User:David
My name is David Hawa, I have been involved with the developers with TheHivetoolProject since 2014. I am hobbyist beekeeper in Texas and have been keeping bees since 2012. The HawaUbee Apiary is registered with the State of Texas (#1-439-701) and is located in Roanoke Texas at Henrietta Creek Apple Orchard. The orchard which has been in operation since 1990, hosts field trips to thousands of children annually teaching them about pollinators and pollinator habitats. Currently the apiary has two monitored beehives, the first Named: HawaUbee utilizes an older version of HiveTool and is a 10 frame Langstroth style hive. The HawaUbee hive is a participant in the NASA pollination project; the first of its kind in Texas. The second, more recent hive named HawaUbee02 is equipped with the new user friendly HiveTool setup (HiveTool 0.7.3)and monitors not only weight but internal hive temperature, external temperature, and sunlight patterns. The HawaUbee02 bee hive is an 8 frame Flow Hive with dual brood boxes. My development scale is Named: HawaUbee03 which resides on my desk and it serves as my tinkering system. At the end of 2016 I currently have ten, ten-frame Langstroth beehives and I manage 5 Flow Hives that are owned by the orchard. I am amazed how far this project has come and excited to see where it is going.
Pictured Below is my current apiary :
My personal webpage is located at HawaUbee.com>
SYSTEM
Overview - The HawaUbee Hivetool System is totally off the grid; it is powered by two 185W; 5.17AMP solar panels which charge Three 35AMP hour batteries and is wired with an inline fuse incase anything goes wonky. The raspberry Pi computer systems there are 2 contained in separate Pellican water-tight storage boxes, which are contained in a suncast storage shed which is anchored to the ground to prevent tipping. The scales under HawaUbee and HawaUbee02 are constructed out of stainless steel "L" angle. Wires from the load cells are run into a watertight junction box; the wires from the load cells are connected to wires connected to the Pi computer systems. The wires are contained in plastic flexible conduit to protect them from the elements. The HawaUbee02 system is connected to a light (lux) sensor and also has an in-hive temperature sensor. Both Pi systems have wireless USB dongles that connect to an AT&T velocity hotspot.
Parts List
Upcoming
Soldering/Construction Manual
If you have decided to assemble your own board I have made a manual to aide in the assembly of your HiveTool v0.3 board; should you have questions.
File:HiveToolV0.3Board - Construction.pdf
Pictures of the External Container
