Sounds like we’ve got two beekeepers in @racingsnake and @PRP—any others? When we launched Twine I remember we had some people interested in collecting data because colony collapse was more of a mystery then.
Interested in hearing more about what people care about here, and other bee tech you have/wish you had.
Cool. I tried it with the old Twine, but the girls tended to push the Twine around a bit, yes, true, the managed to move it. But I also had trouble keeping it connected to Wifi. To far from the house for a consistent signal so I gave up on that idea.
I hear you, about wifi signal. I have run an ethernet cable up to the loft and hung a TP-Link “external” antenna up there. It gives good signal strength, even 25 metres from the house. I’m hoping that will be enough for the Pickup. Oh, also, I use a WBC hive, so I’m hoping to fix the sensor outside the actual brood!
Oh man, wish I could’ve seen pictures of a Twine in a beehive!
Good news is, Pickup is designed for logging where Twine never was. If the WiFi is intermittent, it’ll cache your data until it can transmit. (Within memory limits, of course.)
Just tested a Pickup prototype’s range outside from an inside router (Synology RT2600ac). 92 paces compared to 45 paces for Twine. YMMV!
The twine used to get covered in wax, the girls tend to coat everything in sight. Sorry I never took a photo.
