Dean23708 just shared a new project: "YAM: Monitoring Animal Enclosures"
This is brilliant, just what I was looking for. My dad keeps a number of reptiles and birds that require temperature controlled environments, hes getting a bit older now and needs my help in maintaining it, which at the moment is very often, the main issues are ceramic heat lamps blowing and the time it takes to realize its blown and the thermostat accidentally being changed from heat to cool.
Changing to a more suitable thermostat shouldnt be too hard but I’m unsure about a heat lamp failed indicator. If the thermostat contact closes and I had an ammeter wired in series with the heat lamp, but no current in the circuit, then this would indicate a problem, I’ll have to look for a component that does this.
I’d like to give your project a go, its very interesting. I’d be confident with soldering, wiring and PCBs, I use Debian and I play around with python a bit and could change it to suit my own setup but I don’t have much of a grasp to be able to write any code myself. I’ve got very little experience with databases and always found them frustrating, I’ll have to read up about the ones your using and where to start.
I’ll let you know how I go
Sounds like a great adaption to the project Adrian. You could just use a current monitor in line with the entire circuit, and if you measure the draw of the lamps, it would be quite easy to spot a failure.
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