T12 Idea for Holder and Sleep Mode

[robert574]

I just bought a Quicko T12-952 station (STC not STM32) (works really well) and need a better stand.  I have the 3/4" (19mm) OD aluminum handle and it drops right through all of mine.  While I'm at it, I'd like to improve the sleep mode.

Edit:  I chose to go back and edit this post as some parts have arrived and just wouldn't work.

I was looking to add a cycling timer to pulse the shake / sleep switch wire and then ground a wire to the stand on the side of the tip when it was put in the holder to make it sleep.

There's very little room inside the station housing around the existing 24VDC supply board and the timer (I bought) will not fit.  Next, the shake switch connects the sleep wire to the negative power to the tip, not ground (and it will have some common mode voltage).  Also, the internal 24V supply negative side (the board feeding the control panel) is not ground.  I measure 10K ohms from 24V neg to ground.  Can't just pull the sleep wire low.  Sigh....

Not to give up though, I ordered a small isolated 24V-24V DC-DC converter (really small, to power from the existing supply) and a much smaller timer with a relay to give dry contacts for connecting the shake switch wire.  I can ground the output of the negative of the DC-DC converter and cycling timer module to make the stand connection possible.  The relay coil is powered by a PNP transistor so by grounding the base (thru resistor) the relay will stop cycling and remain on to complete the sleep time.  I also ordered a different stand that was recommended.

The project changed some from the original plan (always does I guess) and I'll add some pictures when it all gets here in case anyone else is interested.