Gadgets and Ideas

[Chenderson]

I'm currently designing a program to monitor and record everything to do with tortoises of all species. Currently I'm trying to use a Rasberry Pi to sense the temperature and humidity levels, and update PC and IOS application with the current statistics(possibly also a live camera). Also encompassing care sheets(not written by myself, later will be addressing the community to help fill these in), each tortoises data will be exported to a central database, which I'm hoping can be used by some sort tortoise researchers in the future.

Will also help new tortoise owners to know exactly what to feed their tortoises, warn them when temperatures are too low/high etc. Will take a lot of work! Best thing is, the whole kit wont cost too much, the price of a Rasberry Pi, and maybe a small sub fee to pay for updates and hosting.

 

[tortadise]

I'm currently designing a program to monitor and record everything to do with tortoises of all species. Currently I'm trying to use a Rasberry Pi to sense the temperature and humidity levels, and update PC and IOS application with the current statistics(possibly also a live camera). Also encompassing care sheets(not written by myself, later will be addressing the community to help fill these in), each tortoises data will be exported to a central database, which I'm hoping can be used by some sort tortoise researchers in the future.

Will also help new tortoise owners to know exactly what to feed their tortoises, warn them when temperatures are too low/high etc. Will take a lot of work! Best thing is, the whole kit wont cost too much, the price of a Rasberry Pi, and maybe a small sub fee to pay for updates and hosting.

The thing with that though. Is most enclosures in captivity aren't large enough to sustain wild temperatures, drops, barometric pressures, atmospheric pressures, things of that sort. Those are rarely taken into consideration and play a huge role in not only relative humidity, absolute humidity, and direct humidity. Which can alter moisture content of Air, substrates and temperature as well. It gets very very complicated when replicating to a precise climate. Luckily most chelonian a have a broad threshold. Some do not though like psammobates, Pyxis(specifically oblonga) chilensis donoborosii, kinixys domergyuei, Manouria impressa just to name a few

 

[NDevon]

I'm currently designing a program to monitor and record everything to do with tortoises of all species. Currently I'm trying to use a Rasberry Pi to sense the temperature and humidity levels, and update PC and IOS application with the current statistics(possibly also a live camera). Also encompassing care sheets(not written by myself, later will be addressing the community to help fill these in), each tortoises data will be exported to a central database, which I'm hoping can be used by some sort tortoise researchers in the future.

Will also help new tortoise owners to know exactly what to feed their tortoises, warn them when temperatures are too low/high etc. Will take a lot of work! Best thing is, the whole kit wont cost too much, the price of a Rasberry Pi, and maybe a small sub fee to pay for updates and hosting.

Hi @Chenderson how did you get on with this project?


A gadget I would really like to see is a more flexible thermostat. My new indoor enclosure will need at least 4, I can buy twin channel thermostats but they all have limitations. I want a digital system that offers night and day settings so I can drop temperatures, and it would be great if you could expand it so add an extra probe and socket. This would keep the base price down, you could buy it with just one probe and socket and add more as required. Some would use it for multiple enclosures, others would use it in one larger setup. Having a built in hygrostat would be great, and being able to see the current levels remotely on a smartphone would be just fantastic.

The closest thing I have found to this is the Microclimate Evo Pro. The first channel is perfect, you can choose on/off, pulse or dimming, have day and night settings, it's upto 600w, just what we need. The second channel is fine for my needs as it can work as a hygrostat, but if you wanted more heaters you'd need to use this second channel and it only works as an on/off controller. That is more suitable for use with lights I would suggest. I would like it to have the current spec, plus an additional channel to control another heater using pulse, dimming or on/off settings just like the first channel, and then an additional channel for lights using an on/off system. That would be closer to my needs and I would suggest the needs of others. It's not exactly a huge setup, all that would be controlling is two heaters on individual thermostat channels, a humidity system (fogger, mister, fans) and some lights or UV. It would need to draw a little,more power maybe so you could have two mains leads going in. Add in wireless info to a smartphone and it becomes very useful.

I've been looking at options for days now and there simply isn't anything that comes close to what I want. I believe having it modular would mean it's cheaper to make too and easy to upgrade as people's needs change. I needed one thermostat a couple of months back, I now could do with 5 plus a hygrostat or two and a,lighting controller, I can't be alone with this!

 

[NDevon]

These are nice gadgets. Designed and put into production by a friend of mine. Can be operated remotely from smart phone, tablet or computer. There lots of gadgets like these that can be set up for night drops, misting, humidity control all done by a program set by the keeper. Has to be a nicely done enclosure though. Open enclosures are very difficult to maintain a solid balance of proper temps, humidity and microclimates.

http://www.digitalaquatics.com/herpetology/herpkeeper-systems/herpkeeper-pro/

WOW! Now that's what I was talking about, exactly that sort of thing! It is possibly too complicated, I was looking at the modules available and my eyes glazed over, but you wouldn't need to buy it all, the main kit for the pro model seems to do nearly everything I was talking about. Not too sure it's great at talking to a smartphone, certainly not via an app, it looks like it's more about exporting data sets via a pc, but it's a start.

But, I don't think it's available in the UK, and all the sockets are US 2 pin so nothing here would work with it. Typical eh...

 

[Tortinator]

I'll work on something. The issue is the cost of all the parts in total.

How did you get on? I was also planning on doing something similar to this.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

How about using a 3 volt pump sprayer (2AA batteries) such as the type used on some bottles of bug spray, etc? They are not actually sold mounted and have a manual sprayer as well. So they would not have bug killer contamination.
since these have a micro switch inside them, it could be pressed or contacted with many things.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Outside I have an overhead misting system and the water line is hooked up to a $15 battery powered timer...........

 

[Cowboy_Ken]

How did you get on? I was also planning on doing something similar to this.

It's spring time here at the ranch, days filled with activities followed by late nights filled with visualization sand dreams. I've applied nothing to this monitor concept. Sorry for the let down, it's simply time for me to devote time to my bonsai. I've got pre-bonsai in the ground as well that will need to be dug and planted in training planters. It all depends on seasons.