Extend feed button or max length of control cables

[James77]

I'm wanting to keep as mcuh electrical equipment in my basement and out of the stand as possible. Its a very humid stand, and I do not trust electrical outlets of any sort in that type of enviroment.

On my old 7096 that fried out from good old saltwater, I opened it up and saw the feed is just a normally open momentary switch. Is it possible to solder on to this 2 wires, maybe 12-15 feet long, connected to a different momentary switch at the tank? Would the distance be too much for the controller or not reliably work?

The other possibility is the control wires.....is the max length on those still 4-5 feet? Or could I extend the power wires from the transformers to the pumps?

My final option may be some sort of large outdoor box totally sealed with all electricals in there. Sorry for the bunch-o-questions

 

[rvitko]

In the past we used to have a remote control foodtimer button for the 7094 and 7093 multicontrollers. We quit producing them and making the controller so it accepted this due to low sales volume and they were not the easiest install, you had to drill a small hole in your cabinet and the idea was the button mounted on the cabinet so you could push it without opening the stand. It should be possible to install another momentary switch. Essentially when you push the switch it charges a capacitor and when the capacitor discharges, time is up, the 7096 is a bit different in that it instead triggers a timer chip.

The control wires you can try, the main problem is the signal can get weak and unreliable after about 6ft but better quality cables may enable some extending beyond that. The transformer wire is tricky, it is a coaxial wire and those are always PITA to solder and modify. The pump wire you cannot modify it is as long as it can be without signal issues, we used to offer customer longer cables but after 18ft a signal amplifier is a must and this always the weakest link so we quit offering this option.

In general the best would be to reposition things in a drier location, add a dehumidifier to the room and some vents to the cabinet, or use a waterproof enclosure, but if more than the controller and junction boxes will be inside (power supplies for example) it will need to have some ventilation.

 

[James77]

Thanks for the reply

If I dont go the altered food timer butto route, i may just just wall off the left of my stand and seal and ventilate that separately from the rest of the tank.

 

[James77]

Just to update this in case anyone is interested in doing the same. I just soldered on and extension to the food timer on the 7096, and it has worked perfectly through multiple tests.
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I am 100% sure this voids warranty, so do this at your own risk:
If you open the 7096, the food timer has four pins coming from the bottom, 2 of them are used already. The other 2 are free. I soldered 20 gauge speaker wire to these, at a run of about 18 feet. Solder the other ends to a "normally open momentary switch", these are had at any radio shack. Then you are done
I have tested multiple times and it has worked. This allows me to have the controller in a separate location from the tank, limited only by the length of the power cords coming from the pumps.

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Extending the power cables was not neccesary. The cables from the pump ended up being about 2 feet short of what I needed, but the safety connectors have enough wire where I could connect the power and still ahve the transformers rest on the shelf I have set up.