Spiratone Darkroom Timer

[hjoseph7]

Call me a Lubite, but I'm always working on my DIY Darkroom situated in a large walk-in closet next to my bedroom. Although I'm constantly working on my Darkroom, I'm hardly ever in it except to fetch some clothes that share the space. The other day I purchased a "Spiratone darkroom timer" for about $40 on ebay. Now this item was not completely neccessary since I already have 2 Grablab timers in use. However, the Spiratone timer is easier to use in that you can enter 3 process times at a time which can run simultaneously or one process at a time by just pressing a button. 

This is perfect for film or paper development. I wish it allowed you more process-times, but you can always ad another time once one of the previous times is completed. The Timer 'beebs' once a process time is completed. The beep is not too loud or annoying. At first I thought about a Jobo Process Timer that looks really cool, but the ones selling  on eBay all come from Europe meaning they have 220V plugs instead of 110V like we have here in the USA.

When I saw the Spiratone it was like a dream come true.  I didn't want to bother with the conversion plugs(or burn down the house) so I went to with the Spiratone. 

I hate to be nit-picky, but the Spiratone process timer also comes with Clock, that is while the 3 Timers are not in use the Timer displays the time-of-day, but for some reason the Clock only displays 20 hours. After 19:59 nothing is displayed on the front panel ? I'm not sure why the folks at Spiratone designed it that way ? Why not display the full 24 hours ? Sometimes when I'm making prints, I'm up untill the wee hours of the morning when there are no light leaks to worry about. Its not a big issue since I always have a watch on my wrist, but why ? Unless I'm doing something wrong ? 

Prior to the spiratone I also purchased an eTone modern timer for about $17, that does the same thing and is about the size of a credit card. 

 

Spiratone Process Timer:

 

Jobo Darkroom Process Timer:

 

 

ETone Modern Timer:

Im

 

[hjoseph7]

**My mistake** Apparently the Clock works normally displaying all digits from 00:00 to 24:00.  I'm still trying to wrap my head around this, but this timer allows you set Time-Down times in hours/minutes and minutes/seconds.

In hours/minutes capacity you can set Time-down times form 1 minute to 19 hours. i.e.(10:22 or 10 hours 22 minutes) the time will count down from 10:22 to 00:00 then the buzzer will sound.

In minutes/seconds capacity you can set Time-down times from 1 second to 19 minutes i.e. (1:52  or 1 minute 52 seconds) the time will count down from 1:52 to 00:00 then the buzzer will sound. . Time-down times means that the time decreases in descending order. (5 ,4, 3, 2, 1, 0).  You can set these Time-down in 3 different channels/Timers (Timer1, Timer2, Timer3).  

To set the clock which is Time-up  you have to press the [clock] button and hold it down while using the arrows on the adjustment pannel to add or subtract hours and minutes. Seconds do not display in Clock/Time-of-day capacity.

* Not sure if the Timer is faulty, but the first time I tried to set the Clock, I could not adjust it if the time entered was greater than 19:59 ?  But once the time entered was 00:01 or greater I was able to adjust the time ? Oh well a minor inconvenience that I think I can live with.  

Edited June 13, 2023 by hjoseph7

[glen_h]

Some timers have a mode more like a stop watch.

When you want to know how long something took, instead of just do something for some amount of time.

 

[JDMvW]

For no particular reason except that I am a Spiratone 'fan' - here is a timer from the 1979 Spiratone catalogue:

Edited June 22, 2023 by JDMvW

[AJG]

3 minutes ago, JDMvW said:

For no particular reason except that I am a Spiratone 'fan' - here is a timer from the 1979 Spiratone catalogue:

I used the less fancy version of this without the +/- 20% switch for many years with my Durst M 600 and then my Omega D 2 with cold light head with great success.  Never a problem until I sold the D2 and replaced it with a Zone VI enlarger with its own compensating timer.