Herpstat 2 Questions!

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Originally Posted by Sensismell

definitely need a temp gun. I have about 3/4 inch of substrate and I have my herpstat set to 97 to get a hot spot of 91 degrees on the substrate. One of my snakes will burrow down to the bottom of the tub where it's at 96-97 degrees. She keeps me worried but doesn't seem to hot for her. When she first started doing this I would check on her everyday.

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Glad to know that I can raise the temperature if needed if they aren't putting out how I want... What percentage does yours get to, or does that not matter as long as they are getting heat? Is yours on maximum power?
That would have worried me too. :$ So I don't blame you for checking, it's great that you would.

well the percentage is how much power is going to the heating device. To make it simple let's say you have a 100 watt light bulb. the stat will try and figure out how much power it needs to maintain the set temp so as it gets close to the set temp it will decrease power. so if it's at 40 percent the light bulb is only getting 40 watts to heat with because 100 watts would be too much and the temps would just be going up and down all day instead of stabilizing.

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Originally Posted by Mr Sully

Ok so another words if Channel 1 goes bad it can just shut that one down instead of shutting down all output Channels Sauzo?



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Yes, if you have it set to IO, then said 'faulty' channel will only shut down, not the whole unit. Set to AO and everything shuts down even if only 1 channel goes faulty.

I leave mine set to 100% power. It's a dimming proportional so it will keep the temp you have it set at. And honestly, 97F is a bit hot. You want to take the temp reading from the cage floor, not the top of the substrate. A snake can and will burrow down and make a nest. All of my snakes make little round depressions in the Eco Earth above the flexwatt and just curl up in it after dinner usually.

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Originally Posted by Sensismell

well the percentage is how much power is going to the heating device. To make it simple let's say you have a 100 watt light bulb. the stat will try and figure out how much power it needs to maintain the set temp so as it gets close to the set temp it will decrease power. so if it's at 40 percent the light bulb is only getting 40 watts to heat with because 100 watts would be too much and the temps would just be going up and down all day instead of stabilizing.

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True but the bottom line is no matter if the t-stat is sending out 100 watts or 1000 watts or 10 watts, it is still keeping that spot at the set temp. I see the power feature being used in combination with the basking light feature so you can adjust the wattage to the heat bulb so it still will give off enough light for basking reptiles as well keeping the heat constant. For flexwatt or a RHP, it doesn't matter if it throttles the voltage down as it is still keeping the temp at the set point.

An example would be say you need your basking light to keep 90F. Well once it hits 90F, it will throttle down the voltage which will dim the light to almost not being on. Then when it cools down it will kick the light on. It would be like a strobe light for your lizard. Being able to throttle the power down to say 40% or whatever would just act like a lamp dimmer but with a t-stat function built into it too.

Ordered a temperature gun finally and I'm still in the process of learning how to accurately measure heat.

I'm wondering if my Herpstat setup is okay though... Here's my settings:

Unit 1 - Connected to flexwatt, reads 91.9*F at 28% currently. It's at 100% maximum power.
H/L alarm set to 96*F and 65*F.

Unit 2 - Only using probe, not putting out heat. I put it at 10% maximum power. It reads 70*F at 10%.

Safety is default.



My ball python who usually has awful sheds actually shed completely the other day. :) So far, I'm diggin' the tubs! Soon I am adding a banana het. pied to my collection, so I will do a quarantine and work on the other levels of flexwatt once I order some in.
Let's hope I do this correctly because I was shown by a friend on how to do it a few weeks ago and my memory is awful.

Would it be safe to leave the two tubs on the rack when I add new flexwatt? I'm just scared I'll F it up somehow.

Just to clarify...

IO is the default. This means no action from the safety relay. The normal power component (the triac) does your regulation and turns power off if over temp. In the extremely rare case that a triac fails in a stuck on position the safety relay will not trigger and you will have an overheat on that output.

AO enabled the safety relay. This means if an alarm triggers (such as the high / low alarms) the safety relay will mechanically cut power to the outputs.

So why is this a choice? On a Herpstat 1 I can't think of a good reason to not have it set to AO. There is only one output to affect. However on a Herpstat 2 (or above) a failure on one channel causing the safety relay to trigger would have an effect on the other channel as well. So lets say you had a ball python in a tank on one channel and $20K worth of eggs in a incubator on the other channel. Say your probe got dislodged from the tank and the sensed temp cooled below your low temp alarm. The safety relay would be tripped and now you have no heat to your incubator (maybe losing the eggs) but it may have saved the ball python tank from an overheat situation. Because thats a pretty big choice we can't make that for people. Safetywise AO is probably the better choice. Especially when considering how rare a triac failure is with our products due to the overrated component we use. We try to design for worst case scenarios though. :^)

Dion Brewington
Owner, Spyder Robotics

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Originally Posted by spyderrobotics

Just to clarify...

IO is the default. This means no action from the safety relay. The normal power component (the triac) does your regulation and turns power off if over temp. In the extremely rare case that a triac fails in a stuck on position the safety relay will not trigger and you will have an overheat on that output.

AO enabled the safety relay. This means if an alarm triggers (such as the high / low alarms) the safety relay will mechanically cut power to the outputs.

So why is this a choice? On a Herpstat 1 I can't think of a good reason to not have it set to AO. There is only one output to affect. However on a Herpstat 2 (or above) a failure on one channel causing the safety relay to trigger would have an effect on the other channel as well. So lets say you had a ball python in a tank on one channel and $20K worth of eggs in a incubator on the other channel. Say your probe got dislodged from the tank and the sensed temp cooled below your low temp alarm. The safety relay would be tripped and now you have no heat to your incubator (maybe losing the eggs) but it may have saved the ball python tank from an overheat situation. Because thats a pretty big choice we can't make that for people. Safetywise AO is probably the better choice. Especially when considering how rare a triac failure is with our products due to the overrated component we use. We try to design for worst case scenarios though. :^)

Dion Brewington
Owner, Spyder Robotics

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Thank you for the very detailed example, it made a lot of sense to someone like me, who's kinda dumb about technical things. ;)

From what I understand... IO only turns off one side with an error and that could, for some odd reason, mess up and kill your snakes from overheating if it doesn't trigger completely?

Should I use AO [Include H/L], AO [Exclude H/L], or AO [Any Error]?

I definitely don't want to be away from home one day and come back to cooked snakes, that would be devastating...

And another thing, does it matter what percentage shows?
For example:
Output 1 is set to 100% maximum power at 92*F... But the probe reads 92.0*F and the percent is at 28%.
Output 2 is used as a probe only, I have it set at 10% Maximum power, it reads 76.2% at 10%.

Current setup;
H/L - 96*F H, 65*F L.
Safety - AO [Include H/L]

As far as turning the power strip off: I had a power issue with Herpstat 2 last summer after a DIY rack build and install it would keep shutting itself off. I e-mailed customer support and was directed to make sure the probe cords were at least 6" from the power cords. The electronic "Noise" interference from the power cables turned the safety feature on and shut off the power intermittently. After clearing more space between the probe cord and power cords its been running perfect.

Hope this and other comments help. If not, their customer support is spot on, and I'm sure they will be able to take care of you.

Yes, your setting AO [Include H/L] is the safest and make sure to enable the high / low alarms and set reasonable high / low alarm temps.

Your percentage is a sign that your enclosure is well matched to its heating equipment. The unit dims down power to try to maintain your setting. Yours only is needing around 28% power which means your heating device is doing a great job of keeping that temp in combination with the enclosure size and room temperature.

Using the 2nd probe as a thermometer is fine. You don't need to adjust its max output to a lower setting but its not a bad idea in case a heating device accidentally got plugged into that outlet.

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Originally Posted by Lexiethekitten

Thank you for the very detailed example, it made a lot of sense to someone like me, who's kinda dumb about technical things. ;)

From what I understand... IO only turns off one side with an error and that could, for some odd reason, mess up and kill your snakes from overheating if it doesn't trigger completely?

Should I use AO [Include H/L], AO [Exclude H/L], or AO [Any Error]?

I definitely don't want to be away from home one day and come back to cooked snakes, that would be devastating...

And another thing, does it matter what percentage shows?
For example:
Output 1 is set to 100% maximum power at 92*F... But the probe reads 92.0*F and the percent is at 28%.
Output 2 is used as a probe only, I have it set at 10% Maximum power, it reads 76.2% at 10%.

Current setup;
H/L - 96*F H, 65*F L.
Safety - AO [Include H/L]

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