How to confirm the Herpstat is working properly.   Products    Environment Control       Herpstat       Herpstat ND       Herpstat II       Herpstat PRO       Herpstat Humidity       Herpstat Accesories       Night Drop Cable       Replacement Probe       USB Data Cable   BUY DIRECT       Online Store   News       What's New?   Projects       Future Development   About Us       Company Info       Reseller Info       Terms Question: My Herpstat is not functioning the way I expect it to. How should I troubleshoot it? Answer: If you have a multi-thermostat such as the Herpstat II or Herpstat Pro check that you have the correct probe going to the cage with the correct output. For example: the #1 probe going into the the enclosure controlled by the #1 output. The most common issue I get emails on is when these are not matched up and one enclosure is overheating while the other doesn't make it up to temp. The Herpstats products are very reliable. I rarely get returned product for repair. However, the Herpstat's have many different menu settings and sometimes I get help emails where the user has turned a setting on that causes the Herpstat to operate in a different way than they expect. The easiest way of troubleshooting any Herpstat is to just reset it to the factory defaults first. This will tell you 100% if you have hardware failure or not. Here are the steps: First unplug the unit. Unplug all heating devices from the Herpstat. Remove the probe from the animal enclosure. If usuing a multi-thermostat device such as the Herpstat II or Herpstat Pro unplug the addition probes leaving only the #1 probe plugged into in. Leave the device unplugged for 30 minutes. This will allow it to cool down in case the resettable fuses tripped. Hold down the PLUS button on the Herpstat and plug power back into the wall while keeping the button held down. Continue holding the button until it says LOADING DEFAULTS on the screen and then release the PLUS button. Get a regular incandescent lamp, turns its switch to the on position and plug it straight into the wall and verify you have light. Then unplug the lamp from the wall and plug it into the output #1 power cord. All Herpstats default to having only the #1 output turned on and set to 85 degrees. If the temperature of the probe is below 85 degrees the lamp should be on. If the temperature of the probe is above 85 degrees and the light is on you can unplug the temperature probe from the back of the Herpstat. An error will sound after 5 seconds and the light should go off. For multi-thermostat units such as the Herpstat II and Herpstat Pro you can enter the menu and turn on the other outputs (being careful not to change additional settings until the test is complete). Test the additional outputs the same way by attaching the lamp to them and checking their probes. If all outputs pass then the unit is fine. If for some reason there is still a problem shoot us an email (sales@spyderrobotics.com) with your symptoms and results from this test. Dion Brewington Owner, Spyder Robotics The information in the article is the opinion of the author and is to be used at your own risk. Spyder Robotics assumes no responsibility for the use of this information.