Your colonies.
Always in sight.
The BienenWaagenManager weighs your hives around the clock and reports via LoRaWAN, Wi-Fi or mobile network – the app turns that into nectar flow, feeding needs and swarm alerts. With digital hive records you operate at the apiary by NFC tag and voice – even wearing gloves.
Android app · iOS planned
👆 Try it: tap a tile or the menu · sample data
From the hive to your phone – no vendor cloud subscription
Your data goes to your own account (The Things Network / ThingSpeak) or your own server. The app reads it from there – there is no manufacturer server in between.
Weigh
Up to four scales per scale box, plus temperature, humidity, battery voltage and GPS position.
Send
On schedule via LoRaWAN, Wi-Fi or 4G – then deep sleep until the next measurement.
Store
In your ThingSpeak channel – any number of channels from any number of accounts.
Analyse
The app shows trends, gains and losses, warns about sudden jumps and keeps your hive records.
Everything that matters at the apiary
Built by a beekeeper for beekeepers: fast, light on data and battery, and usable without network coverage at the apiary.
All colonies at a glance
One tile per hive with current weight, mini chart and change in kg and %. One range selector for all: today, week, month, year or custom – arrows take you back to earlier periods and forward again.
Detail view
Weight and temperature in one chart, each switchable, plus key figures for the period – including the growing degree sum (“Grünland-Temperatursumme”) for your location, calculated from German Weather Service (DWD) data.
Digital hive records
Dated notes with quick presets (“queen seen”, “drone brood cut”…), queen with year, marking colour and number, “queenless” and “mark lost”. With the bulk note you record “fed” or “treated” for several colonies at once. Also for nucs without a scale.
NFC recognition New
An NFC tag on every hive: hold your phone to it and the app jumps straight to the right colony. The tag carries channel and hive – it works on your fellow beekeeper's phone too.
Voice control New
Tap the tag and the app asks: “Read aloud, note or reminder?” You hear weight, queen and latest notes – and dictate the new one. No touchscreen fiddling with beekeeping gloves.
Reminders & alerts
“Remind me about varroa in three weeks” – spoken or typed. Notifications on unusual weight changes, e.g. a swarm leaving.
Unlimited channels
Any number of ThingSpeak channels from several accounts – imported with one click. Freely map which field holds weight, temperature, humidity or voltage.
Works offline
The latest data stays cached – at an apiary without reception you still see everything and can add notes.
Your data stays yours
No vendor account, no ads, no tracking. Hive records and notes are stored locally on your phone.
Gloves on, phone to the hive – done.
Hive records you will actually keep: tap the tag, listen, speak. The app recognises the colony, reads out what matters and saves your note.
- Works without touching the screen
- Read-out: weight since the last inspection, queen, latest notes
- Reminders by voice (“on 26 September”, “next week”)
- Tap the next tag – the next colony is up
Voice control currently speaks German. English planned?
The BienenWaagenManager
The scale box for two or four hives that adapts to your apiary – not the other way round. With a solar panel and battery it runs all year without mains power.
Three uplink options
LoRaWAN (The Things Network) for remote apiaries – over 8.5 km in our test. Wi-Fi at home or in the garden. 4G/LTE where neither is available. Switchable without new hardware.
Smoothing with jump detection
Wind and temperature effects are gently filtered out – real events such as a swarm, an added super or an inspection show up immediately and unsmoothed.
Smart transmission schedules
Day and night following local sunrise and sunset, a dedicated winter mode, “send only on change” and a daily heartbeat. Or simply pick a profile: Regular or Data-optimised. With every change the web UI works out how often per day the box transmits and how much airtime that takes – so you stay within the LoRaWAN fair-use rules.
Scale database with sync
Every scale knows its calibration – zero point, factor, temperature behaviour. The database is synchronised between your scale boxes via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth: plug a scale into another box, the box recognises it, done. When syncing, the most recently changed calibration always wins.
Temperature compensation
The scale box learns each scale's temperature behaviour by itself – at night, when no bees are flying – and applies it automatically once it is reliably determined. For extra precision, calibrate at two temperatures as well. So a warm afternoon doesn't look like a nectar flow.
Built-in GPS
Daily position fix, exact time even without network and the basis for the sun position calculation. Your apiaries appear on the map automatically – and in an emergency GPS helps with theft tracking.
Setup in the browser
Press the button, connect to the scale's Wi-Fi hotspot, configure and calibrate in your browser – no extra software, in 9 languages. Test messages from maintenance mode are tagged and never distort your charts.
Updates over Wi-Fi
Install new firmware from your browser – with A/B partitions and automatic rollback if anything goes wrong.
Battery protection
Deep sleep between measurements; on low battery the transmission rate is reduced automatically instead of the scale box dying.
The scale box web UI – try it yourself
Everything the scale box can do is configured in your browser: uplink, schedule, smoothing, scale database and calibration. No extra software, in 9 languages. This is the real web UI running with sample data – click through it.
Quickstart LoRaWAN
For remote apiaries: scale box → The Things Network → Cloudflare Worker → ThingSpeak → app. With a ready-made payload formatter and worker template.
Quickstart Wi-Fi / 4G
For apiaries near the house or with mobile network: the scale box writes directly into your ThingSpeak channel – just two accounts, done in half an hour.
Rather without ThingSpeak? The app can also read from your own server with a ThingSpeak-compatible interface. A small service (Docker) fetches the LoRaWAN data from The Things Network itself, stores it and serves it to the app – and to ThingSpeak too if you like. That also makes the Cloudflare Worker unnecessary.
Test radio coverage. Find stolen hives.
The built-in GPS turns the BienenWaagenManager into two more tools – without extra hardware.
Tracker mode: check LoRa range on site
Before the scale goes to a new apiary: switch the scale box to Tracker in the web UI and take it with you. It sends its GPS position via LoRaWAN every 30 seconds – building a coverage map (heatmap) that shows where a gateway will receive your scale. Interval and transmit power are adjustable; one click and it is a scale again.
- Choose your site with certainty instead of trial and error
- Separate credentials, independent of scale operation
- Helps the community: your trips fill blank spots on the TTN map
Theft tracking
The scale determines its position every day and reports it. If a hive disappears together with the scale, you first see the weight drop in the app – and as soon as the device receives a GPS signal at its new location, its position.
- Daily position report, well hidden in the housing
- Weight alert as the first warning sign
- If no fix succeeds, the scale automatically retries more often
Requirements: the device has power, a clear view of the sky for GPS and a radio link (LoRaWAN gateway, Wi-Fi or mobile network) at the new location. Locating a stolen device therefore cannot be guaranteed.
Under the hood
| Platform | ESP32-S3 with SX1262 LoRa radio (Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V4) |
|---|---|
| Scales | 2 or 4 scales per scale box (HX711 or NAU7802), up to 4 scale boxes with 12 scales in total in one network |
| Climate | Temperature & humidity (DHT22, SHT3x or SHT4x) |
| Uplink | LoRaWAN EU868 (OTAA, TTN) · Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz (ThingSpeak, HTTP/HTTPS) · 4G/LTE (A7670E) |
| Position & time | GNSS/GPS, real-time clock with drift correction, NTP sync |
| Power | Li-ion battery + solar, deep sleep between measurements runtime without sun / battery & panel size |
| Configuration | Web interface via built-in Wi-Fi hotspot, 9 languages |
| Housing / IP rating | IP rating, dimensions, temperature range |
| App | Android from version X · needs only internet; NFC, microphone and notifications optional |
How to get your hive scale
Build your hive scale yourself – with proven firmware and instructions that take you step by step from the shopping list to a calibrated scale.
App
- For all ThingSpeak channels – other scales too
- Hive records, NFC, voice
- No ads, no account
Firmware
- Ready-to-flash firmware image
- Updates straight from the web UI
- Manual & quick start guide
Build guide
- Parts list with sources
- Schematic & wiring
- Frame and housing assembly
- Calibration step by step
Kit
- All parts in one package
- Firmware pre-installed
- Want to be notified? Send us a short e-mail.
FAQ
Do I need the scale to use the app?
No. The app reads any ThingSpeak channel, including those of other hive scales. Hive records, NFC and voice control even work without any scale – for nucs, for example.
Which uplink is right for me?
Apiary near the house: Wi-Fi. Remote apiary within range of a TTN gateway: LoRaWAN – the most economical. Neither: 4G with a data SIM. Not sure about LoRa coverage? Use tracker mode to find out.
Are there running costs?
LoRaWAN via The Things Network and ThingSpeak (within the usual limits) are free. 4G needs a data SIM. Firmware and build guide are free.
Can I build the scale without soldering experience?
The build guide assumes basic soldering skills; the electronics are based on a ready-made radio module, so you only connect sensors and load cells. difficulty / time required
Will the scale really find stolen colonies?
It reports its position daily – at a new location too, provided it has power, GPS reception and a radio link there. There is no guarantee, but the weight alert in the app shows you the theft immediately in any case.
What do I need to consider when building it?
Firmware and build guide are provided free of charge; building and operating the device is at your own responsibility. Radio operation must comply with the rules for the 868 MHz band – in particular the permitted transmit power and duty cycle. Transmit power is adjustable in the web UI; choose it to suit your antenna and frequency band.
Where is my data stored?
Measurements in your own ThingSpeak account, hive records and notes only on your phone. We run no server that sees your data.
Is there an iPhone app?
The app is technically prepared for iOS; an iPhone version is planned.
Questions, ideas, feedback?
Write to us – we usually reply within two working days. German or English.
This opens your e-mail program. See the privacy policy for how your enquiry is processed.
- Provider
- Christian Kempf
- Address
- Breitenweg 2, 72406 Bisingen, Germany
- christian.firmdev@gmail.com