Self Adjusting Feeder Timers

[systemnt]

I can’t for the life of me figure out with technology available why a digital timer can’t have an astronomical clock mechanism built into it.


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sure you could find one...but would probably come at a astronomical price..

[Buckwheat]

I just set my Texas Hunter feeders for 8:00 A. M. and 5:00 P. M. That works well for me as just because your clock changes doesn't mean the sun changes. I've done it for years and have not been disappointed.

Same here. Mines 7am&4pm. Stays set at the same time and settings year around. Deer aren't on Daylight savings.

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[Mike D]

Self Adjusting Feeder Timers

sure you could find one...but would probably come at a astronomical price..

It’s literally software. It can’t be that difficult.

For it to be dead nuts accurate you would need to program in your Lat/Lon coordinates.


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[Drycreek3189]

The longer and shorter days are the problem, not DST.
Photo cell depend on brightness of the morning to go off early enough to suit me
The ones that track sunrise and sunset are great for us year around hunters.
Mine is actually set go off twice morning and twice in the afternoon. Early and late morning, and early and late afternoon.

BTW. I also use a lot of tx hunter mechanisms with good luck.

I hunt in ETexas, and these deer (and hogs) show up when they **** well want to. I find it hard to worry about a few minutes of daylight one way or the other when they don't show up until 9:30/10:00 AM, or the last five minutes of light. The only animals that (somewhat) consistently show right after the feeder goes off are young deer, or a group of young hogs in my area. YMMV.

I've had my THP feeders for 15 plus years and have had two motors replaced in that time frame

[Drycreek3189]

I can’t for the life of me figure out with technology available why a digital timer can’t have an astronomical clock mechanism built into it.


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All the techies are busy figuring out how to make bows shoot themselves with laser-like accuracy while we sit in our blinds in a heated stratolounger, drinking Coors Lite while surfing TBH with our earphones blasting the latest rap from waddell and company. They plumb forgot about the feeders !

[hammer63]

I can’t for the life of me figure out with technology available why a digital timer can’t have an astronomical clock mechanism built into it.


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I know that a guy is developing such a timer. Spoke with him at the TTHA Extravaganza twice. Obviously, it will have to be homed in to the hunting area's GPS location to work. That takes technological development and testing. Technical support will also be required.

[Snowflake Killa]

The timer had a bad batch they made it right

[DSMCasey]

I agree that it is crazy that there is not a timer out there more sophisticated than the best of the best right now. Seems crazy. We have self driving cars, electric cars, drones with great cameras but our timers can’t adjust for DST? What?!


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[Mike D]

I know that a guy is developing such a timer. Spoke with him at the TTHA Extravaganza twice. Obviously, it will have to be homed in to the hunting area's GPS location to work. That takes technological development and testing. Technical support will also be required.

Geolocation built in would be great but not necessary. You could manually input your location pretty easily.


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[Roy D Mercer]

This technology has been around for 20 years.. The company that developed it was SSI inc. it was called the Geo timer. You enter your longitude and latitude to your specific area and the timer self adjusts daily. My feeder goes off 15 minutes before sunrise and 1 1/2 hours before sunset daily. SSI has not produced any timers in years..i can only assume there are some patent issues as to why no one has one on the market today..i have 2 of these timers that are 15 years old and they are awesome..

[Kdog]

Geolocation built in would be great but not necessary. You could manually input your location pretty easily.


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I work in HVAC/Refrigeration/Lighting controls and I have one system work with where you just plug in the zip code and it will give you your sunrise and sunset times for that date (then you can offset sunrise/sunset as you wish). I am guessing this would be the easiest way to do it from a user stand point.

Someone has a patent on this type of thing as it relates to corn feeders?

Before I leave I normally just adjust my feeder to go off around sunrise for the next time I will be hunting. 4:30PM in the afternoon.

[DSMCasey]

This technology has been around for 20 years.. The company that developed it was SSI inc. it was called the Geo timer. You enter your longitude and latitude to your specific area and the timer self adjusts daily. My feeder goes off 15 minutes before sunrise and 1 1/2 hours before sunset daily. SSI has not produced any timers in years..i can only assume there are some patent issues as to why no one has one on the market today..i have 2 of these timers that are 15 years old and they are awesome..

If it has been around 20 years, patent is expired.


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[CaptainDave]

My guess is it's probably not worth the effort to produce one and the demand wouldn't be all that much; especially if the price point was much higher than a standard digital timer.

I mean, how often to you even change a digital timer? Sure, the duration of sunlight changes throughout the year, but not significantly enough for the average person to want to update a timer more than once every couple months. Then there is DST, which you can update the clock if you want, but that's not even necessary to begin with.

Add to that, the fact that one must fill a feeder periodically, so it's not like you have to go out of your way to check a digital timer. Heck, I open mine up sometimes just to check battery level and to verify time is still correct.

I did own a couple photocell timers at one point. Never again. They were not very consistent on feed times.

[White Falcon]

I ran smart timers for over 25 yrs never an issue.

[Mike D]

Self Adjusting Feeder Timers

My guess is it's probably not worth the effort to produce one and the demand wouldn't be all that much; especially if the price point was much higher than a standard digital timer.



I mean, how often to you even change a digital timer? Sure, the duration of sunlight changes throughout the year, but not significantly enough for the average person to want to update a timer more than once every couple months. Then there is DST, which you can update the clock if you want, but that's not even necessary to begin with.



Add to that, the fact that one must fill a feeder periodically, so it's not like you have to go out of your way to check a digital timer. Heck, I open mine up sometimes just to check battery level and to verify time is still correct.



I did own a couple photocell timers at one point. Never again. They were not very consistent on feed times.

Work smarter not harder applies. Not everyone runs a 55 gallon drum feeder. As soon as I can I’m going to have a 1000# stand and fill. In the off season I might have to fill it once. During season when I throw heavy I might have to fill it once.

I’d rather set it and forget it.

Seriously it can’t be that difficult.


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