Arnia Hive Monitor

[alanf]

perhaps this amalgam of ideas might work ... a thin frame or eke ... think crown board minus the board ~ 8mm thick. diagonal wires brace the board, a bee space from the top and the bottom. Attached to the wires are temp and humidity sensors. The sensor connections exit though frame (ribbon cable). This sensor eke then goes below crown boards, feeder boards etc. in normal operations it is left stuck to the top component crown board feeder board etc.

Like a queen excluder?

Not suggesting you couldn't make one but the prototype is a few cable ties and a board you already have.

 

[user 6228]

Like a queen excluder?

Not suggesting you couldn't make one but the prototype is a few cable ties and a board you already have.

yes like a queen excluder with most of wires missing to stop them disturbing the heat measurement

 

[alanf]

yes like a queen excluder with most of wires missing to stop them disturbing the heat measurement

Actually, that's an interesting thought. Placing a heat conducting grid across a hive must change the thermal profile. Harder to maintain brood nest temperature close to the wires, anyway. Not a consideration I've seen written anywhere when comparing queen excluder types.

 

[domino]

Never seen the price list before:

http://bee-keepers.co.uk/price-list/

I like my gizmo's but for the cost of monitoring my hives I could just buy three or four new hives.

 

[user 6228]

Actually, that's an interesting thought. Placing a heat conducting grid across a hive must change the thermal profile. Harder to maintain brood nest temperature close to the wires, anyway. Not a consideration I've seen written anywhere when comparing queen excluder types.

The thermal engineering of bee habitats has very few researchers anywhere.

In conventional wooden bee keeping the box isn't keeping much heat in so it may not be significant. However every thing becomes significant at the other end of the scale.

 

[dancingbee]

I have two Arnia hive monitors with the weather pack. I have used one for the past year and probably won't be using it again next year. Problem I had included:
The weather pack was situated in a nice open spot yet showed the weather as being overcast all year. Rain sensor info isn't displayed anywhere.
Theft alert going off every other day for no reason.
This hive swarmed this year with no indication from the monitor at all that it was going to (the primary reason for having it!).
The monitor in the hive has two long training wires that just got in the way every inspection.

In summary I can actually think of a reason for having it in my hive!

Ed.

Hi guys - I have just discovered this thread. I have also been part of the trial for almost 2 years, but due to poor mobile signal in my area, and some further technical difficulties and communication problems only got my 2 monitors working at all last autumn/winter, and was only able to get one of them into a hive this spring. Now trying to get used to the leads during inspections, to interpret the data, and to be able to install and use the second monitor. I would be really interested in hearing from anyone else with these monitors.
Lynne

 

[Roola]

Hi guys - I have just discovered this thread. I have also been part of the trial for almost 2 years, but due to poor mobile signal in my area, and some further technical difficulties and communication problems only got my 2 monitors working at all last autumn/winter, and was only able to get one of them into a hive this spring. Now trying to get used to the leads during inspections, to interpret the data, and to be able to install and use the second monitor. I would be really interested in hearing from anyone else with these monitors.
Lynne

I have these monitors, had a few problems with getting stuff working but customer service is very good from Pete. Its quite frustrating when you want the bloomin instrument to work and its not, just put two back in my hives for winter and only one seems to be connecting and is giving some rather odd data too.

 

[Arfermo]

Mima – minimal invasive monitoring assistant for apiarists http://www.jamesdysonaward.org/en-G...-monitoring-assistant-apiarists/?cookies=true – another must have ?

 

[user 6228]

I have these monitors, had a few problems with getting stuff working but customer service is very good from Pete. Its quite frustrating when you want the bloomin instrument to work and its not, just put two back in my hives for winter and only one seems to be connecting and is giving some rather odd data too.

A bee hive is a horrendous environment for electronics,
Hot ,high humidity, corrosive.

 

[itma]

A bee hive is a horrendous environment for electronics,
Hot ,high humidity, corrosive.

To say nothing of beespace, wax, propolis … and rather a lot of insects.

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Mima – minimal invasive monitoring assistant for apiarists http://www.jamesdysonaward.org/en-G...-monitoring-assistant-apiarists/?cookies=true – another must have ?

It'll take a while to inspect a colony one bee at a time.

 

[user 6228]

To say nothing of beespace, wax, propolis … and rather a lot of insects.

The wrong sort of epoxy encapsulation just turns to soft jelly in the hive,and the bees can nibble away insulation and encapsulation.
Wires in a hive are a menace as they are stuck with propolis an wax, then they are liable to ping off during inspections causing bees umbridge. and we all know what affronted bees do !
I found the best place for sensors was buried in the walls of the hive and the best place for wires was going straight from the sensor through the wall of the hive.

 

[saaarawr]

Does anyone know how much these monitors cost? They haven't replied to my request form and I really need to know pronto!

 

[madasafish]

Does anyone know how much these monitors cost? They haven't replied to my request form and I really need to know pronto!

iirc £80 for a basic one..

(I gave up: I dislike products without published prices...)

 

[bpmurray]

iirc £80 for a basic one..

(I gave up: I dislike products without published prices...)

I'm in the process of putting together a system to monitor 2 adjacent hives. the hardware consists of the following:

• Controller
  • Raspberry Pi model A+
  • 1 x DS18B20 sensor to measure the ambient temp
  • 1 x WiFi dongle to communicate with the house
• In each Hive
  • DS18B20 sensor to measure the brood temp
  • DS18B20 sensor to measure the general hive temp
  • DHT22 sensor to measure the humidity & temp under crown board

The total cost is around £50, i.e. £25 per hive.

I have completed the capture software, including delivering the data to a server, but I still have to do the status display web page(s). I'll also do a mobile app so I can see the status on the go.

If you're interested in these things, the software used includes:

• On the Pi
  • Node Red (I had to write my own node for the DHT22)
  • MQTT send
  • SQLite
• On the server
  • Node Red
  • MQTT receive
  • CouchDB
  • TBD graph/widget for display
  • Cordova or WorkLight for mobile

I'd also like to add weight sensors and might include an IR camera to see inside the hive, but that's something for later.

If anyone's interested in doing it themselves (or asking a local 12-year-old to do it - check with your local CoderDojo at zen.coderdojo.com), I'm happy to share the specifics.

 

[sussexbaker]

Weight is the bit that I'm most interested in, IIRC it adds about £400 to the price of an Arnia setup (I've got the price list somewhere, though it might be a bit out of date).

I've looked into putting something together myself (there's a few examples online) but I just don't have the time at the moment (new baby, lots of projects to over see at work, queen rearing etc etc!)

 

[bpmurray]

Weight is the bit that I'm most interested in, IIRC it adds about £400 to the price of an Arnia setup (I've got the price list somewhere, though it might be a bit out of date).

Wow - I hadn't realised that it was that expensive. My plan is to use 4 sensors per hive (one on each corner) and connect the 2 sets to a single HX711 ADC. I have it sort of working - the cost will shock you:

• 8 x weight sensors cost $17.99 = £11.60
• 1 x HX711 cost €1.48 = £1.10
• Total = £12.70 (or £6.35 per hive)

To this I'll need to have some kind of frame to allow it be mounted under the hives, but that will still be substantially less than £5 per hive in addition to the £6.35 - my guess is a total cost of less than £10 extra for weight monitoring per hive!

 

[itma]

... My plan is to use 4 sensors per hive (one on each corner) and connect the 2 sets to a single HX711 ADC. I have it sort of working - the cost will shock you:

• 8 x weight sensors cost $17.99 = £11.60
• 1 x HX711 cost €1.48 = £1.10
• Total = £12.70 (or £6.35 per hive)

To this I'll need to have some kind of frame to allow it be mounted under the hives, but that will still be substantially less than £5 per hive in addition to the £6.35 - my guess is a total cost of less than £10 extra for weight monitoring per hive!

Do tell more on those sensors, please.

 

[bpmurray]

Do tell more on those sensors, please.

Basically each of these sensors (link below) is quarter of a Wheatstone Bridge, so you end up with 4 for a complete setup, i.e. per scales. They each support up to 50kg, so 4 of them will allow weights up to 200kg which should be plenty - if your hive weighs more than that, dance a jig rather than weighing it! So we need 8 of these sensors for 2 hives.

To connect them to the Raspberry Pi requires that the analogue signal, basically a miniscule change in the current that passes through, is amplified enought to be useful and converted to a digital signal, which is what the HX711 (link below) does. This in turn can be directly connected to the Pi. This little module actually has 2 channels, so you can connect 2 hives to it.

However, that's actually the easy bit. The software is rather complex, since selecting the appropriate channel is a bit awkward. I think I've cracked it, but I haven't had enough time to verify that yet.

Links (since I don't have enough posts yet to be allowed to post links):

• Weight sensors: aliexpress.com/item/4pcs-50kg-Body-Load-Cell-Weigh-Sensor-Resistance-strain-Half-bridge-sensors/32214801765.html
• HX711: aliexpress.com/item/HX711-Weighing-Sensor-Dual-Channel-24-Bit-Precision-A-D-Module-Pressure-Sensor/1773406268.html

 

[itma]

Hmmmm. Thanks. Cheap certainly. Outdoor rugged, I wonder. Also just a bit surprised that the spec sheet seems to list the creep after one minute. I do wonder how much it might deform after being under continuous load for several months ... ?