Timer mod

[Xavier]

My on/off light timer has two slots (pos/neg).. no ground.. yet the ballast has a ground. Think that ground in the ballast is really required? I could just rewire the ballast and timer into one... prolly not worth it.. I could always just hit K-Mart tomorrow and snag another... just curious if anyone has done a mod like this before.

[Twins Guy]

you can get a grounded timer, and should. sometimes they're marketed as appliance timers (instead of lamp) or outdoor timers. i've found one intermatic outdoor timer to be really slick mounted in the cabinet under a tank. i think it runs like $12 and is black. your light will plug into the timer (which has a cover to prevent salt spray) and there is a couple foot cord that then plugs into your wall or power strip. the ground wire is gonna allow stray voltage (caused by salt creep among other things) a path to the ground. without that path the juice is gonna travel through you and maybe do some damage. the ground won't eliminate the risk of shock altogether but its a good safety measure.

[Xavier]

Yeah.. I'm familiar with the ground.. I do electronics as an alternate hobby .. just wasn't sure how crucial it was to the ballast. I have some things that aren't as stable without it. All things considered.. I don't want to risk anything I can avoid simply for $10-20. I'll head to Home Depot after work today and see if I can dig one up - I'll be more attentive this time (I had to use the restroom so bad I grabbed what I saw and was outta there.. heh heh). Well, if I can put the original timer back together, I can still use it while I'm away for Thanksgiving

 

Thanks!