mujino
Established Member
Introductions!
Hi all! New member and super excited to be here. A little bit of important background…I’m getting my first 3-mo old boy panther in a couple weeks and I can’t wait! My enclosure is almost complete...just waiting for a few items on order. And of course, my cham.
So like a lot of newbies, I’m reading every forum, research papers, and overthinking EVERYTHING. All of these ”what ifs” are bouncing around in my head. What if it isn’t humid enough for him overnight? What if I have to leave and the bulbs burn out? What if the system runs out of water? What if he dies and it’s my fault because my husbandry was less than ideal? And on…
Finally I came up with a solution that is probably overkill, but works for me. Why not set up a real time monitoring system that I can access while I’m away? In the short-term, it will keep me busy…and in the long run if that won’t put my mind at ease, nothing will! If you're interested, I describe my solution below - but it's pretty dull if you don't like IOT stuff.
Enough about me - I’d love to see your cage monitoring solutions, or how you get past all these “what-ifs”! As a soon-to-be panther owner, I’ll take all the advice/suggestions/peer reviews I can get.
The Solution
TL;DR: sensors + microcomputer + internet.
So here’s what I’m working on. (Not sure if I can plug products here, so I didn't use names.)
I set up a network of off-the-shelf I2C thermistor, I2C hygrometer, and a resistive photosensor. This sensor array will measure temperature, humidity, and light conditions in that order at different points in my cham’s enclosure. To capture data, these sensors are then wired up to a popular *.nix microcomputer running a python script which reads the signals from the GPIOs. The microcomputer supports a compact touchscreen display out of the box, which is an amazing feature. This lets me build out a custom visual display - like a mobile dashboard - for current and past temperature, humidity, and light readings. Later I can even livestream a camera if I decide to take it that far.
Best for last:
While it’s still in prototype, the whole system is connected to the internet via standard Ethernet connection, so once it’s done I can monitor my cham’s microclimate from anywhere. It takes some technical know-how and a lot of determination, honestly, but if you can put together a drainage solution (which I’m still trying to figure out - I’m not mechanically inclined) and program even just a little bit, it's doable. Emphasis on the determination...
I love new ideas - Show me how you solved this!
Hi all! New member and super excited to be here. A little bit of important background…I’m getting my first 3-mo old boy panther in a couple weeks and I can’t wait! My enclosure is almost complete...just waiting for a few items on order. And of course, my cham.
So like a lot of newbies, I’m reading every forum, research papers, and overthinking EVERYTHING. All of these ”what ifs” are bouncing around in my head. What if it isn’t humid enough for him overnight? What if I have to leave and the bulbs burn out? What if the system runs out of water? What if he dies and it’s my fault because my husbandry was less than ideal? And on…
Finally I came up with a solution that is probably overkill, but works for me. Why not set up a real time monitoring system that I can access while I’m away? In the short-term, it will keep me busy…and in the long run if that won’t put my mind at ease, nothing will! If you're interested, I describe my solution below - but it's pretty dull if you don't like IOT stuff.
Enough about me - I’d love to see your cage monitoring solutions, or how you get past all these “what-ifs”! As a soon-to-be panther owner, I’ll take all the advice/suggestions/peer reviews I can get.
The Solution
TL;DR: sensors + microcomputer + internet.
So here’s what I’m working on. (Not sure if I can plug products here, so I didn't use names.)
I set up a network of off-the-shelf I2C thermistor, I2C hygrometer, and a resistive photosensor. This sensor array will measure temperature, humidity, and light conditions in that order at different points in my cham’s enclosure. To capture data, these sensors are then wired up to a popular *.nix microcomputer running a python script which reads the signals from the GPIOs. The microcomputer supports a compact touchscreen display out of the box, which is an amazing feature. This lets me build out a custom visual display - like a mobile dashboard - for current and past temperature, humidity, and light readings. Later I can even livestream a camera if I decide to take it that far.
Best for last:
While it’s still in prototype, the whole system is connected to the internet via standard Ethernet connection, so once it’s done I can monitor my cham’s microclimate from anywhere. It takes some technical know-how and a lot of determination, honestly, but if you can put together a drainage solution (which I’m still trying to figure out - I’m not mechanically inclined) and program even just a little bit, it's doable. Emphasis on the determination...
I love new ideas - Show me how you solved this!
