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Can anyone recommend a good timer?

Andrew Butler said:
Look up 'TP link hs100' - be warned they have shot up in price a bit since I brought mine.
They are controlled using an app on your phone or tab and can also be remote controlled using your wifi / internet away from your house should you feel the need.
I've got several and they have been working fine for a couple of years now; you could wait for July 16th to see if Amazon drop them in price as it's prime day or look on ebay and try to grab one from auction cheap.


I had a couple of these but sold them with my marine aquarium 3 years or more ago which I now regret although I don't think they are even supported by newer versions of windows let alone Mac. These too have shot up in price considering they are old technology now, when I brought them they were being sold off by Maplins for less than £20 as discontinued.
I've been unable to find anything else like this and with it not supporting newer windows gave it a miss.
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Seconded. Have got a few on the last couple of prime days. I think last time Argos price matched and you were able to get three for £45. I have one controlling a four gang for filter, heater and powerhead and had another two controlling lights a d a blue LED in the evening but now have the Juwel Helialux.

Have been rock solid and work with no internet. Being able to say "Alexa turn fish tank off" when doing a water change or cleaning the filter is really lazy!

They are also great for Christmas lights

I am sure I will give in to my desire for a PLC one day but for now these are doing the job.
 
jameson_uk said:
Being able to say "Alexa turn fish tank off" when doing a water change or cleaning the filter is really lazy!
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Dangerous I would say, say the wrong thing halfway though WC and water could end up everywhere :facepalm:
 
All very nice these timers, but orders of magnitude less reliable than an industrial rated PLC. So glad I built my PLC. 100% reliable for last two years.
 
I would probably only ever use those smart plugs for lighting tbh, wouldn't trust them for something like a CO2 solenoid!
 
Zeus. said:
Another beauty of the PLC is if you use the 'TankyMyTank' timer which 'Ian' programmed, one time adjustment adjusts all time settings in one setting
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Used this today like a dream, pond needed water so thought I would do an extra WC this weekend. So set the on time to 18.00 last night

upload_2018-7-13_18-54-15.png


Finished work at dinner time, after Pub lunch quick WC about 250l had it done pretty quick as just water no clean then just set the on time from 5 minutes before what time it was alllowing for a pre CO2 on time of 55 mins on this tank and presso the time was set to 15.10, CO2 came on five mins later, when lights came on then changed the on time back to 15.00. took moments on PC never touching the PLC once

Web view of PLC atm
upload_2018-7-13_19-2-56.png


Took 45mins to hit target pH today:D
 
ian_m said:
All very nice these timers, but orders of magnitude less reliable than an industrial rated PLC. So glad I built my PLC. 100% reliable for last two years.
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I agree MTBF is going to be massively higher but I have a couple of these TP link ones controlling a light, light on the shrimp tank and one for the main tank. Two are on daily timers and I did have another two on the main tank lights for a while. These were all on schedules one with different weekend schedule) with two of them running for at least two years and they have never missed a schedule.

I don't run a solenoid or dosing pumps with them and would probably think twice about doing so but I have been very impressed with have how reliable these have been and being able to turn the lights on/off out of schedule is really handy (something I miss in the Helialux controller as there isn't an override button).
 
three-fingers said:
I use a "smart plug", you can easily set various on/off schedules via an app on your phone and also turn the aquarium lights on/off using the app when your at home, if you ever want to for some reason lol. Works great for me :).

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HowiseAcc-...F8&qid=1531499385&sr=8-10&keywords=smart+plug
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I have setup my smart plug using Alexa Routines. You now can set a time and an event on/off etc. Working well for my LED lights. Also can voice instruct to turn on or off as required.
 
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