Build the Buzz

[Greengage]

Am I missing something, Honey bees in danger,"It will give beekeepers access to unprecedented data on
bee behaviour and will become invaluable in the fight to save British bees. Eat Natural believes that research into the British honey bee and a greater understanding of
its annual cycle is crucial to human survival;".
Dont tell them but I know where there are about 1 million bees. How many do you have to have for them to be in danger.
http://www.bbka.org.uk/files/pressreleases/build_the_buzz_dec_2015_1450197431.pdf

[prakel]

Isn't this similar to the kind of equipment that forum members are discussing on another current thread? I'm not 100% certain because I'm nowhere near intelligent enough to understand a fraction of that other discussion but if it is the same then it seems to have a lot of supporters here already.

[fatshark]

I hope the sensitive technological equipment to gather data from within the beehive they choose is backed up by a company that responds a bit more rapidly than the one that rhymes with Narnia! They seem to take a week or more to respond to very simple email enquiries.

[The Drone Ranger]

I'm not sure what valuable scientific info Temperature and humidity gives but I'm not a scientist
But if that's all you wanted to monitor then that's a simple project for anybody
It only gets more involved if you want to network all your hives and sit in the house viewing the results online etc
I have something else in mind but just now I am on a learning curve with the AtTiny85

[fatshark]

Hi DR ... and I'm waiting expectantly for more little parcels from eBay, element14 and (the book to help a numpty like me) Amazon. I'm going the Arduino or derivative clone route, probably sticking everything to SD card initially then worrying about making a beehive part of the Internet of Things. Priorities will then be power (and implementing standby/sleep correctly), though I have one apiary that might just be in range of both power and WiFi which makes all things possible :D

(N)arnia show an interesting slide in their flyer that shows how brood temperature is related to whether the queen is laying or not. Unstable when not laying or absent, remarkably stable when present.

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi Fatshark
That sound sensible to me anyway :)
These are £4.00 + £1.00 del from Weardale on Ebay
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272059866912?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
They have the same USB to Serial as the official Arduino which is a good thing
CPC are good for components etc
I would register at Udemy.com but don't book any courses
Sometime after you will start getting offers of courses for £10 that's when to think about booking

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi DR ... and I'm waiting expectantly for more little parcels from eBay, element14 and (the book to help a numpty like me) Amazon. I'm going the Arduino or derivative clone route, .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8_xXNcGYgo
Try this guy Fatshark he does a pretty comprehensive set of videos free on youtube

[fatshark]

Great links thanks DR. Also pleased to see there are videos on python (a language I'm more familiar with) usage with Arduino. Amazing prices for these little boards ...

The Arnia pages on hive their hive monitors brood temperature and queenright status or laying status are here (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2460080/bees/ArniaRDDataSheetDec15.pdf). I just took the two relevant pages out of their data sheets. This may be available online, but they sent it to me when requested.

But first I have 30b of soft set honey to jar ;)

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi Fatshark
Thanks for the Arnia temperature info
That clears up what they are measuring temp and humidity for
What I am wondering is where they put the sensors because the broodnest could be in another part of the hive
I have a DT11 now and it was incredibly easy to set up with Arduino Uno
I haven't used it with the ATtiny yet because the tiny doesn't have hardware serial and I haven't had time to work out the software serial setup yet


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[busybeephilip]

I have one of them PIC18F26K22 44 pin development boards along with PICkit3. Maybe not as user friendly as Arduino but programming principles are much the same. Slowly learning C to get the chip to control a robotic thingy I'm making but I've been playing about with the notion of using load cells and storing data in the memory to be downloaded somehow? later. The only thing I'd find useful with the arnia system would be the scales and recording sound frequency ranges for swarm prediction as per Woods - easy to do this in real time but logging and transmitting data is where I'd be stuck

[fatshark]

Hi DR ... my Arduino (finally) arrived today and I've got a DHT22 (I think) sensor. It was a £1 more and is more accurate but slower (but irrelevant if you're only "sampling" at 15-30 minutes intervals). I've also got a RTC with SD card shield so am hoping to get them all stuck together over the next few days. I'm still officially at work. Jon might be able to provide some details of where the Arnia sensors go, but I've been giving it some thought as well. It's clear they need to be movable as the brood nest expands/contracts/moves.

BBP ... I was recommended to go the PIC route by someone with experience of it but a (rather cursory) look through online literature suggested Arduino clones were, as you suggest, both more user-friendly and perhaps better supported. I'm comfortable with reasonably high-level coding but the electrickery is a bit daunting.

We seem to have switched thread (again). Sometimes SBAi visits are some sort of Burroughs-esque nonlinear narratives ... maybe time to start a new one with links back to this and the Varroa estimations during winter. I'll do this - under DIY - where it might more properly belong (hope that's OK Gavin?).

PS Oh? we don't have a DIY section :confused:

[gavin]

PS Oh? we don't have a DIY section :confused:

I know :) I've been thinking of rearranging things. Definitely a call for one but we were reluctant to create a new area when we considered it last. Some are under-used and maybe there could be some fusing or rearranging. Any suggestions?

G.

[greengumbo]

I know :) I've been thinking of rearranging things. Definitely a call for one but we were reluctant to create a new area when we considered it last. Some are under-used and maybe there could be some fusing or rearranging. Any suggestions?

G.
I am keen to get some of these bee counters fired up on the hives at work. Note my comment on adapting it to detect departing queens. No idea about Arduino coding but it sounds straightforward and accessible. I think a DIY section would be excellent.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Honey-Bee-Counter-II/

[fatshark]

Now the Special One has gone perhaps we could use The Special Place?
Alternatively, a DIY section could be more inclusive and allow wooden/poly/plastic things to be discussed as well. However, there's quite a lot of this in the general section which - particularly with the importance and availability of Correx - you might want to ensure is available to all easily.
I like the rambling nature of SBAi so don't feel too strongly, or constrained, either way. I'm happy to simply try and restrict relevant conversations to the Hive monitoring - DIY thread.

[The Drone Ranger]

Off to the diy thread I go :)

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[Greengage]

Talking of DIY where is the correx roof thread, We are having an election probably next February so there will be plenty available to make Nucs.

[The Drone Ranger]

correx ?
On his head ?

Great musician though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFoBbNHvOME

[alclosier]

Do you mean this corex roof thread?

http://theapiarist.org/building-correx-hive-roofs/

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[Greengage]

cheers tks for the link