# Lucky Reptile Thermo Control Pro 2



## sanderson1973 (Mar 17, 2009)

Maybe its me being a little daft. But I need some help on setting up the control unit.

Basically I have set the day and night time temp that i need. I just need to set the timer.

So if anyone uses one of these it would be great if you could throw a little help my way.

Thanks


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## Jim2109 (Mar 30, 2009)

look in the manual, it tells you all the menu numbers (e.g. F01) and what they are. youve already figured how to set the other things, the timer is just 4 settings at the end (the last one is the overall time iirc, its the 4 prior to this). i think the order is timer1 on, timer1 off, timer2 on, timer2 off. then after them there is system time. those are the last 5 menu options iirc. you set them the same as the other settings.

the manual is pretty self explanatory really. anything you want on the timer you plug into socket II


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## sanderson1973 (Mar 17, 2009)

*Lucky Reptile Pro 2*

So I take it I just set the clock and then the timer??


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## Jim2109 (Mar 30, 2009)

yup set the clock (F12 iirc) to the current time. then you set F8 to timer1 on, F9 to timer1 off, F10 to timer2 on, F11 to timer2 off. by default they are all set to 00:00. if you leave them at 00:00 then they dont switch on. if you just need one timer at say 9am on, 6pm off then set F8 to 09:00 and F9 to 18:00 and presto


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## snakeman85 (Dec 9, 2007)

Sorry for the hyjack but is this an on/off thermostat.

thanks, Paul


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## Jim2109 (Mar 30, 2009)

yep, its on/off. but the way the pulse stats work for reptile use they might as well not be anyway. they basically are on/off stats, they dont pulse in an efficient manner like some appliances do.

i had a fan speed controller on my PC that had pulse proportional control. basically it had a choice of either lowering or raising voltage to acheive a fixed speed, or alternatively pulsing the voltage at different frequencies to acheive the same result. pulsing at high frequencies maintained a much more consistent and controllable speed than varying the voltage. however with temperature its not so easy to modulate with pulses because of how slowly it changes. if you removed the voltage from a fan it would be stopped within 3 seconds. remove the heat from a viv and it might hold its temperature within 1°C for 3 minutes!!

an on/off stat switches off when temperature is reached, then switches back on again when it drops, switches off when its reached, then back on when it drops, etc, etc. a pulse stat goes at full power until temperature gets close, then pulses at a decreasing frequency until temperature is reached, it then pulses to maintain it. basically in the EXACT same way as an on/off stat. the only thing that really matters with a stat is the hysteresis, e.g. the difference between the temp it turns off at (lets say 32°C) and the temperature it turns back on at (this could be 31.5°C or it could be 28°C. obviously youd rather it was closer to the temperature youre trying to maintain). on the Lucky Reptile controller you can set the hysteresis to anything from 1-15°C. in my experience pulse stats arent much more accurate, temperatures can drop away a degree or 2 whilst it is pulsing and then it ends up back on full power. they arent as good as they are cracked up to be, id take a Thermo Control Pro 2 every time, just for the day/night settings, and the additional timer circuit


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