Ignition AND programmable time based switch?

[urbex]

TL;DR - Is there a product "off the shelf" that would provide for control of 12VDC accessories that would turn on any time it's provided with an ignition signal, AND would also turn on at a specified time? Such as any time the ignition is on, the accessories are powered. Turn off ignition, it goes into X-minutes/hours delay mode. Just like any typical delay timer. But every morning, at 4am, it turns on regardless of ignition status, and runs for the programmed delay time. Ideally, I'd like to be able to program it for say Monday through Friday, but I could deal with daily. I suspect I'm just not using correct search terms in Google for this...I have a plan in mind of how I could accomplish this with something like an Arduino and a relay, but I'm also curious if there is already a similar solution on the market.

My situation - we all carry coolers on our work trucks for bottled water, and it's great that the company provides the coolers and all the ice we can use, but after switching 100% to compressor refrigerators years ago in my personal rigs, I did the same in the work truck, though in a "unapproved modification" form, lol. For a while I was parking my work truck in the back 40 next to a light pole with a power outlet, and just plugging in every night to keep the fridge running and cold. Unfortunently, that ended several months before this COVID thing, when we had reorganization, and the dept insisted that we park all the trucks together near the building, where there isn't easily accessible AC power, . I tried to avoid it, but you know..the whole "choose your battles" thing.

So, given that I start my day at 6am, I'd like the fridge to turn on at 4am to pre-cool it before I get to the truck, along with it running all day while I'm running around handling service calls. I've tested it before, and on my little 15L fridge, two to three hours is plenty enough to get the drinks cool enough. But at the same time, I don't want to leave it running 24/7 and potentially drain batteries, especially over the weekend. I know "extra battery and solar" is the simple solution to this, but an extra battery, solar panel, and associated wiring would definitely be an "unapproved modification" to the truck which would be questioned any time it went in for service. Whereas an additional timer box and DC plug/socket wouldn't be noticed, with the fridge itself being easily removed.

 

[rayra]

most factory courtesy timers shut power off at ~10mins, IIRC. Whether there's a load or not. So if you pulse the ignition / ACC circuit to trigger the factory courtesy it's still going to shut off several minutes later. You might have to juice that circuit every 10mins to trigger the factory settings.

WOuldn't be hard to add a direct-wired socket for the fridge and just unplug it for an 'out sick' or weekend.

I looked, OP profile says Glendale AZ so 'open the cooler and crack open the windows' is of no use. not when it can stay over 100F at midnight

 

[urbex]

Whoops...never got any email saying I had a reply, and I feel like I might have missed one here?

Anyways, I have problems remembering such things, hence why I have timer boxes in the truck now, lol. I went and bought a dual SIM cell phone on my own dime because I kept forgetting to grab my work phone off my desk when leaving, and have since bought a cell connected smartwatch because I occasionally forget my personal phone too, lol.

My other potential issue is that while my day starts at approx the same time every day, it doesn't always end at the same time, and that's why I wanted the ignition control as well - not so much to shut it down via ignition relay, rather to keep it going until my day is done. Some days I'm home before noon, last night I didn't get home until almost 11pm. In the summer, often our trucks don't shut down at all the entire working day, due to that aforementioned heat. Shut off the truck, and it's 150F+ inside the cab in a jiffy, even with the windows cracked.

I'm guessing that engineering my own microprocessor based solution is probably going to be the only logical one here, though that does add in nifty abilities like connecting a cellular interface to it to shut it down remotely if I know I'm going to be away for an extended time so it doesn't turn on every day while I'm gone. Realistically, I could probably just let it go over night most days without an issue, as I know my big 60L fridge will run for over 24 hours on a single Group 24 deep cycle, while baking in direct 115*F sunlight during the day, and being a diesel, my truck has two large batteries in it already. I haven't tested the work truck, but I know my personal diesel truck will crank and fire on only one. But all the same, if I can get it to shut down nightly, all the better.

 

[Martinjmpr]

My situation - we all carry coolers on our work trucks for bottled water, and it's great that the company provides the coolers and all the ice we can use, but after switching 100% to compressor refrigerators years ago in my personal rigs, I did the same in the work truck, though in a "unapproved modification" form, lol. For a while I was parking my work truck in the back 40 next to a light pole with a power outlet, and just plugging in every night to keep the fridge running and cold. Unfortunently, that ended several months before this COVID thing, when we had reorganization, and the dept insisted that we park all the trucks together near the building, where there isn't easily accessible AC power, . I tried to avoid it, but you know..the whole "choose your battles" thing

OK, so before you start adding wiring or modifying your work truck let me ask you this:

It sounds like you drive to work every day in your personal vehicle, then switch to your work truck which is parked at work in a motor-pool type environment, right? (Motor pool is what we'd call it in the Army, not sure what terminology other industries use.)

Would it not be possible for you to just take your cooler home at the end of the work day and plug it in at home?

Even if the cooler is big and heavy and you don't want to schlep it around (which is understandable), you could carry the cooler in your personal car, all cooled down and ready to go. Pick up your work truck but first stop at the parking lot where your private car is and put the cooler in your truck. Drive around with the cooler in the truck all day. At the end of the day, you reverse your actions at the beginning of the day: Stop at your personal car, put the cooler there, then drive the work truck to the motor pool and park it.

You could just leave the cooler plugged in at home (hell you could leave it in your private car and run an extension cord to the house if you aren't parking in a garage.)

Wouldn't that be a simpler way to accomplish the same thing?

 

[NatersXJ6]

Mechanical Christmas Light timer. Works as a switch and doesn’t actually really care what the voltage is that it is switching. Has time based on and off. Run a parallel source from the ignition and you will be hot when ignition is on or when timer says so.

im guessing on that. I’ve never tried it.

I did successfully use a Christmas light timer to defeat the power down function on my laser printer. It would go into “energy saving” and never wake up unless you cycled power. The boneheads at HP thought that was a design feature. Now it gets a few minutes of off time each day and cycles power so it stays in standby but not energy saving mode!