Greeetings V,
 
When I did the design work in 1998 for the EZCS polarity switching generator  I 
used a 555 timer driving a 4027 JK flip flop driving an L293D.
 
I ran a study for a duty cycle of 12  x 12 seconds, 24 x 24, 36 x 36, 48 x 48, 
60 x 60, 72 x 72, 90 x 90, 120 x 120 seconds.
 
The best product at the best time was 60 x 60 seconds.
 
You could do this today with an 8 bit microprocessor.
 
Hope this helps.
 
"Ole Bob"