Turn on lights and motor for different timed cycles.

[khanfused]

What I am trying to do is build a timer that will control two separate circuits, one light circuit and one motor circuit ( on/off... on/off ) for let's say a five minute cycle.

I am starting with a DC motor revolving tie rack, ( I have two... one uses 3 "C" cells batteries and one uses 4 ).....but I need the motor to come ON for, let's say one second/ OFF for ten.... ( these times may change slightly) repeat for five minutes or whatever completes one or more entire revolutions. Another option was to slow the speed way, way down by reducing the DC voltage but when I tried, there comes a point where the thing just doesn't revolve.

The second timer function is to activate a light source ON for the same five minute cycle. I want to use an available cold cathode fluorescent light kit that would serve my purpose. The kit comes with an inverter that supplies a 12V DC starting voltage up to 900-950 vrms. Then the voltage will drop supplying the lamp a constant current of 4-9 mA at 40-50 KHz.

After the five minutes the systems shuts off until the button is pushed again.

The 556 timer doesn't seem to meet my needs..the motor on/off times will be the same and I can't make a timed cycle. Either once on or it keeps cycling until I turn it off.

I tried reading about programmable chips which opens a a big can of worms. So,  before I invest too much more I thought it wiser to seek a little help. What started out as an interesting project has left me feeling pretty dumb.

Hope this made sense and thanks if anyone can point me in the right direction.

[Hero999]

I think a programmable IC is a good idea, PIC and AVR microcontrollers and programming hardware can be bought fairly cheaply nowadays.

Why not go for LEDs rather than a cold cathode tube? They're no nast high voltages to worry about and no mercury or glass.

[khanfused]

Thanks for your response Hero999... I have seen you recommend these options a few times in the threads while others are trending towards Arduino.. primarily for low cost start up it would appear.

I'm going to start diving deeper into the specific forums since it's clear that these types of chips are capable of doing what I seek.

I really wish I could opt for LED's but the specific wavelength is a real issue in that market. My second choice is the cold cathode AC bulbs around 7-13 watts because I have an abundance of them to tinker with but even trying to explain how I want AC on one side DC on another got complicated so I fell back to the DC light source... it seems like it will serve the purpose without complicating it for my first attempt. Maybe I'll adapt it after I get the timer part ironed out