This update on the progress of the BEEP base was provided by April van Delden.

Wednesday the 28th of January, Stephan Peterse of the BEEP team sealed the boxes. What started off with piles of components for the BEEP base - steel, sensors, PCBs, screws, boxes - resulted in the production of 89 BEEP bases. The joined effort of the WUR and BEEP made this possible. Thanks to everybody for the good work in our assembly room.

The first eight BEEP bases have already been taken to Wageningen University for installation. The next step is to send the BEEP bases to all eight mini apiaries.

Photo: the BEEP base

 

Putting the parts together

The many different parts of the BEEP base were all collected in our office in Driebergen. The steel legs and bodies were welded in the Netherlands, where the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) was designed as well. Furthermore, we ordered the sensors, boxes for the PCBs, screws, tape, stickers and packing materials.

      

Photo: Tools during the assembly process

Stephan orchestrated the assembly process and made sure all the materials and tools were ready. Marten ensured that enough people were available to help out and together we worked on the assembly. We made holes in the PCB boxes, put the weight sensor in the steel body, cut the sensor wire to the right size, attached all the sensors to the PCBs and the PCB to the steel body, configured the BEEP base via Bluetooth, and finally put the BEEP bases in their boxes for distribution.

Photo: The BEEP assembly process

Not only has the hardware been assembled, the BEEP team has been working on the software as well. We have designed and built an app for the configuration of the BEEP base so you can connect to the LoRa network for energy efficient data transmission. Also, we have installed the firmware on and numbered the BEEP bases of this tier. The numbering helps identify each individual system and allows us to keep track of the data.

Photo: The BEEP assembly process

Next steps

We are proud of this milestone in the B-GOOD project. Next is the installation, and then the data collection can begin! We are looking forward to a very informative and insightful B-GOOD bee season!