Need a timer for 4 circuits

Any ideas on how to make a timer that can control 4 individual circuits, that all 4 timer asemblies are powered by one power/time source? I know I can put a bunch of individual timers on cords or wall recepticles, but I want to get away form all those individual timers and extension cords......Prefer not to use X10 technology as I simply do not trust it...

============================================== Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked! "The original frugal ponder" ~~~~ } ~~~~~~ } ~~~~~~~ }

Reply to
~Roy
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Roy

but I want to get away form all those individual timers and extension cords......

Get one timer and feed a 4 plex outlet.

Reply to
Bob AZ

Roy

but I want to get away form all those individual timers and extension cords......

Get one timer and feed a 4 plex outlet.

Reply to
Bob AZ

Use a PLC

Reply to
Stephen Young

I've built some pretty elaborate industrial timer circuits using multiple time delay relays, but they aren't so easy to find cheap for home projects.

There are lots of ways to make timers electronically if you know how to design and build circuits. For a quick test setup I'd probably write a program that controls solid state relays through the printer port of an old computer. DOS lets you control timing to within 1/18 of a second, or if you write a self-calibration routine it can be good to about a microsecond, limited by the port's delay. Windows is less accurate due to its internal overhead.

How about a lawn sprinkler controller?

jw

Reply to
jim.wilkins

Roy: Try

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or
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Both carry a wide range of control products. I agree with you about x10. However they have a new product line said to be much more reliable. I use x10 for about 7 lights at my house and several times a week one or more switches fails to trigger on or off.

-Mike

Reply to
mlcorson

One timer is not going to work. I need to control 4 separate items to come on / off at various times, each different than the other. One itmer will give me all of them on or off at the same time.

I got ahold of a used but good intermatic hotwater heater timer, with a typical 24 hour clock........and made a secondary drive unit off it, which has a shaft witch I added cams to made out of plexiglass, profiled so it controls the lights etc individually. One itmer motor driving a bank of cams which actuate micro switches....... whhich control power to the recepticles......So far its working, (only been up and running now about 7 hours as I finished it up last night after getting a hair brained idea on it yesterday morning, but it shows promise..... I needed this type timer for my reef aquarium, so I oculd control current flow of water at various times of the day to mimic high and low tide and also turn on and off various types of lights to mimick sunrise, daylight, sunset and moonlight......Current draw is very small for most everything I power up except for one set of lights, but the micro switches contacts will carry it just fine.....Just have a bit of fiddling to get the cams profiles down to correct shapes and devise a way to make them more readily readable to tune in the minutes and hours better.........

============================================== Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked! "The original frugal ponder" ~~~~ } ~~~~~~ } ~~~~~~~ }

Reply to
~Roy

Get yourself acquainted with integrated circuits. You can get 555 timer integrated circuits (google for "555 timer"), doing anything you want, it seems like. It's not incredibly complicated and can be done on one breadboard. 555 timer chips cost about a quarter each. You can be in business for, perhaps, $15.

i

Reply to
Ignoramus15297

I think that there's a similar IC in the same family that will seperately control 2 or more circuits with one chip.

In the lab we used to have a small (8" cube?) timer with membrane keypad that would control 4 seperate outlets. We used to get them from Cole-Parmer and they may still sell something similar. PITA to program, though it had lots of timimg options. Thye probably turn up on Ebay once in a while.

For relatively cheap surplus stuff, American Science Surplus can siometimes be useful:

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Mike

Reply to
Mike Henry

Yes, 556 timer is two 555 timers, and 558 (IIRC) timer is four 555 timers.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus15297

Forgot to add. The nice thing about these 555, 556, 558 timers is that you can use them to trigger one another. For example, one timer can make a signal every 24 hours, triggering another timer that would send a signal for 3 hours and a third timer that would alternate a signal every minute while the second times is on. Possibilities are endless. There are dozens of great webpages with information on them.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus15297

If your time is worth anything, get yourself acquainted with a cheap 4-zone sprinkler timer (at any home center). If you need more beef on the circuits than it will provide, add inexpensive relays (mechanical or solid-state) to the outputs.

LLoyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

Roy a 4 program Irrigation controller will do the trick, but you might find it expensive.... if $150 or so is expensive.... Irritrol makes a controler, the "Total Control" that would, with 24VAC relays, do anything you mentioned.

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From 6 to 24 items, more than a dozen starting times and run times per item.... very capable.... Available at most Wholesale Irrigation stores, and they WILL sell to you. No problem!! All you need is money!

Bill P TISMAz http:::://members....cox....net/tismaz/billtism....htmRemove the improper punctuation...

Reply to
BillP

I've seen Toro and other brands down around $60 for a four-zone programmable. You just have to look around a bit.

Relays not included....

LLoyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

Lloyd, you need 4 separat PROGRAMS as well as zones for what needs to be done here. A Toro 4 stn clock won't do it, nor will any clock that does NOT have 4 separate PROGRAMS.

bILL

Reply to
BillP

I wonder how much the AB Pico GFX controllers are. They look pretty versatile, but I doubt they're cheap. I'll call my AB guy and get a price next week. Might be fun to play with.

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Pete Keillor

Reply to
Pete Keillor

timer duration? cycle? one shot? current requirements? all at the same time or different times? mechanical required or electronic ok?

I'd use two 556 chips and SCRs for one shot type timers, I'd use a clock chip and a set of 4 logic arrays to decode the time into what I wanted if I needed something that repeated daily. I'd use a PLL chip synchronized to the power line and a counter if I needed something that repeated at an odd number of seconds/minues/hours. I'd use a small microprocessor, if I needed a complex timing cycle. I'd use a 3 bank sprinkler timer if I wanted a weekly cycle with controllable on times.

What are your requirements?

Reply to
william_b_noble

I was just going to tell you to do what you did. When in school I worked part-time for an outfit called Silvestery Art Manufacturing Company. They made the mechanical Christmas displays you used to see in the windows of big department stores. They used a clock type drive around two rpm. And a series of masonite disks cut to switch on and off micro switches. These ran the servo motors for the displays. Sometimes a gang of six or seven would be needed to have the bunnies do what they were suppose to. Ran forever with out a hitch.

Steve E.

Reply to
Steven E. Eyrse

I bet I probably have a heap of those devices that you mention, that you may have made..I bought a bunch of them from an online source about 2 years back...cams made out of masonite driven by a slow rpm clock type drive that actuated a micro switch.IIRC I picked them up in lots of 10 for $2.50 a lot.........That is what gave me the idea to make it a ganged type timer as I did.......Prior to that I used to use the same concept for a timer on an egg turner device in a poulty incubator setup, and they worked flawlessly, once yu got the cams duration worke dout to what was needed..

============================================== Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked! "The original frugal ponder" ~~~~ } ~~~~~~ } ~~~~~~~ }

Reply to
~Roy

I gather from your later point that you are interested in simulating light and tide levels. One thing that would do it well is an embedded controller solution. One of the good ones is the "basic Stamp" system. It is easily programmed and could control all you need with relay boards, etc. Here is the manufacturer:

Rgards dave mundt

Reply to
Dave Mundt

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