Single Channel Timer Pro

It takes a bit to get it programmed (I blame my old age and moving too slowly lol) but once I got it done, it works beautifully on my NICREW lights. We have several aquariums, and I had *thought* that all the lights I had were NICREW, but apparently two of them were ordered by someone else *coughhusbandcough* and after several attempts and returns (sorry NICREW), I realized my problem, and that it wasn't the timer/dimmer, it was the incompatibility issue. So I sent the two back I couldn't use and NICREW promptly refunded my money. I would suggest that if you aren't sure if these will work because you have another brand, to look at the plug-in itself. If it's a large plug - I'm sorry, I'm not sure what this is called, but maybe "adaptor" type? The kind that are large and almost take up the space of two plugs on your strip -- anyway, if you have one like that, it could work. If it's just a normal-sized plug-in, chances are it won't. I may be wrong, but that's what I noticed here. Anyway, the lights I had that weren't compatible were Aqua***t (I'm not sure if I can say the actual brand name here) but look at your plug. :) I hope this helps. And did I say how much I LOVE this timer/dimmer???

This review is for the Single Channel Timer Pro which is used in conjunction with an LED aquarium light. This is a light timer/controller. Note for the purpose of this review, my experience so far is only using this with a NICREW light fixture. This will likely work with other manufacturers LED light fixtures but I can not say first hand, so my experience reflected here is using the NICREW timer with a NICREW light fixture. Normally I use electro-mechanical timers with my aquariums (the type with the round dial you set with little tabs the ON and OFF times). Since I have been moving to LED lights and I needed another timer, I decided to give this a try and I am very please with it. First and foremost it was very affordable and not really much more than the mechanical-electric rotary light timers I have used in the past. Second this is very small and very light so takes up a lot less space than a traditional timer and can easily be tucked behind a cabinet or tank which is important since the clock is always displayed with an red LED display, so if used in a bedroom or other places where you don't want a bright clock display being able to tuck it behind something is a plus. On the other hand, if you need a clock display in the room, this will double as that, so long as you don't mind reading militray (24 hour format) time (e.g. 1:30pm displays as 13:30). So far this has worked as advertised and I am able to get a ramp up and a ramp down of light. Not only do I think it is a little less harsh for the fish, but a little less harsh for me for one of my tanks in my bedroom. A couple things to note. First, when dimming LED the brighter levels are very hard to tell apart and to my eyes 100% down to about 50% do not look all that much different. Likewise LEDs can not dim all the way down to zero and instead will stop conducting after a certain level and shut off. I am not sure where the light turns off but I don't think it is when it goes from 1% to 0% but instead it is probably something like 5% when it shuts off, so a little bit of a jump from light to dark there. Second, the 30 minute and 15 minute dimming periods is from full bright to off or off to full bright and is really just a weird way of saying that you can set the dimming to either 1% every 9 seconds (for the 15 minute setting) or 1% every 18 seconds (for the 30 minute setting). What this means is, you don't get a 30 minute transition for any changes you set but just a fixed rate of change (put another way, if you change the light output 1% it will either take 9 seconds or 18 seconds, not 15m or 30m). When I originally set it up I had it turn off by going from 100% to OFF in 30 minutes starting at 11pm. But due the first thing noted above, to me it seemed like the first 15 didn't really matter since I couldn't really perceive the dimming until it got lower than 50%. Also the last 5 minutes or so happens kind of more suddenly that I would like. So here is what I did. I switched it up to do 100% to 50% starting at 10:45pm, so that it would be at 50% at 11pm. I then hold that brightness for 10 minutes. Then I set it to go from 50%-20% starting at 11:10pm which means at the 30 minute setting it would take (30% x 18 seconds) 9 minutes so now it is at 20% at 11:19pm. SInce it would only take 6 more minutes to go from 20% to zero, I hold it at 20% for five minutes, then start the 20%-off which ends at 11:30. Sounds complicated, but basically I think gives a much more realistic dimming over the 11:00-11:30pm period than just a straight 100-0 starting at 11pm. For this reason this newer model with up to 6 timed settings is much better than the original version which only had two. Originally I set this one up as only two but ended up using 4, so glad I got the newer version. They still sell the older version here but at the exact same price so no reason not to get the newer one. I have a couple of other tanks I want to do this with so I will be buying a couple more of these. So not only would I buy this again, I AM going to buy this again, twice.

UPDATE (2): Nicrew customer service sent me a new controller, which has worked perfectly for quite some time now. I bumped my review score back up accordingly. See below for details on my use case. UPDATE: The LED controller worked PERFECTLY for several weeks. I unplugged it one day to move a cord to tidy up my shelf and then plugged it back in. Now, the display shows all 8's and doesn't respond to any button inputs. I read the manual and tried unplugging/plugging it back in several times. It is a dead unit. The A/C adapter which came with the lights provides 2A/12V (24 watts) which is far below the maximum specifications for this controller. I emailed Nicrew and so far have received a reply which essentially asked me for the information I provided in the initial email to them, so this isn't looking so great so far on the customer service side. ********************** I purchased this controller for the purpose of setting a day/night cycle for some LED fixtures I installed in a bookshelf. The shelf houses several enclosures for vertebrates and invertebrates. The lights I am using are here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KQRJCQY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 First things first, this controller IS compatible with the lights in the above link. However, do NOT install the lights' included remote receiver in-line with this controller. If you reduce the output from the receiver to lower the brightness of the lights, you will affect the controller's clock and make it run slower. Such was the case when I first installed this light controller, and it was running around 10 minutes behind near the end of the first day, presumably due to the lower output voltage from the receiver. Removing the receiver fixed this issue and the controller's clock no longer runs slow. The connector is a 5.5mm OD barrel connector. An adapter is included for another size connector. I'm sure that if your LED lights have a barrel connector, they will be compatible with this kit. Anyway, programming the lights was VERY easy and the directions are simple. I had the programming complete in just a few minutes' time and sure enough, the lights slowly dimmed to off that night. The next morning, the slowly turned on to full brightness over the course of a few minutes. Neat! This is very much worth the money. Combined with the lights in the link above and a little bit of double-sided tape, you can very easily outfit a large bookshelf with pre-programmed lighting for small "pets" -- and it won't even look ghetto! Huzzah!

Love this simple but effective ramp controller. Thanks

Working very well, no issues. Easy to set up.

Works great, great product to add to any aquarium, will most likely be purchasing another one soon to add to another aquarium. We really like the feature where you can program the light to simulate sunrise and sunset, where you can adjust the brightness of the light and at what intervals you want them to come on or off. Highly recommend to anyone wishing to improve the look of their aquarium.

Works great! Easy to use and set the time as long as you follow the instructions

Works fine and as expected. Delivered fast and nicely packed