21st Century Incubator in development. Need feedback/volunteers!

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See if we are doing it for "science" that is a GREAT excuse right??!!
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I can't believe spring is around the corner already. I am happy to report that our carpet is going in tomorrow! I just finished all the trim upstairs last night, and then finally put more time in my incubator project. Let me preface, a lot has changed. Originally, I wanted to design an incubator. Well, I think there are enough incubator makers in the world. Some much better than others, but I want to appeal to as many people as I can, from the foam bator owners, to the cabinet owners. So, my project has taken a turn, hopefully you agree for the better. I have a couple of incubators. My favorite is one I built from a little white igloo cooler, complete with an incandescent light bulb. I have tried the hot water heater stat, thermo-disc stat, and none can hold temperature correctly without a million adjustments. So, what I have built is more accurately a digital temperature/humidity controller. I looked for one already made, but the closest I could find was one with dials, no display and costs about $130. Not an intelligent controller. What I wanted to do was plug my incubator, or any incubator into my controller, and control the heat and humidity. So, that is what I built. The only thing inside my incubator is a small sensor, a small fan and my light bulb. Wow, I can fit a lot more eggs in there now.

This is a very basic circuit, with very very basic components. What is does however, is impressive. It checks my temperature approx. 1000 times a second, can hold the temperature with +- 0.5 degrees and humidity within 2%. The install is simple. For example, if I had a Hova-Bator, I would make a small hole in the side to fit an RJ-45 plug (network cord, slightly larger than a phone jack) through the incubator. This plugs into my control much like a phone cord plugs in. Through that wire, the sensor tells me the humidity and temperature of my incubator, wherever I decide to locate it. It also powers my fan. In the controller itself, there are two outlets, one is where the incubator plugs in, or my light bulb or other heat source, and the other is for a humidity pump if i were to use one. This would control humidity). The controller is external to the incubator. The controller turns the heat and humidity on and off as necessary. If I were to max out the wafer thermostat on a basic incubator, then it would no longer control the heat, my controller would. The temperature is programmed to 99.5 degrees. The humidity is set to 50%. The selector switch can be thrown to increase humidity to 75% for final days of hatching. The information from the incubator is fed to a LCD screen mounted in the top of the controller showing precise temp and humidity on a nice size easy to read back-lit LCD screen.

I will be mounting the LCD in the top cover, the power switch on the left, humidity selector switch on the right. Originally I was going to include multi-colored LED's (lights) to show status, but I think those would be redundant since there is a LCD display. I was thinking of adding a buzzer alarm that would sound if temp rose or dropped beyond limits and/or humidity did (light bulb burns out, humidity pump out of water, etc.) How loud should the buzzer be if I add one, loud enough so the neighbors can hear? J/K. Thoughts on that?

I am back full gear into this, since I want it finally finished. I have wanted it for a long time now. I have mostly assembled and working perfectly, I need to mount the LCD and mount the switches and I will post pictures I pray by this weekend.

Preliminary pricing puts it somewhere in the $149 range, depending on the bells and whistles I include in the final project, and the cost of producing the circuit boards professionally. Plus, I will be able to offer separate controller chips for different species / controller settings that may be required, or can do custom programming at time of order. I was thinking of adding adjustment controls, but I wanted it more bullet-proof, plus there is really no need to. Further, I am trying to keep the cost down as much as possible.

So, let's hear it, what do you think about the slight direction change?

Oh, and yes I will still need a tester or two, in return for a testimonial of course. Someone willing to use it on a full hatch and give a full reporting of results. I have a short list of those interested already that have volunteered here. I will keep you updated of that as well. The unit that will be sent to be tested will be a fully-functioning prototype which will be yours to keep of course.
 
Ok, in lieu of an actual photo for now, here is a drawing to better clarify what I am talking about. Excuse my crude drawing, my right-brain isn't very developed.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

So, the control box is on the left, it is fairly small for what it does. The top is where the LCD is, the plug in the front controls the humidity and heater. The humidity selector switch is ether going to be in the front or on the side, same with main power switch. The phone jack on the right side is to connect the sensor and fan.

No, this is not exactly to scale, but fairly close.
 

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