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Hi. I have battery-operated LED fairy light strings in my garden and they all have an inbuilt timer that switches on when you click on it and lasts for 6 hours, then 18 hours off and back on again.
if they also have remote control, this does not alter the timer settings, which are not adjustable.
The timer is a tiny crystal inside the battery case, or so I've read, and I think I'd need to know about electronics to be able to re-programme the timer.
Six hours is OK in the winter but not the summer, when two hours would be better.
Is there, I would like to know, any workaround for this?
Can I, for instance, somehow connect up a battery-operated adjustable timer?
Should I try harder to find a non-standard fairy lights timer with a shorter time setting? Or adjustable?
I'd be grateful for any comments. Cheers, Laurence

FYI
The crystal is not the timer, the crystal is the "heart" of the timer, not the timer itself. The crystal oscillates at a set frequency (Depending on the crystal) The timing circuit counts the oscillations (Lets say 40,000 times/second) so if the timer counts 144,000,000 oscillations it knows 1 hour has passed, like wise 2,592,000,000 oscillations is 18 hours (You get the idea?)
So to adjust the time the lights are off (or on) you need to alter how many times the timer counts the oscillations, since crystal controlled timers are very small and cheap it is not worth bothering with, they are often purpose designed and then built by machines.
You have probably heard of the quartz watch? (and clock) The quartz is what the crystal is made from.

The problem
You can connect a timer to the existing lights, but you would have to cut off the existing timer (That way you over ride it) but you would now have to find a timer that suits your needs (One that is battery operated and is adjustable) This timer is (probably) going to cost you more than the set of lights (since you can buy a set for less than £3) so unless the demand goes up, you will have to spend more money than a set of lights cost.

If it helps
I have some LED's outside (Powered by a mains operated power supply) they are controlled by a home made "photo switch" they come on when its dark, and go off when it's light. It was easier for me to do this than to try to find an adjustable reliable timer.

In conclusion
It is going to cost you more in time and effort and wasted money than it is worth (Unless you have lots of time and money to waste) to achieve your goal, so I would leave the lights as they are, even buying a "plug in" timer and some non timed lights will be expensive not just because of the cost but because you have no mains to plug them into.

Not so far mentioned
The slower crystals really do oscillate at 40,000/second.
Crystals are used to give a constant frequency (You could make two, non crystal timers and after a short while they would not be in sync with each other)
I have no idea why life can be so awkward.

Hi SE. Thanks very much for your reply and all the information you gave.
The fairy lights are attached to a bicycle wheel spinner as well as to static objects; and the spinners, with the battery case attached to the wheel hub, are high up and difficult of access when I need to re-charge the batteries.
With a two-hour timer they'd last much longer.
I spent some time trying to work out a way to house the batteries elsewhere, not on the wheel, but then I realised that it was physically impossible, because there must be a wire from the wheel to the battery and it would break as soon as the wind caught the wheel and turned it. Obvious to me now.
The wheels look very beautiful, I have to say, when lit.
I've attached a You Tube clip for you to see. Thanks again.


[youtube][/youtube]https://youtu.be/VKQWdhuyuN4

What about setting them to permanently on and controlling with a mains timeswitch on the plug. You can change the time settings as the seasons change.

DWD

Oops, I just read that they are battery powered. I would get a mains powered set, £15, and plug them in the timer. The settings include one permanently on so the timer can work.

DWD

laurencewithau, different use I must say.

dewaltdisney,
Did you not watch the video and the comment " I spent some time trying to work out a way to house the batteries elsewhere, not on the wheel, but then I realised that it was physically impossible, because there must be a wire from the wheel to the battery and it would break as soon as the wind caught the wheel and turned it."

No, I am not the best with electrics as you know. I best butt out

DWD

If any one can not get the link to work, here is the video.
.
Now you can see why he can't use mains. The LED's are on free moving bicycle wheels

dewaltdisney wrote: ↑Thu Mar 05, 2020 12:51 pm Oops, I just read that they are battery powered. I would get a mains powered set, £15, and plug them in the timer. The settings include one permanently on so the timer can work.

DWD

Hi dewaltdisney. Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately the lights are on a wheel wind spinner and have to have the power source on the wheel with them. It took me a while to realise that this is not just a practical difficulty but that there is no way around it.Even with solar power the unit would have to be on the wheel.You then have to balance the wheel, especially with three heavy AA batteries, otherwise it won't spin so well. You can't even place the battery/solar unit on the spindle. What you can do, so that it's easier to balance the wheel , is to fix the unit on the outside of the wheel rather than between the spokes, placing it symmetrically against the hub so that it does not unbalance the wheel, or not by much. You then place the wheel with the jutting out spindle in a vise so that the wheel turns freely, and then you add stainless steel screws with nuts that vary in weight, fixed in place through a drilled hole in the rim opposite the lowest point where the wheel has come to rest and is bottom heavy. It's great fun and worth it when the wind catches the wheels and the drums, too, that I've installed on the same wooden structure. Thanks again.