HiveTool.org
Contents
Order a Hive Monitor Kit
Order Form for the Hive Monitor Kit HiveTool Monitor Kits are made available through the kindness and hard work of volunteers at The Center for Honey Bee Research, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. They assemble and test the Hive Interface circuit broad, provide sensors and accessories and fulfill and track orders. Thanks!
HiveTool™
HiveTool™ is a collection of readily available, off-the-shelf hardware and free, open source software that continuously monitors a beehive. Computerized hive monitors provide real time and historic data and graphs of weight, internal and ambient temperature, humidity and light levels which give the beekeeper a noninvasive view into the hive. HiveTool won the 2015 Bayer Bee Care Community Leadership Award.
- wiki.Hivetool.org - Documentation, instructions, and a forum for discussions on how to set up a bioserver to monitor a bee hive.
- Hivetool.net - Access the network of monitored hives: status, graphs, download data, view the video feeds.
HiveControl™
HiveControl is beekeeper friendly alternative software for use with HiveTool suite of software and hardware.
HiveControl may be used standalone or in conjunction with HiveTool.
HiveControl is at version 1.89, development has diminished in 2017-2018 with sporadic enhancements.
Caution HiveControl has NOT been successfully tested with recent versions of Raspbian, backup before attempting an update
Main Features:
- Sensor Drivers work with HiveTool Sensor board
- Local & Cloud Data Collection
- Menu Driven Configuration Screens
- Graphical Trends and Dashboard
- Uploads data to HiveTool cloud
- Video Bee Counter
Programmers can learn more about HiveControl on HiveControl Github
Uses
Hive Management
Knowing what is happening in the hive is crucial to proper hive management. By knowing the beginning, end, and quantity of nectar flows, bee keepers can determine when to add and remove supers, when to move hives and where to locate hives to maximize honey production. Read More
Climate and Land Use Research
Plant/pollinator interaction is used to measure the performance of the environment, instead of the performance of individual hives. Read More
Education and Bee Science
A program to attract students to Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM). Bee science includes agriculture, biology, botany, chemistry, computing, food, industrial arts, math, physics, programming, statistics – in short, something for everyone. Read More
Hardware
New Developer Kit
An early goal of Hivetool was to develop a $50 scale. A developers kit to get beta units in the field for testing, gather user feedback, and provide a platform to foster open source community development is available at cost plus a voluntary contribution ... Read More
Commercial Sensors
A scale hive (or bioserver) consists of a computer (desktop, laptop, router, SBC/SOC such as Raspberry Pi), which is used to record, display, and analyze data from sensors such as scales, thermometers, hygrometers, microphones, cameras, photocells and rain gage. Listed below are readily available, commercial, off the shelf products that are currently in use or undergoing development and testing. Read More
Software: Overview
For software installation instructions, see How to load hivetool on the Pi.
Hivetool can be used as a:
- Data logger that provides data acquisition and storage.
- Bioserver that displays, streams, analyzes and visualizes the data in addition to data acquisition and storage.
Details of how the image is created
Bee Counter
While a scale can reveal nectar flows, orientation flight and the general health of the hive, it doesn't answer all the questions. A bee counter using low cost off-the-shelf hardware is being designed and tested. Read More.
Two different approaches are shown,
- Tracks, a video based tracking software.
- BeeCounter, based on openCV libraries.
How To
User manual, construction plans, solar design, troubleshooting. Read More
Hive Selection and Manipulation
Guidelines from Protocol for Scale Hive Measurements of the Honey Bee Nectar Flow. Read More
Data Warehouse
Since HiveTool™ is open source/open notebook, the entire primary record is publicly available online as it is recorded. Storing, organizing and providing access to the data is necessary. Read More
About
This open source project is comprised of beekeepers who work in electronics and information technology. Our goal is to produce software tools to monitor, manage and research bees and honey production. Read More
To Do
Lots to do! Whether you are a web site developer, database administrator, or programmer, there is something for you. Look over the list below - Read More
Why
Why put a computer in a hive? Read More
Projects
- HiveTool 2.0 Bleuetooth low energy
- Bee Counter
- Bioacoustics
- Bioserver
- South Carolina Hive Instrumentation Project
- History
Site Index
Contact
For comments, questions, or suggestions, please send an email to info at hivetool.net.
