Hey all,
Been looking at some remote monitoring options for the flowhive2
Does anyone have any experience or thoughts on which might be better between these?
https://www.osbeehives.com/products/buzzbox-mini#
And
Hello and welcome to the Flow forum!
Let me start by saying that I have never used or seen the Buzzbox until you posted your question. I would follow that with the thought that which you choose will depend very much on what you want to do with the monitoring.
I have an Arnia system with weight, acoustics, hive temperature, hive humidity and weather station. Of all of the parameters, weight is the most useful to me, followed by brood temperature. Acoustics are probably the least useful and hardest to interpret. Maybe great for bee researchers, but not that helpful in monitoring hive health remotely.
The only problem with the Arnia is that it is cellular data only, and it uses 3G on the unit I have. How much longer 3G will be supported by cellular providers, I don’t know. Hopefully they will update it soon.
It looks like the Buzzbox has the opposite problem. WiFi only, and contact them if you want cellular. Cellular add-on equipment can be quite expensive with some other systems.
For me, I would buy a system with a hive scale built in. The Arnia is a “top of the line” setup, and is quite pricey if you get all of the bells and whistles. There other choices, but not many with acoustics, if that is what you really want. If you just want a scale with WiFi or low cost cellular, this one has been tried by several forum members with good results:
http://www.wifihivescale.com/index.php