need help with my MistKing timer.....

lisagr07

lisagr07

Avid Member
i know, i know this is going to make me sound bad but i can't get it to function properly..

both my husband and myself have reprogrammed it and it still isn't functioning properly..:(

in a nut shell,, we've set it to cycle 4 times::

on @ 9am off 30 seconds later
on @ 12 noon off 30 seconds later
on @ 4pm off 30 seconds later
on @ 8pm off 30 seconds later

this is set to function 7 days a week no variation..

i went through the other 4 on/off increments and it reads --:--
for both on and off times he last 4 cycle options..

the first day of programing went smoothly, no issues through all 4 programed cycles..
i got up about 2am during the night and noticed that the cage screen was soaking wet, i'm thinking at 2am it should be dry from the last misting.. i went to investigate and discovered that the drip tray was completely full and that the water bin was almost empty in addition to the waste water bin being completely full of water....

ok, i assumed that my husband had programed it wrong, the second night i programmed it, following word for word the instructions... using the same settings and making sure that the timer had nothing else programmed in after the 4 settings that i put in..

it performed perfectly during the day, going through it's 4 programmed cycles...i went to be confident that i had done it properly.. :D

i again awoke around 1amish that night to find the thing misting it's heart out!!!!! i just unplugged it and now am at a loss...

after the 4 cycles i program in and nothing showing for the remainder optional cycles.... why is the thing coming on and misting until it runs out of water??????????

did i say , "in a nut shell"???, never mind i think this was the long version!!!:p

what am i doing wrong??? i'm sure it's no easy task to help with but does anyone have one and can you help me with mine???? i don't want it to do ant tricks,,, just on/off, on/off 4 times a day, same time each day....

thanks a ton,, lisa
 
All i can think for advise here is to make sure that "MTWTF" is showing for each on/off cycle, so it's the same every day,and once it's programed make sure it's on "auto" mode. Aalso make sure the timer isn't plugged in to an outlet strip that is loaded with a bunch of other stuff; Marty, the owner of MistKing, told me that this could potentially cause the timer to do something weird. If you are still having problems I would contact him directly.

Good luck.
 
ChamOh said:
All i can think for advise here is to make sure that "MTWTF" is showing for each on/off cycle, so it's the same every day, and also make sure the timer isn't plugged in to an outlet strip that is loaded with a bunch of other stuff. This is advise I got from Marty, the owner of MistKing.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

hey Matt,,

it actually says "M,T,W,T,F,S,S".... same cycle 4 x daily, 7 days a week.. and it's the only thing plugged into the power strip at the time.. i'm just trying to get the equipment up and running b4 i get Stanley....

i'm going to try it again tonight, meticulously going by the instructions,,, i must be doing something incorrectly... :confused:

thanks,, lisa
 
yeah sorry, i forgot about the Sat and Sun.

Hmm. I can't see anything you're doing wrong... Good thing you're working on it before the little man arrives! the mistking is awesome, and Marty is good people if you need help.
 
I can't help you with your timer, but it's my opinion that 30 seconds is really short for a misting run. If you get it to work you'll see that in 30 seconds you don't really get everything wet enough. Chams tend to think "eeek water!" for the first minute, anyway, so you might want to spray for a minimum of 3 minutes so they have a chance to change their mind to "Ahh, water!"

If you've ever been to a real tropical rainforest, you'll notice that it rains on and off for little whiles all day long. In bursts of 15-20 minutes, or longer, of light rain. So it's my attempt to mimic natural conditions a little. My routine, if you're curious, is 15 minutes at 8am, 3 minutes at 11am and 2pm, and 15 minutes at 5pm. My guys love it now, they sit on a good perch and sit there facing the nozzle directly lol.

Good luck with your timer! :)
 
Yeah I was thinking you need to mist a little longer too... but i figured one thing at a time : )

After you get it working properly, shoot for a longer morning mist, mine's about 5-8 minutes, and a few others throughout the day, which can be shorter depending on your humidity/drinking needs (I'm doing a few 1-3 minute bursts through out the day) you want to give your enclosure plenty of time to completely dry out before lights go out at night.
 
Olimpia said:
I can't help you with your timer, but it's my opinion that 30 seconds is really short for a misting run. If you get it to work you'll see that in 30 seconds you don't really get everything wet enough. Chams tend to think "eeek water!" for the first minute, anyway, so you might want to spray for a minimum of 3 minutes so they have a chance to change their mind to "Ahh, water!"

If you've ever been to a real tropical rainforest, you'll notice that it rains on and off for little whiles all day long. In bursts of 15-20 minutes, or longer, of light rain. So it's my attempt to mimic natural conditions a little. My routine, if you're curious, is 15 minutes at 8am, 3 minutes at 11am and 2pm, and 15 minutes at 5pm. My guys love it now, they sit on a good perch and sit there facing the nozzle directly lol.

Good luck with your timer! :)
Click to expand...

hey Olympia!!
the 30 seconds is just a "trial time", until i get the bumps worked out..

so 5pm is the latest time that you mist? i was thinking that you needed to do it closer to "lights out".... i hope Stanley likes it as well, i'll probably have to expitement to see what he likes..

thanks,,, lisa
 
ChamOh said:
Yeah I was thinking you need to mist a little longer too... but i figured one thing at a time : )

After you get it working properly, shoot for a longer morning mist, mine's about 5-8 minutes, and a few others throughout the day, which can be shorter depending on your humidity/drinking needs (I'm doing a few 1-3 minute bursts through out the day) you want to give your enclosure plenty of time to completely dry out before lights go out at night.
Click to expand...

hey Matt,
i'm going to extend the misting times once i get it figured out.... so as Olympia said, mist closer to lights out time....

thanks,, lisa
 
lisagr07 said:
hey Olympia!!
the 30 seconds is just a "trial time", until i get the bumps worked out..

so 5pm is the latest time that you mist? i was thinking that you needed to do it closer to "lights out".... i hope Stanley likes it as well, i'll probably have to expitement to see what he likes..

thanks,,, lisa
Click to expand...

Oh ok, it didn't even occur to me that those were test times. Then that's fine for now, obviously, but play around with longer times once you have it working.

Yes, after 5:15 I don't put any more water in the enclosure so that the cage has two hours to dry off completely before the lights go off. And with a nice 15 minute shower late in the afternoon (mine go to their "bed branches" at around around 6:30) is good enough for them to get any last drinking in before they settle down for the night. But I do set the first misting to go off only 30 minutes after the lights come on, so they get nice and hydrated first thing in the morning.
 
Hi Lisa, make sure you don't have any other programs set. If you have only programs 1,2,3,4 with ON/OFF times. Ensure that the other programs are not set to ON.

I would start fresh, press (with a pen) and hold reset for 20 sec
- program the time
- program the on/off times (pay attention to day of the week and am/pm - that's the #1 cause of errors)
- make sure only the programs you want are programmed (the other unused should be blank)
- like ChamOh said, don't have a lot of things plugged into the timer (esp high inductive load things, rheostats, fans, etc). Maybe even try a different socket...(I'm reaching :)

give that a try and if you're still having issues, I'll gladly replace the timer for you. Like ChamOh said "Marty is good people if you need help", hahah

oh and most important thing....make sure that when you design the chameleon setup, that your drain/drip capacity is higher than your reservoir capacity. In case of a failure, you want to make sure you are able to catch all the water without spilling it. That should be probably the 1st point.
 
Marty said:
Hi Lisa, make sure you don't have any other programs set. If you have only programs 1,2,3,4 with ON/OFF times. Ensure that the other programs are not set to ON.

I would start fresh, press (with a pen) and hold reset for 20 sec
- program the time
- program the on/off times (pay attention to day of the week and am/pm - that's the #1 cause of errors)
- make sure only the programs you want are programmed (the other unused should be blank)
- like ChamOh said, don't have a lot of things plugged into the timer (esp high inductive load things, rheostats, fans, etc). Maybe even try a different socket...(I'm reaching :)

give that a try and if you're still having issues, I'll gladly replace the timer for you. Like ChamOh said "Marty is good people if you need help", hahah

oh and most important thing....make sure that when you design the chameleon setup, that your drain/drip capacity is higher than your reservoir capacity. In case of a failure, you want to make sure you are able to catch all the water without spilling it. That should be probably the 1st point.
Click to expand...

hey Marty,,
thanks for the suggestions...
i think that i followed all of the steps that you listed EXCEPT to hold in the reset button for 20 seconds, i just pushed it in for a couple of seconds...

i was very careful to make sure that thecorrect time was set , am or pm also..
of the 4 programed times the morning one was set to am, the other 3 set to pm..
the last 4 settings were blank both for on and off settings.. it looked like this (--:--)..
and then it is the only thing plugged into the outlet except for the light for the cage..

i deffinitly had too much water in the reservoir,, the waste water containes is smaller. that i'll need to replace...

i'm sure it's an "operator error" issue!!! :eek:

once i get home from work i'm going to reset it and try again.. (fingers crossed)..

hopefully i can work it out myself if not i really appreciate youroffer to replace it!!!!

i'll let you know how it goes tomorrow,,
thanks again,,lisa
 
hey Marty,,
i think we have it worked out.... it seems to be functioning as it should be.. i can't really pin point what the issue was but evidently it was an am/pm problem... once it was the timers clock being set on am instead of pm...
we sat down and went over the programing instructions like we were deciphering a treasure map!!!!
i haven't been home a complete day to make sure it's going through all 4 programed times as set, but i've been present for the first and last and it seems to be spot on!!!!

we extended the misting times and adjusted the duration of each misting tonight so we'll see if we got it right. i was afraid to change it up but it was necessary and surely we wont have an issue this time.. ;) (fingers crossed)

thanks you sooo much for your help!!!! i really do appreciate you stepping in and offering advice and a replacement if necessary... looks like it was indeed "operator error"!!!!:D

thanks again,, lisa
 
Thanks Lisa...great to hear you've got things under control. Any trouble let me know.

Marty
 
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