NICREW Single Channel LED Light Timer Pro, LED Digital Dimmer for 16-30 VDC Lights with Standard 2.5mm/2.1mm Power Connectors

This review is for the Single Channel Timer Pro which is used in conjunction with an LED aquarium light. This is a light timer/controller. Note for the purpose of this review, my experience so far is only using this with a NICREW light fixture. This will likely work with other manufacturers LED light fixtures but I can not say first hand, so my experience reflected here is using the NICREW timer with a NICREW light fixture.Normally I use electro-mechanical timers with my aquariums (the type with the round dial you set with little tabs the ON and OFF times). Since I have been moving to LED lights and I needed another timer, I decided to give this a try and I am very please with it. First and foremost it was very affordable and not really much more than the mechanical-electric rotary light timers I have used in the past. Second this is very small and very light so takes up a lot less space than a traditional timer and can easily be tucked behind a cabinet or tank which is important since the clock is always displayed with an red LED display, so if used in a bedroom or other places where you don't want a bright clock display being able to tuck it behind something is a plus. On the other hand, if you need a clock display in the room, this will double as that, so long as you don't mind reading militray (24 hour format) time (e.g. 1:30pm displays as 13:30). So far this has worked as advertised and I am able to get a ramp up and a ramp down of light. Not only do I think it is a little less harsh for the fish, but a little less harsh for me for one of my tanks in my bedroom.A couple things to note.First, when dimming LED the brighter levels are very hard to tell apart and to my eyes 100% down to about 50% do not look all that much different. Likewise LEDs can not dim all the way down to zero and instead will stop conducting after a certain level and shut off. I am not sure where the light turns off but I don't think it is when it goes from 1% to 0% but instead it is probably something like 5% when it shuts off, so a little bit of a jump from light to dark there.Second, the 30 minute and 15 minute dimming periods is from full bright to off or off to full bright and is really just a weird way of saying that you can set the dimming to either 1% every 9 seconds (for the 15 minute setting) or 1% every 18 seconds (for the 30 minute setting). What this means is, you don't get a 30 minute transition for any changes you set but just a fixed rate of change (put another way, if you change the light output 1% it will either take 9 seconds or 18 seconds, not 15m or 30m).When I originally set it up I had it turn off by going from 100% to OFF in 30 minutes starting at 11pm. But due the first thing noted above, to me it seemed like the first 15 didn't really matter since I couldn't really perceive the dimming until it got lower than 50%. Also the last 5 minutes or so happens kind of more suddenly that I would like. So here is what I did. I switched it up to do 100% to 50% starting at 10:45pm, so that it would be at 50% at 11pm. I then hold that brightness for 10 minutes. Then I set it to go from 50%-20% starting at 11:10pm which means at the 30 minute setting it would take (30% x 18 seconds) 9 minutes so now it is at 20% at 11:19pm. SInce it would only take 6 more minutes to go from 20% to zero, I hold it at 20% for five minutes, then start the 20%-off which ends at 11:30. Sounds complicated, but basically I think gives a much more realistic dimming over the 11:00-11:30pm period than just a straight 100-0 starting at 11pm.For this reason this newer model with up to 6 timed settings is much better than the original version which only had two. Originally I set this one up as only two but ended up using 4, so glad I got the newer version. They still sell the older version here but at the exact same price so no reason not to get the newer one.I have a couple of other tanks I want to do this with so I will be buying a couple more of these. So not only would I buy this again, I AM going to buy this again, twice.

At first it seems hard to understand but actually it's not that bad. Think of it like this:You first set the time.Then you hit the wheel icon to begin your programming. I write what I want on a piece of paper because it times out very quickly.The first think that pops up is choosing an F mode, or how it's going to fade. You can't choose a different one for each time. You also can't choose between the different colors. That's ok though, at least it is for me.You have 3 choices, on/off, 15 min or 30 minutes. I chose 15 for my tank.Then you press the wheel again. You will see L1 displayed. Press it again and put in your first time. Mine comes on at 0700.Press the setting wheel icon again and choose the intensity. You can see in my pic I start off slow at L25.When you press the wheel icon again and L2 will display, you do the same sequence again, pressing the setting button to cycle through your choices. Mine ramps up to 60 at 1000.Continue to do this through the levels, I use all 6. I don't know how to clear a level once you set up all 6 but that's not an issue for me, I like the light pattern to peak and go down so I like using all 6 levels. L0 (L zero) is off.It's a simple matter to change and tweak, you just hold the setting button until it blinks, keep pressing it quickly and it will cycle through all the levels enabling you to change the time and intensity.One other caveat, I'm using it with the nicrew classic LED plus (which doesn't have a timer in spite of the description claiming it does) and if you press any of the buttons on it you will play hell trying to get it back to the way you want.I made that mistake and I thought I had fixed it, but apparently the intensities were off. I thought it was the timer but today I reread the instructions for the light and reset it my holding the two buttons down, it made a big difference.The timer overrides the light controls but you can still operate the light controls. All that did was mess up my phases. I leave it all alone now and let it do its thing.Hope this helps clarify.

My older Nicrew light had the inline timer and controls, but the 8/10/12 hour timer was loosing time to the point the lights were coming on early and turning off earlier by half hour in a week and even more by by end of the month. My new Nicrew lights have a square controller similar to this which includes a clock to keep settings more accurately. Fits inline perfectly and has worked great. Directions are understandable but a bit complicated because it allows you to set immediate on/off, ramp 15 minutes on/off, and 30 minute on/off. You need to be in the correct programming channel for your preference. Then you have options to set light intensity for up to three times per cycle. Just a bit confusing at first, but turns out it gives you a ton of options so feel it is a much better option then getting a WiFi plug timer. No more time shifting! If one of my other older Nicrew lights starts causing problems, I'll buy another for that light, but it's holding accurate so far over the past year.