Timer mod tek, To make a standard ti...

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Hippie3 (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 16545 Registered: 02-2001 Posted on Wednesday, March 31, 2004 - 01:08 pm: by MysterMe This tek is for modifying your timer to run around 16 times faster than normally, so you can use short time intervals very often. This idea came to me upon installing a new ultrasonic humidifier in my small (10 gal) grow chamber, because the shortest "on" time i could get was 30 mins, and that was a bit too much. This mod involves a bit of work (about 30mins), and it has only been tested on the type of timer shown on the pic (Intermatic). These are fairly common. Here goes: You will need the following items: -A T10 torx screwdriver -small flathead screwdriver -inside of a ball-point pen -x-acto knife or similar tool -WD40 or some grease (optional) First remove the torx screw from the bottom of the unit. Its screwed in pretty tight. Remove the time indicator arrow thingy from the dial of the unit. Remove the dial from the top, and unscrew the second torx from under the dial. Be careful with the small white gear because it slips off easily. Here, use the small flathead screwdriver to carefully pry apart the bottom of the coil housing and the area where the gears are. Proceed to pry it from all four corners of the housing. This way it comes off easily. If the middle plate gets a litte bent, it is no problem, just remember to bend is back to normal before reassembling the timer. Remove the two smaller gears that can be freely removed from the top. Now proceed to remove all the gears from the right axle. The bottom two gears on the right axle will be a bit hard to remove, because the metal brace for the large to gear (not on pic) overlaps them. Apply light pressure with the screwdriver and they will easily pop out. From the pen insert, cut many 0.5-3mm (really you only need 2 2.5mm and 2 0.7mm long ones) spacers that we will be used to keep the fewer gears aligned. You now have three identical small gears, one large one with the left axle mounted on it, one large on without an axle, and one small one that is nearly identical to the 3 small ones, except it has a small shaft extension on it. Place the large gear with the axle back to the hole on the left. Place a 2.5mm spacer on the (empty) right axle. Place a 2.5mm spacer on the left axle (on top of the large gear). Put the remaining large gear on the right. Small gear on the left. Small gear on the right. And finally a 0.7 mm spacer on the end of both axles. Check to see if the top spacers are flush (little clearance is OK) with the middle plate. If yes, replace middle plate and check to see if all gears rotate freely. If not , then you should start to reduce the length of the top spacers first. After replacing the middle plate, return the remaining two main gears to the top. It is very important, that the very large gear is replaced so that the metal tab (that is mounted on the gear itself and designed to rotate freely) should be in the same place as on the pic, otherwise the motor will rotate in the wrong direction. (see pic) After this lubricate the gears liberally and reassemble everything. You now have a timer that rotates fully every 90 minutes! Using the smallest event interval, this mean you can set times as small as 3 mins with 1.5min increments. MM archive material Hippie3 (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 16546 Registered: 02-2001 Posted on Wednesday, March 31, 2004 - 01:11 pm: addenda. by fety HELL YEAH!!! My buddy just let me try this mod on his Intermatic Model TN111 and it WORKS!!!! For those of you that don't have the same looking model that MisterMe does, don't worry, the new Intermatics have the same exact gear box!! (see pic) I tried a half hour on and off setting and it ran for about 1min 45 secs... I think I put one of the larger gears in it, but I'm gonna put the smaller one in and see if it'll run a little longer. I'll let ya know it's time. But of course, I could just set a 1 hour setting which should run for about 3 mins 30 secs. Perfect for a fogger setup! Lazy Folks, go ahead and rip your Intermatic apart! It's easier than it looks! The only hard part is cutting the spacers just right and getting the gears off around the metal brace thing that overlaps them slightly, just put your mini screwdriver between the gear and the end of that metal brace poking out and twist it up -Just like how his picture shows in the 08:55 AM post! One bit of advice, after you take off the contoured cap from the gear box, there is a big gear that is linked to the motor, NOTE the position of the metal thing on it's bottom side! It allows the gear to turn in only one direction. I accidentally put that back on 180 degrees from how it was supposed to be and when I put it all back together the whole timer ran in reverse! haha! MisterMe! You are da man!! thanks for your tinkering skillz! been playing around with the different combinations of gears the Intermatic has... I counted the teeth and found that the model TN111 actually has 3 different gear sizes. 1 with 36 teeth - the one with the shaft extension 2 with 32 teeth 1 with 30 teeth - the smallest one *the two on the bottom stay in their place I spent all day testing each combination of gears changing only the top two gears. Here's the times for a full rotation cycle going through a 1 hour cycle, from On through Off to same On again. And the length of time for a 1 hour setting (On then Off) format - hours:mins:secs gear combination: 30 & 32 Full cycle - 01:20:02 1 hour - 00:03:06 32 & 32 Full cycle - 01:25:25 1 hour - 00:03:20 36 & 30 Full cycle - 01:30:04 1 hour - 00:03:25 36 & 32 Full cycle - 01:36:05 1 hour - 00:03:27 So obviously the bigger gears used results a longer cycle. Have fun! Pskovinsky (Pskov) Senior Member Username: Pskov Post Number: 1014 Registered: 09-2003 Posted on Wednesday, March 31, 2004 - 04:17 pm: very cool! My thanks go out to MysterMe, whereever he might be, and to you hippie for posting it --Pskov(insky) "There are two types of people in the world, those with loaded guns, and those who dig, you dig" (no, it's not my car, wish it was) BillyBoy (Billyboy) Senior Member Username: Billyboy Post Number: 106 Registered: 10-2002 Posted on Wednesday, March 31, 2004 - 09:30 pm: Information exchanges various ways. As long as the creator isnt trying to make a buck and credit is given to the orig author, i think its fine and peachy to share information... after all, its not a trade secret, is it? Some music would be nice right about now. Don't you think? Onelyte (Onelyte) Junior Member Username: Onelyte Post Number: 12 Registered: 02-2004 Posted on Wednesday, March 31, 2004 - 09:47 pm: half the stuff on these boards is shared..perhaps they have some sort of agreement..i can find the EXACT same teks on nans, shoomery, and mycotopia..why should this one be any diffrent.. harv (Homelessheathen) Junior Member Username: Homelessheathen Post Number: 12 Registered: 01-2004 Posted on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 03:36 am: interesting legal discussion, but i'd like to go on a relatively irelevant tangent and discuss the freaking timer again if nobody minds. most of those times have in my experience been short lived and unreliable with their original gear configuration. speeding them up will put more strain on the motor and shorten their lives. they're cheap, though, so no biggie. i found a timer in a good pet store. it has little push-pull on off thingie for 15 minute intervals. they also have wavemaker timers that switch alternating pumps to simulate ocean currents. hydroponics supplies have similar cycle timers for pumps. wormsway has them. http://store.yahoo.com/hydroponics-garden/intim.ht ml http://www.merchantamerica.com/superfeeders/index. php?ba=product_enlarge&product_id=29024 Randy Holister (Holister43) New member Username: Holister43 Post Number: 8 Registered: 03-2004 Posted on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 03:40 am: Hey harv... imo, you can't go wrong with digital. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item =2391767312&category=29522 works in 1 minute intervals.. 8 cycles, (16 settings) per day. rodger rabbit (Skyypilot) Senior Member Username: Skyypilot Post Number: 2027 Registered: 02-2003 Posted on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 04:20 am: The problem I've had with digital timers is they 'die' with a power failure. They have a small internal battery, but in my experience, it only lasts a few minutes. After that, the timer is in the 'off' state, and doesn't turn your device back on when power returns. A mechanical timer (while it lasts) protects against this problem. When I make a post here, or anywhere else on the 'net' I place that picture and information into the public domain. Anybody who would like to copy my work and post it anywhere they please is more than welcome to do so. I just wish everybody could get along. We are truly the modern day alchemists, and would be much stronger as a team, then as adversaries. Peace. "I feel rowdy and I don't know why. . .Excuse me while I kiss the sky". . .jimi hendrix Highflyer (Highflyer) Moderator Username: Highflyer Post Number: 1588 Registered: 12-2002 Posted on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 06:28 am: quote: The problem I've had with digital timers is they 'die' with a power failure The new digital timers that walmart carries will stay active for several weeks. No loss of programming with power outages. "I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way." - Robert Frost BillyBoy (Billyboy) Senior Member Username: Billyboy Post Number: 117 Registered: 10-2002 Posted on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 05:19 pm: Does anyone have any information on digital timers? Such as, cost and where to aquire one that is worthy? - BB Some music would be nice right about now. Don't you think? Highflyer (Highflyer) Moderator Username: Highflyer Post Number: 1603 Registered: 12-2002 Posted on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 05:38 pm: $15 in the walmart hardware section. "I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way." - Robert Frost BillyBoy (Billyboy) Senior Member Username: Billyboy Post Number: 126 Registered: 10-2002 Posted on Thursday, April 01, 2004 - 06:45 pm: cool. I did not see them in the hardware section when I was buying a digital themometer.. I found that asking the walmart staff where supplies are usually renders in a valid response... sometimes you have to ask a few people though;) - BB Some music would be nice right about now. Don't you think? petri dish (Petri) Senior Member Username: Petri Post Number: 109 Registered: 07-2003 Posted on Friday, April 02, 2004 - 03:49 pm: I have that model and left it powerless for three days and it didn't miss a beat! I also got mine right next to the mechanical timers in Walmart hardware.