DIY CABINET COOLER INCUBATOR How we did it and TEST RUN Ready Set GO!

[Penny Hen]

Ive always wondered why folks don't use PID's more in homemade incubators..they are very affordable and guys in our line of work use them to make PID controlled forges and Kilns all the time..

Please explain what a PID is for the electric noob.

 

[ozexpat]

Ive always wondered why folks don't use PID's more in homemade incubators..they are very affordable and guys in our line of work use them to make PID controlled forges and Kilns all the time..

an stc-1000 thermostat is below $18 and in the range of a small incubator price.

remember ther are tens of thousands of farm innovator styros with that little black knob.

I will research the use of PID more because the differntial is really only the price of two or three chicks sold

 

[Penny Hen]

Please explain what a PID is for the electric noob.

Never mind

(in Rosanne Rosanna Dannas's voice). I reread the whole post and finally saw the definition.

 

[dheltzel]

Has anyone tried using a hair dryer in an incubator? Seems like it would supply both a fan and heating element (and a power cord). Maybe they are they not engineered to run 24 x 7?

 

[ozexpat]

Has anyone tried using a hair dryer in an incubator? Seems like it would supply both a fan and heating element (and a power cord). Maybe they are they not engineered to run 24 x 7?

there is a guy that runs a two door fridg incubator using hairdriers.

he has burnt a few out as the fans are really designed for 24/7 use

 

[DJC62]

A PID may or may not be the way to go with a small table top incubator. They usually have everything built in and will hatch eggs. But if you are building something cooler size and larger with forced air circulation, I know of nothing affordable that would do better at controlling your temp accurately. If you are using a small Styrofoam or plastic table top incubator you would have to do a little wiring and come up with a small box (radioshack has them) to put it in so you or children didn't come into contact with the wires on the back. That's easy enough but if looks matter and such then you'd probably do best staying with what they have already built into them. If your thermostat goes out, certainly consider a PID or if you are using a wafer type, again you might consider switching to a PID. They are a lot more accurate in holding your desired temp. I can keep +/- 1/10th of a degree in my incubator, which is large (1,728 chicken egg capacity). Speaks well for the capability of a PID. I've found some on EBay for I think it was in the $20 odd range but I didn't buy any. Having said that, the face is exactly the same as the one I bought but could have different guts. I've no idea. Could be half the price of what I bought and exactly the same product minus the brand name on mine.

@OZEXPAT

I will try to get some photos this weekend. I have a couple crappy ones and if I can find them real quick I'll attach one.


The above photo is my probe line chart running on a laptop over a 48 hour period. I also did one for the entire 21 days. As you can see the temp is either one click over or under 99.5 which averages out to 99.5. I figured out the reason for that pattern since I took this snap shot, when my turner rotated the egg racks it caused that variation. Which in one of my previous posts I mentioned that I had added a 3rd fan, squirrel cage type at the bottom of the incubator. Adding that fan was in effort to reduce this small variation in temp. A tweak, just because that's the kind of guy I am. And it worked. Temp is almost flat lined now so I'm quite happy with my temp control. Notice the spike, that's what happens when you open a door for a sec in the middle of December.

I have a crappy video I'm uploading but it's going to take a little bit, 5.5mb, which isn't much except I'm in the country and have terrible internet, wireless and the nearest tower must be a long ways off as I'm at the edge of the service area. PM me and I'll send you a link to it once it's uploaded to my website.





Here are a couple photos of one of my hatches in progress. The white eggs in the blue hatch tray are Texas A&M Leghorn eggs, shipped to me in January via Greyhound bus. They didn't do as well as my eggs but I got what I was wanting out of them. These were from my second trial run after completing my incubator build.

Can't find the incubator photos so I'll try and take some over the weekend.

Dave

 

[cieraphoto]

bookmarked

 

[dheltzel]

I'm working on a hatcher and planning to use an aquarium with insulation around the outside (I can't help it, I like to watch). Got an STC as the thermostat and can rig up a 12v computer fan easily, but I need a reliable heater that doesn't upset the chicks by blinking rapidly (I believe it wear out light bulbs faster too). I'm thinking about this option. Looks easy to implement and cheap:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271122790912

Anyone ever used this before?

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote:
Having used hairdryers my entire life, no way would I use one

But in researching I have seen a few people using them. for the cost of a dryer vs the fan/heater sets on ebay its no contests as to what to buy

 

[Sally Sunshine]

I'm working on a hatcher and planning to use an aquarium with insulation around the outside (I can't help it, I like to watch). Got an STC as the thermostat and can rig up a 12v computer fan easily, but I need a reliable heater that doesn't upset the chicks by blinking rapidly (I believe it wear out light bulbs faster too). I'm thinking about this option. Looks easy to implement and cheap:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271122790912

Anyone ever used this before?

very cool