Crazy new incubator

I needed a bigger incubator so I started working on this on Thursday. I just need to cut some plastic lighting grates down for the shelves.

It's 24"w x 48"h x 18"d, can fit 12 egg boxes and is made of solid birch. I built in a Herpstat thermostat, then I also built in a closed system, self exhausting computer power supply that powers a 3 channel, blue backlit speed controller that powers and controls a pair of interior lights, a pair of 50mm fans that blow down against the back wall, and a third 50mm fan than blows from the back toward the front of the unit. The Herpstat powers two - 3' sections of 11" flexwatt. I painted the whole thing gloss black and finished the window trim in gloss white, and gave it 8 rubber feet. I used weather strip along the inside front and a set of magnetic cabinet latches so the door snaps shut and has a tight seal.

It only took about 45 minutes to get up to 89.5° and it's been stable ever since. I can't wait to start filling it up.

Internal wiring
http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...8a209e99ba.jpg

Back showing the power cord and exhaust for the power supply. The 2" hole on the top leads directly to the power supply intake. All the other possible intakes were sealed to prevent air from being able to escape from the incubator.
http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...464b6ae49c.jpg

Finished incubator (minus shelves and tubs)
http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...5c8343ae5d.jpg

I quickly drew in the egg crate shelves
http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...4d7b7f6f46.jpg

:O.... Woh. That is NICE. Very good work there! :gj:

If only I could do wiring and such... sigh. :(

Very nice looking bator...now...filler' up!!

Very nice :)

thats wicked man!!!!!!
Get some pics of that beauty fully assembled. If you did up a quick how-to you'd get it sticky'd pretty fast!

:snake:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Argentra

:O.... Woh. That is NICE. Very good work there! :gj:

If only I could do wiring and such... sigh. :(

---

Thanks. It was a little challenging, but not too bad. It would have been a lot easier if I hadn't accidentally cut the needed wires on the power supply. I had to take it apart to get at the bits of wire and figure out which 5 I needed from a huge pile of wires. Next time it will be a breeze. I now know how to jump start a computer if the motherboard or power switch goes bad. I guess that might come in handy some day.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FatBoy

Very nice looking bator...now...filler' up!!

---

Thanks. It should start slowly filling up in a few weeks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by llovelace

Very nice :)

---

Thanks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bluebead

thats wicked man!!!!!!
Get some pics of that beauty fully assembled. If you did up a quick how-to you'd get it sticky'd pretty fast!

:snake:

---

Thanks. I'll post more pics once I finish up the loose ends and get the shelves in. There's no way a how-to would be very quick for this one.

Hm, I wonder if its big enough..












:rolleyes:

Nice work!
Building an incubator has been on my to-do list for a while now. Of course I have yet to decide if I would actualy be able to make an incubator that was functional and not a fire hazard :O

WOW! Jake with the bator skillz!! :gj:

I dunno...looks a bit on the small side...lmao...are you SURE it's big enough??

:D

That is a killer incubator Jake, I really like it.

Quote:

---

I quickly drew in the egg crate shelves

---

One question do you think the eggcrates that you are using will sustain the weight of your egg boxes once full?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zackw419

Hm, I wonder if its big enough..

:rolleyes:

---

It should be big enough for this year and through next year. If not I have back ups. :gj:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ajeff

Nice work!
Building an incubator has been on my to-do list for a while now. Of course I have yet to decide if I would actualy be able to make an incubator that was functional and not a fire hazard :O

---

Secure connections and no exposed wires, and you should be ok.


I still haven't gotten around to the shelves. I'm looking into other options that might look better than the egg crate, but last night I replaced the pair of 12v flashlight bulbs with a pair of 6,000v cold cathode light strips. The 6k transformer is still controlled by the fan controller so I can dim them. They have a 30,000 hour burn life, so they should never need replacing. They more than get the job done, while staying cool to the touch. Here are some pics without the flash. It also only takes about 15 minutes to get up to temp. I accidentally wrote 45 minutes in my first post.

Off
http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...787e8ed9af.jpg

On (full power)
http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...bddcabfc4a.jpg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by PythonWallace

It should be big enough for this year and through next year. If not I have back ups. :gj:

---

Lol. Im playin man, its HUGE!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by STORMS

WOW! Jake with the bator skillz!! :gj:

I dunno...looks a bit on the small side...lmao...are you SURE it's big enough??

:D

---

Thanks, Lena. It should get me through for a while.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Deborah

That is a killer incubator Jake, I really like it.

One question do you think the eggcrates that you are using will sustain the weight of your egg boxes once full?

---

Thanks, Deborah. I planned on either gluing or bolting the egg crate down to the wood ledges. I would probably get some sag, but I definitely don't think they would snap under the weight. But like I said, I'm looking into other options. I'll probably end up using birch or pine planks, spaced apart for air circulation and screwed down to the ledges.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zackw419

Lol. Im playin man, its HUGE!

---

I got it dude. I honestly should have made it wide enough for 3 tubs instead of two, but it will be good for a couple years.

That really came out good!!! I like it a lot :gj:

being a PC Technician, how are you load balancing all the rails on that power supply? if you do not it may and will lead to failure.

there has to be a minimum 25W draw on all the voltage rails 3.3, 5 and 12v in order for it to function correctly and not be prone to failure.

Hey Jeff, I didn't know there was a minimum for all the voltage rails. What can happen if there is no draw for the other voltages? What do you suggest using to draw 25w from each? Can I just short each rail, either with wire jumpers or with small pieces of 3" heat tape? I'm surprised to hear that since the fan controller has a max output of <30w total for all 3 channels, so I don't see how it would use at least 25w if you were only using a single fan in your computer.

I already cut all the wires, so if that could lead to failure I'll have to pull another supply from a different computer. The one in there now is from a 10 year old PC. It's been working fine for 2 days so far.

well they are designed to be in a PC that uses all the rails effectivly. the motherboard its self will uese atleats 25W from al 3 rails. im assuming you have jumpped the sense wire (green) to ground (black) to power the unit up. or even better if you have put a switch on it.

grounding out the 3.3 and 5v rail would probably cause an overload in the unit and pop the fuse.

the worst that can happen is it will do a smoke show. but its mor liely to just die one day.


what i was going to suggest is use a 25W powersypplu load tester on it they usually cost about $20 and the master harnes plugs into it. this will also switch the power supplu on and you can use its rear switch to turn it on and off. this tester puts a 25-30W load on all 3 rails. and you cna run this effectivly forever provided it does not over heat the tester (so mount it externally)

one i use at work http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=246

you dont need to plug in a plug to each of the testing outlets only the master harness should need to be plugged in.

but to be fair. i could be paranoid and you may be able to run it no issues the way it stands. what i would od is run it as is leave it on for say a week and if its still running. just keep my suggestion in the back of your mind if it turns out you need it. my paranoia is based from info from my mentor as well as making a PC power supply into a 12V source for an amp in a cobbled up home stereo. which failed on me.

id hate to see it fail on you and loose some babies!

after asking my boss who has extensive knoledge on PSU

he said "i wouldnt be worried about the 3.3 voltage, but i would put a dummy load on both the 5 and 12V lines. something as small as 10W would even suffice. you can add a ceramic power resistor or 10 watt light bulb. granted the light would have to run off 5 or 12v power."

IF you could wire up a 12V DC adapter from an old cordless phone or something that would be ideal. just because they do not require a minimum load. only Switched-mode power supplies (computer power supplies) require a minimum load.

Thanks for the suggestions. The power supply is completely seperate from the thermostat, so in the worst case scenereo the fans would stop and I wouldn't be able to turn the lights on. I don't know why I didn't immediately think to use a supply tester after reading your first post. I saw one yesterday when I was buying the lights for $17. Since I already cut all the wires, I'm going to leave it. If it fails, I'll catch it since the controller won't be lit up, and I'll switch it out and use a tester to draw the minimum load from all rails. And yes, I made a jumper to "hot wire" the supply since I didn't have any plans to use a dedicated PC just to run power to the controller. I didn't add a switch, because I never plan on turning the main fan off while I have the unit running.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JeffJ

well they are designed to be in a PC that uses all the rails effectivly. the motherboard its self will uese atleats 25W from al 3 rails. im assuming you have jumpped the sense wire (green) to ground (black) to power the unit up. or even better if you have put a switch on it.

grounding out the 3.3 and 5v rail would probably cause an overload in the unit and pop the fuse.

the worst that can happen is it will do a smoke show. but its mor liely to just die one day.


what i was going to suggest is use a 25W powersypplu load tester on it they usually cost about $20 and the master harnes plugs into it. this will also switch the power supplu on and you can use its rear switch to turn it on and off. this tester puts a 25-30W load on all 3 rails. and you cna run this effectivly forever provided it does not over heat the tester (so mount it externally)

one i use at work http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=246

you dont need to plug in a plug to each of the testing outlets only the master harness should need to be plugged in.

but to be fair. i could be paranoid and you may be able to run it no issues the way it stands. what i would od is run it as is leave it on for say a week and if its still running. just keep my suggestion in the back of your mind if it turns out you need it. my paranoia is based from info from my mentor as well as making a PC power supply into a 12V source for an amp in a cobbled up home stereo. which failed on me.

id hate to see it fail on you and loose some babies!

---

got this tidbit which explains what i was saying... only better lol

Quote:

---

Switched mode power supplies have an absolute limit on their minimum current output. [5] They are only able to output above a certain wattage and cannot function below that point. In a no-load condition the frequency of the power slicing circuit increases to great speed, causing the isolation transformer to act as a tesla coil, causing damage due to the resulting very high voltage power spikes. Switched-mode supplies with protection circuits may briefly turn on but then shut down when no load has been detected. A very small low-wattage dummy load such as a ceramic power resistor or 10 watt light bulb can be attached to the supply to allow it to run with no primary load attached.

---

Cool, man. Maybe I'll go buy a couple of packets of resistors and solder them up to be safe.

It's finished. I ended up using 2" primed pine planks for the shelves, and finally mounted the last fan to the back wall with some spacers.

http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...159da8c5c1.jpg

http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...6e7b9450bc.jpg

http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...5f188a72f8.jpg

http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...a6590d11c8.jpg

Looks awesome dude.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JeffJ

Looks awesome dude.

---

Thanks, and thanks for the tips about the minimum load and the resistors.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by PythonWallace

Thanks, and thanks for the tips about the minimum load and the resistors.

---

no problem. better safe then loose some eggs :P

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JeffJ

no problem. better safe then loose some eggs :P

---

Absolutely.


I just did some counting. I used 192 screws, 46 finishing nails, 6 hot glue sticks, 1/2 tube of latex sealant and wood glue on this. I'm sure some of you were dying to know. :D