Power Cycle

something i saw on Lowe's website.. sure there are others available..... either plug in or wire in....

take a look at the Altronix PT 724A

It does a lot of things but I didn't get into the details to see if it would do what you want

I know it's low voltage but you could add a power supply and a power relay on the output if the contacts on the unit weren't heavy enough

There's also the smaller 6062 which DOES have the feature of setting a time and at the end of the period it will trip for one second and then recycle it again. However this only max's out at 60 minutes. But I think you might be able to fudge around with the capacitor or resistor on the board and make it for a longer period. Again, though ..... it's all low voltage but you could work that out.

Thanks Rocky!!

I was hoping for just a plug in timer to do the job. And thanks to your pointing to Lowes for this timer I did find that there is a plugin that will do as I desire. At least it will until I actually plug it in and start the programming desire. :-)

A little more investigation is needed.

Have a good day!!

Les

Thanks Jim,

I have actually have a couple of these Altronix units unlocking doors to a couple of buildings. But, I need a timer to switch on and off 120vac.

You may have already read that Rocky pointed me to a unit at Lowes that pointed me to what I think will work for my application.

Thanks again!!

Have a good day!!

Les

A 724 can be a real life saver, and it was the first thing I thought of, but I also immediately dismissed it. A light timer is the thing to use as long as the current demand isn't to high. If it is you should be using a separate contactor anyway.

Just picked up a plugin model. Am presently testing. Looks good!!

Although it is a bit mind bending to set the turn on at 2:30am and the turn off at 2:29am. Just something I have never done before so it seem a bit strange to the brain. LOL

Oh and you have to have the power switched on while setting up, otherwise it would be off until 2:30am.

It seems that once it is programmed it should do what I want. Testing on site will be another thing that won't happen since I will be asleep at home in my bed when it does it's thing. The only true proof it works will be if the WiFi Point does not lock up after a unknown period of time.

Thanks for the assist guys!!

Les

So don't be so stingy,

What did you get - - - - - - - - already ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Whoop!!! Sorry................................

Hope that comes through.

It is a "MyTouchSmart: Plugin Timer.Model #35150-T1

It was about $17.09 with my discount!!

The user interface could be a little better but I got it to do what I wanted it to do.

Les

So what are you doing with this? What are you rebooting? Computer? Modem? Router? Sprinkler System? Virtual Sex Robot?

Well Jim, that's going to be a rather complex to answer. But I will try to make it as simple possible.

I have a customer that I installed Wifi point in a horse barn that is about 750 feet from the house where the Modem/Router is located. In between there are 2 Wireless dishes to connect the barn to a pole on a hill above another barn. Then they wanted to have cameras installed and have the ability to view from Florida.

What happens from time to time (once a month or two) is that the WiFi point, Data Switches, and other devices in between here and there lock up and need to be power cycled. One is located in a Tobacco Barn and another in the attic of the horse barn. So when something locks up someone needs to go to specific (maybe) point and unplug/wait/plug back in and restart to get stuff working again and is it supposed to do.

Now, with these timers (3 ea) installed every night at 2:28am the power is disconnected. Then at 2:30am power is then reapplied and stuff restarts and HOPEFULLY reconnects the links. This is set to do this every day at the same time.

Only time will tell if it is effective.

I hope I typed that so it was easy to follow as well as to give the readers some ideas to apply for future use.

Les

It may help. Atleast the next day anyway. It might also help to put in some smarter higher end equipment, but that costs more. My experience has been that network equipment tends to have those kinds of failures due to either of two things. Abuse and/or disregard by Microsoft or flaky conditions from the ISP.

I followed just fine.

If they all use the same Internet Modem it might be a good idea to stagger the reset times. Modem first. Modem Router. Other routers and WiFi links.

Bob,

Yes, I considered that but, then it may be detrimental to my brain!!

I am switching 3 data switches, 2 TX/RX Wireless Bridge, 2 WiFi Points Located a 3 points along the line.

Needless to say this is some what of an experiment based on good thinking's. I should know something in the morning one way or the other.

Les

Hey COOOL ! I've thought about doing something like that for my office equipment but just never got around to it. But now that I know what I can use to do it - - - - - I just may = = = NAH ! I'll just continue to think about it and never do it. But anyway - - - - as an aside. I don't know if you have ever experienced this or not or if you did have a problem - - - - you didn't realize what the cause was.

Years ago I had a customer with a barn and half a dozen or so horses, a few goats a mule and a couple of donkeys. Lots of rabbits, ducks, chickens and all kinds of animals. This guy was a prominent and very successful dentist. But = = = = the animals belonged to his wife. She was some kind of weird about having animals around her. Along with a lot of cats who climbed up on everything, she actually had a huge pig living in the house with it's own room, a couch and a TV. Damn thing wasn't house broken either and she'd run around cleaning up pig shit and piss all day.

One day I'm working in the house all by my self (except for the pig) and I hear the lady of the house talking down stairs. So, I come down stairs looking to greet my customer and there's no one in the house. So I think maybe the kids came home and left right away. I go back up stairs and in a little while I hear her talking down stairs again, I come down and nothing. So I go back upstairs and wait by the balcony. Then I spotted the F&^ing grey African parrots in a cage over in the corner of the living room having a conversation. Man - - - - they sounded just like her talking.

Anyway, they had me put a fire alarm in the barn with heat and smoke detectors. By the way, the barn was heated too. About a year went by and a smoke detector went bad. I changed it. Couple of weeks later, another one goes bad. Couple of weeks the third one goes bad. So I naturally thought I'd got a bad lot of smokes. So, about a year goes by and another smoke detector goes bad. Month later another, few weeks later the third one. So to make it a short story. I sent the smoke detectors back to ESL and I ultimately found out that the combination of the ammonia and other elements in the animal piss created a crystalized deposit on the printed circuit boards shorting out the components.

I replaced the smoke detectors with heat detectors and had no more problems.

So if you start having problems with some of the electronics in the barn, Take heed.

Hi Jim, Happy Friday!!....................... Maybe?? To early to tell.

As for my timer project. I checked the cameras this morning and all is good. YEA!!! One day of success!!

As for your barn experience.......... WOW!! Thanks for the story.

Never would have guessed the reasoning for the smokes going south!! Not that many animals at this particular barn. Just horses and a few cats. And those unknown/unseen critters.

However, thank for the input. I will consider that if I should have similar issues. The question would be what to do or how to modify the install to fix it??

I have done a few barns with fire protection (this current one being on the list). I was always concerned more about false alarms with smoke detectors in that environment that I only installed heat detectors. I have always installed the fire wire in conduit to minimize any false alarms due to rodents that like to chew on wires.

All was good until one day when a worker was carrying a 6x6 beam on his shoulder between the horse stalls for some project. Someone at the other end of the barn called out to him and he turned his head and body towards the person calling him. In doing so the beam turned as well and the one end came in perfect contact with a heat detector and smashed it, tripping off the fire alarm and dispatched the fire department!! Can't think of everything!! But, I should have placed a cage protector on those heats, maybe!

While on the barn thing, when this horse barn and indoor riding arena was being built, the owner decided to have an apartment built on the 2nd floor for a worker to live. The code required that the apartment have sprinklers installed. Which meant that since there is no city water a very large tank, pump, controls be installed to feed the said sprinklers. When it came time for final inspection, the "local code official" determined that the tank was too small and that it needed to be up sized to the next bigger. So, since the pump room was built around the the tank, the walls had to be torn down to get the small tank out and a bigger tank put in and the walls rebuilt. YES a HUGE PITA!! Not me doing the work but I had to do some rewiring because the pump had to be increased and a different pump controller. I can't even imagine the $'s involved.

Sooooo about two years later the employee that was living in the apartment quit and moved elsewhere. So the apartment is empty and winter is around the corner. A decision was made to turn off the heat to the apartment since nobody was living there. Well as you can imagine in got cold, very cold and the pipes froze and split. But, nothing happened....... until the outside temps warmed up...........and the ice melted, and the water flowed, and the fire alarm went off and the fire trucks showed up. And as Murphy always does it was late at night when I got the call to get there and shut down the alarm system that was going nuts!!!

When I arrived the Fire Dept. guys were tearing out the drywall ceiling & insulation and throwing everything out the 2nd floor window. Apartment totaled!!!

End of story is that all was rebuilt and now there is antifreeze in the pipes.....................

Hope you enjoyed my true barn stories. You can't make this stuff up!! :-)

Les

Nothing as dramatic as you guys (tales). But I did manage to find out the hard way that PVC bag insulation used in large open space building to insulate the roof space, will gas a molecule that can trigger some smoke detectors when it reaches a certain heat.... (like in the middle of summer).. Took several weeks to figure that one out... Once switched over to heat detectors, problem went away...

Rocky, Either way it is problem that is difficult if not impossible to determine. So you say "some" smoke detectors.

Are you referring to a ionization vs photoelectric??

OR

Certain manufactures models??

I can understand a ionization having some issues because of the sensing device. But it would be difficult to follow the thoughts on a photoelectric. More details please!!!

It is OK if you type half as much as Jim and I put together!! LOL

Les

Ha. Some types of fruit can out gas and set off ammonia detectors. This can be really fun in a giant commercial cooling facility where their refrigerant is ammonia. They drop everything and evacuate the plant without exception when the ammonia detection system goes off. I put loud sirens and flashing lights in every area for that.

What's fun is the plant manager will reprogram the system during times when they are handling that type of fruit and change the detection levels. Over the years they monkeyed with a bunch of the settings, and they asked me to fix it. I spent one day going around and reprogramming the controllers and checking the wiring, and declared it fixed. The plant manager complained that was all I did. The thing is that was all it needed. To be programmed correctly. I asked him, "Would you like me to make some stuff up? Its good for now. Call me if you have a different problem and I'll fix it."

They were a good customer over the years. They even sometimes had me do handy man type stuff, and paid my T&M rate for it.

as best as I can remember, (an effort in it self) the detectors were the old Ademco type with the off set heat sensor wings at the smoke chamber.. (probability 10-15 years ago? maybe more...) All Photo's, never have used the ions....

Bob, I had an AHJ require me to place standard photo smokes in a building wide freeze once.. Average temp. 20 degrees F... I guess You know the rest of that story... He signed off on a disable/bypass switch for that loop after the 10th false alarm.. (Seems the owner was brother-in-law to one of the up a de ups at the state office....) [[Around here its Who you know, not What you know...]]

;-)

oh I forgot to mention I had sent a cutting from one of the PVC bags to System Sensor, they did the test and told me the problem... So I guess it wouldn't matter the brand. Since System Sensor did the test and the smokes in use were Ademco..

RTS