Manual: Model A

Manual for the Model A POE. Developed for the South Carolina Hive Instrumentation Project

Quick Start

A. Connections

1. Plug the yellow cable from the electronics into the bottom of the scale frame.
2. Plug the surge protector into a 120 VAC wall outlet.
3. Plug the POE Power Supply into the surge protector.
4. Plug the cable from the POE Power Supply into the POE Injector input DC 48 V. The green light on the POE Injector should be on.
5. Plug a CAT-5 cable from the router to the surge protector.
6. Plug a CAT-5 cable from the surge protector to the POE Injector input LAN IN..
7. Plug the CAT -5 cable from the hive electronics into the POE Injector output POWER+DATA OUT

B. Software

1. Figure out the scale's IP address
2. Connect to the scale from inside the LAN
3. See if it is hitting hivetool.org

C. Hive Selection and Management

1. Select a medium strong, healthy colony
2. Switch out a bad colony ASAP.
3. Over Super. DO NOT LET THE COLONY RUN OUT OF EMPTY COMB.
4. Manage this colony for extracted honey production.

Specifications

Hardware

1. Raspberry Pi B computer with 8 GB SD card, Ethernet and 2 USB ports.
2. 20”x16” platform scale 400 lbs max. 0.1 lb resolution.
3. TEMPerHUM thermometer/hygrometer
4. 7 port powered USB hub.
5. RS-232 to USB adapter

Software

1. Linux operating system (wheezy-raspbian)
2. Apache Web server
3. Hivetool (available from github.com/hivetools)

Requirements

Power

Power Requirements: 120 VAC

NOTE: There are no hazardous voltages inside the platform scale or enclosure.

The electronics will operate from 12 to 24 VDC. The 120 VAC Power Over Ethernet (POE) adapter is a 48 volt DC wall power supply and an injector that sends the power over extra wires in the Ethernet cable. At the hive, a splitter separates the 48 VDC from the Ethernet cable and regulates the voltage to 12 VDC. The range is up to 100 meters.

Internet

An internet connection, usually DSL, cable or satellite, is required. A spare port on the router (Ethernet (10BASE-T or 100BASE-TX) is required. Very little bandwidth is used. Less than 1K bytes are uploaded every 5 minutes.

Installation

Before installing, please test the unit by powering it up and connecting it to the internet.

1. Plug the 4 pin round connector from the Weatherproof Electronics Enclosure into the connector in the bottom of the scale base.
2. Install 6 AA batteries in the battery holder inside the Weatherproof Electronics Enclosure.
3. Plug the ethernet cable from the Weatherproof Electronics Enclosure into the POE injector receptacle marked POWER+DATA OUT:
4. Plug a cable from the POE injector marked LAN IN to a router with DHCP enabled.
5. Plug the 48 volt DC power supply into the connector on the POE Injector marked DC 4

Troubleshooting

Scale turns itself off within seconds of being turned on

We have observed this behavior before. We don't know why this happens. If you play with the scale long enough, it will probably start working. 2. First: Make sure the batteries are good. (If the AC power connector is not making good contact the batteries will go dead. There may only be enough juice in them to power the scale for less than a minute. There is a low battery indicator on the scale display. If the batteries are low, there is probably a problem with the scale power supply.

Second: Try disconnecting the yellow cable to the scale frame. The connector is on the bottom of the frame which is under the hive. And powering the scale up. If it turns on and stays on, then reconnect the yellow cable to the bottom of the scale frame.

No weight or weight is zero and doesn't change.

1. Scale LCD is off or doesn't display correct weight.

Is scale turned on?

2. Scale won't stay on.

Scale displays correct weight but not showing up on website.

           1. Check scale parameters.

2. Check DB-9 connector from USB hub (via USB to RS-232 converter cable) to scale.

3. Make sure the POE splitter output voltage is set to 12 VDC.

Theory of Operation

At the house, 120 VAC is converted to 48 VDC by the Power Over Ethernet (POE) power supply. The 48 VDC is combined with Ethernet from a router by the POE combiner. This combined power and ethernet signal is run to the yard with CAT-5 cable. It has a range of up to 100 meters. At the hive, the 48 VDC is split off from the ethernet signal and converted to 12 VDC. THe 12 VDC powers the scale and is converted to 5 VDC to power the USB hub.

The hive computer is a Raspberry Pi Model B with 512 M RAM. It is back powered through the powered USB hub. The sensors connect to the Pi via the USB hub.

Every five minutes the hive computer reads the scale, temperature and humidity sensors. The data is stored on the SD card (like a solid state hard drive) and is transmitted via the internet to a hosted web site, hivetool.net, where it is saved in a MySQL database. Graphing software displays graphs of weight temperature and humidity.

Apache web server runs on the hive computer to display graphs and system statistics.

Appendix I. Parts List