Home garden
If your hives are close to home or in a place you visit several times a week, bhScale on its own is enough. Data is stored in the scale memory and you read it with your phone during each visit. No SIM card and no monthly fees.
Remote apiaries
If you cannot get to the apiary regularly, bhScale + bhBase sends data automatically without your presence. In the evening, you look at the graph and know what happened without going anywhere.
One bhBase can handle up to 10 scales at one site. GSM transfer costs are therefore shared across the whole site.
This is where BA makes much more sense. bhBase sends data at the configured interval, but the BA scale can additionally warn immediately about a sudden weight drop outside the planned transmission. You do not have to wait for the next transmission. If something happens, you know right away. BA works with the standard BG, so buying BGE is not necessary.
Security
If you need an alert not only about activity in the hive but also about movement at the site, BGE adds an external input for a sensor with relay output. The most common use is a magnetic sensor on the door of the bee house. When it opens, bhBase sends an SMS and calls the configured number, up to 3 numbers in sequence.
The BA + BGE combination covers both: a sudden weight change and an event from an external sensor. BA + BG, without BGE, covers only the weight alarm without an external input. Which combination makes sense depends on whether you also need to watch physical access to the site.
Summary
| Use case | bhScale BS | bhScale BS + bhBase | bhScale BA + bhBase | bhBase BGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home garden | ✓✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Remote apiaries | ✓ | ✓✓ | ✓✓ | ✓✓ |
| Immediate alarm, weight | — | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| External input, sensor | — | — | — | ✓ |