Okay, so first off, I've been a lurker of BD.org for years now (found you guys in '05 when I got my first beardy) and have been off and on here since. I've garnered a LOT of information from everyone here, but have never been enticed to register or login until recently.
Last week my wife's Beardy, the one eluded to above, finally passed on. We got him in '05 and he was already 11 years old at the time. The previous owners simply couldn't keep him any longer, and he had a really nasty wound on his right arm (apparently they tried to get him to breed with a neighbor's beardy, and she was having none of that, so she bit his hand off) and only had half a finger on his right hand. After getting that healed and handled, we've had him since and he's been a huge part of my family for a LONG time now. While his passing was sad, he was well beyond the age I'd expect a beardy to live, and so it was time for him. We figure we did something right to have had the blessing of his presence for as long as we did.
Whelp, time for another adoptee!
So we gave his enclosure a really good steam / bleach cleaning and then moved our Uromastyx in to that (it's a 75G long), and then did the same disinfecting cleaning on the Uro's enclosure and moved our Juvie Albino Leopard Gecko into that one, and lastly cleaned / disinfected the leopard's old enclosure and went and got another beardy for my wife.
So with all this moving around, I decided that I was very successful with the rabbit hutch I built for my daughter's bunnies, that I would try my hand at a furniture quality enclosure setup for the lizards. What I came up with was this:
This is still in the very early planning stages of getting everything designed and solidified before I even think about new lumber, but I wanted to get your opinions on what pitfalls I may run into. The Arborial vivs are 24" wide, 24" deep, and 84" tall, while the desert vivs are 48" wide, 24" deep, and 16" tall (I'm still adjusting the sizing of the desert vivs, as I'd like an interior height of 18", but It's proving to be some give and take with the electronics cabinet requirements).
The enclosures will be light / temp / humid / weather (yes, weather) controlled using three Arduino controllers and will run everything from the basic day / night lights, to the rain / dry seasons in the arborial vivs. I've already started the programming of the Arduino controllers and am testing proof of concepts for the misters, fans, lights, and heaters at the moment using an old dead tank that will never house another lizard due to cracks and whatnot. With the controllers I'll be able to customize each enclosure to the individual(s) living in them, and will be able to set certain alarm conditions for each variable that I'm able to control (which is pretty much everything except food).
As for the interior setup, I can't really show that in the CAD program I'm using to design this with, yet, but the UVB will be at the front of each enclosure (the desert vivs will have it behind the doorframe, at the top, and the arborial vivs will be to the right and left of the doorframes, so that you can't see the bulb, but the lizards still get the benefits). You can see where the basking bulbs will be in the arborial vivs, the desert vivs will have slightly recessed baskers on one side of the enclosure.
Anyway, I wanted to post what I've got so far as far as woodwork design functionality and see if you guys see any major pitfalls with what I'm putting around in my head before I get to work on this. Thanks for any thoughts, suggestions, or help you can give with this project in advance.
I will update this thread as this project progresses. I'm expecting a timeline of about 6 months from supplies purchased to fully functional.
-Jab
Last week my wife's Beardy, the one eluded to above, finally passed on. We got him in '05 and he was already 11 years old at the time. The previous owners simply couldn't keep him any longer, and he had a really nasty wound on his right arm (apparently they tried to get him to breed with a neighbor's beardy, and she was having none of that, so she bit his hand off) and only had half a finger on his right hand. After getting that healed and handled, we've had him since and he's been a huge part of my family for a LONG time now. While his passing was sad, he was well beyond the age I'd expect a beardy to live, and so it was time for him. We figure we did something right to have had the blessing of his presence for as long as we did.
Whelp, time for another adoptee!
So we gave his enclosure a really good steam / bleach cleaning and then moved our Uromastyx in to that (it's a 75G long), and then did the same disinfecting cleaning on the Uro's enclosure and moved our Juvie Albino Leopard Gecko into that one, and lastly cleaned / disinfected the leopard's old enclosure and went and got another beardy for my wife.
So with all this moving around, I decided that I was very successful with the rabbit hutch I built for my daughter's bunnies, that I would try my hand at a furniture quality enclosure setup for the lizards. What I came up with was this:
This is still in the very early planning stages of getting everything designed and solidified before I even think about new lumber, but I wanted to get your opinions on what pitfalls I may run into. The Arborial vivs are 24" wide, 24" deep, and 84" tall, while the desert vivs are 48" wide, 24" deep, and 16" tall (I'm still adjusting the sizing of the desert vivs, as I'd like an interior height of 18", but It's proving to be some give and take with the electronics cabinet requirements).
The enclosures will be light / temp / humid / weather (yes, weather) controlled using three Arduino controllers and will run everything from the basic day / night lights, to the rain / dry seasons in the arborial vivs. I've already started the programming of the Arduino controllers and am testing proof of concepts for the misters, fans, lights, and heaters at the moment using an old dead tank that will never house another lizard due to cracks and whatnot. With the controllers I'll be able to customize each enclosure to the individual(s) living in them, and will be able to set certain alarm conditions for each variable that I'm able to control (which is pretty much everything except food).
As for the interior setup, I can't really show that in the CAD program I'm using to design this with, yet, but the UVB will be at the front of each enclosure (the desert vivs will have it behind the doorframe, at the top, and the arborial vivs will be to the right and left of the doorframes, so that you can't see the bulb, but the lizards still get the benefits). You can see where the basking bulbs will be in the arborial vivs, the desert vivs will have slightly recessed baskers on one side of the enclosure.
Anyway, I wanted to post what I've got so far as far as woodwork design functionality and see if you guys see any major pitfalls with what I'm putting around in my head before I get to work on this. Thanks for any thoughts, suggestions, or help you can give with this project in advance.
I will update this thread as this project progresses. I'm expecting a timeline of about 6 months from supplies purchased to fully functional.
-Jab