Get your first BioSwarm node live in 10 minutes.

From an unboxed kit to a signed reading on the dashboard. Each step has a clear input and a clear output — no decision paralysis, no hidden config.

⏱ Average time: 8–12 minutes for the first node

Open the kit + unbox the node

~1 minute

What you need The BioSwarm starter kit (battery pack + sensor module + Wi-Fi MCU), a phone, and Wi-Fi credentials for the deployment site.

What you do Open the box. The node has a QR code on its label and a small switch. Leave the switch off for now.

💡 The MCU is an off-the-shelf Arduino UNO R4 WiFi. Familiar tooling if you've ever programmed an Arduino. Full hardware spec on the technical appendix.

⚠️ Current prototype state (2026-05-15): the shipping kit is cable-tethered (USB serial @ 9600 baud, ALS-PT19 light sensor on A0). The WiFi firmware port is in progress — once it lands, the same node POSTs readings directly to /r/{node_id} with no cable. Until then, the BLE-sealed-creds flow below describes the target architecture.

Scan the QR + register the node

~2 minutes

What you need The QR code on the node label.

What you do Open the camera on your phone, point it at the QR code, follow the link. The page autofills the node ID (e.g. n-A1); pick the zone it's going into (field-a, greenhouse-1, or a new one you name). Tap Register. The dashboard adds the node with a placeholder card.

🔐 The chip-level identity is burned in at the factory; you don't need to enter or generate any keys. The QR just tells the dashboard which chip joined which zone.

Set your alert thresholds

~2 minutes

What you need A rough idea of the temperature, humidity, and wet/dry conditions you care about.

What you do In the wizard, set per-zone thresholds: temperature high alarm, humidity range, wet detection (≥2 neighbors agree by default). Toggle which alerts route to SMS, email, or webhook. You can change all of this later — defaults are sensible.

💡 The default flood-event rule fires when two neighboring sensors both report wet within 60 seconds. This dodges false positives from a single sensor splashed by mistake.

Pair the node to Wi-Fi (no cables)

~3 minutes

What you need Wi-Fi SSID + password.

What you do Flip the node switch to on. It enters BLE commissioning mode for 60 seconds. Open the BLE pairing screen on your phone (or the desktop helper), enter the Wi-Fi creds, tap Send. The creds are sealed (ECDH + AES-256-GCM) before they cross BLE — the password never travels in plaintext. The node's LED turns solid green when it joins your network.

🔐 If your Wi-Fi only reaches the entrance of the greenhouse, deploy a relay box (Raspberry-Pi class) and pair the leaf nodes to BLE-mesh instead. The cloud sees them via a single signed batch upload.

Watch the first signed reading land

~1 minute

What you need Just the dashboard open.

What you do Within ~30 seconds, the node sends its first reading. The placeholder card on the dashboard fills in: voltage, humidity, temp, CO₂, soil moisture, wet/dry. The event log shows sync coherence=… with a chip-level signature. You're live.

✅ The first reading triggers a sync tick which produces a signed coherence value for the zone. That's the proof the chain is working end-to-end — node → router → signed evidence.

That's it. Your zone is live.

You now have a signed sensor chain end-to-end. Add more nodes the same way — same QR scan, same zone selection, same wizard. Most operators get to 10 nodes in under an hour.

Open the dashboard See pricing tiers Ag pilot use cases

Stuck on a step? Email support@epochcoreqcs.com with the step number and what you're seeing. Response within 4 business hours during the pilot phase.