I need multiple on/off timers on a plug each day for my BRS dosers

[Mike]

I’m sure this has been asked and answered before, so I’m sorry if I’m repeating an already answered question. I use BRS dosers for Alk and Calc. I have the doser run for a few minutes ever 3 hours. How would I program an outlet to do this?

For example, to power on at 1:00 AM and power off at 1:10 AM,
then power on at 4:00 AM, and power off at 4:10 AM,
on at 7:00 AM and off at 7:10 AM,
on at 10:00 AM and off at 10:10 AM, etc.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Carlos]

So here is your statement:

I want my dosing schedule to START a 1 am, RUN for 10 minutes, EVERY (intervals of) 3 hours.

The key points here are:

• Starting Time: 1 am
• Running Time: 10 minutes
• Interval: 3 hours

Assuming that you want this to run the entire day and not stop sometime in the evening, then we can make the assumption:

• Repeat: 0 (zero means forever)

So, all you need to do is use a Generic OUTPUT.

• Create an OUTPUT type Generic
• Set Input Count to 0
• Enable Has Schedule
• Point the Output Device to where you have the BRS machine connected to
• Enable Advanced Schedule should be ON
• Start Time set to 01:00:00
• Run Time set to 00:10:00
• Run Count set to 0
• Run Interval set to 03:00:00

That is it!

 

[Mike]

That’s great. Thanks Carlos!

 

[Bboley24]

My maths hard. I am trying to code my dosing with the BRS 1.1 ml dosers at about 25 ml a day. How much dosing is the statements that you made earlier?

 

[Carlos]

You are running the doser 10 minutes every 3 hours so in a day, you are running the doser a total of 80 minutes. Just multiply 80 times the volume ml/min of your dosing unit.

Assuming that the unit dispenses 1.1ml per minute, then you are dosing a total of 88ml.

 

[Mike]

I never could get this to work if the timer went past midnight. Carlos, this may be a bug in the system.

Let's say I wanted to split my dose into three smaller doses and three hour intervals. If I wanted the system to start dosing at 1 AM, it would look like this:

• Start Time set to 01:00:00
• Run Time set to 00:10:00
• Run Count set to 3
• Run Interval set to 03:00:00

This should run the dosing pump from 1:00 AM to 1:10 AM, from 4:00 AM to 4:10 AM, and 7:00 AM to 7:10 AM. This seemed to work.

HOWEVER, when I set it to do the same thing starting at 9 PM, I only got the first dose.

• Start Time set to 21:00:00
• Run Time set to 00:10:00
• Run Count set to 3
• Run Interval set to 03:00:00

The dosing pump operated from 21:00 to 21:10, but would NOT turn on at 00:00, nor at 03:00.

 

[Danny]

It won't pass midnight. You can always create two outputs as timers and then use the combiner type to drive the output. Set one output timer for the midnight and 3am times and the other for the single one at 21:00. These outputs do not need to have an actual output assigned to work with the combiner type.

 

[Mike]

Thank you for the tip Danny. I played around with the combiner and I think I understand how to set that up. However, I think that is too cumbersome for me to use. Hopefully the Hydros team will design an output that simplifies this process.

 

[Don]

Not passing midnight like that would be a bug. It should pass midnight. I will add this to our internal bug list.

 

[Danny]

Not passing midnight like that would be a bug. It should pass midnight. I will add this to our internal bug list.

Hey Don, I am not sure this would be the same issue but I had a output stop at midnight that had a max ontime set at 5hrs. The output turned on just before 8pm and a few minutes after midnight I noticed it was off but the output that had it on was still on. I didn't get a alert for anything. I turned off that output and turned it back on and then set it back to auto and it continued until the output that had it on went off. It could have been some other issue but I thought I would let you know it happened just incase it is related.