A DIY $6 Wavemake to control a powerhead!
 

Ok I have been playing with this for awhile and have made this. Basicaly its a $4 timer from walmart that instead of switching every 24 hours switches every 60 seconds and its quiet! I imagin this will also prob shorten the life of the powerhead, but Im happy.

Here is the timer from wally-world

[IMG]http://www.reefers.org/album/images/3583_99054.JPG[/IMG]


here you find the motor and the outlet boxes. The motor justs lifts out and the same for the outlet, but becareful not to lose the spring and switch parts.



[IMG]http://www.reefers.org/album/images/3583_99055.JPG[/IMG]



Take the motor box out and unscrew and this is what you find

[IMG]http://www.reefers.org/album/images/3583_99058.JPG[/IMG]


remove the motor from the white box and carefully undo the clear plastic tabs on the side and remove the electromagnet and resistor.

[IMG]http://www.reefers.org/album/images/3583_99059.JPG[/IMG]


this is where you have fun take the 3 gears out and put them aside

[IMG]http://www.reefers.org/album/images/3583_99060.JPG[/IMG]


now take the 2 gears you are going to glue together and get a small piece of 3/16 ridged airline tubing and tack it in place with a lil pit of superglue being careful not to get any on the metal shaft otherwise you will never get the gears out. Once you have them tacked in place, carefully remove them and use 5 min epoxy on the rest of to get it to stay (superglue dosnt bond well to this type of plastic) and let cure for 30 min

[IMG]http://www.reefers.org/album/images/3583_99061.JPG[/IMG]


now put your new gear in leaving the 3 you took out out and put the motor asembly back together. Now take the outlet cover off by the one screw and it should look like this......

[IMG]http://www.reefers.org/album/images/3583_99062.JPG[/IMG]


you are going to cut and bend the tabs so they look like the pic below. you need to do this so the motor will have to not work so hard to turn the dial so you will need to feel the switch when it takes little effort to turn on and off and you will also be making the switches "click" sound be very quiet to no sound at all.

[IMG]http://www.reefers.org/album/images/3583_99063.JPG[/IMG]

now befor you put everying back in the big gear in the middle that spins the timer needs to be losened a lil bit so just a small turn will do it. To much and the dial will woble causing the tabs not to catch. Now you can reasemble the timer and it should be spining once per second and you should have the tabs turing it on and off too. That was the hardes part so you might need to tweak the switches tabs.

Thats all. Its been runing all day now with no problems and like I said it was cheap so we will see what happens. Let me know what you all think! :rollface:

wow thats a great idea! could you get some clearer pics of the last few i want to try this out.

whew...someone sure has some time on their hands!

nice work!

cool. Even if it dies in a week, i will still give you credit for creativeness and design.

I agree with Simms142 !!! nice work.... let us know how it works out.

Geat!!!!!!!!!!!!

off to wally world i go..................

thanks! Its still going strong now, Ill keep you posted. I think there should be no problems with it as long as everything moves smothly and you dont put alot of stress on the motor, thats why you just need to work on the switch. I also Tried the 12 on/off timer (the one with a bunch of tabs around the dial) And It didnt work as well. But then I figured turning the pump on and off that many times in 60 sec would be bad





Paine43==== I hope this pic is better!

[IMG]http://www.reefers.org/album/images/3583_99104.JPG[/IMG]

that is hilariously a great idea!

you get top marks for taking something apart, making it better and having stuff left over from it! how often does that happen?

ah crap...now i have to try it

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by bergzy [/i]
[B]and having stuff left over from it! how often does that happen? [/B][/QUOTE]

All the freaking time :D

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by bergzy [/i]
[B]that is hilariously a great idea!

you get top marks for taking something apart, making it better and having stuff left over from it! how often does that happen? [/B][/QUOTE]

cheers! Leftover parts.

Good job!

E.

lol now you can build that clock your wife always wanted.........

with all those left overs

great idea I'm going to give it a try !

well after 2 days........................ It is still working! Im even amazed!

how long is your pump on before it turns off again? 60 seconds?

LOL - Kudos Mr Bojangles, what a simple idea.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by maxvan1 [/i]
[B]how long is your pump on before it turns off again? 60 seconds? [/B][/QUOTE]

right now I have it set for every 30 sec

Has the constant swiching caused the unit to heat up at all?

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by skierguy [/i]
[B]Has the constant swiching caused the unit to heat up at all? [/B][/QUOTE]

nope, I was afraid of the unit overheating also, but to my suprize the timer is the same temp and its cooler than one of my normal light timers

Just to let you all know it is still working fine with no probs! :D

Great Job!

I hope the pump holds out. :)

I have to give this one a try.

If you take the 2 gears out on the right why do you take the one on the left off and use glue? Wouldn't it just spin free with the 2 gone?

Now that this tread is 3 months old, how is that power head holding out?

well if you dont take the left off it would be turing on and off every 30 min, thats why you are taking them out, to speed time up.

3 months and the MJ and the timer is still going with no probs