Australian Native Bees | News & Info

Sensors and Data Logging

Models: “IBS- TH1 Plus” top of page and “IBS-TH2 Plus” at bottom of page.

Sensors I’ve used here are called: INKBIRD Bluetooth Temp Humidity Sensor Digital Data Logger Thermometer Recorder. There’s cheaper models without the display with phone access only.

Each sensor unit gives you one set of temperature data, so if you want ambient and also brood temperatures you need two sensor units.

The product has it’s own phone app “Engbird” with a few settings and graphs that can be viewed on the phone itself, but what is more important is the ability to export an Excel file which can be converted to a chart.

I have no association with the product and by no means do i think they’re the best product for data logging. I’ve seen fancier products but are pretty expensive. I just think these ones are good enough and cheap enough for the job. The probe may end up being stuck inside the box as the bees glue it in with resin. A wire probe plugs in to the main unit and is called the external sensor, so if the main sensor fails as it’s exposed to the weather over the years, a new sensor could be plugged in to the external probe.

In the phone app settings you can change the sensor name, the time intervals 1min to 30mins, and calibrate the temp and humidity to match other sensors.

There’s differences in the probes. You can get just the temperature probe or a temperature + humidity probe. The sensor TH1 uses a 2 pole plug and the sensor TH2 uses a 4 pole plug so it’s best to stick with the probes that came with the sensors and not mix them up between models.


Installation

I’ve installed sensors in to various kinds of boxes during splits. The boxes may need to be opened after a while to recheck the position of the probe in relation to the brood structure.


Excel Charts

The data can be viewed with the phone app or exported as an Excel file. Here I’ve exported files and complied them in to the same charts for comparison.


Below: Probe in the 50mm cypress box


Below: Probe in 25mm box


It’s not foolpoof!

Two photos below: Colony 2 in the chart is more unstable compared to Colony 1 and 3. See probe photo – The bees had built the brood a bit further away from the probe so it ended up outside the brood area.


Temperature and Humidity

Caution: Stingless bees will coat the humidity probe with resin so it will be encapsulated and only giving data from a sealed off unit, which may stay at 90%, an incorrect reading.

Model: “Inkbird IBS-TH2 Plus”. (with temp and humidity probe). These sensors are slightly different as they can do external humidity. The external probe is quite large so it may not suit all applications. Each sensor unit gives you one set of temperature data and one set of humidity data. If you want ambient you’ll need another second unit.

Charts below show how the bees coat the probe and the data slowly “flat lines”

See all temperature tests here: https://www.nativebeehives.com/category/tests/

Hivecraft - Australian Native Bee Supplies

Native bee boxes available at www.hivecraft.com.au

Latest Posts

Random Posts