So I've gotten to thinking. what if. instead of dedicating a single light source type as security lighting, why not have automated alternation between one, two or even three?

I'm thinking in my future property that I can mount a Low Pressure Sodium fixture, a Mercury vapor fixture and a High pressure sodium fixture all on the same pole and have some sort of automated time switch choose between 1 of the three to light each night and cycle through to spice things up a bit. Of course it'd also have a manual override.. So if i really wanted I could switch on fixtures at will (all at once  ).

My thinking is that it will drastically improve lamp life since all lamps will only be running 121 days of the year and if that is 8 hours each night that would only log 968 hours on each lamp per year (give or take)

So not only will lighting be interesting at night i would not burn through the stock pile as fast and I could improve the likely hood of my lighting systems surviving into old age..

So I've gotten to thinking. what if. instead of dedicating a single light source type as security lighting, why not have automated alternation between one, two or even three?

I'm thinking in my future property that I can mount a Low Pressure Sodium fixture, a Mercury vapor fixture and a High pressure sodium fixture all on the same pole and have some sort of automated time switch choose between 1 of the three to light each night and cycle through to spice things up a bit. Of course it'd also have a manual override.. So if i really wanted I could switch on fixtures at will (all at once  ).

My thinking is that it will drastically improve lamp life since all lamps will only be running 121 days of the year and if that is 8 hours each night that would only log 968 hours on each lamp per year (give or take)

So not only will lighting be interesting at night i would not burn through the stock pile as fast and I could improve the likely hood of my lighting systems surviving into old age..

Hmm.... Well then to make that, you need three programmble digital timers (programmed to a specific time for the day) and a three arm pole to mount the fixtures, and if the fixtures have a PE Receptacle then a shorting cap is used, then a latching switch with a contactor to do a "Manual Override" on the fixtures or one of them. Hope this helps....

You could also go fancy/high-tech and use a Raspberry Pi or Audrino as the controller, and connected to a relay board to switch the lights.
Manual override would be as simple as logging into it & clicking the lights on/off.

I was actually thinking of building a dedicated analog circuit to control it all using 4017 chips but this is years in the future so by thag time I may end up just going the easy route with a digital timer or raspberry pi (possibly the zero model)

Probably mount it all in a weather proof box on the pole.

I was actually thinking of building a dedicated analog circuit to control it all using 4017 chips but this is years in the future so by thag time I may end up just going the easy route with a digital timer or raspberry pi (possibly the zero model)

Probably mount it all in a weather proof box on the pole.

If you're gonna do the digital timer method, I recommend a 7 day programmable timer (with ground) for each fixture, so each fixture will turn on at each night as you prefer. The manual override part is (like a said) a latching switch with a contactor or relay that will bypass the timer and turns on the fixtures manually.

With the Raspberry Pi and with the coding software (just like the Ardunio) you may need practice on uploading a code on to a Raspberry Pi or Arduino. Like I'm doing as of now with the Arduino IDE software with the Mega2650 and Nano.

And a NEMA cabinet is used so no water would get in.

HASS.IO

It’s stupid powerful but not for the faint of heart. It can connect to just about anything that could serve as a remotely managed switch or relay. It also has a slick interface. Best of all it is not cloud dependent, all you need is a Pi or a vm host to get it going.