FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I was wondering if others are not satisfied with just the old wall outlet timer to plug in your CFL so you can run the light for however long you want. Well I wasn't, I wanted to be able to have the lamp mimic the sun. In other words I wanted to have the lamp on from sunrise to sunset just like out in the wild. Right now the sun where I am gains a little over a minutes in the morning and about the same in the evening. I figured it would be nice for bringing it back after dormancy. So I purchased a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) and created some simple logic so I could have the lamp on just like the sun. I know it is over kill but hey, I'm thinking the next thing I can do it create something to take care of the watering for me when I go on vacation.

If anyone has any questions about it I can post more.

Very cool! I'd love to hear more about the details and where you purchased the PLC, etc.

Matt wrote:Very cool! I'd love to hear more about the details and where you purchased the PLC, etc.

It is pretty simple but this is the kinda thing that I do (automation that is). Here is a link http://www.automationdirect.com/adc/Sho ... /C0-00AR-D from where and what I purchased. I went with that cheapest model they have but if I had it to do over I would buy the one with memory. You also need a 24VDC power supply to power the PLC. This PLC uses Boolean ladder logic with some math blocks too and that is all that is needed and of course the "code/program" to be able to be power an outlet which you can plug your lamp into. The output of this PLC is a "relay output" meaning it is just a common relay which you can power anything that is within the limits of the ratings of the unit (I can't remember what the ratings are for this) and you control when and how this relay opens or closes. For this project I spent about $140 but I also wanted to do some other projects as well. If anybody would like to do this project I would be more then happy to assist, I could even email my program and you could upload it and just change a couple of values and you would be good to go.

I bought a timer from petsmart for reptiles, it works really well.
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.j ... Id=2752178
I program it once a week or so, and it has worked amazing for me!
But very cool with the setup u got there

I checked out that timer from Petsmart and it looks pretty cool. I want to develop a automatic watering. But its in the development stage, and something I want to do in the future. It will be a little more challenging.

That will be my goal to have water and light all automatic.

Theres misters out there like the one exo terra came out with called the monsoon. Its on a timed system and holds up to a gallon of water!

Be careful with making watering automatic. The frequency of your watering (although it's probably reasonably constant) is probably going to change along with the weather and the time of season. Just make sure you keep a close eye on the moisture level and you'll probably be ok.

You can find ,, what they call astronmic timers, they adjust the time to your location based on sunset and sunrise,, I saw a few on amazon. You might want to peep them oput, the ones i saw were for thinbgs like seurity lights as such. But I a sure you can find on to fit your needs.

Automatic watering shouldn't cause too much trouble, as long as it is not based on a timed interval.
A moisture sensing circuit would do the job well.
http://happyfarming.com/2009/05/03/soil ... explained/

Wayneo wrote:I was wondering if others are not satisfied with just the old wall outlet timer to plug in your CFL so you can run the light for however long you want. Well I wasn't, I wanted to be able to have the lamp mimic the sun. In other words I wanted to have the lamp on from sunrise to sunset just like out in the wild. Right now the sun where I am gains a little over a minutes in the morning and about the same in the evening. I figured it would be nice for bringing it back after dormancy. So I purchased a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) and created some simple logic so I could have the lamp on just like the sun. I know it is over kill but hey, I'm thinking the next thing I can do it create something to take care of the watering for me when I go on vacation.

If anyone has any questions about it I can post more.

What is exactly the difference between setting an ordinary timer say to switch on the lights on and off and what you are describing please.
If you set it for a set period on and off to match the sun as it changes with the seasons.

Jaws wrote:
What is exactly the difference between setting an ordinary timer say to switch on the lights on and off and what you are describing please.

What I've done is create a device that mimics the sun for my latitude and latitude with no manual adjustments after a setup. I believe that a ordinary plug-in manual timer is set for one on time and one off time. If you want to make a change you have to change the settings by either changing the start time or the stop time.

I wanted a light that would bring my plants into and out of dormancy without me changing it every week. Also I didn't know they made a device with a "solar setting" on it but come to find out they do, but all is good as I have a couple of other projects I want to use the PLC for anyways.

Jaws wrote: If you set it for a set period on and off to match the sun as it changes with the seasons.

I'm not really sure what you are asking/saying here

The last comment, what i meant was as the sunrise and sunset change through the year, to manually change the timer.
Good luck with your project it sounds awesome.