Thanks to someone else on this site who posted the link to the unit. I am rehashing this because I think it’s useful info. And I have added to it. if i ever find my camera i will post pics.

You can get a very nice Johnson’s a419 commercial grade thermostat with night drop for less than 100.00 Shipped!
www.controlsdepot.com click on price and availability.



Search for JOHA419ABC-1C you get a 6 foot sensor with it. You will have to wire it yourself. i ordered on a Tuesday and it was at my door on a Thursday. (2days) they ship 3 day select. Total cost for the unit with shipping was 56 dollars and change. At the bottom of the page will be a sub listing for a Ranco unit slightly cheaper and I don’t know if it has a night drop setting).



You will need the following. 2 large wire nuts (orange or red) 1 romex knockout plug clamp. 1 12 foot grounded (3 wire) outdoor extension cord with as many plugs as you need. (Sears has nice ones that don’t have a circuit breaker for 5.99 ((6foot) and 8.99 12foot) a herpstat night drop cord. 32.00 shipped and optional a female mono mini plug cable (used if you don’t want to cut the plug off the night drop cable.



Here is a document that shows how to wire it up. The only difference is that instead of a single plug we want to put a power strip or multi outlet extension cord on it so we can plug stuff in and control it.


http://www.zymico.com/thermostat.shtml

Take the cover off the unit. You will see the connection points like in the guide listed above. Install the romex connector. It has a washer that you unscrew push thru the hole and then screw the washer back on to hold it in place. You can use silicon calk on the outside to seal it if you wish. Cut your extension cord in half or make your cut however you like as long as you have enough wire to connect booth the plug and outlet ends to the control. Strip the outer casing off about 3 inches on both wires (the plug and the strip ends) you should see 3 wires (white black and green.) strip about 1 inch off of each wire. Push them thru the romex connector making sure you have enough to make your connection’s and tighten it down don’t over do it, crushing the wire is a bad idea. Follow the diagram in the link above for the wiring.
You can cut a section of the cord out to make the jumper wires. If your plug is right next to your tanks, cages you only need a power cord long enough to reach it and place the thermostat control where you want it (within reach of the sensor that is) the sensor is connected to the small terminals at the top left side of the unit. The sensor wire is connected to the middle (com) and bottom + the mini jack plug is connected to the middle com and to bin connection. You don’t have to worry about polarity. Nether the sensor or the night drop circuits are polarity sensitive. (The night drop cable is nothing more than a low voltage relay that closes a binary circuit when power is applied to the relay. Current is not present in the output side of the night drop cable it is only a binary open/close circuit. ) the night drop feature is not listed in the descriptions of the unit. But is found if you read the product documentation.



Testing your unit



Needed a glass of water and a bit of time to figure out the menu



My test is made with the following settings. Set point (SP) 92, DIF 1 anti short protection (ASP) 1 (and 0). OFS 7 and the unit configured to heating mode energized at set point.



Standard/day mode night drop cable off.



The Unit comes on under 91 and turns off at 93 with the asp set to 1 it waits 60 seconds before energizing or de-energizing the relay (and you see a flashing asp in the display. If the asp is set to 0 it will turn your heating on and off with out a delay.



Night drop mode on (Bin is seen in the display.)



When the night drop is on the bin mode is activated and the OFS setting is subtracted from the main set point. I.e. I set the unit to 92 a dif of 1 and an OFS of 7 the heat is off at 86 and on at 84. I used my hand to raise the temp above 90 and the cool glass of water to rapidly cool the probe temp down. The unit functioned correctly turning the power on and off at the programmed settings. The unit was also left unplugged over a week and remembered my settings.

cost of the project was about 56.00 for the control. 5.99 For the heavy duty 3 way 3 outlet outdoor power cord (cut in half and you have the plug, outlets and wire.) 2.99 for two min plugs only one is used. .50 For a Romex clamp. 32.00 for the night drop cord (including shipping) and about an hour to wire it and test the unit. Total = 97.48 (shipping included)