I was headed out for vacation and wanted a timer for the light on the front of my house. So I made one with stuff I had laying around.

It is a very simple servo project with an arduino board to control it. The time program I created will turn on the light as soon as you turn it on wait 4 hours and turn the light off for 20 hours. (These are all very approximate the way I did the programming, as I was not after accuracy.) After a 2 week vacation it was off by about an hour, but hey close enough. :)

You'll need to get:
1) Ardunio
2) 9g mini servo (part number ERCS900 I got mine from Hobby-Lobby.com)
3) 3 male to male jumper wires
4) 2 longer switch plate cover screws
5) 2 #6 washers for spacers

You'll need to do:

1. Print the Servo mount

2. Attach the servo to the mount using the supplied screws with the servo

3. Attach the long skinny servo bar to the servo.

4. Remove the screws from the light switch cover and mount the assembly over the light switch plate using longer screws. (you can steal longer screws from the outlet covers near by) I also used a couple washers between the mount and the light switch cover for added clearance to make the switch work consistently.

5. Upload the Servo_Switch.pde program to the ardunio.

6. Mount the Ardunio board to the wall near by (I used bright pink thumbtacks)

7. Connect the servo to the ardunio using male jumper wires. Red to 5V, Black to Ground and Orange to pin 9

8. Plug the ardunio in and watch the magic as the light switch is turned on.

9. Be prepared for questions like "You're not going to burn the house down while we are on vacation, are you?"