I want to build a bee venom collector. Is Arduino a good fit ?

Ive been looking for be venom collectors for a week. They are almost impossible to find unless you want to buy one from a website that looks like it hasnt been updated in 5 years. From what I can gather, they deliver a small "square" electrcal pulse for a few seconds about every 20-30 seconds, they run for about an hour and then shut off.through 2 wires that are run over a piece of glass.

Pictures of different existing but old models...

http://biovenom.en.ec21.com/Bee_Venom_Collector--3103154_3103157.html

http://www.beewhisper.com/

Here is some info from an old patent:

"4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the alternate wires are connected to a source of cyclically timed alternating currents.

  1. An apparatus as claimed in claim 4 wherein the source of cyclically timed alternating currents is a battery connected through a converter, a timer and a variable transformer to said alternate wires.
    Description
    This invention relates to methods and apparatus for collecting bee venom and particularly to a method and apparatus for collecting venom of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) without injuring the bee."

Im guessing that an arduino would be pretty advanced for a project like this. The problem is, im not a "maker" but ive been wanting to do something for the past year and now I think ive found what I want to do. Also, I want to make one for me not to sell or invent something.

So, if ive provided enough information for someone to answer this question.....is this a pretty basic, or beginner level project that someone could do without much experience ?

Where do you see the arduino fitting in? Is there a need for controlling anything?

From that web site it says:-

The advantage of Chung Jin Biotech's Bee Venom Collector over such devices is the low death rate of the bees. It is strengthend in safety, with a basic input and output of 12V and the addition of a fuse. Moreover, it has an indicator lamp, a special feature to make it easy to use for those who are unfamiliar with the machine.

Since this Bee Venom Collector has no substantial impact on basic bee-farming, or on the condition of the bees themselves, the extractor has rapidly become a source of extra income in bee-farming businesses.

So a low death rate, note not zero death rate has no substantial impact on basic bee-farming, or on the condition of the bees themselves. Ask the bee that actually died.

This page: Value-added products from beekeeping. Chapter 7. gives some useful details.

"wires are approximately 6 mm apart and suspended 1 to 3 mm above the thin silicon rubber film or directly above the glass plate in other models. The wires are alternately grounded and charged to a maximum of 33 volts. A lower voltage is effective, too."

You can use a DC-to-DC converter to get such "high" voltages. Perhaps an adjustable one so you can have a voltage knob. That way you could turn the voltage down to keep the bees safer.

What is the AC frequency on the wires?

Grumpy Mike- I don't know that it fits in anywhere. As someone that doesnt know much about electronics, I was thinking that in order for something to turn on and shut off automatically in a certain time frame, I might need something like a micro controller. But I dont know anything about this. Thats why I asked the question is this forum, to see if its possible, it makes sense, etc A far as the bee death goes, I love bees and dont want to kill any unnecessarily, but bees only live for about 30 days, or less.

A micro controller is needed to, as the name says, control things. I don't see what there is to control apart from on and off. That can be done with a switch, or if you want it to automatically cycle through on and off use an NE555 timer.
The only electric problem is generating the high voltage from the low one. That is done by a circuit called an inverter or a boost converter. Then all you have to decide is if you give them an AC or DC shock.

Sorry to bring this topic from the dead but im searching the net for the making of a bee venom machine and this came into so i m posting here for some extra info if you can provide me. From my search on the net i found this usefull info from a patent device:

"In accordance with the present invention, the controller is supplied with an input voltage of DC 12V, with an output voltage elevated to AC 12V to 40V at an output frequency from 30 to 400 Hz."

As i read here and all over the net a 555 circuit is the answer. Adding a step up converter after the 555 circuit wont it scramble the final output frequency ? Some simple ebay converters say that the output voltage will have 400khz frequency.

I don't expect it takes much current to shock a bee so it may work to provide the two grids through current limiting resistors and use transistors to alternately ground the two interleaved grids. The transistor (or MOSFET) will drag one grid down to near 0V and current will pass through the pull-up resistor on the other grid, through the bee, and down to Ground through the other grid and transistor.

Is the device ready now?

Been ressurected twice :stuck_out_tongue: Curious if this ever got somewhere now

Wonder if a modified version might be usable for human sperm banks...

just curious.

Allan

Come to think of it, the voltage booster in a MAX232 (TTL to RS232 level shifter chip), as is used in a HC-SR04 ultrasonic rangefinder, might be just the thing to power a bee venom collector. In the HC-SR04 it's used to boost the voltage of a 40 kHz signal to drive the piezo transducer that sends the ultrasonic pulse. It should work just as well at 1 kHz to induce the bee to sting.

A simple transformer wound on a ferrite inductor core would give you any voltage you liked.

Allan