a bunch of cycles and a perfectly reasonable scheme. 

Additionally, it should be fairly simple to give two or more sockets the same programs. And there should be daily, weekly and one time programs like on a VCR. Also a safety feature so that power cannot be cycled on any outlet faster than about once per minute. Is that fast enough for wave generators? Might have to shorten it, if not, but you don't want someone programming it to flash off and on once per second and start a fire or something.

Let's see, and a way to make programs active or inactive, so if there's a timer scheme you use a lot (during travel, e.g.) you don't always have to reenter it. You could just toggle it to active and then toggle to inactive on your return.

So I figure a modified power strip with relays controlling the outlet power. Control the relays from microcontroller pins power boosted with a transistor each. Then program in a clock timer, interrupt based countdowns, a small LCD display (like a pager) and some pushbuttons. The interface could be similar to a Casio digital watch.

Anyone have any other feature suggestions?


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Most of my problems with the Intermatic timers wasn't with aquarium lights. Those timers are made to be mounted in place of a wall switch, and they are grounded just as the wall switch would be. I was trying to control some outdoor "security" light fixtures with spiral CF screw-in bulbs. The best I was able to do was keep one of two timers in operation for about 3 days. All of the rest failed almost instantly, the first time they turned off the lights. Even though they are marked as being for fluorescent bulbs, they weren't designed well enough to handle that job.


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