Hamster Cage Ventilation System for Habitrail Cage

youmagine

You can use this to attach 4cm x 4cm fans to a Habitrail cage and keep your hamster more comfortable. One fan per single cage seems to work just fine. I have two cages that I've connected together with extra pieces, so I've made two fans. This keeps temperatures inside the cage more even but most importantly it keeps the bedding fresher, reducing the number of times I have to clean it. My hamster also looks healthier and cleaner when the fans run, and he plays more often. The motivation for making this project was noticing that my hamster would get hot just from sleeping in his nest during summer. In winter, I noticed that the cage was colder than the outside circulating air (checked it with a thermocouple device). The poor guy needed some help. I put the fans on his cage and all of this went away. This project comes with supports already attached. They are necessary, but they don't need to be as big as some slicers like to make them. Just download and print, and don't forget to snap off the supports after printing. It's not a pretty print, but it wasn't meant to be perfect. You may need to resize the screw holes to suit your needs. The fans I used can be bought here: http://www.eckertech.com/40mm-fan/. Yes, they are 12V fans. Don't worry about that. They will run at fairly low voltages (definitely 5V). I actually had a hard time finding fans this size for a decent price. This size is perfect for Habitrail cages. The 3D printed part is designed to be glued onto a Habitrail Ovo Window. First, drill a large number of holes into the Window from the inside out using your smallest drill bit. This will leave little bits of plastic sticking out and you don't want your hamster to bite them. You also need to make sure your smallest drill bit is small enough so that little noses won't fit into the holes enough to allow chewing. Clean the Window up a bit after drilling and use super glue to attach the larger side of the 3D printed part (fear not if it fills in the holes on the side of the Window as this is actually helpful). Make sure the holes for the fan mount are NOT on the glued side. The idea is that the fan will be held out away from the surface of the Window so that little noses can't get into it. Be liberal with the glue and let it dry overnight. It really doesn't matter which way you mount the fans. Decide if you want the air blowing in or out. Personally, I prefer to blow the air out. There are enough air holes in the cage to allow good airflow even if you have multiple fans blowing the same direction but mounted at opposite ends. Wiring the fans up is very easy - they really just need a power supply and nothing else. You can keep the project simple and just use a battery pack if you like. I did this for a few months until I got tired of changing batteries. Just keep in mind that at around 5V, one fan will require about 50 mA (so, not Arduino-friendly unless you run it off the 5V supply directly). If you want to replicate what I did, you'll need the BOM. My project uses 2 fans (combined max. 100 mA @ 5V) but any number of fans can be used. You may notice your hamster occasionally going around and sniffing at the air holes in the cage (if you mounted the fans so that they blow out). They notice the fresh air coming in. My project lacks a switch. You can put one in if you like. I figured if I didn't want it running, I could just unplug it. The potentiometer gives me a small amount of control over fan speed, less important with a 5V supply but still nice. If you plug this into a 12V supply, you'll really need some control as it will be too much for the hamster. Choice of resistor size is up to you but I went with a 1.2k because I hate bright lights at night. I also strongly suggest using red for the LED so that it isn't annoying at night. The schematic is included in the pictures. I didn't draw up a protoboard schematic because that will be highly dependent on your protoboard. iPhone chargers seem perfectly fine with this kind of usage. If you're like me, you've managed to accumulate quite a few of them by now so you can spare one for something like this. I thought of making a box for the protoboard but maybe later.