Rack wiring/rewiring question.

Hey everyone,

I am trying to decide what to get first, since I know I wont be able to get it all at once.

I want to get a Herpstat Pro for controlling all of the racks, incubators, lighting etc that I hope to have sometime in the future.

I want to expand my ball python collection, and maybe our cornsnake collection, too, so I am planning on buying, or probably building, a rack system. Right now we have 3 different species that require 2 different temp gradients.

Lets say I made a 4x6 rack, but dont buy any more snakes to fill them for a while, so it would just be our one bp, 1.1 baby boas, and 1.1 baby corns. The boas and corns fall into the same hot spot, but the bp's is higher. If we wired the flexwatt to be, for instance, 5 levels together, and the one level separate for the different temp, how easy/difficult/costly/etc would it be to rewire that level into the others to make the whole rack able to be controlled on one input.

If what I am asking isnt clear, just let me know.

Thanks

Easiest way to wire the flexwatt up is just buy one big piece for the whole rack and zig-zag it through the shelves.

If you want one level at a different temp you'll just have to have the herpstat control it via a different probe and have individual settings. It's not hard seems kind of a waste though as your giving up one controller for only 1 shelf almost makes more sense to build another small rack and dedicate it to that.

I believe I got what your asking let me know if it's not.

What you are talking about sounds like wiring them in parallel.

Check out this link:
http://www.beanfarm.com/heating/Flexwatt_parallel.pdf

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Originally Posted by brainman1000

What you are talking about sounds like wiring them in parallel.

Check out this link:
http://www.beanfarm.com/heating/Flexwatt_parallel.pdf

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Don't see how wiring in parallel would work really. Usually when your wiring like this your wiring the same cuts to get an even stable temp. I think they want one shelf at one temp and the rest at another.

Only way I see this happening is either with 2 controllers and 2 probes or playing with the temps and sacrificing exact temps for a in between temp read that will "satisfy" the snakes, but I really don't recommend this. Having two different cuts in parallel without exact reads and individual temp controllers is dangerous in my opinion. The Herpstat Pro I believe is capable of handling 4 controllers in one unit and has 4 probe slots, but if you don't want to use more than one thats where the problem lies. Better off either using 2 individual controllers on that thermostat or building another small rack for those indiviual temps you want and taking advantage of more rack space for that slot.

Hope that makes sense.

Sorry double post, I should be asleep but insomnia is bad!

Can't edit the post above anymore so here is something I just thought of:

If in fact you don't mind using two of your 4 controllers on one rack then the solution is simple, hook up one big piece of flexwatt to the lower 4 shelves with one probe/controller and another small piece for the one shelf with another probe/controller and boom adjust each accordingly.

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Originally Posted by JKExotics

Only way I see this happening is ... with 2 controllers ...

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That, of course, is a given. What I was getting at is that the tubs that have to be maintained at 1 temp can all be wired in parallel and connected and monitored by one controller.

Basically, each separate temp requirement will require a separate temp controller. They can exist in the same physical rack and be wired separately, or they can be separate racks all together. I probably should have elaborated a little more in my first post.

Yeah, I know I will need two controllers, but my question is for instance, I get enough ball pythons to fill that rack and dont want to split it up by temps/shelves anymore. How easy would it be to rewire back into all one temp/one control later, and just move the others into a different rack or back into stand alone tubs.

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Originally Posted by ThyTempest

Yeah, I know I will need two controllers, but my question is for instance, I get enough ball pythons to fill that rack and dont want to split it up by temps/shelves anymore. How easy would it be to rewire back into all one temp/one control later, and just move the others into a different rack or back into stand alone tubs.

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why would you have to rewire it all you would have to do is plug that other plug into the same thermostat as long as the tubs are the same and the heat tape is the same wattage

You could always get a herpstat 2, I believe that allows you to control seprately 2 different temperature areas. That would be easier and I think cheaper than buying two regular herpstats or helixes.

As far as wiring goes if you wire up each strip of flexwatt individually and run them to a power strip which could be plugged into the thermostat. Just each individual temperature area would need its own power strip. That's how I have my corn rack set up and it works great.

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Originally Posted by anendeloflorien

You could always get a herpstat 2, I believe that allows you to control seprately 2 different temperature areas. That would be easier and I think cheaper than buying two regular herpstats or helixes.

As far as wiring goes if you wire up each strip of flexwatt individually and run them to a power strip which could be plugged into the thermostat. Just each individual temperature area would need its own power strip. That's how I have my corn rack set up and it works great.

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I planned on using a power strip....is it pretty common/easy to just set each level to have its own power plug? I plan on buying a Herpstat Pro, not a helix, herpstat or herpstat II.

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Originally Posted by ThyTempest

I planned on using a power strip....is it pretty common/easy to just set each level to have its own power plug? I plan on buying a Herpstat Pro, not a helix, herpstat or herpstat II.

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Lol ahhh ok I just saw in the OP that you said you were getting the herpstat pro :D My bad!

It's really easy (IMO) to wire up flexwatt individually, but I am an electrical engineer and I have access at work to soldering stations and wire galore so that might be why it's easier for me. But there is a really good DIY article here on how to wire it up. I did mine exactly the way that he does his soldered flexwatt and it works perfectly on my corn rack. Just make sure that you put something over the exposed metal. I got zapped once by it and let me tell you that was NOT fun!

So, in general, you think wiring each level of any rack in general to have it's own power plug (to go into a powerstrip that is used as the input to the tstat), would be better than say wiring a 6 level rack to one power outlet to go either straight into the tstat or to a powerstrip (based on wattage capacity limits of the tstat)

If that is clear....

You don't want to wire each level individually it's a waste of time and resources and the benefits... NONE.

Wire the 4 or 5 levels that you want to assign to one probe in one big piece and then the top or whichever level you want at a different temp to another.

You can build the rack so one big pice can be zig-zagged all the way up and there won't be any need to make a new cut for every level.

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Originally Posted by JKExotics

You don't want to wire each level individually it's a waste of time and resources and the benefits... NONE.

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Well, the only real benefit is that each individual level can be put onto a different controller or can be set using the Herpstat Pro to a different temperature which is what the OP was asking for in the beginning. If all the flexwatt is running to one plug they would all be running at the same temperature.

To ThyTempest: if you know, say, that you're only going to need 3 levels for corns and 3 levels for balls then you could either zig zag or daisy chain those 3 levels together which would be easier than doing each strip individually.

why not just wire the ones for one species together and wire the other species together then later on you can make them the same by just plugging the 2 into the same thermostat if you see the need. youll just have 2 plus on that rack
just make sure its all the same type and wattage.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by anendeloflorien

Well, the only real benefit is that each individual level can be put onto a different controller or can be set using the Herpstat Pro to a different temperature which is what the OP was asking for in the beginning. If all the flexwatt is running to one plug they would all be running at the same temperature.

To ThyTempest: if you know, say, that you're only going to need 3 levels for corns and 3 levels for balls then you could either zig zag or daisy chain those 3 levels together which would be easier than doing each strip individually.

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This is what I was thinking originally. I don't understand the whole zig-zag, one piece idea though...I will be using belly heat so I dont see how this is possible. The daisy chain is what I was imagining. Basically, I am thinking....

hypothetical 4 x 6high rack. Lets say that I want the top four racks for bps, bottom two for corns or boas. This wouldnt work b/c there would be different total wattages for each section if I wired the 4 together to 1 plug, and the other 2 together to a separate plug. By this, I mean after I split the species up and want to use the whole rack for bp's or whatever, all on one temp. For this reason, if I didnt want to split them evenly when multiple species are in the same rack, I was thinking of just rewiring the flexwatt all back together into one plug for when the rack goes back to one species. This way, all one temp, can split the rack whatever way I want beforehand, and only takes one power outlet so the powerstrip could be eliminated if I wanted to.

I think my hypothetical situation got so convoluted that I may just have to start over from scratch.

I'll try to explain it alot of rack companies use this method to conserve the amount of probes and controllers you use.

I'll try to take pictures tomorrow when I clean racks. Basically you wire the flexwatt in a zigzag from the bottom or top up or down and leave a small space at the left or right of each level to wire it up or down to the next partition.