A couple of friends and I are considereing building

something I've been thinking about for a while.



Briefly, it's a sytem for controlling heating,

lighting and possibly other things like misting sytems

for reptile enclosures. The biggest difference between

our idea and anything else I've seen is that rather

than having a separate box with controls for each cage

or small group of cages, the controllers would be

networked and contolled by software on a PC. Aside

from allowing setup of large groups of cages from one

point, it would allow more flexible control.



For instance:

Set heating and lighting to gradually change over a

specified period.

Set heat and light ranges and times to gradually

change with programmed "seasons".

Group cages by home region to simplify setup.

Possibly allow web based monitoring and override of

settings.

Possibly integrate web cams.



We hope to keep the price for the controllers below

the price per cage (not counting the PC) of all but

the very simplest current controllers (dumb

thermostats), so that this will be affordable for

private keepers (like me).



What I need to hear are:

Who would be interested in this?

Who thinks it sounds too complicated and is perfectly

happy with current, simple controllers?

What (if anything) are you using now?

For any breeders or curators with large display

collections out there, is this something you need?

Would you be willing to work with something from a new

company?

What are you using now?

Does anyone know of anything similar that I might not

have seen yet?

Any other features you would like to see?



We would not be building the heating or lighting (at

least for now), just the controllers.



Please let me know what you think.



(Moderators: I hope this is appropriate. It seems to be OK under my reading of the TOS but there's certainly a commercial aspect to it, so if you disagree please remove this post.)

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