Homemade incubator thermostat!

[chickenlittle77]

this little guy is making me grow white hair. here some pics of it finished :
this is where the eggs are going to rest,

the blue/green sponges are soaked throuhg a tube from outside

i installed the stat on a metal place following the same principal that it goes agains the water tank (giving it a try, maybe work better in regulating the temp) then i put it inside the electrical box

the little holes is where i adjust the thermostat from

lights off

lights on

still fighting with the temp

Thank you all for the inputs! ill post when i finally get the eggs and the temp to be stable

 

[pascopol]

Quote:
This is as good or better for half of the price:

http://www.cheappetproducts.net/Repti_-_Temp_500WATT_THERMOSTAT_with_PROBE-P69363.html

I have one, works like a charm, only .5F temperature swing.

Has a probe and dial (no screw or opening the bator to adjust)

Plug and play, no wiring.

Can you water heater or wafer do that?

pascopol, thanks for pointing this out along with sharing your positive experience with it. Looks interesting and much cheaper than the GQF electronic one. I'll have to remember this one.

Ed

A few days ago I was able to find ReptiTemp 500R for 21.99 on the web.

I posted the link on another thread.

People are buying "electronic" thermostats on ebay and eggbid for 17 or more bucks which are really water heater thermosta" ts available at Lows for 9 bucks. These are not "Electronic" in any way, just bimetal switch closing and opening the circuit. Really 19 Century technology.

For a few more bucks you can have real "electronic" and very accurate and reliable thermostat.

By the way Little Giant thermostat is junk compared to reptitemp500. and it costs more.

I bought Little Giant Thermostat for my homemade bator, but soon I replaced it with repti500 cause the LG therm was swinging and spiking just like Little Giant does.

 

[Stephen in SoKY]

Cool. Iassume you just put a plug on your heating element?

 

[chickenlittle77]

not sure i got the question Stephen!!

 

[Davaroo]

Well, you get an "A" for effort.

But, you have your control device (thermostat) inside a box, behind a plate and inside the insulated wall - is that right? If so, no wonder you are having problems.

The thermostat should be in the air mass in order for it to control properly. Remember, you are not trying to control an incubator, per se; you are trying to control/maintain conditions in an air mass.
The incubator is only there to contain that mass and insulate it from environmental variations.

One of the best things to happen to the home hatcherist are these electronic reptile controllers and the old fashioned wafer control switches. I would strongly urge you to get one or the other of them and toss that water heater unit to the curb. You can cut costs in many places when building your own 'bator, but your controller isn't one of them.

 

[subdriver]

I'm trying the MTM Scientific incubator thermostat/heater for my home built 'bator. Using a thermistor and semiconductor device to sense temperature, it uses what looks like 1 watt resistors to produce 25 watts of power to heat the incubator. There is even an aux output to run a muffin fan. Needs 12v 2 amp supply.
I haven't received it yet and have no connection to them other than I purchased one the other day. I think it would be more stable than disks or rehab water heater thermostat. we'll see if it works. $27.50 which includes shipping.

http://www.mtmscientific.com/incubator.html

I searched the message boards to see if anyone else has had expirence with it and no luck.... I guess I'll test drive it and let every one know.


-sub-

 

[chickenlittle77]

will the electronic reptile controller control the light on/off?

 

[DANNY]

Quote:
This is as good or better for half of the price:

http://www.cheappetproducts.net/Repti_-_Temp_500WATT_THERMOSTAT_with_PROBE-P69363.html

I have one, works like a charm, only .5F temperature swing.

Has a probe and dial (no screw or opening the bator to adjust)

Plug and play, no wiring.

Can you water heater or wafer do that?

If it is not wired in to the heat source how does it control the temperature?

 

[pascopol]

Quote:
This is as good or better for half of the price:

http://www.cheappetproducts.net/Repti_-_Temp_500WATT_THERMOSTAT_with_PROBE-P69363.html

I have one, works like a charm, only .5F temperature swing.

Has a probe and dial (no screw or opening the bator to adjust)

Plug and play, no wiring.

Can you water heater or wafer do that?

If it is not wired in to the heat source how does it control the temperature?

You plug it into the wall, then plug the bator to it. Just like you plug the timer.

I said it is "Plug and play" not a wire it yourself.

If you bothered to click on the link you would see the picture of it and better understand how it works.

 

[DANNY]

I clicked on the link. Its just a picture. So it will turn the fan and all off not just the heating element. In all the incubators only the heating element goes off not the fan.