solar cell ?

Have a look at

• Timers and Time Switches

- from RS Components. There are lots of other ready-build solutions scattered around the RS site. Alternatively, you could use a microcontroller (e.g. a PIC, or Basic Stamp etc.). Are you after a ready-built one-off, or something to build into a system to be reproduced/marketed? What are your financial constraints? (i.e. how much do you want to spend, how much time can you devote to setting up the cheapest solution, etc.?) Is this a commercial enterprise? There are so many ways of doing this...

I have several pv sells and use them to turn on and off night lights around the yard and some in the house at night. I could use an electric timer but that would be cheating, plus I might learn some thing here from my friends

kenn

See each of following:Click and get full details on each.

» Timing Circuits
MAX3622: Low-Jitter, Precision Clock Generator With Two Outputs...
CDCE937: Programmable 3-PLL VCXO Clock Synthesizer With 2.5-V Or 3.3-V LVCMOS
CDCEL949: Programmable 4-PLL VCXO Clock Synthesizer With 1.8-V LVCMOS Outputs...
ZL30112: SLIC/CODEC DPLL...
ISL12032: Low Power RTC With Battery Backed SRAM

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It certainly looks like you know your stuff. I will have to look up the items you mentioned to see if there is some thing I can use.

what I have are several pv cells that generate 12 to 15 volts of dc, which I put into a small bank of 6 volt batterys (Marine).

I am useing several 12 watt lights (8 at this time) but I have to turn them on manualy

useing jacks, that is why I thought about looking for a dc timer

I'm just growing a solar operation slowly

kenn

I'd suggest looking at some of the programmable relay type devices around - there are lots of them. Have a look at this CR4 thread - it'll give you some ideas.

It depends whether you want to get into the electronics (using devices as suggested by Mukulmahant), or just get a control system up'n'running. Using chips will be a cheaper solution in the long run (unit cost being much lower), but you'll have a different type of learning to do, and the results will (probably) be harder to program (for on/off times etc.). The PLR things have built-in displays and buttons you can use for adjusting parameters. They're pretty easy to program, once you've got the hang of it. Most come with free software & tutorials (you can get a lot of this stuff free from the manufacturer's sites - 'no purchase required'). Often you can set up a control program & run a simulation with no hardware in sight.

Have fun & good luck. John.

The company I work for makes a solar light controller that sounds exactly like what you are looking for. It charges lead acid batteries from a user-supplied solar panel, and then can turn on and off a DC load (lights) based on either the time of day or dawn/dusk. Our website is http://www.rogue-engr.com and the email for sales is sales@rogue-engr.com

Since you are just looking for qty one, I might suggest going to a distributor though. In the USA, Sunwize ( www.sunwize.com ) carries solar light controllers made by Morningstar (one of our competitors), and they may start to carry our units as well. The Morningstar units aren't quite as high quality, but they would probably work for what you are doing.