The Timer question ?

It is a 12v unit and the timer says 6v and has a battery flashing

Any info on this? Just want to make sure it's not going to crap the bed

hmmm, those (The Timer) should be interchangeable between 6vdc and 12vdc setups ... have you checked the AA batteries in the unit itself?

No

I'll change them and see

I believe the battery flashing means its not connected to a solar panel..??

If the lower battery is flashing (the one without levels) it means the backup AAs need to be changed.

Are you sure your main 12V battery is good and charged? If so, replace your AAs, then pull the pin connection and re-connect the timer. It should update itself to show 12V.

Good info guys, thanks.

Not sure what the screen showed but the feeder was dead this weekend. The make and female connectors decided to have a bad corrosion party.

Not sure if this was part of the issue but it has been corrected

change the AA's yearly

The corrosion ate the battery post

We greased the connection and changed all batteries, a week later still in business

I read on another site you can remove the AA battery's and run on 12 volt. AA are for memory purposes only. Guy who posted was a dealer. Thought worth mentioning.

The Timer and HCR both require the use of AA's, and yes they operate the timer. Others such as those sold at Academy, for about $30.00 connect directly to the 12/6 volt battery. Based on my personal experience the HCR/The Timer are much gooder since friends who have had problems with the Academy $30.00 style switched over and the problems went away not to reoccur. HCR, which I have used for years, I understand has gone out of business. With that in mind I believe THE TIMER is a far superior unit. While I do make winch feeders and game hoist I have never been a dealer or rep. for any timer company. I hope brother-in -law gets his issues resolved, because lots of us have been through similar issues.

Gents, I'd like to offer my two cents which I believe applies to "The-Timer" and almost all timers out there.

For normal operation, when connected to a main battery (the big 12v or 6v DC sealed lead acid battery), a timer is powered by that main battery.

However, when a timer becomes disconnected from its main battery, the internal back-up batteries (typically two AAs) serve as a secondary source of electricity solely to "maintain state," i.e., to remember clock time and the user's other settings until the timer is re-connected to the main battery. (Some timers can sit in a drawer and continue to maintain state for about a year while running on their back-up batteries.)

That's the sole purpose of the back-up batteries. They can't spin a motor, and they don't power the timer during normal operation; they are only there so that if for some reason you need to disconnect the timer from the main battery you won't need to re-set your clock or your other settings when you re-connect the timer to the main battery.

Also, most manufacturers will tell you that you should replace your AA back-up batteries every year; that's pretty good advice considering the effects that extreme temperatures can have on small batteries in the wild.

Lastly, and respectfully, a flashing battery icon on a timer's front display doesn't, by itself, mean there is no solar panel connected. However, if one's normal set-up includes a solar panel to keep the main battery charged, and the solar panel gets disconnected and the main battery runs far below 12v, and also the back-up batteries are low, then it wouldn't be surprising to see weird flashing and read-outs on a timer's display.

@"Brother in-law: Hey, did replacing your AAs and charging your main battery fix your problems?

Hope this helps.

Also...Mr. Holt, thanks for the heads-up. HCR indeed seems to be out of business. Now, their URL directs one to some weird storefront.

What a shame. A long-standing cornerstone of the industry, gone. About three years ago I bought their USB Timer just for fun. It perplexed me: I could see its application as, say, a billboard timer where the IT guy in the office programs it and then sends it out into the field to be installed by the outside crew. However, I didn't see any real advantage over so many timers which "maintain state" while only running on the back-up batteries.


(Note on the CD the red star at Burnet, Texas.)

Possibly they over-invested in this unresolved product and -- coupled with losing so much market share to "others" whose products are manufactured overseas -- they found they were unable to carry on.

HCR, like Sweeney, made "gooder" products (to be clear, Sweeney is still a going concern).

I sure hope someone soon steps up with even more "gooder" products in this field.

Well apparently I have been wrong about the AA's powering the timer full timer, so be it. Still a good idea to replace them yearly to help circumvent corrosion. Thanks for the info.

The timer had lots of issues in 2015 and 2016. The older models are rock solid. They have a 5 yr warranty. So if you have some and they are losing or gaining time, dumping all your corn at once, or just doing something funky - send it back to them.

I use “the timer”. I have 9 and most are at least 6 years old. After A couple of ruined timers due to corroded AA batteries I stopped using the AA backup batteries and run them on the 12 v or 6 v feeder battery. Never had another problem. Since I use solar chargers on them batteries last a couple of years. Even if I have to replace the feeder battery it only take a couple of minutes to re-set the timer.

Use dielectric grease..........