Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just wanted to share my latest project I had in mind years ago, and finally got to finish it. It maintains a set temp by heating and cooling proportionally. I'm running it for the past two days, and so far this bad boy is proven itself.

You have a wine cooler there. Can you elaborate on how you are heating it? Are you using heating coils behind the back wall and blowing the warm air in?
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Mark

You're correct. It's a wine cooler, but I'm not using heating coils or any foreign heating element for warming.
A wine cooler uses the Peltier method to cool, which is also capable of warming by reversing it's polarity. This method is known as thermoelectric. I'm using the wine cooler's TE and fan assembly to get the warm/cool affect. A 2stage self reversing on/off thermostat could be used to achive this, but I believe the temp would vary alot with this type of stat. I'm using a sophisticated temp controller that self reverses from warm to cool by proportional means. This means that it switches from warm to cool mode, and vice versa in increments. Note that it only cools when it calls for... So far it hasn't. I'm getting outstanding stability and accuracy!
There's two ways of providing power to the incubator. I'm using the power supply the wine cooler came with. Or, an external power supply adapter, the ones with a female cigarette adapter, could be used instead. With this method, the incubator could be run on an ordinary ac outlet or through a car cig lighter. The existing power supply could be stripped out just to make it lighter.

Where did you get the thermostat you are using, ordid you make it? Soundslike an excellent idea!! -- Impressive!

I used the same thing for a “brumator”. This worked great but I learned it normally cools 15 degrees less than whatever is ambient. One night it got down in the forties and this thing fell to almost freezing. Your power supply thing left my brain in the dust, but I liked it! I am in south Florida where artificial cooling is the challenge, rather than warming. I’m thinking of setting up a system to provide a “cool spot” in a cage. Keep up the good work!

Awesome! I used this method for a brumator as well. I've also made a reptile cooler to use in the field for transporting herps and insects.

"This worked great but I learned it normally cools 15 degrees less than whatever is ambient. One night it got down in the forties and this thing fell to almost freezing".

Where you brumating your herps when this happened? Are they well?
You should try a on/off t-stat with that. I have my brumator set between 51-56f on a herpstat ND.

"I’m thinking of setting up a system to provide a “cool spot” in a cage".

I would like to hear about this idea. How do you plan to do that?
I had similar idea but drop it, because I didn't feel I need it. I have nothing but desert lizards.

The top image is of the herp transporter I'm thinking of
converting into an incubator.
The second image is a close-up shot of brumator and t-stat

Everything worked out with the brumator, all snakes were fine. I used an aquarium pump on a timer going into the tub on the bottom with water in it to supply some fresh air. The idea was that the incoming air would be chilled a bit by the water and increase humidity. I was thinking of mounting the air pump on the inside of the box and pumping cold air out to some type of coil in each cage to provide the cool spot. Haven’t quite begun planning that yet. Maybe circulating chilled water would be more efficient. Got any ideas on a miniature TE element that could be mounted into some type of hide right in each cage? Just a few degrees would be perfect for most cages. Please keep posting your projects!

It's good to hear your snakes are fine.
You said you need to cool a spot of the enclosure or a hide box? I was thinking of a fake rock hide with a TE., but I would use coldplates instead of a small fan to cool. Another idea was to hang a TE assembly over the ledge of the enclosure(I have front glass enclosures) like an airconditioner, seal the openings with plexiglass or use those plastic corrugated panels used for ac/s. This would probably bring the temp down a few degrees.

I have found a few parts online that I could order to play with (oh boy!) and start my trials and errors but I’m not ready for that part yet…
I am reading a few things, it seems it might be easy to construct a type of fake rock hide box that would provide a cool spot inside and a corresponding heat spot above? Typically you would pump the heat outside the cage (or wine cooler) I’m not sure if miniaturization would provide just a few degrees of a cool “cave” or if the electric supply is regulated or both, etc. I was thinking one of those really small chips might be able to be powered off a silicon chip and work off the light in the cage? No wires!
I’m hoping I just inspire you to figure it out and tell us how you did it!

The controller was not cheap, but then again most hight quality on/off t-stats aren't either. Besides, this controller is no ordinary t-stat. It's especially design for TE and it's digital. I've been test running it for the past three days and it's accuracy stil amazes me. I brought the temp down to 60f just for kicks, then right back up to 88f in a short amount of time with instant temp stability! It's worth it every penny of it, with no regrets. I plan to enjoy more time at the beach this year, and less time monitoring and worrying about the incubator temp...

Send me a message if you or anyone else is serious about making one. I could show you how to get the other components for less, and give you some instructions on how to build it.
Here's the link to the controller: http://signalllc.com/products/Si24DiTEPTC1-12B-50V-20A.html

I did not know that wine coolers used the Peltier effect.

Great idea on your part. You just gave me an idea. Where I live, cooling in Summer is necessary for just a few cages.

I have a temperature controller with pulse-proportional output (5 VDC to drive an external 10A solid-state relay) and it has a reverse-acting switch for cooling mode. Is that usable for a TE cooler? I just want cooling, not heating. Thanks.
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Mark

"I have a temperature controller with pulse-proportional
output (5 VDC to drive an external 10A solid-state relay)
and it has a reverse-acting switch for cooling mode.
Is that usable for a TE cooler? I just want cooling,
not heating. Thanks."

What t-stat do you have?
Just make sure the stat is true pulse proportional and not linear/dimming type thermostat. A TE does not work well with dimming, it needs the right amount of volts and amps to work efficiently otherwise it could overheat even with less power than it could handled.
A typical TE runs on 12vcd, 4-6amps. NOT AC! AC will fry it. So be sure the power source outputs at least 12vdc and at least 5amps for the TE.
Does your stat plugs inline? If so, then the TE is out of the question unless your stat has a on/off cooling mode.If it does, then you could plug a 12vdc, 5amps(5000ma) power source to the cooling ouput of the stat and the TE wired directly to the power source. The idea is that the stat switches the powersouce on/off, and in turn the TE will go on/off. This way the TE will get the current and power it requires, but in on/off burst/pulse which is alright... dimming not good.
You can get a cheap on/off stat that runs on 12vdc for about 7 bucks(unassembled:basic soldering required), 17 bucks (pre-assembled). I'm using these stats on my small coolers where accuracy is not that crucial. I'm going to try to make a small back incubator with one of these stats. I'll report the outcome.

Thanks for the info. I can get a DC output SSR and a power supply for the DC power. Yes, the controller is true pulse-proportional (time-proportional). From Omega Engineering www.omega.com - see the controllers section. I have a few different 1/16 DIN models. Fun stuff.
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Mark

Sounds good! Let us know how it goes.