Automated trackers & sensors

Openbeehive records temperature and humidity — inside the hive and outside, plus hive weight. You can fill these in by hand during an inspection, or let hardware do it: a hive scale, a brood-nest temperature probe, or a humidity sensor can push readings straight into the API on a schedule. Because the API is open, your bees can keep their own diary.

The idea

A tracker is just a small client that, every so often, sends a reading to the CreateInspection endpoint. Each reading becomes an inspection record on the right hive, and immediately shows up in the app — on the hive's visit log and in its development charts (Inspections).

 sensor (DHT22 / DS18B20 / load cell)
        │  reads temp / humidity / weight
        ▼
 microcontroller or Raspberry Pi
        │  HTTP POST (JSON)
        ▼
 Openbeehive  →  InspectionService.CreateInspection  →  hive record + charts

The climate fields

JSON field	Meaning	Unit	Typical sensor
tempHive	Temperature inside the hive	°C	DS18B20, brood probe
tempOutside	Outside / ambient temperature	°C	DHT22, BME280
humidityHive	Relative humidity inside the hive	%	SHT31, BME280
humidityOutside	Outside relative humidity	%	DHT22, BME280
weight_kg	Hive weight	kg	load-cell scale

All are optional — send only the ones your device measures.

A minimal tracker

Any language works; this is plain HTTP. A reading every 15–60 minutes is plenty for brood-nest climate and scale trends.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Post one reading for hive h-7. Run from cron, a timer, or your device loop.
BASE="https://bees.example.com"   # your self-hosted instance
HIVE="h-7"

curl -fsS -X POST \
  "$BASE/openbeehive.v1.InspectionService/CreateInspection" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{
        \"hiveId\": \"$HIVE\",
        \"tempHive\": $(read_sensor brood_temp),
        \"tempOutside\": $(read_sensor ambient_temp),
        \"humidityHive\": $(read_sensor brood_rh),
        \"humidityOutside\": $(read_sensor ambient_rh),
        \"weight_kg\": $(read_sensor scale),
        \"note\": \"auto\"
      }"

On a microcontroller (ESP32/ESP8266, MicroPython or Arduino), do the same POST with your HTTP library after reading the sensors.

Authentication for unattended clients

A sensor runs without a human to log in, so the friction-free setup today is a self-hosted, single-user instance with no login configured — the device posts directly to your own server on your own network. See Authentication.

If your instance has login enabled, send Authorization: Bearer <token>. First-class API tokens for devices are on the roadmap; until then keep automated posting on a self-hosted instance you control.

Good practice

• One hive per device mapping. Keep a stable hiveId per sensor; find it in the app or via ListHives.
• Sensible cadence. 15–60 min captures brood-climate and weight trends without flooding the log. Hourly is a good default.
• Buffer when offline. If the network or server is down, queue readings locally on the device and re-send later — the same offline-first principle the app uses.
• Tag automated entries. A note like "auto" makes machine readings easy to tell apart from hand-written visits.
• Mind the units. Temperature in °C, humidity in % (0–100), weight in kg.

What you get

Once readings flow in, each hive's development charts plot temperature, humidity and weight over time — so you can see the brood nest warm up in spring, spot a queenless colony's failing thermoregulation, or watch the nectar flow on the scale, all without opening a single hive.