Hey fellow keepers! Building a high-precision thermostat & would love to chat ideas with you all! 🐍🦎

[katzhenleni]

Here’s a quick update on our progress: this is the circuit board we’ve been debugging over the last couple of days, and it’s now successfully powered up. I believe we’ll be able to finish our first-generation demo very soon.

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Hi everyone!

Hope you’re all having a great week!

We’re a team of hardware engineers who also happen to be massive reptile nerds—our core members have been keeping reptiles for over 6 years on average, and our office is pretty much half-tech, half-zoo at this point with all our scaled roommates!

Over the years, whether we were managing multi-tier rack systems, setting up vertical arboreal tanks for high-climbers, or building custom PVC vivariums, one thing kept coming up: finding a thermostat that gives 100% peace of mind is surprisingly tough. Between shelf-to-shelf temp variations, tricky thermal gradients, and the constant fear of fail-safe failures, we knew there had to be a better way.

So, we decided to roll up our sleeves and build one ourselves—a high-precision, rock-solid temperature control system designed by keepers, for keepers.

Because our animals’ safety comes first, we’re taking zero shortcuts. We’re currently running rigorous hardware stress tests, and before sending out any physical units, we’ll be posting open hardware testing videos so everyone can see how the safety redundancy holds up in real time.

We’d love to learn from your hands-on experience and build this together with the community!

• What’s your biggest frustration with your current thermostat setups?

• If you could design your dream fail-safe feature or function, what would it be?

Drop your thoughts, wishlists, or worst thermostat horror stories in the comments below, or feel free to send over a DM! If you’d like to keep up with our testing updates or test out a free prototype unit down the road, we’d be super thrilled to have you on board!

Thanks for reading, and looking forward to chatting with you all!

Warmly,

Sari & the team

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Meet our tiny office manager!

[tommccarthy]

I have been using the Ranco ETC control for over 30 + years. I only have had one unit break down and stop working on me. It was the first one I ever had and it was a used one I bought. It didn’t cause any over heating of my heaters or burns it just stopped working.

The other ones I have are are 10 and 20 years old and are working fine for me. Even when the power goes out I don’t have to reset them after the power comes back on.

The Ranco ETC Series Electronic Temperature Control is a digital microprocessor-based thermostat used to manage heating, cooling, and commercial refrigeration applications.

Key FeaturesTemperature Range: Operates from -30°F to 220°F (-34°C to 104°C) with a 1-degree display and adjustment resolution.

Differential Control: Adjustable differential range from 1°F to 30°F to control on/off cycling.

Voltage Options: Available in line voltage models (120V/208/240V AC like the ETC-111000-000) and low voltage models (24V AC like the ETC-112000-000).

Display & Keypad: Features an LCD screen that shows real-time sensor temperature and relay status, programmed easily with a touch keypad.

Durability: Includes an 8-foot remote thermistor sensor (extendable up to 400 feet) rated IP67 for dust and water resistance.

Basic Programming (4-Step Setup)

Press the Set button to choose your temperature scale (F for Fahrenheit or C for Celsius).

Press Set again to adjust the setpoint temperature (S1), which is your target temperature.

Press Set to input the differential (DI1), determining how many degrees the temp can drift before turning the equipment on or off.

Press Set to select your operational mode: cooling (C1) or heating (H1).

[katzhenleni]

Keeping reptiles and running Ranco gear for over 30 years is incredible, —you’re a true veteran in the community! That level of bulletproof reliability—especially failing OFF instead of locking ON and overheating—is basically the holy grail for any keeper.

Classic industrial units like Ranco are built like absolute tanks, though we know they can feel a bit bare-bones compared to what modern tech can offer (like multi-channel rack control, PID dimming, or remote smartphone alerts).

Out of curiosity, as someone with decades of hands-on experience: would any modern feature ever tempt you to switch, or do you strictly stick to simple, standalone gear? Massive thanks for dropping the detailed specs and sharing your setup!

[tommccarthy]

I do like the bare-bones of the Ranco as I am old to and like to keep thing simple and the Ranco are fairly priced.

However it would be nice to have one unit that could have several probes to monitor each row of my rack system. Now I put my one probe in the middle of my rack and adjust my temps, so all my tubs are close to the same temperature.

A system connected to my smartphone would be nice to. This way when I am not home or on vacation I could check on it and turn it off if needed.

Price is a big concern as I am just a hobbyist with 50 plus boas. Just cannot justify the cost of some of the thermostats that are out there.

[socraticmonologue]

@katzhenleni

finding a thermostat that gives 100% peace of mind is surprisingly tough

Herpstats. Easy.

Not sure how to say this in the most acceptable way, but this sounds like the community is being asked to help train an AI to build a thermostat. An AI that doesn’t know that ‘tricky thermal gradients’ ain’t a thermostat issue.

[katzhenleni]

You’re 100% right on Herpstats. We actually run Herpstats in our own office setups—they are absolute tanks and set the standard for reliability. But where we see a clear gap today is in modern usability: seamless mobile app management, instant alert notifications, and a truly effortless setup experience.

Regarding thermal gradients—that was simply poor phrasing on my part. We know gradients depend on setup design, heating elements, and probe placement, not just the thermostat unit itself.

Not every keeper out there is an experienced veteran, and many are looking for a more intuitive, user-friendly control experience. Every single member of our team has kept reptiles for over 6 years, and our sole focus is building a rock-solid, fail-safe thermostat that combines high reliability with modern ease of use.

Appreciate you calling things out and keeping the community sharp—this kind of direct feedback is exactly why we’re here!

[katzhenleni]

If you’re calling out my post for sounding way too “AI-generated,” that’s completely fair! English isn’t my native language, so I used translation tools to help polish my wording—which clearly backfired and gave it that awkward “AI pitch” feel.

Still, I don’t think that changes what our team is actually working to build. It’s precisely because we know this community is packed with real, knowledgeable experts that I reached out here to connect and learn.

Thanks for keeping it real!

[katzhenleni]

Keeping 50+ Boas and calling yourself “just a hobbyist” is pretty modest, Tom! That’s a serious setup, and managing that many animals makes your feedback extremely valuable to us.

All those features you mentioned—multi-probe monitoring for rack rows, smartphone alerts, and remote shut-off—are actually right in the middle of our active development. We’re also focusing heavily on keeping the hardware accessible so scaling across multiple racks doesn’t break the bank.

Thanks a ton for sharing this—this is precisely the kind of real-world scenario we’re designing for!

[socraticmonologue]

@katzhenleni

finding a thermostat that gives 100% peace of mind is surprisingly tough. Between shelf-to-shelf temp variations, tricky thermal gradients, and the constant fear of fail-safe failures, we knew there had to be a better way.

So, we decided to roll up our sleeves and build one ourselves—a high-precision, rock-solid temperature control system designed by keepers, for keepers.

Because our animals’ safety comes first, we’re taking zero shortcuts. We’re currently running rigorous hardware stress tests, and before sending out any physical units, we’ll be posting open hardware testing videos so everyone can see how the safety redundancy holds up in real time.

@katzhenleni

But where we see a clear gap today is in modern usability: seamless mobile app management, instant alert notifications, and a truly effortless setup experience.

First the reliability and safety was the central concern, and then all of a sudden the slick tech bits are paramount. And the ‘six years’ prompt is getting reinterpreted:

@katzhenleni

our core members have been keeping reptiles for over 6 years on average

@katzhenleni

Every single member of our team has kept reptiles for over 6 years

This is more than ‘polishing wording’. This is a chat bot learning what the conversation calls for. I’ll leave it at that.

[southriverreptiles]

I would like to see a thermostat with multiple outlets and multiple probes for multiple devices. I hate that I have to have separate thermostats for everything. For example, I have a VE-2 rack sitting on top of my VE-6 rack and I have to have 2 thermostats due to the different lengths of heat tape. Not to mention separate thermostats for every other rack and enclosure I have. I don’t understand why there aren’t any thermostats that can handle multiple setups.

[katzhenleni]

Thanks for your reality check, but I assure you I’m definitely a real human!

[katzhenleni]

I haven’t used those specific VE racks, but I can definitely feel that pain. I’m currently running a mix of Herpstats, Inkbirds, and ReptiZoos, and the wire clutter everywhere is getting crazy.

[qjfdg1996]

maybe herpstat 2 or herpstat 4 can help you?

[celbii]

So basically a herpstat 2,4,6.