Remote control heat mat, etc.

urek

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Joined
Feb 7, 2014
Messages
5
Hello,
I'll do my best to get to the point. I made my Stanfield heatmat remotely controllable. I'd like to share and maybe someone else out there with more programming knowledge might be interested in improving on the idea.

I have been working on some projects for my sulcata's outdoor shed. Maybe someone might be interested in doing something similar. The only issues I have with my Stanfield heat mat is that it will lose power occasionally when put near the lowest setting. The mat also needs to be turned up to 4, then lowered in order to start and be at a safe temperature. So I can't do a remote on/off switch. Additionally, while the ambient temperature is consistent, the heat mat needs more monitoring because the temperature seems to change over long durations. Well, I like to travel. I have a friend who can watch the tortoise for the most part, and he has a large, safe backyard with plenty of food growing for him to eat. Nonetheless I spend too much time worrying when I leave town :)

While it sounds complicated, I believe most people could do this if you are not great with computers. I can make actual instructions if anyone actually finds interest in this. :)

I bought a Raspberry Pi kit with power supply and 4gb SD card ($60 embedded computer), long range usb wifi dongle to reach my wifi ($26), an arduino kit with a serial usb cable and breadboard ($40), and a servo motor with a bundle of breadboard jumpers ($11). IP Camera was $50.

The Raspberry pi connects to the arduino. The arduino is wired to the breadboard which is wired to a servo motor. (Its easier than legos to assemble, I can post links if any are interested.) The servo motor is glued to the dial on the Stanfield controls. The IP camera allows me to see the dial.

Servo motors turn to a given degree. The one I used goes from 0-180. I stuck a piece of tape to the end of the motor that spins and set the degree to 45. The tape gave me a reference point to line up with the dial. 180 degrees gives you a range of 1-5 on the dial if lined up right. I set the IP camera to have a direct view of the dial.

Result, I can remotely connect from my cell phone or computer, to the Raspberry pi through RDP or VNC. Unfortunately, I can't figure out a better way than using a GUI to turn the dial. It is possible, but that's where things start to go over my head. Maybe someone can help? But it does work.

The next thing I would like to add to this project would be 2 IR touchless temperature sensors. These would also be attached and controlled by the arduino. Ultimately I'd like the temperature sensors to read Tortie's surface temperature as well as the surface temperature of the mat itself and adjust accordingly. Anybody with more knowledge interested?
 

Yvonne G

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Alas, poor urek, I know not of which you speak! Or was that Yorick? Anyway, welcome to the Forum. What you are describing is much too complicated for this old brain to compute, but we do have some pretty odd ball and educated brains here on the Forum.
 

gtc

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urek said:
Hello,
I'll do my best to get to the point. I made my Stanfield heatmat remotely controllable. I'd like to share and maybe someone else out there with more programming knowledge might be interested in improving on the idea.

I have been working on some projects for my sulcata's outdoor shed. Maybe someone might be interested in doing something similar. The only issues I have with my Stanfield heat mat is that it will lose power occasionally when put near the lowest setting. The mat also needs to be turned up to 4, then lowered in order to start and be at a safe temperature. So I can't do a remote on/off switch. Additionally, while the ambient temperature is consistent, the heat mat needs more monitoring because the temperature seems to change over long durations. Well, I like to travel. I have a friend who can watch the tortoise for the most part, and he has a large, safe backyard with plenty of food growing for him to eat. Nonetheless I spend too much time worrying when I leave town :)

While it sounds complicated, I believe most people could do this if you are not great with computers. I can make actual instructions if anyone actually finds interest in this. :)

I bought a Raspberry Pi kit with power supply and 4gb SD card ($60 embedded computer), long range usb wifi dongle to reach my wifi ($26), an arduino kit with a serial usb cable and breadboard ($40), and a servo motor with a bundle of breadboard jumpers ($11). IP Camera was $50.

The Raspberry pi connects to the arduino. The arduino is wired to the breadboard which is wired to a servo motor. (Its easier than legos to assemble, I can post links if any are interested.) The servo motor is glued to the dial on the Stanfield controls. The IP camera allows me to see the dial.

Servo motors turn to a given degree. The one I used goes from 0-180. I stuck a piece of tape to the end of the motor that spins and set the degree to 45. The tape gave me a reference point to line up with the dial. 180 degrees gives you a range of 1-5 on the dial if lined up right. I set the IP camera to have a direct view of the dial.

Result, I can remotely connect from my cell phone or computer, to the Raspberry pi through RDP or VNC. Unfortunately, I can't figure out a better way than using a GUI to turn the dial. It is possible, but that's where things start to go over my head. Maybe someone can help? But it does work.

The next thing I would like to add to this project would be 2 IR touchless temperature sensors. These would also be attached and controlled by the arduino. Ultimately I'd like the temperature sensors to read Tortie's surface temperature as well as the surface temperature of the mat itself and adjust accordingly. Anybody with more knowledge interested?

I use IP cams and tellstick net with compatible temperature and humidity sensors to remotely monitor temps, humidity, turn lights on and off and more. Everything is monitored and controlled over my smartphone over internet. Im sure the system (tellstick net) should also be able to control your heat mat and turn it on and off based on temperature readings. Its much easier to setup than rasberry pi.
 

urek

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Feb 7, 2014
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Perfect. Thank you. Now I can use my arduino for other projects :)
gtc said:
urek said:
Hello,
I'll do my best to get to the point. I made my Stanfield heatmat remotely controllable. I'd like to share and maybe someone else out there with more programming knowledge might be interested in improving on the idea.

I have been working on some projects for my sulcata's outdoor shed. Maybe someone might be interested in doing something similar. The only issues I have with my Stanfield heat mat is that it will lose power occasionally when put near the lowest setting. The mat also needs to be turned up to 4, then lowered in order to start and be at a safe temperature. So I can't do a remote on/off switch. Additionally, while the ambient temperature is consistent, the heat mat needs more monitoring because the temperature seems to change over long durations. Well, I like to travel. I have a friend who can watch the tortoise for the most part, and he has a large, safe backyard with plenty of food growing for him to eat. Nonetheless I spend too much time worrying when I leave town :)

While it sounds complicated, I believe most people could do this if you are not great with computers. I can make actual instructions if anyone actually finds interest in this. :)

I bought a Raspberry Pi kit with power supply and 4gb SD card ($60 embedded computer), long range usb wifi dongle to reach my wifi ($26), an arduino kit with a serial usb cable and breadboard ($40), and a servo motor with a bundle of breadboard jumpers ($11). IP Camera was $50.

The Raspberry pi connects to the arduino. The arduino is wired to the breadboard which is wired to a servo motor. (Its easier than legos to assemble, I can post links if any are interested.) The servo motor is glued to the dial on the Stanfield controls. The IP camera allows me to see the dial.

Servo motors turn to a given degree. The one I used goes from 0-180. I stuck a piece of tape to the end of the motor that spins and set the degree to 45. The tape gave me a reference point to line up with the dial. 180 degrees gives you a range of 1-5 on the dial if lined up right. I set the IP camera to have a direct view of the dial.

Result, I can remotely connect from my cell phone or computer, to the Raspberry pi through RDP or VNC. Unfortunately, I can't figure out a better way than using a GUI to turn the dial. It is possible, but that's where things start to go over my head. Maybe someone can help? But it does work.

The next thing I would like to add to this project would be 2 IR touchless temperature sensors. These would also be attached and controlled by the arduino. Ultimately I'd like the temperature sensors to read Tortie's surface temperature as well as the surface temperature of the mat itself and adjust accordingly. Anybody with more knowledge interested?

I use IP cams and tellstick net with compatible temperature and humidity sensors to remotely monitor temps, humidity, turn lights on and off and more. Everything is monitored and controlled over my smartphone over internet. Im sure the system (tellstick net) should also be able to control your heat mat and turn it on and off based on temperature readings. Its much easier to setup than rasberry pi.
 

urek

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Joined
Feb 7, 2014
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5
Well, almost perfect. Those would be good for those functions. I regretfully bought a WeMo. I can get it working reliably by having it communicate with the Raspberry Pi rather than their cloud service. But, yea that was supposed to be easy and user friendly. I want something that I can build into a sleeping box within his house that reads tortie's surface temperature, since his body temperature is ultimately what I'm interested in, and adjusts everything without needing my input. So within his box, I'd like everything to be controlled by tortie's body temp.
 

urek

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Joined
Feb 7, 2014
Messages
5
Thank you. I've never posted on a message board :) I could put all in a neat package and one could glue one piece (the motor) to the dial. From there you can remotely connect with the built in remote viewer on Windows. From there you would click an icon and change the degree number to desired degree. Then click one more icon. Dial moves.
If I could just wrap my head around coding a bit more I could have that down to just: glue motor, plug in, open web browser, pick where you want the dial set at. I think I'm almost there.

The main issue with the heatmat controls is it cannot be reset with a simple on/off. It must be dialed up, then back down.


Yvonne G said:
Alas, poor urek, I know not of which you speak! Or was that Yorick? Anyway, welcome to the Forum. What you are describing is much too complicated for this old brain to compute, but we do have some pretty odd ball and educated brains here on the Forum.
 

gtc

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What you have done is impressive, however, your heat mat seems too complicated. How about buying a new heat mat that can be turned simply on and off? Or how about dropping the heat mat completely and useing some other heat source? I thought that heat mats were not recommended for torts anyway?
 

urek

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Joined
Feb 7, 2014
Messages
5
I read a lot of back and forth about the subject of heat mats. I don't know how other brands work, but the Stanfield heat mat seems to be the one people recommended. The heat mat looks kind of like a heated snowboard if for some reason such a thing existed. So it looks like it can take quite a beating. On the lowest setting, it heats up to 75-80 degrees. I don't understand the downside here. He moves on and off at will. Other heating sources have to heat from the top down and it uses much less electricity than the other heating sources I have tried. So I would rather have a safe heat mat. It doesn't have to be complicated, but if I wasn't specific, there would be no chance of anyone reading it that might be doing something similar, or understands enough to perhaps try something themselves. Once I can solve a few problems, it could be as simple as plug this end into an outlet and glue this part to the dial... or use a sticky pad. But that's another future post. This one was a bit technical for a reason. It was a long shot, but hey, if I'm doing it, then it is in the realm of possibilities that someone else might be too.
 

skottip

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I have no other comment on the other technical stuff you are talking about , but a heat mat is probably better used if you have a sore back. Radiant heat panels which heat from the top would be much more effective. Tortoises lungs are towards the top of the shell. A heat mat would be almost useless unless it actually heats the ambient temperature as well. Just my 2 cents...
 

wellington

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gtc said:
What you have done is impressive, however, your heat mat seems too complicated. How about buying a new heat mat that can be turned simply on and off? Or how about dropping the heat mat completely and useing some other heat source? I thought that heat mats were not recommended for torts anyway?

Many use the kane heat matts. There is another popular one too, the stanfield. They are actually made for pigs, and also called pig blankets. They are fine for tortoises, but best if used by attaching to a thermostat.
 

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