I've been running these identical timers (four of them) for over 3 years now (24/7) with zero failure.... I really like these timers and the price is right!
For anyone concerned with reliability, I have used these exact timers in my shops air compressor control panel for the past 5 years now without any issues. One timer controls a mains supply contactor(so compressor is de-energized during closed hours), and a second timer, coupled with a delay timer (5 seconds) for an auto moisture drain for the tank (drains moisture from the tank once an hour). System has worked flawlessly for 5 years since I built it and put it into service.
I found a timer, easily found under the model name "MTD8" that has a very similar layout but has two buttons where the single large manual button exists on this model. Very interesting observation. It doesn't actually look like it has any additional functionality except the extra pad serves as a sort of hard-reset from what I can tell.
The delay between you going through on - auto - off and the relay switching might be intentional, since the display is actually responding immediately. I think its intention is to not have the load switch on and off unnecessarily while you go through the settings and only after you have settled it switches the load.
+Jack White Pretty elaborate for cheap chinese elctronic -> usually cheap electronics software just sucks! (even though product can be actually quite good)
Another approach would be to clamp the 24v rail down to 5V (or whatever the clock supply is) when the relay is off, avoiding the dissipation in the resistor
+mikeselectricstuff I think they're trying to keep it at around 24V for two reasons. To ensure the trickle supply from the 24V cap to the control PCBs cap (via a resistor) stays constant, and also to ensure the relay immediately receives a full 24V from the cap before it sinks to the 20V under load to make sure it pulls in properly.
i have a button in my car that does nothing but change my speedometer and odometer from imperial to metric. I wonder how much money they could have saved by putting that in a submenu instead.
@@dndboy13 We actually have a new time standard for years now. ... it's called Unix time and just counts the seconds since epoch (1970-01-01T00:00:00Z). Like the US is actually using the metric system - all units they use are specified in Metric. :)
What a clever designer, keeping the load on the dropper the same :-D Ive got to give them full marks for smart engineering, cheap but nicely made. The display pcb looks like its made by someone else, well its different in colour, it could be a generic job.
the big/double button used to switch off/on/outo in this model, there is other model wich look the same but the big button get locked up outomaticly after 5 secs. you need to click on one side 3 time to unlock the other side, wich is the off/on/outo button :) i have 3 of this modules installd and runing hot water boiler, works great about 2 years now. nice vid
I have the 12v ones and thay work very well never miss a beat keep time and settings well evan if not powerd for a long time. very handy in the off grid world
Good evening. Just to shed some light on our "weird" language and abbreviations: "DIN" stands for "Deutsche Institut für Normen" and loosely translates to "German institute for standards". Greetings from Germany
Clive the reason we have ring mains in the uk is in the mid 1900s we used a lot of high kW oil heaters instead of central heating, so instead of using a higher CSA I.e 4mm t&e it was cheaper to run the extra 2.5mm t&e back to the DB.
Dave from the EEVblog will be like: "Ahhhh, nasty chinese quality. Those nasty cheap electrolytic caps will die within a year." XD This month, one year ago, you only had around 5.6K subs. Now you have ten times that! Keep it up Clive, love your videos!
+Colibri Even Nichicons are usually rated for 5000h or something like that, and more important factor is thermal design of the device - even the aerospace quality electrolytic will fail quickly if it's used on the high side of their rated temperature. Here, in low power device that doesn't get hot really any electrolytic will do;) I have plenty of appliances with 50 yo electrolytics that work without any problem, and on the contrary relatively new equipment like LCD computer screens that failed horribly because someone though that putting SMPS inside the case that gets hot with next to no ventilation is a good idea (what a bro you are, Samsung...).
Songle are pretty good relays these days. Pretty sure they are one of the biggest relay manufacturer in China. So far, I haven't had any issue with Songle relays. I have a ton of devices with them.
The switching delay makes sense as someone may be flicking through the options. In this case it's better to wait until the "wetware" has stopped switching between the options.
Well...holy shit, that's a surprisingly good chinese DIN rail timer! :o I want one for no particular reason besides maybe the unique cleverness in its design..
+ChaosHusky looks well built, the real question is, is it reliable? ive had some cheap times, that randomly reset, or crash or just sometimes crash upon switching the load, i had so much hassle from even a timeguard one i went back to the pure mechanical ones! (my needs were simple so i could)
Sold with multiple Voltages, however the one I received (12V) had no indication of which way around the +V and -V was on the input, which just had the sin symbol for AC in. A bit of digging around on the www and found that pin 1 is +V pin 2 being -V. I see Clive says there is a delay between switching over manual, but the one I have has auto as mid position key press on the manual changeover in either direction on, auto off and off auto on. Nice video as all your stuff is
the real timer is quite expensive compared to this one .We have used them for controling lights ventilation and believe it or not proofing ovens for bread ..We use the timer to control a contactor with a 120v coil ..They last pretty long considering the way they are made very reliable but pain in the but to read and program especially when you can't see the screen because of flour grease and all the other stuff floating around the bakery .Sometimes we just use an old style mechanical clock work timers but they really him up with stuff in the air .these don't .they each have their applications
17:07 - "...I don't think that's lithium..." While I'm sure Clive isn't surprised, I'm sure many people would be surprised to find that many items you find in a store that say they have lithium batteries in them really have NiMH. It makes the device cheaper to produce and _most_ consumers just believe what is written on the package. I had an old Craig MP3 player that I used for years until its runtime started diminishing even though it said it was fully charged. It said right on the back of the unit that it had a lithium battery. Opened it up and surprise (not! :)), it had a NiMH battery pack. I was able to find a replacement NiMH for it and it works fine now but I guess it goes without saying, "Don't believe everything you read."
Last week I've bought a cheap din timer from ebay for £10 for ny little automatic starwberry "farm". It had a ground connection, so I took use of it. When I powered it on, it tripped the 5mA R.C.D. I opened it up and I found a 33K resistor between L & PE. I asked the manufacturer about that, and they kindly responded: It is a timeable R.C.D. trip
It is exactly the same as the much more expensive brand Gewis, even the instructions are the same apart from the logo. Been using one for 7 years and one for 1 year, both going strong.
That appears to be a micro flux capacitor. Nice! And the plumbing looks just ingenious. LOL. Actually, I do not know what I am talking about, and you seem to be quite smart.
I bought so many of these (Although I can almost guarantee they were Not this exact model) in my country, and they were all Shyte. The ones they sell locally, have a flaw where the clock And relay can be triggered directly from the battery, even when disconnected from mains. I found this out after a power failure, when I actually heard the relay buzzing, trying to pull itself on, but obviously, the little battery that maybe once could, couldn't any more. Bought a different design, which only allows 24 hour programing with a touch sensitive screen to set the unit (Will NEVER buy another one of those either as the display is crap and warps out of focus when you try pressing where the touch symbols are. After buying the touch input DIN one, I decided this was the last time. From here on out, it's going to be the sonoff SV units, which connect via Wi-Fi, so they never go out of sync with time, and you can program them directly with schedules, or manually activate it from a smart phone. The only thing I would have to get is a beefier relay, as this runs the pool pump currently 🤔 Ps. What abomination of a tool actually down votes an informative video like this?
Glade I could find your work, I have one of these timers that has blown the input capacitor and cooked the accompanying resistor. Do you perhaps have these two values for me. I would like to repair this unit, it is a 220v input timer. This happened from new so it's a new component failure. You did refer to the cap being 330nF at 630v, I think the res should be 550ohms . Hope you can assist with my rebuild.
It's a copy of the Swedish Malmberg DHC15A Digital Time Switch. The difference between the two is, Malmberg guarantees that their switch won't catch on fire. DIN German industry standard.
I've found that more niche stuff from China like this tends to be pretty reasonable in quality. Still gotta watch out for poor design to begin with, but methinks the lower production volumes make it less important to shave off every penny that they can.
I think that wide button is reset and manual, remember that you pressed that to turn it on and off, the reset may be that you press 2 buttons to reset the timing functions (not the time) if you screw up. i remember a timer having that ability. Is s1 connected to the output from that module ? if so there could be an option for a dual channel timer, but would need a bigger case for the relays
Vibrations or bumping could reset the timer because of that connector. I wonder why they didn't mount the backup battery on the logic board. The logic board could be an of the shelf one, that would be a motive.
From the 24vdc input terminal, what is the value of the 1/2 W resistor?. Looks like green, brown, gold, with gold tolerance. Is it a resistor or an inductor? I looked at the outside case and saw the AC symbol and powered it up with 120VAC and blew the resistor? It is burned but still reads 544K ohms. Then I saw the stamped input 24VDC on the other side after I fried it. I guess the AC symbol is generic on all input types, just have to read what is marked on the case, duh, lesson learned. Also looks like a memory cap type battery for the display, or is it a battery? The display was weak so I was hoping that the input voltage would recharge the battery/cap.
I would like to use this switch if it has MULTIPLE timepoints (and multiple relays correspondingly). I really need to timeswitch two loads four times a day. It sounds more reasonable to run just one timer per household... Please, Clive, tell us if it is possible? Is there a way to modify this switch?
DIN stands for Deutsche Institut fur Normung, which translates loosely as “German Institute for Standards.” DIN is a German organization that establishes standards for industrial and electrical equipment.
Chinese manufacturing is a complete enigma to me. I've bought things which I just couldn't believe the price and quality then other things which have been utter rubbish to the point of dangerous. Then again my favourite machine vice is a Soviet era monster which is incredibly good. I just wish there was a way of separating the good from the bad before buying. I'm looking at a secondhand 3 phase electric motor for a project at the moment 🤔
Would taking a large thick gauge wire like 4gauge and spreading all the wires out on one end and turning a live circuit board upside down and probing all about it jabbing at it with the large 4gauge wire be enough to make you cringe? some showers of sparks might happen.
Box is a standard part, designed for any standard 2 module width DIN box. Made to pack flat in storage so the transport of the empty boxes is cheap from the printer, and to fill you simply do a minimum of operations to make up an empty box. Often you find the entire manual printed on the inside of the box, especially for things like DIN mount contactors. I prefer the EU made contactors though over the Chinese ones, they use brass as contact materials while the Chinese ones are steel. Relay is not doubles contacts, you have 2 pins per contact to handle current it switches. Sad to say that relay is being overrated, they are really 16A resistive ( 1000 full electrical load operations) or 5A inductive ( 0.7PF for same life). You are better off using an external contactor or SSR to do the power switching if you need the full power rating.
I love your videos. I I'm intrested in learning more about electric / circuit component's . Is there any book what I could buy what will give me some info / class on how the components work ? (diode , transistors , resistors, ....) . I do know how electricity work. Overall that is what I do for living ( elect. installer in houses ). Hope you will answer me. Keep up the great videos , they fun to watch
+CptSmoke In this day and age the Internet is the best place to learn. Who needs a book when Google is there to answer every question you have and then the ones that lead on from there. I would suggest buying some cheap kits on ebay, some electronic grade solder and a soldering iron, and just start playing.
Realise this is an old video, but I was wondering while watching it, what are the safety implications of using a capacitive dropper vs an isolated supply on something like this?
I really like your videos clive. How do you feel about video editing. I guess people would really like an alternate angle in some situations. Anyway, keep up the good work
Hmm, I have the same exact timer for my dad's egg incubator since he takes care of chickens and is a cockfighter, but, the one on the incubator has the brand "Sinotimer" instead of "Oktimer", the pcb, chassis, layout and everything of the timer here on the video is exact same as my incubator, just the brand is different.
I got a chinese timer also yes its a cheap but it does its function first i installed it on my own house and it works since march this year for the price you can not ask gor more
Mine burned out after the lightning. It was bought from hardware store. They don't sell these anymore in my country, have to get a new one from web I guess
Hi can you show us how this switch wiring can be installed --what wire go where from 5 slots provided. I want to connect it to my boundary wall lights.
Halfway through this video and I am impressed by the build quality ... The rest of the video will have to wait - Sorry Clive, takeout Chinese food and a good apple cider trumps you :)
For quite a while now, I am looking for a low power time switch (to switch a battery driven LED strip). With a backup time of 3 years from a small NiMH Battery, this upper display and key module should do the trick. Are there any markings on that module, like Partnumber or something similar?
+hyperion8008 If used in a distribution board it would be wired on its own via one of the circuit breakers. DIN rail is used mainly in industrial control panels.
+codebeard I've never actually opened one. It's always hard to judge contacts by looking at them though. A real test would involve continuous operation under load.
Bit off topic but have you ever done a review of your micro screw driver set? The one you use in almost all your videos, it seems really good and would love to know where you got yours :)
Thanks Clive for another great review! Have a similar timer on my workshop lights but switch the load using a contactor relay. Have you seen the equally cheap DIN rail ammeter/voltmeter?
hi, recently my thc stop functioning and have a strange simptom:1-when running on main voltage the display is blank and no option is aviable, 2-dissconnecting from main and the display are ok for a while until the backup battery is dischargewhat can be the problem?thx
+Taguun It used to be, but today DIN = Deutsches Institut für Normung = German Institute For Standardization. This is also the reason it is called a DIN standard and not only DIN. If you were correct a DIN standard would be a "german industrial standard standard".
Can you explain how the device is connected? I think that the top connectors are only for powering the device, and the bottom connects 5 to 4 when "on" and 3 to 4 when off. Does this make sense?
I've a the exact timer. But left unused more than a year. But now when I attempt to use it, on powering the timer, the relay chartered for a while and after some time, it stops chattering. But the failed to come on. Is it the battery in the circuit is chargeable. Because if the battery is dead, the timer may fail to function I believe. Is it need to change or else if the battery is chargeable then I must charge battery to become active and in turn the display and timer. Please do clarify and help me to restore the timer to function as usual
It sometimes takes the battery a while to charge again but they also sometimes fail. Leave it charging for a while and then gently press the reset button if there is one.
A small lesson on Chinese packaging logic: if one orders a pack of fragile halogen bulbs, you get them loosely in a zip lock bag packed into a grey envelope. But if one orders a pack of 100 robust diodes, they're bag will be wrapped in foam
Hi! I've just found your channel and really enjoy it! After checking out your website and some of the links on ePanorama, I'm left with a question I thought I'd ask: I'm interested in studying up on electronics such as those you feature on your channel and am looking for the equivalent of a good undergraduate textbook or two. Do you have any recommendations?
Sir, question. im working on making alarm (fully automatic) for break time period, can i use this device to drive my system? or can i set this to multiple time to alarm? tnx
I'm DESPERATE to find complete documentation for this timer. There are at least 5 states it can have: AUTO, AUTO OFF, AUTO ON, ON and OFF. It also has pulse and countdown timer modes. My documentation is horrible. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Clive, are there any controllers with a semi-randomised setting? The kind you could use for a light when you're out of the house for a long period. The normal switches will be predictable.
can you do a video on cheap lambda sensors, I recently bought one and the price difference is massive between oem & the Chinese one I bought (£13 including p&p), The thing is the car has never run better?????
The burning question (see what I did there?) with Chinese stuff is, would you install it, and risk leaving it, powered up, unattended, 24/7? - I'll be honest, it takes me a long time to put any faith at all in Chinese products. In a way, it defeats the whole object of some of these gadgets. I am, however, wondering about utilising one of these switches to operate an outdoor lighting circuit such that it can turn on and off party/Christmas/garden lighting sets. I must say though, this switch does seem to be unusually well made, considering its origins.
Mine arrived and the display was not on like all the videos I've watched. The instructions state to connect to power and let the the battery charge before hitting the reset button. I've had mine hooked up to power overnight and I still have nothing. It the light meant to be on when connected to power? Maybe I have a dud :-(
I've been running these identical timers (four of them) for over 3 years now (24/7) with zero failure.... I really like these timers and the price is right!
please more of these Chinese industrial components love them, i even bought some of the emergency stop buttons after your video
For anyone concerned with reliability, I have used these exact timers in my shops air compressor control panel for the past 5 years now without any issues. One timer controls a mains supply contactor(so compressor is de-energized during closed hours), and a second timer, coupled with a delay timer (5 seconds) for an auto moisture drain for the tank (drains moisture from the tank once an hour). System has worked flawlessly for 5 years since I built it and put it into service.
thank you, that kind of feedback is very helpfull
I found a timer, easily found under the model name "MTD8" that has a very similar layout but has two buttons where the single large manual button exists on this model. Very interesting observation. It doesn't actually look like it has any additional functionality except the extra pad serves as a sort of hard-reset from what I can tell.
The delay between you going through on - auto - off and the relay switching might be intentional, since the display is actually responding immediately. I think its intention is to not have the load switch on and off unnecessarily while you go through the settings and only after you have settled it switches the load.
+Jack White Pretty elaborate for cheap chinese elctronic -> usually cheap electronics software just sucks! (even though product can be actually quite good)
Another approach would be to clamp the 24v rail down to 5V (or whatever the clock supply is) when the relay is off, avoiding the dissipation in the resistor
+mikeselectricstuff I think they're trying to keep it at around 24V for two reasons. To ensure the trickle supply from the 24V cap to the control PCBs cap (via a resistor) stays constant, and also to ensure the relay immediately receives a full 24V from the cap before it sinks to the 20V under load to make sure it pulls in properly.
Those tracking slots are beautiful.
S1 and S2 are obviously for switching between the metric and imperial um... time.
Metric time would be so nice... Except that the US wouldn't adopt it and converting would be awful
i think they tried metric ie decimal time and calendars once in france, from about 1790~to 1805~
i have a button in my car that does nothing but change my speedometer and odometer from imperial to metric. I wonder how much money they could have saved by putting that in a submenu instead.
@@dndboy13 We actually have a new time standard for years now. ... it's called Unix time and just counts the seconds since epoch (1970-01-01T00:00:00Z).
Like the US is actually using the metric system - all units they use are specified in Metric. :)
What a clever designer, keeping the load on the dropper the same :-D
Ive got to give them full marks for smart engineering, cheap but nicely made.
The display pcb looks like its made by someone else, well its different in colour, it could be a generic job.
the big/double button used to switch off/on/outo in this model,
there is other model wich look the same but the big button get locked up outomaticly after 5 secs.
you need to click on one side 3 time to unlock the other side, wich is the off/on/outo button :)
i have 3 of this modules installd and runing hot water boiler, works great about 2 years now.
nice vid
I have the 12v ones and thay work very well never miss a beat keep time and settings well evan if not powerd for a long time. very handy in the off grid world
Now I know it take at least an hour of recording to make an 18 minutes video! Thanks Clive, a great way to start my Monday morning.
+Chris Brent I thought I stayed up late, but Clive is the master of nocturnal video making. That thing was showing 4:52am at the end of the video :S
+Julian Ilett You never know Julian... Clive could be pulling a fast one on us and setting the wrong time to see who notices! ;)
Good evening.
Just to shed some light on our "weird" language and abbreviations: "DIN" stands for "Deutsche Institut für Normen" and loosely translates to "German institute for standards".
Greetings from Germany
+Markus Bates Did they invent Wonderbras too? Man, Germans made ALL the good stuff!
/stupid comment I couldn't resist.
Surely it's "Deutscheinstitutfürnormen", the Germans don't use four words when one will do.
Great video
I've used similar timers like this and the "P" and "clock" button switch it to a count down timer when held together for a few seconds.
I bought multiple of these for an industrial application...works pretty good
i got a Siemens din rail time switch laying around, would you want it to compare to the chinese one? its a 7LF4
Of course SIEMENS is the best. That brand is pricey but sure of quality. I can't find it very common in the electronic stores in my country.
Clive the reason we have ring mains in the uk is in the mid 1900s we used a lot of high kW oil heaters instead of central heating, so instead of using a higher CSA I.e 4mm t&e it was cheaper to run the extra 2.5mm t&e back to the DB.
The relay manufacturer (songle)has been around for a while, with an impressive range of products. Lots of google hits.
I have this timer(got from aliexp). Using it to control the Air conditioner(1000w) and still working okay since 3+ years.
Dave from the EEVblog will be like: "Ahhhh, nasty chinese quality. Those nasty cheap electrolytic caps will die within a year." XD
This month, one year ago, you only had around 5.6K subs. Now you have ten times that! Keep it up Clive, love your videos!
+DJ S He is kind of right though...cheap electrolytic caps tend to fail earlier than good ones.
+DJ S Clive also got to the point in about one quarter of the time too.
+DJ S Finnaly I think he would say"Aaahhh!!! Bob's your uncle" :)
ANDIY GreenGanjaMan "And we're in like flynn."
"Well, that's a bit how ya doing."
~EEVBlog
+Colibri Even Nichicons are usually rated for 5000h or something like that, and more important factor is thermal design of the device - even the aerospace quality electrolytic will fail quickly if it's used on the high side of their rated temperature. Here, in low power device that doesn't get hot really any electrolytic will do;) I have plenty of appliances with 50 yo electrolytics that work without any problem, and on the contrary relatively new equipment like LCD computer screens that failed horribly because someone though that putting SMPS inside the case that gets hot with next to no ventilation is a good idea (what a bro you are, Samsung...).
Songle are pretty good relays these days. Pretty sure they are one of the biggest relay manufacturer in China. So far, I haven't had any issue with Songle relays. I have a ton of devices with them.
The switching delay makes sense as someone may be flicking through the options. In this case it's better to wait until the "wetware" has stopped switching between the options.
Well...holy shit, that's a surprisingly good chinese DIN rail timer! :o I want one for no particular reason besides maybe the unique cleverness in its design..
+ChaosHusky looks well built, the real question is, is it reliable? ive had some cheap times, that randomly reset, or crash or just sometimes crash upon switching the load, i had so much hassle from even a timeguard one i went back to the pure mechanical ones! (my needs were simple so i could)
+jusb1066 I use a mechanical (electromechanical, really) timer because they are almost ridiculously easy to set.
Nice to see something with decent build quality, rather than the usual EEVblog teardowns of terrible power supplies!
That's really impressive. My only slight concern though is the lack of insulation over the screw terminals.
Sold with multiple Voltages, however the one I received (12V) had no indication of which way around the +V and -V was on the input, which just had the sin symbol for AC in.
A bit of digging around on the www and found that pin 1 is +V pin 2 being -V. I see Clive says there is a delay between switching over manual, but the one I have has auto as mid position key press on the manual changeover in either direction on, auto off and off auto on.
Nice video as all your stuff is
the real timer is quite expensive compared to this one .We have used them for controling lights ventilation and believe it or not proofing ovens for bread ..We use the timer to control a contactor with a 120v coil ..They last pretty long considering the way they are made very reliable but pain in the but to read and program especially when you can't see the screen because of flour grease and all the other stuff floating around the bakery .Sometimes we just use an old style mechanical clock work timers but they really him up with stuff in the air .these don't .they each have their applications
clive please go to china and do a travel blog,you'd be great at it.
17:07 - "...I don't think that's lithium..." While I'm sure Clive isn't surprised, I'm sure many people would be surprised to find that many items you find in a store that say they have lithium batteries in them really have NiMH. It makes the device cheaper to produce and _most_ consumers just believe what is written on the package. I had an old Craig MP3 player that I used for years until its runtime started diminishing even though it said it was fully charged. It said right on the back of the unit that it had a lithium battery. Opened it up and surprise (not! :)), it had a NiMH battery pack. I was able to find a replacement NiMH for it and it works fine now but I guess it goes without saying, "Don't believe everything you read."
I am thinking about rebuilding my homes solar power distro panel with DIN rail modules.. Might be a neat project when I get bored.
my experience with these is that they work ... if you need a DIN timer for lights or sprinklers they are fine
I love these but as new units that just arrived, I occasionally need to replace the battery as they have been in the warehouse for a long time 😅
Last week I've bought a cheap din timer from ebay for £10 for ny little automatic starwberry "farm". It had a ground connection, so I took use of it. When I powered it on, it tripped the 5mA R.C.D. I opened it up and I found a 33K resistor between L & PE. I asked the manufacturer about that, and they kindly responded: It is a timeable R.C.D. trip
That's odd. Can you give me a link to the listing?
@@bigclivedotcom The've deleted it after I complained.
@@bigclivedotcom I think it was called a "super timing module DIN timer switch scrren lcd module or something. Imagine a confusing name like this.
@@bigclivedotcom Try typing this into ebay maybe it will show up. It was a blue coloured device with 10 buttons and a buzzer built in
The relay seems to have a standard package/pinout, so in case of damage/quality issue, you can replace it with an expensive brand one.
It is exactly the same as the much more expensive brand Gewis, even the instructions are the same apart from the logo. Been using one for 7 years and one for 1 year, both going strong.
That appears to be a micro flux capacitor. Nice! And the plumbing looks just ingenious. LOL. Actually, I do not know what I am talking about, and you seem to be quite smart.
I bought so many of these (Although I can almost guarantee they were Not this exact model) in my country, and they were all Shyte.
The ones they sell locally, have a flaw where the clock And relay can be triggered directly from the battery, even when disconnected from mains.
I found this out after a power failure, when I actually heard the relay buzzing, trying to pull itself on, but obviously, the little battery that maybe once could, couldn't any more.
Bought a different design, which only allows 24 hour programing with a touch sensitive screen to set the unit (Will NEVER buy another one of those either as the display is crap and warps out of focus when you try pressing where the touch symbols are.
After buying the touch input DIN one, I decided this was the last time. From here on out, it's going to be the sonoff SV units, which connect via Wi-Fi, so they never go out of sync with time, and you can program them directly with schedules, or manually activate it from a smart phone.
The only thing I would have to get is a beefier relay, as this runs the pool pump currently 🤔
Ps. What abomination of a tool actually down votes an informative video like this?
Glade I could find your work, I have one of these timers that has blown the input capacitor and cooked the accompanying resistor. Do you perhaps have these two values for me. I would like to repair this unit, it is a 220v input timer. This happened from new so it's a new component failure. You did refer to the cap being 330nF at 630v, I think the res should be 550ohms . Hope you can assist with my rebuild.
This is a very nice investigation. Thanks alot. Really like the way you describe it.
It's a copy of the Swedish Malmberg DHC15A Digital Time Switch. The difference between the two is, Malmberg guarantees that their switch won't catch on fire. DIN German industry standard.
hey princess dress sounds like they sell all of the things I like! dresses and electric gadgets! thanks for pointing me to them :D
I've found that more niche stuff from China like this tends to be pretty reasonable in quality. Still gotta watch out for poor design to begin with, but methinks the lower production volumes make it less important to shave off every penny that they can.
Hey clive! Little comment from Germany: DIN actually stands for "Deutsche IndustrieNorm" which means german industrial norm
I think that wide button is reset and manual, remember that you pressed that to turn it on and off, the reset may be that you press 2 buttons to reset the timing functions (not the time) if you screw up. i remember a timer having that ability.
Is s1 connected to the output from that module ? if so there could be an option for a dual channel timer, but would need a bigger case for the relays
Vibrations or bumping could reset the timer because of that connector. I wonder why they didn't mount the backup battery on the logic board. The logic board could be an of the shelf one, that would be a motive.
From the 24vdc input terminal, what is the value of the 1/2 W resistor?. Looks like green, brown, gold, with gold tolerance. Is it a resistor or an inductor? I looked at the outside case and saw the AC symbol and powered it up with 120VAC and blew the resistor? It is burned but still reads 544K ohms. Then I saw the stamped input 24VDC on the other side after I fried it. I guess the AC symbol is generic on all input types, just have to read what is marked on the case, duh, lesson learned. Also looks like a memory cap type battery for the display, or is it a battery? The display was weak so I was hoping that the input voltage would recharge the battery/cap.
Love your accent. Keep up the amazing work!!
I would like to use this switch if it has MULTIPLE timepoints (and multiple relays correspondingly). I really need to timeswitch two loads four times a day. It sounds more reasonable to run just one timer per household... Please, Clive, tell us if it is possible? Is there a way to modify this switch?
2:46 What was that thing that you pulled just barely into frame? I couldn't tell what it is.
The clock circuit is quiet interesting. I wanna buy it. Separated :)
DIN stands for Deutsche Institut fur Normung, which translates loosely as “German Institute for Standards.” DIN is a German organization that establishes standards for industrial and electrical equipment.
Chinese manufacturing is a complete enigma to me. I've bought things which I just couldn't believe the price and quality then other things which have been utter rubbish to the point of dangerous. Then again my favourite machine vice is a Soviet era monster which is incredibly good. I just wish there was a way of separating the good from the bad before buying. I'm looking at a secondhand 3 phase electric motor for a project at the moment 🤔
Would taking a large thick gauge wire like 4gauge and spreading all the wires out on one end and turning a live circuit board upside down and probing all about it jabbing at it with the large 4gauge wire be enough to make you cringe? some showers of sparks might happen.
I have the same one with a date of 2017-02 and the LCD is not working anymore. Can the battery be replaced or is this a disposable timer?
Box is a standard part, designed for any standard 2 module width DIN box. Made to pack flat in storage so the transport of the empty boxes is cheap from the printer, and to fill you simply do a minimum of operations to make up an empty box. Often you find the entire manual printed on the inside of the box, especially for things like DIN mount contactors. I prefer the EU made contactors though over the Chinese ones, they use brass as contact materials while the Chinese ones are steel.
Relay is not doubles contacts, you have 2 pins per contact to handle current it switches. Sad to say that relay is being overrated, they are really 16A resistive ( 1000 full electrical load operations) or 5A inductive ( 0.7PF for same life). You are better off using an external contactor or SSR to do the power switching if you need the full power rating.
Great videos as always. Surprised to see that your leads are not GS38.
I love your videos. I I'm intrested in learning more about electric / circuit component's . Is there any book what I could buy what will give me some info / class on how the components work ? (diode , transistors , resistors, ....) . I do know how electricity work. Overall that is what I do for living ( elect. installer in houses ). Hope you will answer me. Keep up the great videos , they fun to watch
+CptSmoke In this day and age the Internet is the best place to learn. Who needs a book when Google is there to answer every question you have and then the ones that lead on from there. I would suggest buying some cheap kits on ebay, some electronic grade solder and a soldering iron, and just start playing.
you should get a endorsement deal with ebay for reviews lol keep up the good work clive :)
Realise this is an old video, but I was wondering while watching it, what are the safety implications of using a capacitive dropper vs an isolated supply on something like this?
I really like your videos clive. How do you feel about video editing. I guess people would really like an alternate angle in some situations. Anyway, keep up the good work
Hmm, I have the same exact timer for my dad's egg incubator since he takes care of chickens and is a cockfighter, but, the one on the incubator has the brand "Sinotimer" instead of "Oktimer", the pcb, chassis, layout and everything of the timer here on the video is exact same as my incubator, just the brand is different.
I got a chinese timer also yes its a cheap but it does its function first i installed it on my own house and it works since march this year for the price you can not ask gor more
Mine burned out after the lightning. It was bought from hardware store. They don't sell these anymore in my country, have to get a new one from web I guess
I fucking love this channel. I was wondering if these would be reliable and you have already ripped one to bits
Hi can you show us how this switch wiring can be installed --what wire go where from 5 slots provided. I want to connect it to my boundary wall lights.
Halfway through this video and I am impressed by the build quality ... The rest of the video will have to wait - Sorry Clive, takeout Chinese food and a good apple cider trumps you :)
+Richard T Chinese food (particularly special fried rice) and cider trumps everything.
Mmm nom nom
Leftover chinese food is what I just had for dinner, too...
Great vid as usual Clive, keep 'em coming.
Hello, I want to use it in an 24v dc installation, on which positions to put plus wire? Thank you
hi. i have the same timer but the screen only works for several minutes without electricity. should i change the battery?
For quite a while now, I am looking for a low power time switch (to switch a battery driven LED strip). With a backup time of 3 years from a small NiMH Battery, this upper display and key module should do the trick. Are there any markings on that module, like Partnumber or something similar?
+konohh You'd have to remove it from a cheap digital plug-in timeswitch. I don't know anywhere that sells the actual modules.
What sort of enclosure would this go in? A UK distribution board has the live mains input bus bar along the bottom, and output at the top?
+hyperion8008 If used in a distribution board it would be wired on its own via one of the circuit breakers. DIN rail is used mainly in industrial control panels.
those pads on the back could be a serial connection for programming
you mesure a resistor on board ?? connected to the rest of the circuitry ?? weird ...
Useful in a shed distribution box to control external lighting I'm sure... :P
You are a wealth of information. Thank you!
Have you ever done a teardown of one of those Songle relays? I see them in so many Chinese modules these days
+codebeard I've never actually opened one. It's always hard to judge contacts by looking at them though. A real test would involve continuous operation under load.
Bit off topic but have you ever done a review of your micro screw driver set? The one you use in almost all your videos, it seems really good and would love to know where you got yours :)
Thanks Clive for another great review! Have a similar timer on my workshop lights but switch the load using a contactor relay. Have you seen the equally cheap DIN rail ammeter/voltmeter?
hi, recently my thc stop functioning and have a strange simptom:1-when running on main voltage the display is blank and no option is aviable, 2-dissconnecting from main and the display are ok for a while until the backup battery is dischargewhat can be the problem?thx
DIN = Deutsche Intustrie Norm = German Industrial Standard.
+Taguun It used to be, but today DIN = Deutsches Institut für Normung = German Institute For Standardization. This is also the reason it is called a DIN standard and not only DIN. If you were correct a DIN standard would be a "german industrial standard standard".
+FischOderAal Just like how in sports they do stuff like "MLB baseball," which would be "major league baseball baseball."
Tim Ramich Regardless, DIN is not anymore the abbreviation for "Deutsche Industrie Norm". It may still be commonly used but it's still incorrect :)
+FischOderAal I wasn't arguing, nor could I care less about anything related to Germany.
+Taguun ich dachte aber auch es heißt deutsche industrie norm :P. dann gegoogled
Can you explain how the device is connected? I think that the top connectors are only for powering the device, and the bottom connects 5 to 4 when "on" and 3 to 4 when off. Does this make sense?
+Michael Keith The top contacts are the supply and the other side has a set of volt-free single pole changeover contacts.
+bigclivedotcom thanks! really enjoy your videos. Have learned not to buy AC consumer electronics from eBay :)
630v Cap is most likely used for places where 480v AC might be used.
Nice to finaly see a good quality chineese product :D
They had to be somewere...
I've a the exact timer. But left unused more than a year. But now when I attempt to use it, on powering the timer, the relay chartered for a while and after some time, it stops chattering. But the failed to come on. Is it the battery in the circuit is chargeable. Because if the battery is dead, the timer may fail to function I believe. Is it need to change or else if the battery is chargeable then I must charge battery to become active and in turn the display and timer. Please do clarify and help me to restore the timer to function as usual
It sometimes takes the battery a while to charge again but they also sometimes fail. Leave it charging for a while and then gently press the reset button if there is one.
A small lesson on Chinese packaging logic: if one orders a pack of fragile halogen bulbs, you get them loosely in a zip lock bag packed into a grey envelope. But if one orders a pack of 100 robust diodes, they're bag will be wrapped in foam
Hi! I've just found your channel and really enjoy it! After checking out your website and some of the links on ePanorama, I'm left with a question I thought I'd ask: I'm interested in studying up on electronics such as those you feature on your channel and am looking for the equivalent of a good undergraduate textbook or two. Do you have any recommendations?
Sir, question. im working on making alarm (fully automatic) for break time period, can i use this device to drive my system? or can i set this to multiple time to alarm? tnx
I'm DESPERATE to find complete documentation for this timer. There are at least 5 states it can have: AUTO, AUTO OFF, AUTO ON, ON and OFF. It also has pulse and countdown timer modes. My documentation is horrible. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
I spot a green rechargeable battery on the circuit board
Who are the people actually designing these tiny circuits Clive?
They're going about things in some very unusual and different ways.
I think you need to revisit the fiber optic jobby.
+Scott Campbell I really should make something as despicable as that again.
Clive, are there any controllers with a semi-randomised setting? The kind you could use for a light when you're out of the house for a long period. The normal switches will be predictable.
+Allison Pell Something like this www.amazon.com/GE-50462-7-Day-Random-Vacation/dp/B0002U3Y0Q
looks to be a simple plug in solution,
+Allison Pell The timeguard tg77, which is a common digital plug in, has random, its been available for years, so easy to find
+Sparky Projects That's just a 7-day timer with a preset sequence.
Those boards have nice China Export markings on them. Yet the cardboard box has a Conformité Européenne marking...
can you do a video on cheap lambda sensors, I recently bought one and the price difference is massive between oem & the Chinese one I bought (£13 including p&p),
The thing is the car has never run better?????
Where did you bye it at
I'm watching video at 2019 and i wanna ask you. where is circuit board microcontroller hidden ?
It's often under a blob of black resin. Usually under the display.
The burning question (see what I did there?) with Chinese stuff is, would you install it, and risk leaving it, powered up, unattended, 24/7? - I'll be honest, it takes me a long time to put any faith at all in Chinese products. In a way, it defeats the whole object of some of these gadgets. I am, however, wondering about utilising one of these switches to operate an outdoor lighting circuit such that it can turn on and off party/Christmas/garden lighting sets.
I must say though, this switch does seem to be unusually well made, considering its origins.
DIN stands for Deutsche Industrie Norm which stands for German industrial norm. Greetings from Berlin!
I encountered numerous cheap timer switches at work. Many of them ran few minutes late after a week. Very annoying issue
Mine arrived and the display was not on like all the videos I've watched. The instructions state to connect to power and let the the battery charge before hitting the reset button. I've had mine hooked up to power overnight and I still have nothing. It the light meant to be on when connected to power? Maybe I have a dud :-(
Try pressing the reset button while it's plugged in. It's possible the battery has failed.