Product description

Goal

The production phase converts the Entrance Observer from a field prototype into a repeatable Gratheon kit. The final product should be chosen from measured model, energy, video, and field data rather than from the convenience of the Jetson developer kit.

The production product must be:

accurate enough for beekeeper decisions;
power-aware enough for its target installation mode;
weatherproof and serviceable;
secure and supportable remotely;
manufacturable from stable suppliers;
integrated with Gratheon telemetry, video, and device-management flows.

Recommended product strategy

Do not force one hardware SKU to solve every apiary. Entrance video has very different constraints in an urban powered apiary and a remote solar apiary.

SKU	Target site	Video behavior	Connectivity	Likely compute direction	Product promise
Urban WiFi/video	Apiary with mains/PoE and good internet	On-demand live plus selected clips	Ethernet, PoE, or WiFi	Jetson production SOM, Raspberry Pi + Hailo, or RK3588	Best live inspection and model QA.
Field telemetry-first	Remote apiary with limited power/data	Movement telemetry by default, rare low-res clips	LTE gateway, local gateway, or store-and-forward	Pi + Hailo, RK3588, or smart camera only if energy fits	Bee traffic trends with low bandwidth.
Research/dev kit	Gratheon team and advanced contributors	Flexible recording and overlays	Lab network	Jetson Orin Nano dev kit	Dataset and model development, not customer default.

Production architecture

flowchart LR
  subgraph CameraHead[Camera head]
    lens[Fixed locked lens]
    sensor[Camera sensor]
    window[Optical window and hood]
    bracket[Repeatable entrance bracket]
  end

  subgraph Device[Entrance Observer device]
    compute[Production compute module]
    accel[AI accelerator or GPU/NPU]
    encoder[Video encoder path]
    storage[Industrial local storage]
    power[Power and protection]
    watchdog[Watchdog and health telemetry]
    connector[Sealed connectors]
  end

  subgraph Gateway[Optional apiary gateway]
    localradio[Local radio or Ethernet/WiFi]
    backhaul[LTE/Ethernet backhaul]
  end

  subgraph Cloud[Gratheon cloud]
    telemetry[telemetry-api]
    video[gate-video-stream]
    graphql[graphql-router]
    deviceMgmt[Device registry and updates]
  end

  lens --> sensor
  sensor --> compute
  window --> sensor
  bracket --> sensor
  compute --> accel
  compute --> encoder
  compute --> storage
  power --> compute
  watchdog --> telemetry
  connector --> compute
  compute -->|movement + health| telemetry
  compute -->|live/session media| video
  compute -->|optional local network| Gateway
  Gateway --> telemetry
  Gateway --> video
  graphql --> telemetry
  graphql --> video
  graphql --> deviceMgmt

Production component recommendations

Subsystem	Recommended direction	Why	Defer or avoid
Compute	Benchmark Jetson reference against Raspberry Pi 5 + Hailo AI HAT+ 26 TOPS and one RK3588 board. Choose by count accuracy per watt and serviceability.	TOPS alone is not the product metric. The device must run camera, AI, tracking, encode, upload, and watchdog together.	Do not select a production board only because it is cheaper or has higher advertised TOPS.
AI runtime	Keep model export paths for TensorRT, HailoRT, and one secondary NPU path.	Avoids locking dataset/model work to a single vendor too early.	Avoid vendor-only smart-camera AI until model quality is stable.
Camera	Move from generic USB camera to a locked, documented camera head.	Production installation needs repeatable FOV, focus, exposure, and cable retention.	Avoid manual varifocal lenses on customer units unless focus is physically locked and documented.
Sensor shutter	Prefer a camera with low motion blur; test global shutter if rolling shutter causes count errors.	Bees move fast near the entrance, and motion artifacts affect tracking.	Do not overpay for global shutter until side-by-side clips show a real count benefit.
Video encode	Prefer a platform or camera pipeline with efficient H.264/H.265 encode for selected clips and live view.	Live sessions and clips should not starve AI or burn solar energy.	Avoid relying on software H.265 on low-power CPUs for field SKU.
Storage	Use industrial-rated storage sized to retention policy.	Customer device should survive power cycles and temperature better than consumer media.	Avoid storing continuous video by default.
Enclosure	Use a branded UV-resistant IP65/IP67 enclosure or a designed camera-head + electronics-box assembly.	Weather failures become support failures.	Avoid acrylic hobby cases and ad-hoc 2020 frames for customer kits.
Connectors	Use sealed connectors or rated glands with documented pinouts.	Cameras, power, antennas, and optional sensors must be serviceable.	Avoid soldered field cables that cannot be replaced.
Power	Split powered/PoE SKU from solar SKU.	The product promise and BOM are different.	Do not claim solar autonomy without Wh/day and sunless-day validation.
Connectivity	Use Ethernet/PoE or WiFi for powered SKU; gateway/LTE for remote SKU.	Remote apiaries need a deliberate data and power model.	Avoid cellular in every unit until costs and power are proven.

Compute selection matrix

Candidate	Strength	Weakness	Best production fit	Decision gate
Jetson Orin Nano production module/carrier	Best ML ecosystem and TensorRT path.	Higher cost and power; Orin Nano lacks NVENC, so video encode must be planned carefully.	Premium/dev or powered video SKU.	Beats alternatives on accuracy or development velocity enough to justify watts and cost.
Raspberry Pi 5 + Hailo AI HAT+ 26 TOPS	Good cost/power candidate with strong community and camera ecosystem.	Requires Hailo model conversion and tracker CPU benchmark.	Near-term production candidate for WiFi/PoE SKU.	Same count quality as Jetson at at least 2x better FPS/W or lower total cost.
Raspberry Pi 5 + Hailo AI HAT+ 13 TOPS	Lower cost than 26 TOPS.	Less headroom for tracker and future models.	Cost-down after 26 TOPS is proven.	Meets target FPS and accuracy with thermal margin.
RK3588 board	Integrated NPU and often strong media codecs.	Vendor support, RKNN tooling, and OS maintenance vary.	Alternative if video encode is central or Hailo conversion fails.	Stable full pipeline with lower energy/cost than Jetson.
Coral TPU	Very low power for supported models.	Current YOLO-style detector may need major redesign.	Telemetry-only or simplified detector experiments.	A simplified model reaches count target.
Smart camera / vision module	Integrated sensor, encoder, and sometimes AI.	Vendor lock-in, less control, supply risk.	Long-term solar field SKU research.	Vendor pipeline exposes frames/metadata/control needed by Gratheon.

Camera-head production requirements

Requirement	Implementation rule
Repeatable FOV	Define entrance width coverage, working distance, angle, and target pixel density.
Locked optics	Use fixed-focus or physically locked lens settings.
Lighting robustness	Test dawn, noon, shade, clouds, rain, and backlight. Add hood or constrained exposure profile.
Clean optical path	Window must be cleanable, tilted/hooded, and resistant to scratches and condensation.
Service replacement	Camera cable and camera head should be replaceable without rebuilding the whole device.
Model metadata	Store camera model, lens, FOV profile, and calibration image in device metadata.

Power and solar decision rules

Production must define installation mode before sizing power.

Installation mode	Power design	Acceptance rule
PoE powered	PoE splitter or board with Ethernet data and regulated power.	Runs full daytime profile and live sessions without brownouts.
Mains powered	Outdoor-safe power supply and protected low-voltage DC into enclosure.	Safe installation, no exposed mains in hobby enclosure.
Solar telemetry-first	Battery sized from measured Wh/day, panel sized for worst season, aggressive sleep and low-video policy.	Survives target sunless days and reports low battery before failure.
Gateway remote	Hive nodes/device connect to one powered gateway with LTE/Ethernet.	Per-hive unit does not need a modem unless product economics support it.

Production telemetry and support checklist

Field	Required	Why
`beesIn`, `beesOut`, `unknownDirection`, `netFlow`	Yes	Core product value.
`confidence`, `countIntervalSeconds`, `modelVersion`	Yes	Explains data quality and model changes.
`fps`, `droppedFrames`, `cameraOnline`	Yes	Detects camera/processing failures.
`deviceTemperature`, `uptimeSeconds`, `resetReason`	Yes	Support and reliability diagnostics.
`diskFreeBytes`, `queuedTelemetryCount`, `queuedClipCount`	Yes	Prevents silent storage and upload failures.
`rssi`, `uploadLatencyMs`, `networkType`	Yes	Explains missing data and weak connectivity.
`inputVoltage`, `batteryVoltage`, `batteryPercent`	Required for battery/solar SKUs	Low-power alerting and warranty support.
`hardwareRevision`, `cameraProfileId`, `firmwareVersion`	Yes	Links field behavior to exact build.

Production quality gates

Two or more identical units produce comparable counts on the same labelled clip set.
Outdoor enclosure passes rain, UV, condensation, heat, and cable-pull tests appropriate to the claimed rating.
Live session starts, stops, expires, and recovers without manual SSH.
Device can be paired to a Gratheon hive/box through the web app without manual database edits.
Firmware update and rollback plan exists before customer sale.
All critical parts have at least two acceptable suppliers or an approved substitute.
Production test fixture validates camera, AI, network, storage, power, LEDs/buttons, and cloud registration.

Exit criteria

A production candidate platform is selected using measured count accuracy, FPS/W, bandwidth, thermal stability, cost, and support complexity.
Camera head geometry is frozen and documented.
Power SKU boundaries are explicit: powered/PoE, field telemetry-first, and research/dev kit.
BOM includes enclosure, connectors, labels, packaging, service tools, and QA fixtures, not only compute and camera.
Gratheon support can identify device state remotely without asking the beekeeper to SSH into the unit.

Bill of materials

The detailed purchase list is in Phase 3 - Production BOM. It includes production compute candidates, camera-head choices, enclosure/connectors, power variants, networking, factory test tools, and sourcing rules.