OT but controls anyway

Seems that I can't buy this so I'll make one.
I want an outside light controller that will turn on the lights, 10a probably, then an off delay timer that will turn them off after 6 or 7 hours. The timer would reset in the morning when the light sensor cycled at daylight.
Any ideas other than a industrial control box in the garage with a relay and octal base timer?

Intermatic are the market leaders for this sort of thing.


http://www.intermatic.com/en/Products/ConsumerTimers/Outdoor_Plug-In_Timers.aspx

If it's seasonal, I wouldn't bother with daylight sensing and just set the timer for dusk and dawn.

Thanks Ken but they have to go off before midnight, condo rules.
Also, we live along Lake Erie so the house gets covered with bugs in the summer. The less light the better.

A few weeks back I was searching for Daylight sensors and I remembered seeing these:

http://www.steinel.de/en/Motion-Det...g-controller-NightMatic-3000-Vario-Black.html

They seem to have something similar for US customers but it is only 24Vd.c.

http://www.steinel.net/Daylight-Controls

I use a unit like this :
http://www.lowes.com/pd_154182-66906-UTTNOCD2_4294565986__?productId=4177013&Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_qty_sales_dollar%7C1&facetInfo=

You should be able to find an off the shelf astronomical time clock controller that will do this for you. It will contain a table of sunset times and automatically switch the lights for your.

However, if you want to roll your own, I posted an example of how to do this on a Micrologix in this thread back in '07: http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showpost.php?p=237875&postcount=19

Basically you need to convert the current date into an ordinal date or pseudo julian date (day of the year) and then use that to look up the sunset time. The sample program turn lights on ten minutes after sunset and back on at sunrise. You could easily adapt it to turn off at midnight. You may need to update the sunset time tables for your area, you can find these online.

Search the forum for the keyword sunset. This has been discussed in a few threads.

If this is a DIY project (Christmas lights?), you could easily convert the code above to run on an Arduino and have an inexpensive solution.

Thanks guys.
I'll look for that clock.

Some years back I had a customer looking for variable timing for a security gate. I bought a astronomical relay (din rail mount) from a company called Theben out of Europe. Don't remember the price but the programming software (free) was very slick . You could program in an entire years worth of special events. Such as holidays, etc.