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• Buzzing into IoT : My First Prototype

  Kevin Jablonski • 08/11/2024 at 23:01 • 0 comments

  Not knowing anything about IoT, I applied concepts from my public health background to organize the process.

  Taking on the challenge of building my first IoT prototype for monitoring beehives was like someone afraid of bees encountering a large swarm – a bit frightening.  Here’s how I went from zero to prototype, navigating the basics and creating my prototype.

  In Public Health, we often say ‘start with the population of interest.”  OK, honey bees (yes, it is two words).  I read a few books, pulled some scholarly articles, and took online and community college classes.  I sketched out honey bee ‘demographics’ and characteristics of the beehive.

  The next step was to consider the physical limitations of a beehive, the typical beekeeper, and my values.  There is something known as “bee space” – it’s basically a gap of roughly only 5-8mm.  Anything smaller is subject to being sealed with propolis, bees’ go-to glue for sealing things up.  More than 8mm, and the colony will likely build an additional comb in its place.  The bottom line is that there isn't much space to work!  Most beekeepers are not electronic nerds, so everything has to be as easy to understand and use as possible.  And because beekeeping can be an expensive endeavor, the final product has to be affordable.

  I’d be silly (and was) to start to work on my prototype without researching what, if any, existing products are out there on the market.  While several commercial bee colony monitoring electronic gizmos are on the market, they are often extremely expensive, difficult to install, calibrate or interpret, or don’t provide a meaningful UX.  They are, at this moment, rarely used.  We’ll change all this.

  I summarized the various existing products and those used in scientific research.  That proved to be extraordinarily useful.  With each step in this process, I could narrow down the components and design elements to a more manageable level.  The final step in this process was to help ensure that since this is an open-source, not-for-profit endeavor, folks throughout the Americas, in Asia and Europe, could purchase the necessary components.

  Developing my prototype was all about learning as I went, keeping things simple, and building on what others had done. Now that the first version is buzzzzzzzzing along, I’m excited to keep refining it.  Now, who’s ready to build their own IoT beekeeping project?

  If you have tips and tricks or want to share your prototype stories, connect with me on Hackaday.io

• It's All ελληνικά To Me

  Kevin Jablonski • 08/11/2024 at 16:47 • 0 comments

  It's All Greek To Me...

  I don't know how many others are in a similar position as I am.

  You've got an IoT idea you want to bring to fruition, but you know nothing about electronics, physics, mechanical design and 3D printing, or coding ... you don't know the difference between a resistor and a capacitor or between an Arduino Uno or a Particle Proton.

  One year into my project, I'm still learning about all of these things. My background is in economics, psychology, medicine, public health and agriculture. Almost none of these are applicable to what I'm trying to accomplish. The one benefit—I'm curious!

  Here's how I started my journey -

  • Googled the heck out of ALL the subjects.
    • Narrow my search by including words like 'basic' 'tutorial' "introduction," or "teach me."
  • Specifically used scholar.google.com to find relevant publications
  • Checked with my local community college and took a couple of relevant classes (ex. intro to electronics, C++ basics, Intro to digital design).
  • Looked for easy-to-understand online videos on foundational matters (YouTube, Kahn Academy, All About Electronics, etc)
    • After developing a basic understanding of my subject, reached out to interested article authors for advice.  
  • Searched blogs/websites like Hackaday.io, Adafruit.com, Github and Stackoverflow for similar projects.
    • Then, try to connect directly with someone who's done something similar.
  • I found local university professors who knew about some aspects of the subject and reached out to them.  Be confident and you'll be surprised at how many folks will give you 15+ minutes of their valuable time!
  • Used an AI chatbot (ChatGPT) - then verified the results.
  • and, made a couple hundred drawings and idea board posts to bring this all together and formulate my first prototype.

  I'd love to know your experience - how'd you approach your electronics project!  Let me know.

• Grab Your Pollinator Wand

  Kevin Jablonski • 08/07/2024 at 02:02 • 0 comments

  Is this our future?

  Chinese man manually pollinating fruit trees in China

  Pollution, pesticide use and environmental destruction have resulted in the catastrophic loss of honey bees in areas of China. The situation has become so dire that farmers often have to pollinate fruits and vegetables manually—a costly, poorly efficient process.  Does the solution lie in the application of AI and IoT?

  Curious (or brave enough) for more ... check out this brief PBS documentary.

• Supply Frame DesignLab

  Kevin Jablonski • 08/06/2024 at 20:34 • 0 comments

  08.06.24  My first day working at DesignLab as a Resident.  Happily sharing details of my project and plan .... and even after a year of thought ... 10 minutes into a consult and we're already radically improving the product.

  Thanks to the team at DesignLab for supporting my project!

  While my relationship with DesignLab is new, this project is not.  It's already one year since I first got the honey bee "bug" and started looking into how AI, ML-ML (machine listening-machine learning) could be used to help save THE most important animal in the world - the HONEY BEE.

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