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Senior Member
Hive monitoring - DIY
This is an attempt to corral discussion of DIY hive monitoring equipment - temperature, humidity, weight, noise etc. in a single thread.
There are two recent relevant threads:
- Varroa estimations in winter - where Jon first mentioned Arnia monitors in post #9
- Build the Buzz - which started with an 'advert' from the BBKA website and quickly developed into a discussion of home-brew technology to monitor hives.
The most complete solution at the time of posting is the ear trumpet proposed by Gavin.
ear-trumpet-3.jpg
Oddly, neither can I. But I can reinstate it.
Wow! Lucky I didn't post anything abusive by accident or I'd have been reprimanded
Last edited by fatshark; 19-12-2015 at 12:53 PM.
Reason: Hmmm ... can't delete an embedded image after posting
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Senior Member
Hi fatshark
I'll keep an eye on this thread now
Still fiddling around with the AtTiny85 at the moment
If you are planning to get one of them then the Arduino IDE latest version causes some issues so the previous version 1.6.5 (I think) is the one to download
Sent from my LIFETAB_S1034X using Tapatalk
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Senior Member
I've gone for a UNO clone for convenience. All seems OK so far. The DHT22 seems to generate sense and I'm scrabbling round trying to find an SD card for data storage. I've got a vague memory of chucking out some small capacity ones ... that'll teach me
The intention is to create something that works (more of less) and then to port it to one of the micro clones lacking the USB, LEDs etc. or even a bare chip for power saving. I've not got all the necessary additional boards and stuff and now isn't the time to impatiently wait for things coming through the post.
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Senior Member
The DHT22 works fine and I can now read/write to an SD card and have some 433 MHz RF modules being delivered by Santa with the intention of having a hive-based low-power transmitter and a separate receiver.
In terms of practicality I'm not convinced that a combined temperature/humidity monitor is ideal (and am also wondering what sort of casing I can build to prevent the DHT22 becoming totally gummed up with propolis). I've therefore also ordered a few waterproof DS18B20 digital sensors. They look a whole lot more propolis-resistant:
$_12.JPG
These have unique addresses so can be wired in series if needed (loads of info here on getting addresses etc. Two libraries required and readily available). With 1m of wire on each it should be possible to get the broodnest temperature and the external temperature reasonably easily. I presume humidity can be measured in any suitable corner of the hive.
Next ... power, and how to use less of it.
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Senior Member
Hi fatshark
I have a few of the ds18 sensors but haven't done anything with them yet
The DHT22 was a bit dear to have the bees destroy
DHT11 is much cheaper and pretty much good enough I think
The Digispark ATTiny 85 is what I have been messing around with at the moment
I got a little barometric sensor for a couple of pounds
My brother in law is in hospital and Xmas taking up most of the energies at the moment but I have managed to do a little bit with timers etc
Well done getting the SDCard recording done
MicroSD are cheap so it seems a good solution( for out apiaries anyway)
Sent from my LIFETAB_S1034X using Tapatalk
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Senior Member
Hi DR
I'm intending to protect the sensor by placing it in a 'tube' of insect mesh. I use this stuff for travel screens and have yards of it (somewhere!). It will allow good airflow and can be replaced if it gets caked in propolis. However, the DHT22 seems very slow to respond to changes in temperature.
My efforts to save energy currently (no pun intended) hampered by a) Christmas, b) work and c) losing my multimeter in the move up here. I have solutions for both (c) and (b). It's clear from stuff on the web that optimising battery life needs hardware (and the ATtiny85 will undoubtedly have the advantage here) and software changes e.g. barebones chip, low voltage and libraries that put everything to sleep between readings. Two years from 2xAA appears readily achievable, but the data storage/transmission will inevitably reduce this. I'm currently dabbling with the imaginative-named narcoleptic library
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Senior Member
Hi Fatshark
I mentioned this already but the Digispark AtTiny85 will moan a lot and not work properly with the latest Arduino IDE
The one to download is 1.6.5 https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/OldSo...eases#previous
It will get fixed soon I expect
I have bookmarked the links you gave me thanks a lot
ps stumbled on this project it uses the Linkit One
http://www.instructables.com/id/Prot...h-Tilt-Sensor/
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Senior Member
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Senior Member
Both great links -- thanks Fatshark I have bookmarked them as well
If you are looking for solar panels etc try http://www.banggood.com/search/solar-panel.html
I have bought quite a lot of components and stuff from them this year
They have been pretty good
When you pick something it will show as in the European Warehouse or Chinese one
The delivery is faster from Europe but the price is higher
You can pay less on Ebay sometimes but theres not much in it
you do get some points from Bangood and know who they are (to some extent)
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Senior Member
Here's someone else doing the same sort of thing ... but this includes hive weights as well. Just a single (long and appended) post but some useful background info, particularly on load cells and displaying the data.
I guess investigating solar power around the winter solstice is the ultimate in optimism
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