I installed an Onkyo receiver and Pioneer 100 disc changer with speakers in front of a movie theater. The owners had droves of high school kids congregating in the entryway. Now they play classical music there so the kids hang out elsewhere.

The maintenance man set a timer to shut the power off at 9PM and back on at 7:30 AM. The Onkyo receiver comes on right where it left off. The Pioneer disc player blinks and waits for a power on command.

I used a One For All remote with a timer macro and it worked OK after hacking at the macro a little. Now the stupid remote had its batteries changed and it loses the macro. No backup. The maintenance guy is calling me (45 minutes away, no quick drive) and it's slow going to get the macro in and working like it did. It's a completely non-intuitive remote. Last I heard it worked every other day...

Is there another way to do this reasonably? The remote deal was under $100, so that's their frame of reference. I'd like to design a little circuit to start it but I don't have time.

Thanks!
=Tom

Can't find a non-timed (non-switched) outlet for the changer?

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com

Well, sure, but the idea is to turn it off at night and not run the changer 24 hours per day.

How 'bout switching to tape deck? Older
Pioneer decks have built-in timer modes.
You have a choice, when the power comes
on, to have it start playing or recording. With a dual auto-reverse,
you have four sides.

Or a Minidisc deck, my Kenwood has a hard power switch with either a record or play timer. I think others do too. Or replace it with a professional CD player that has a hard timer on it. On a cheaper note, the Sony CDP-CX355 300 disc changer has a play timer and retails for $200. As soon as it's powered up, it goes into play mode...nothing else needed. Would something like this fit the bill? No remotes to mess with and no timer settings to lose. You'll never get called back again.

The Sony would have been the deal. So far, they only have 12 discs loaded, but... Thanks for the tip.
=Tom

How did you end up solving the problem?

The One For All remote with timer has gotten itself back in shape. It works fine until the batteries die. What a dumb company - lose all the programming when you change batteries?
If the batteries quit next year I might be able to stick a (timer play) Sony CD in.
I had to send a SIMA SUR-20 back to the company because the customer dropped it and cracked the screen. The company lost it for a few weeks. I got it back in about 45 days; it had not had batteries in it the whole time, and when I went to the client's house expecting to program it from scratch, magic! The codes were still there. 45 days with no batteries! And One For All can't make theirs last 10 seconds...shee...
=Tom

Hey tom, a 2 AA battery holder from radio shack and a pair of micro alligator clips makes for a great backup battery when changing batteries out of forgetful remotes. Just clip on the leads before taking the batteries out, and don't remove them until after the new ones are in. Still think the timer start unit is a better idea, but if the customer doesn't think so, try this. Less than 5 bucks for the parts.