Timer?

I'd avoid x10.com though, given that they pioneered the spam technique known as popup ads. homeautomation.com sells the same stuff and hasn't resorted to evil advertising tactics.

Some of the digital timers can do this, but it's very hard to find them in a "local store" and very hard to tell in any detail what the timing limitations are on ones you buy mail-order until you actually get them.

Let's see if I can find a link to the one exception I found (there may be many I did not find) to that rule, but with the added disincentive of a price too rich for my budget.

Not the same one, but at a much better price than the one I recall and from MSC (so probably available elsewhere, cheaper) is the Intermatic DT17C, claiming 14 on/off cycles per day with a minimum ON time of 1 minute, at $36.83 (not all that high-powered, but you haven't said what you need.)

Actually, some sort of low end PLC might be the ticket, but I don't have any direct personal experience with them.

X10?

What are you trying to do exactly? Please use as much white space as needed to explain... ;-)

If it has to be at actual and precise times each day, my first thought is an electronic timer like the Intermatic Digitals - Bad news the ET100 only does 8 operations (4 cycles) per day, but good news they are in one minute increments. The ET171 series will do 20 operations per day (10 on, 10 off...) They have fancier ones, but they get more expensive.

If you just want to run a battery charger once or twice a day, you can use something cheap like a plug-in wall timer.

If you need to have a piece of equipment start, they have little solid state cube time delay relays that can be wired as a really long period interval timer. Two hours off, five minutes on. But they are not precise, so that period will slip around the clock - it won't always be at 2 AM, 4 AM, 6 AM, 8 AM 10 AM...

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Their site sucks, and so does their customer service. Unfortunately some of their products can only be obtained through them, but for me, never again. Fortunately other people carry most of what he might want. jk

Cole-Parmer (a scientific supply house) sells timers that can be programmed for repeating cycles from seconds to hours. Probably not cheap, though.

Mike

Hey Steve,

Lots of industrial timers will do what you want. They mostly come with a decent range of selectable of values/units, with timing on each range from 1 to 999 as I recall. Have a peek at :

For instance, if you select 0.001 seconds, you can time from .001 to

1 second, or select the 10 second range and you can time from 1 to 999 seconds (16-1/2 minutes). The ones shown at the above will do from .001 seconds minimum with the minimum unit size selected, to 300 hours maximum with the maximum unit size selected.

All very easy to "program" too. Availability at any electrical wholesaler in the brand(s) he deals with.

Take care.

Brian Lawson, Bothwell, Ontario.

I used an analog clock for similar purposes, my latest variation turns on a 12vdc pump for 3 min every 15 min. I soldered wires to the hands and used aluminum foil on the face to make contact to operate a relay. Really crude but cheap & worked.

Free men own guns - www(dot)geocities(dot)com/CapitolHill/5357/

DT17C under $20 at Amazon.

Watch the word wrap that URL is a long one. Got it with Google.