The Dragon's Lair

[NickAVD]

Yeah there is so much untapped potential in the Smarthome space to be applied to what we are doing for sure. Woud be awesome to tie it all into central Aus weather data.

The Home Assistant control system has this feature. It has a virtual sensor with the current weather anywhere in the world. You can link the temperature control of your terrarium to it. Not bad idea!

 

[magicmagni]

Got some more goodies for the enclosure

Plants to Include:

• Fruitless Olive Tree (Olea sp "Magnificent")
• Blue Sedge (Carex glauca)
• Australian Coast Rosemary

Hardscape

• Ghostwood (Manzanita)
  • If you are in Northern CA check out Bruce with Natures Creations. He is at all the Reptile shows in the area. His prices are unbelievably good for what you get.
• Large cork bark rounds and flats from Natures Creations
• Arizona Red Flagstones
  • From local landscape supply. They usually sell by the ton ,but I found a place what will sell smaller quantities. I picked up 155 lbs of rock or only $50.. what a steal
• Some bricks
  • Just to be used for structure as needed.

 

[magicmagni]

The Home Assistant control system has this feature. It has a virtual sensor with the current weather anywhere in the world. You can link the temperature control of your terrarium to it. Not bad idea!

I may have to look more into that later. I see it's open source so that is way cool.. and it looks like they have app for NAS as well so I wouldn't have to setup another server Hmmm..

Alternatively, down the road I was thinking of getting a cheap android phone running TeamViewer and use that as a remote access point to monitor and control everything for example when out of town or on vacation.. Then I can control the Govee stuff and the Arcadia stuff.. maybe even access a camera to check up on him?

Jackson still to young to have his own phone so maybe when he is older LOL

 

[NickAVD]

I may have to look more into that later. I see it's open source so that is way cool.. and it looks like they have app for NAS as well so I wouldn't have to setup another server Hmmm..

Alternatively, down the road I was thinking of getting a cheap android phone running TeamViewer and use that as a remote access point to monitor and control everything for example when out of town or on vacation.. Then I can control the Govee stuff and the Arcadia stuff.. maybe even access a camera to check up on him?

Jackson still to young to have his own phone so maybe when he is older LOL

Home Assistant has its own mobile phone application. I use it on Android. My HA server runs on Raspberry, and my home internet router has an access rule for it, so I can monitor and manage the status of all lamps and sensors while away from home using my mobile phone, this is very convenient. And it’s confidential - you don’t give control of your home to someone else’s cloud storage, this is important to me, I don’t want to depend on any third parties or services.

 

[magicmagni]

Home Assistant has its own mobile phone application. I use it on Android. My HA server runs on Raspberry, and my home internet router has an access rule for it, so I can monitor and manage the status of all lamps and sensors while away from home using my mobile phone, this is very convenient. And it’s confidential - you don’t give control of your home to someone else’s cloud storage, this is important to me, I don’t want to depend on any third parties or services.

Sounds great! Reminds me of my PLEX server. I would just need a way to interface that with Arcadia app/ lights.. that's the rub. Anyways we digress..

 

[magicmagni]

So it's been a minute since I updated this and just wanted to share the (mostly) final results...

Here is an overall view of the cabinet and the enclosure.

Some closeups.. His basking spot is on the left.. lots of stones to bask on and climbing sticks. I used a large 1.5 foot long cork bark round as a tunnel/hide that goes under from front to back. There is also another hide under a large Cork flat in the back on the shade side of the enclosure just so he has options. I also covered some of the soil mix that I made with Australian Outback sand to improve the aesthetics, but also works well as a quick drying top layer of the substrate. Lot's of leaf litter and cork flats too in the back and sides- mostly around planted areas to give some refuge to the clean up crews.

Also added some wild "weed seeds" I got from the Arizona Tortoise compound. I just randomly scattered them around some of the planting areas and they are already starting to sprout!! I used them in Jackson's temp home too and they usually sprout in a day or two.. he likes to graze on them They also really get the bio jump started.. and since they are weeds they are hard to kill

Added about 50 Mealworm beetles from my colony. It's cool to see them roaming around at dusk and dawn.. He does like to eat them too so we will see how it goes? I am hoping that he eats enough to keep them in check, but not so much that there is no clean up crew.. not pictured, but also added 100 Giant Canyon Isopods and 50 Powder Blues as well and lots of springtails.

Planning on giving it a good month to "settle in" before adding Jackson. It's going to be really fun to see him "be free" in his little Australian Outback

 

[hdochow]

that looks so freaking cool!

 

[xp29]

So it's been a minute since I updated this and just wanted to share the (mostly) final results...

Here is an overall view of the cabinet and the enclosure.

View attachment 87030

Some closeups.. His basking spot is on the left.. lots of stones to bask on and climbing sticks. I used a large 1.5 foot long cork bark round as a tunnel/hide that goes under from front to back. There is also another hide under a large Cork flat in the back on the shade side of the enclosure just so he has options. I also covered some of the soil mix that I made with Australian Outback sand to improve the aesthetics, but also works well as a quick drying top layer of the substrate. Lot's of leaf litter and cork flats too in the back and sides- mostly around planted areas to give some refuge to the clean up crews.
View attachment 87031

Also added some wild "weed seeds" I got from the Arizona Tortoise compound. I just randomly scattered them around some of the planting areas and they are already starting to sprout!! I used them in Jackson's temp home too and they usually sprout in a day or two.. he likes to graze on them They also really get the bio jump started.. and since they are weeds they are hard to kill


View attachment 87033

Added about 50 Mealworm beetles from my colony. It's cool to see them roaming around at dusk and dawn.. He does like to eat them too so we will see how it goes? I am hoping that he eats enough to keep them in check, but not so much that there is no clean up crew.. not pictured, but also added 100 Giant Canyon Isopods and 50 Powder Blues as well and lots of springtails.

View attachment 87032

Planning on giving it a good month to "settle in" before adding Jackson. It's going to be really fun to see him "be free" in his little Australian Outback

That is damn amazing

 

[magicmagni]

Thanks!

Check it out. I finally got my sticker from Etsy. Custom made for Jackson..
SuperMario Names
The other is an 8-Bit Beardie Sticker- from www.HappyDragons.com

 

[magicmagni]

This is the software side of things for the Enclosure..

Using Govee Software for now as it is really easy to setup and use. Just download an app and off you go..

The app homescreen looks something like this. It shows everything in real time from the Bluetooth ambient temperature sensors and also can control the wifi outlets manually. The units create their own network with each other and can communicate directly with each other through it.

The Bluetooth temperature sensors also log all the temps and humidity so you can look back for many days-- even months and see what the parameters were. Very nice for troubleshooting.

I stumbled on this functionality, but I'm glad I did... you can use the Auto Run feature to turn things on and off. Below I set rules for the fan to run.. Basically, when the bluetooth sensor on the shade side of enclosure gets too hot it triggers the outlet for the fan unit to turn on. Then I set an opposite rule to turn it off. I also have a rule to override and turn off the rain pump if the humidity is too high ,but not sure if I need it.. still experimenting.

 

[magicmagni]

For the lighting I am using the Arcadia LumenIZE system.. It was a little buggy at first, but the latest version of Software is close to 100%

This is what the interface looks like.. The "scan" button searches for all the lights via Bluetooth and they show up in the list below.. I have 3.. One for the two T5 UVB bulbs and another for the LED light bar..

You can click any of the item in the list and it will display the timing that is saved into the light.. All the lights have a battery backup so if they ever loose power you don't need reprogram them thankfully!!

Also you can save the programming onto your phone as a backup. If you add another light you can apply the timing from your phone app to the new light as well. They have 2 default light cycles that you cannot change and then they have 5 custom modes that you can. I hope in the future they add more custom modes as I intend on having at the least a winter and a summer lighting schedule and the slots do fill up fast! I hope in the future they will also offer an "export and import" feature so that setting can be shared. Perhaps export to an .xml type file that can be shared and or modified and imported back into the app? sky is the limit if they want to develop this stuff.. we'll see ,but at least for now it is very functional.

 

[magicmagni]

Check it out.. the weeds are flowering now I never thought I would be so happy to see weeds grow LOL

 

[AHBD]

Enclosure looks great ! Jackson's cage decor probably worth more than all of my furniture.

 

[xp29]

Enclosure looks great ! Jackson's cage decor probably worth more than all of my furniture.

Same here lol

 

[magicmagni]

Same here lol

Lol.

I actually saved a lot getting stuff from landscaping supplier and DIY substrate. I'd say the most expensive thing of the build was the actual enclosure and the mural background. PVC is a pretty pricey material, but Kages is very fair on their pricing.. I couldn't of built it much cheaper if I went full DIY. I'd love to find a less expensive source for vinyl background, but haven't found it yet.