The broodminder temperature / humidity sensor seems to do what it says.
But they have another product that they are crowd-sourcing, a hive scale.
It likely won't.
The first of these "networked" hive scale products to fail, "Apiara" has
folded its tent, and left buyers with a useless "brick", as it sent data
back to the Apiara server, which now links to a "domain for sale" page.
That's the basic problem with most of these high-tech beekeeping toys, they
depend on the company's servers, and/or their software. The beekeeper's data
is hostage to the whim of the company, assuming the company both still
exists, and is in a mood to continue to "support" the device.
While one hopes that this can be avoided with a Bluetooth device, one is
still dependent on the company's "app". Quite a few apps have "updated" and
crippled formerly useful features, inserted annoying ads, and so on. One
has to wonder if one's yard locations and data will be sold to the highest
bidder, as most "apps" are designed to collect data about the user to be
sold.
Such things can happen even with a product sold by a very well-funded
company, like Google:
http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/4/11362928/google-nest-revolv-shutdown-smart-
home-products
http://tinyurl.com/jbnwa8m
These under-hive electronic hive scales do not impress NASA, who has learned
the hard way in their ongoing study of climate change and its impact on
bloom dates:
Quoting their official protocol document:
http://honeybeenet.gsfc.nasa.gov/About/SHprotocol.htm
http://tinyurl.com/jyhxw33
“Electronic scales are coming on the market, but there is currently no low
cost model that runs on batteries, is weather proof, and has sufficient
accuracy over the range of temperatures encountered. Re-zeroing is a
problem, as well as confidence in the accuracy over time, since most
electronic scales are designed to be turned on unloaded, automatically
zeroed themselves with no load present, followed by determining the load
weight a short time later. They will work only if you want to lift the
entire hive on and off in a few seconds, every time you want to weigh it.
In addition, accuracy depends on temperature. Its fairly easy to tell if
the mechanical balance beam scale has a problem, not necessarily so with an
electronic one. Hopefully some manufacturer will remedy this situation and
market something affordable.”
Fischer’s Nectar Detector ( http://nectar-detector.com ) is the answer to
all of the problems listed above.
[Disclosure: I have an interest in the product, as I have been fiddling with
it since 2002, designed it, oversee the manufacturing, wrote the code in the
custom PLAs that are soldered in with care, play shipping clerk sometimes,
and put my name on the box.]
“Low Cost” – Yep, about ¼ to 1/2 the cost of other hives scales. Cheaper
than a replacement package of bees!
“Runs on Batteries” – Yep, it runs about a year on one button-cell battery.
“Is Weather Proof” – Yep, the works go home with you, and never suffer
extended exposure to the elements.
“Sufficient Accuracy Over the Range of Temperatures” – Yep, you zero the
scale before each weighing, so there is no drift due to temperature. All
electronic hive scales that are left "out in the weather" have inherent
problems with temperature stability.
Variations in temperature can render the readings useless. There's also
drift, which happens with any scale that is loaded continuously with the
weight of a beehive.
“Re-zeroing is a Problem” – Nope, just press a button!
“Confidence in the Accuracy Over Time” – You can verify it any time.
"Lift the entire hive" - No need to do so. How do we do it? Physics!
“Since most electronic scales are designed to be turned on unloaded,
automatically zeroed themselves with no load present, followed by
determining the load weight a short time later.” - That’s exactly how to
use a Nectar Detector!
Best of all, one Nectar Detector will weigh every hive you own, as often as
you like, even beyond the range of cellphones, and WiFi, as it depends on no
network, cellphone, or other device. It is completely stand-alone. Even
the old platform scales could only tell you about one hive’s weight. There
are significant advantages to weighing all the hives in a yard, but the
website explains this.
I wonder about these "crowd sourcing" approaches - do the promoters have so
little faith in their own product that they do not want to put their own
money where their mouths are?
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