Herpstat Probe Placement - RHP - Corner Placement AP Cage

[grunt78]

Hello Folks, I am new to the group, but not new to reptile keeping. I wanted to share a hack with the the group that might be beneficial, but before I do here is a little about me.
I have been keeping reptiles since the late 80's. I started out with a little garter snake that I kept in a plywood enclosure my dad and I built. I have always had a love for snakes and reptiles.
Back then husbandry wasn't nearly as advanced as it is today. People would just use "the Dreaded" heat rocks and lamps to heat their enclosures. Over the decades I learned so much more, and graduated up to bigger snakes, lizards,
tortoises etc... I also graduated up to more professional enclosures kept animals up until about 2010. Life had become very busy and I had to stop my hobby and concentrate on other things, so I sold all my babies and took time off. About 3 years ago I got the bug again and started to do more research. I have always been fascinated with leucistic animals and back when I was a kid I remember reading reptiles magazine where they spotlighted BEL ball pythons. They were super expensive and much more rare than they are today. BELs have always been on my bucket list since I saw that article, but I had no idea the cost had come down to be able to purchase one. So 2 years ago I picked up a baby female BEL I named Lucille. She is now 1100gms and a little over 4 feet. I decided that i wanted to give her the best so I ordered a Animal plastics T10 and Pro Heat RHP.


What I wanted to share with you was how I placed my probe that not only functions, but I think looks professional without having to drill and extra holes in the enclosure. I am using a Herpstat 1 for reference.


I decided to mount the probe in the back corner of the enclosure on the hot side about half way up.

I used Black corner duct raceway similar to this - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0827MLC62...t_details&th=1
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Its easy to cut any has double sided adhesive already attached. I cut almost exact height of inside of cage, leaving 1/8th inch for cable routing at the top.



The face of the raceway can be removed for the next steps.


Halfway up the raceway I drilled a 1/4 hole to allow the probe to stick out. Up the raceway are holes to allow for zipties to hold the wire in place.

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I fished the probe in the same hole as the Lights and down the corner. put probe in hole and attach to raceway with zip ties. Then snap raceway in place.

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I hope this helps anyone who is looking for a functioning clean install in their AP or similar cage.

[KMG]

I do mine like this.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...91#post2359891

[spyderrobotics]

You probably won't get great regulation that way. For RHP I usually suggest to tape the probe tip flat on the panel. The problem with putting in the corner is that is where the thermostat is getting its reading from so by being that far away and in a corner no less you have dramatically slowed the reaction time of the thermostat. When it starts heating up you will have a build up of heat in the top of the enclosure. By the time the heat gets to the lower probe location and the thermostat dims down or turns off you still have all this built up heat above which can be at a higher temp. Then your temperature continues to climb even though there is no power going to your heating device. Then the reverse happens on the down swing. It starts to cool off and goes below your setting but now it has to heat up the top of the enclosure again. The temp continues to drop as its playing catch up and you end up in this repeating see-saw temperature swing. That is my experience anyway. Then usually I have a panic email in my inbox. :^) I then recommend a regular thermometer with its probe at floor level to monitor the floor temp and adjust the thermostat (with its probe next to the heating device) until you get a good middle ground between upper temps and lower temps. Expect that the upper temps (and thermostat setting) will be much hotter than the floor temp.

Our recommendations are here:
https://spyderrobotics.com/index.php...id=9&chapter=1

I just happen to be checking the forum today but if someone gets stuck they can always shoot me an email through our site.

Dion Brewington
Owner, Spyder Robotics

[grunt78]

You probably won't get great regulation that way. For RHP I usually suggest to tape the probe tip flat on the panel. The problem with putting in the corner is that is where the thermostat is getting its reading from so by being that far away and in a corner no less you have dramatically slowed the reaction time of the thermostat. When it starts heating up you will have a build up of heat in the top of the enclosure. By the time the heat gets to the lower probe location and the thermostat dims down or turns off you still have all this built up heat above which can be at a higher temp. Then your temperature continues to climb even though there is no power going to your heating device. Then the reverse happens on the down swing. It starts to cool off and goes below your setting but now it has to heat up the top of the enclosure again. The temp continues to drop as its playing catch up and you end up in this repeating see-saw temperature swing. That is my experience anyway. Then usually I have a panic email in my inbox. :^) I then recommend a regular thermometer with its probe at floor level to monitor the floor temp and adjust the thermostat (with its probe next to the heating device) until you get a good middle ground between upper temps and lower temps. Expect that the upper temps (and thermostat setting) will be much hotter than the floor temp.

Our recommendations are here:
https://spyderrobotics.com/index.php...id=9&chapter=1

I just happen to be checking the forum today but if someone gets stuck they can always shoot me an email through our site.

Dion Brewington
Owner, Spyder Robotics

So I accounted for that by setting the thermostat to 85. I want my hot side temp between 85 and 90 degrees. My low side temp stays at about 80. Its been working so far for me this way. But I apprciate your advice and may try that in the near future. I have seen some gradient issues throughout the day where the cool side gets a little warmer to my liking sometimes.

As for taping directly to the panel. I though of that but didn't know which tape to use that would be heat resistant other than aluminum HVAC tape, but I heard that can interfere with the probe. What tape do you suggest?

[KMG]

I refuse to use tape inside my cages. The superglue has held my probes and cable straps without issue for years.

[grunt78]

I refuse to use tape inside my cages. The superglue has held my probes and cable straps without issue for years.

I am paranoid as well about about tape and adhesives in my enclosures. I also dont like drilling holes all over the place to find the best probe spot. That's why i put the probe in the corner the way i did. I have seen so many varying places the probe should go with a pro heat panel. Some folks do it on hot side, some on cool side, some directly under the panel. I tried it so many different ways. The best result so far was the hot side corner. I live in fl. My house is at 73, so this has been working for me so far. Its also hard to keep humidity under control in a pvc cage in fl. My house is naturally at 55%. I like to experiment though and will try different things to get best results.

[KMG]

I am paranoid as well about about tape and adhesives in my enclosures. I also dont like drilling holes all over the place to find the best probe spot. That's why i put the probe in the corner the way i did. I have seen so many varying places the probe should go with a pro heat panel. Some folks do it on hot side, some on cool side, some directly under the panel. I tried it so many different ways. The best result so far was the hot side corner. I live in fl. My house is at 73, so this has been working for me so far. Its also hard to keep humidity under control in a pvc cage in fl. My house is naturally at 55%. I like to experiment though and will try different things to get best results.

I get it. I have seen all kinds of ways to do it but in the end what I came up with has worked out the best for me.

I have a oscillating fan in my snake room to help knock the humidity down and keep the air fresh in the cages.

[spyderrobotics]

Some people use foil tape on the cable (just don't put it on the probe). I've had luck with gorilla brand duct tape in projects. If you use tape its best to make sure it wraps around the ends (over even loop over itself on top) and that gives a little extra safety. The main point is for anything heated from above the probe needs to be close to the heating device. For lamps that should be about 3 inches from the bulb and heat panels are best if you can get the probe tip flat against the panel.