Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all........

I am currently designing an automated viv. I have looked at ways available to do this and could use the usual controllers or build my own control unit from timers etc but I would like it to be PC based. I cannot really find anything specific to vivs and could easily do it with industrial automation products but this would be too costly for a hobby.
I am looking at having around 8 switches and maybe 4 temperature readings. Ideally I could program the logic of the control on my PC and this could either directly or remotely control the system.

The best I can find is for home automation that uses plug in modules for switching devices and the PC communicates to the devices over the mains electrical circuit already in your house.

Sorry for being a geek but somebodys gotta!!

Any hints,help,ideas or solutions welcome...........

(the pic is one of the reasons for building the new viv)

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AndyD

0.0.1 Mexican Kingsnake
0.3.0 Bearded Dragons
1.0.0 Egyptian Uromastyx

I would like to trend the readings if possible to monitor temperature across the vivs over periods of time. Sorry. I know I'm a geek. My family tell me regularly!!

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AndyD

0.0.1 Mexican Kingsnake
0.3.0 Bearded Dragons
1.0.0 Egyptian Uromastyx

Interesting idea but personally, I think it's really impractical. For one thing, if your computer crashes for any reason (other than power outage, as that will, well, affect any system) then your vivarium will no longer be working.

As vivariums only really need two things, regular water and lights/heat (if this is to be used for a bearded dragon, then you don't need to add water often, only if you have plants and to mist hatchling and baby dragons.

A simple timer is all you need for heat/lights, to turn off the basking light and UVB bulb at night and turn them back on during the day.

For rainforest type vivariums, where you need light, water, etc, a separate timer would be needed to turn the mister on 2-4 times a day.

For whatever type of vivarium, you may have to code your own program to monitor and turn things on/off. Personally I really dont' see any need for using a program to do this for a bearded dragon, when you still have to water and feed your dragon daily and pick up after them. (or stir the soil to work feces and uneaten food into the soil and keep it rotated).

There may be programs out there, now that I think about it more, which are used with green houses/farmers fields, to turn sprinklers on and off, or additional lighting/heating. However I doubt any of these programs are cheap. Checking under agricultural programs on google may give you some info on what programs they use for their automated systems.
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PHLdyPayne

Thanks for the reply.

I am still unsure of how to handla a PC crash at the moment but the main thing that I want to achieve is the automatic control such that I can possibly dim lights in the evening over a period of time and reverse in the morning. I want to automate but do not really want to use lots of bulky time switches.
I will look into the agriculture control that you mentioned - never though of that.

The whole thing though is more of a hobby rather than a serious attempt at controlling an environment. As you say, other than light and heat, the feeding and cleaning up routines still need to be carried out manually. I really want to add more uniform to day/night times to try and make it more realistic and I do not wnat to loose the "hands on" that I have with my Beardies at the moment.

Thanks for the reply!!!

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AndyD

0.0.1 Mexican Kingsnake
0.3.0 Bearded Dragons
1.0.0 Egyptian Uromastyx