The Timer Issues

I’m beginning to lose faith. Mine has fresh batteries and a fresh big battery to the motor , IF, I unplug the harness 5 pin ( I think) And plug it back to the timer I can get it to function and then test 1 time. Then I can’t hit test or do anything. Solution?


Next feeder #2

Everything is plugged up, I can see the motor counting down down during test, then Nothing I tried the harness unplug n plug and still nothing

Anyone have any ideas

I had the same thing as your number 2 this weekend. Display showed full charge on battery but showed it being 6 volts. It wasn’t a 6 volt battery. Replaced it new, put the old one on the trickle and feeder fed just fine.

I have had a wiring harness connection issue on one of mine and had it replaced by my selling dealer. Problem solved.
Every other issue i have had is battery related, volts read good but no amps. Replace battery and problem solved.

ALMOST always battery battery battery with any feeder issue. Maybe its the wiring or the solar not getting the battery charged, but still comes back to the immediate problem is battery. I NEVER go afield without extra batteries and I check the voltage with voltmeter everytime I check on a feeder.
Of course it could be other stuff but Im not too good and fixing anything so I cant help you. Only other thing is that as great as I think The Timer is, they did have some issues with a run(they can tell you the serial numbers) a few years ago and they will replace them no hassle. One other thing is that I never trust any kind of read out for battery charge, they may mostly work but I just put a meter on it.

Kinda horse crap. Supposedly the best but I’m losing faith.

My batteries are good / new

I have to replace my "Timers" about every three years.

I recently had a Timer problem. Turned out to be a loose wire to the feeder motor, which I found after a new battery didn’t fix the problem and I investigated closer.

Like freerange said, it’s always the battery (except for 1% of the time when it isn’t).

Tbar, THE Timer?? I may be beating a dead horse to keep saying it but they are sooooo much better than anything ive used or heard about and we have almost 40 feeders going. Only one ever had a problem was the bad run they admitted a few years ago and they gave us serial number and we pulled a couple and they replaced.

Guaranteed for 3 years. Have had several replaced for free

Wait till you try something else, then you'll miss 'em.

An old feeder manufacturer by me, that was good, but has been hanging on by a thread for many years, kinda like Sears, wants $200.00 each for one of their timers.

FYI, Bucees usually sells The Timer for $58 I believe. Or you could buy 58 large bags of their ice for that. I love Bucees.

Only thing I don't like about The Timer is that you can't select different days to feed. During the season I like to add a late morning feed on the weekends. I can do this with my Spincast and All Seasons timers.

Finally replaced the harness and that wasn’t the problem. I guess the timer is bad.

I have had 2 The TIMERS and both failed in less than 2 years. The most reliable feeder timer I ever had was some you cannot get anymore, the Sweeney 24 clock hour analog feeder timers Sure you were limited exact feed times but they would work reliably for years. Had to replace one last year that was at least 30 if not 40 years old. That timer is no longer available so I just put a cheap digital timer in it and have had no issues and has been running 50 weeks now without missing a feeding. That one is on a feeder close to the house so I can open a window and hear it feed. from inside the house.

Timers what ever brand are subject to issues IMO.

BIL I wish I knew the magic bullet to fix these but do not know what it would be, good luck

I have a "The Timer" controller that continually blows the fuse. The vendor replaced it and the replacement is doing the same thing.......any ideas what my issue could be?

Thanks,

Have you unplugged the motor and tried it with a new fuse? If the motor is shorted out the fuse will pop to protect itself. If 2 units are doing the same thing then I’d say you have a direct short somewhere but a little troubleshooting should narrow it down pretty quick.

Thanks for the reply Thumper. The units I have are older Monarch 12 volt ones. The timer for those isn't available any longer so I've been upgrading with "The Timer" as the originals crap out. This one unit worked for a while with the timer then began blowing fuses. Since I've tried 2 different Timers and wiring harnesses I'm leaning towards the motor, the battery's fully charged. Does that sound reasonable?

Thanks,

Call west Texas feeder supply and tell them you are having problems. They are replacing two that I have right now under warranty….and I didn’t have the receipts, just a serial #.

Magnum Hunting Products ( Platinum 2 ) makes the best timer on the market. I have been using one since 2003 & it has never given me any trouble. I now have two. It has outlasted my two The Timer’s i tried. Pretty expensive pieces of junk they were. Magnum Hunting timer is like The Energizer bunny, it just keeps going & going.

https://magnumhunting.com/

My The Timer does not run for the time i set it for. If i set it for 10 seconds it will go for 10 seconds but thereafter it reverts back to 5 seconds. It will then stay at 5 seconds.

Had a problem recently and, as you said , battery, battery battery.

It seems the Feb 2021 Deep Freeze damaged the 6V battery in my feeder. The battery limped along during the rest of 2021 until December 12. That’s when the temperature dropped for the first time (since Deep Freeze) below 30 degrees. Since I have programmer “debug” access to logs on the Solunartek T2 Timer (beta)), I was able to download logs to see that on Dec 12 the battery voltage dropped precipitously until a few days later it was 3.4V DC and no longer could power the Solunartek T2 Timer (beta). And yes, the solar panel was connected and functional; metered that to be certain.

The moral of this story: If you have 6V or 12V batteries in the field that weathered the Feb 2021 Deep Freeze, save yourself some heartache and replace them now.

Hit the "RESET" button. I have had to do that before and all of the sudden no issues. I have a feeling lighting, etc.mess with them even though the fuse doesn't fry. However, I now replace them with the cheaper $25 timers that come on All Season Feeders. I don't have problems with those and they do not require internal batteries. Cheap / easy to carry a spare but I haven't had to use my spare in years. I may be done with the Timer and not because they are bad, just expensive.