drunkenfool
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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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Basically I bought a thermostat and timer unit to control the heating and lighting of the vivarium. The lights turn themselves off at a preset time and the temperature goes down to the nighttime temperature, but the problem is that I also wanted to wire up a moonlight bulb at nighttime. Ideally I would like it to come on when the daylight bulbs turn off on the timer, so I was thinking maybe wiring the moonlight bulbs via a relay that gets triggered when the 240v feed to the daylight bulbs gets turned off. Does such a thing exist, and if so where should I look to get one?
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Boycey
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Registered: 30th Dec 07
Location: Buckhaven, Fife
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What sort of timer are you using for the daylight bulbs? If theres a relay in the timer then you can connect the moonlight bulbs up to the timer as well but use the normally open contacts so that when the timer kicks in and the daylights go out and the moonlights come on.
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drunkenfool
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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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This is the box I have...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=220321824773
Basically it has 2 outputs, one is thermostatically controlled and the other is controlled by the timer. I see what you're saying Boycey, but that would mean opening up the box etc.
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C2RL R
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Registered: 28th Mar 02
Location: Redcliffe, QLD
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you can wire the timer output from that unit to the coil of a relay yes. you will need a relay with 1 normally open contact and 1 normally closed contact.
wire the daylight lamp to the NO contact and the moonlight to the NC contact.
basic operation, the timer output is on so the NO contact closes swithing the daylight lamp on and holding moonlight lamp off.
the timer out put is off so the NO contact stays open holding the Daylight lamp off and the moonlight lamp on.
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drunkenfool
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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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Cheers Carl, thats what I had in mind. Do you know where I could get hold of a mains voltage one?
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C2RL R
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Registered: 28th Mar 02
Location: Redcliffe, QLD
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yeah mate, maplin, rs them sort of places. hold on and i'll get you the part numbers.
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C2RL R
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Registered: 28th Mar 02
Location: Redcliffe, QLD
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what wattage are the daylight and moonlight lamps?
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drunkenfool
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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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daylight bulbs are 100w for basking light and 12w for the energy saver UV. Moonlight lamps are 15 LEDs, so at a guess I'd guess 10w max including the transformer.
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C2RL R
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Registered: 28th Mar 02
Location: Redcliffe, QLD
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i'm just a little concerned about the type of relay to use as you are switching inductive loads. you are gonna need on with good contact separation as it's likely the contacts could weld together. i'll have a look through some catalogues later and see whats best.
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drunkenfool
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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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Cheers matey 
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csweatherston
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Registered: 16th Jan 06
Location: Devon
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could you not wire up the moonlight bulb so its on constantly?..
so daytime you have LED's and basking light, then the timer will just swich off the 100 watter.
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Nismo
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Registered: 12th Sep 02
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can you not get a light sensor diaode, put it infront of the day light, when that switches off the night time bulb diaode detects the loss of light and switches on the night time bulb?
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drunkenfool
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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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quote:
Originally posted by csweatherston
could you not wire up the moonlight bulb so its on constantly?..
so daytime you have LED's and basking light, then the timer will just swich off the 100 watter.
Could do but its a bit of a waste of electricity
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drunkenfool
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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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quote:
Originally posted by Nismo
can you not get a light sensor diaode, put it infront of the day light, when that switches off the night time bulb diaode detects the loss of light and switches on the night time bulb?
That's the other solution I was thinking of, but an automatically switching relay just seems like a more elegant solution. One plug going to the timer, then all the outputs are automatically sorted from that.
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