Finished Incubator

[PythonWallace]

Wow, excellent work! Amazing, that's exactly what I'm thinking of doing!

I'm not american so I'm unfamiliar with flexwatts, could you post a pic showing the heating system a little better?

Did you have to modify the cooler itself (drill holes etc) or can you still use the cooler, as a wine cooler when not incubating? Or what I'm planning, as a winter cooling "hotel" for corns for winters.

Thanks! Here is a link to flexwatt. It's thin, plastic coated heat tape.
http://www.beanfarm.com/store/agora....user4=Flexwatt

I'll try to get detailed pictures tonight, but I basically drilled a hole in the back of the cooler and ran the power cord through the hole. I wired together 2 - 5' strips of the heat tape and soldered one side to the power cord. I ran the heat tape from the top of one side, down across the bottom and up the other side, then ran the other strip next to it, back down and up so it ends where the first piece starts (if that makes sense). Then I just plug it into my thermostat and set the temperature.

I cut one of the wires from the circuit board to the thermo electric cooling unit and added a switch. I leave that switch off so the fan and light that are built into the cooler work, but the cooler doesn't turn on. When I'm not using it for eggs I can flip the switch and put 28 bottles of Pilsner, booze or wine inside.

[PythonWallace]

Here is the cooler if anyone's interested. The list price new is $269, but this site has open box models for $138 shipped to your door. They also have a 188 bottle cooler that goes for $2k open box for $699.

http://www.compactappliance.com/xq/J...TWR282S_OB.htm

[West Coast Jungle]

Looking good Jake

Are you using the fan it came with?
I disconected mine and use a computer fan from radioshack, I found the fridge fans cool down the incubator too much, but then again I used a coke fridge and not a wine fridge. You might wanna make sure that isn't an issue before you put your precious cargo in there.

Best of luck bro!

[RogueStar]

Thanks Jake, I'll have to consider something similar. I'll have to use heating cables or heat mats, they don't sell flexwatts here. But I guess I can manage with a cable and a thermostat.

[PythonWallace]

Looking good Jake

Are you using the fan it came with?
I disconected mine and use a computer fan from radioshack, I found the fridge fans cool down the incubator too much, but then again I used a coke fridge and not a wine fridge. You might wanna make sure that isn't an issue before you put your precious cargo in there.

Best of luck bro!

Thanks! Yeah, I'm using the internal fan right now. It seems to do the job, but I haven't tested it with full boxes. I set it up over night set at 89.0 with the fan going and this morning my low-high said 88.7-89.2, but I saw that those fluctuations were happening at the beginning when it was getting up to temperature. Once it was going for a couple of hours it seemed to stay right at 88.9-89.1. I have some extra 12v fans wired up in case, but I should be ok.

Thanks Jake, I'll have to consider something similar. I'll have to use heating cables or heat mats, they don't sell flexwatts here. But I guess I can manage with a cable and a thermostat.

You can use any heating element you want as long as it can get hot enough without burning anything. Cable would probably be best so the heat is spread out around the eggs, and not just coming up from the bottom of the unit.

[Inferno]

looks great, i think im gonna have a trip round some of the pubs/bars here and try and beg one from them, we also dont have flexwatt in the uk we just have heat mats or UTHs which are the same sort of thing i think, i want one of them helix stats but you cant get them here either only habistat or microclimate ones which are a bit pants to say the least

[Ginevive]

Nice! It is somewhat similar to mine, but maybe a bit larger. I am likin' it!

[FL0OD]

that came out real nice. now all you have to do is mass produce them and you can have another profitable hobby, hehe

[PythonWallace]

that came out real nice. now all you have to do is mass produce them and you can have another profitable hobby, hehe

Haha, I'm all over it.