Telemetry Options / Advantages

Telemetry Options / Advantages

This spring, we discussed the advantages and opportunities that using Wireless Communications presents to growers.  Many growers have multiple sites spread out over the county, or further!  On the other hand, some growers have one site but use multiple weather measurement stations due to farm size or terrain.  A unique telemetry solution should be tailored to the grower’s needs.  Here are two scenarios that growers may face, as well as unique telemetry options for each scenario.

Scenario 1

Grower #1 has an orchard on hilly terrain.  She measures in multiple spots, because the low areas of her farm are more susceptible to frost and disease.  An option for her to consider would be to use mid-range radios to connect the weather stations back to a base radio at her home or office.  Each weather station would have a remote radio to send its data wirelessly to the base radio station.  To accomplish this, each weather station requires a line-of-sight path to the base radio.  This means that there should not be obstructions in the path, such as fruit trees, forested areas, buildings, or other large structures.  When necessary, the radio can be mounted higher than the weather station to gain a clear line-of-sight.  If her farm is too large for one or many remote radios to communicate with the base radio, she may consider using cellular telemetry.

She still has two options for collecting and viewing data from the network of weather stations.  If the base radio is connected to a computer, the data can be requested on-demand using computer software.  If the base radio is connected to a LAN (local area network), the data can be gathered at regular intervals automatically.  It is then uploaded to the web and can be viewed online via a web portal using a PC, smartphone, or tablet.

Scenario 2

Grower #2 has four row crop farm sites: one at his home, one nearby, and two in adjacent counties.  He cannot regularly visit the two further sites to retrieve weather and soil data, but still needs this information on a regular basis.  There are many options to make his data more accessible.  He could use cellular telemetry at all four sites to send the data wirelessly to the web via a cellular modem.  By doing this, he can see all of his weather data in the same online web portal.  Or, he could use cellular telemetry on just the two further stations if he is able to regularly visit the two nearby stations and download their data using computer software.  If any of his weather stations are in areas without cellular service, he could also consider satellite telemetry.

In both cases, the grower is able to pull data into one centralized location for further analysis, proving better decision-making for improved quality and yield.

All the best,

Related Links:
Mid-Range Radios
GPRS Cellular
SpecWeather.com
LAN
75-ft Direct Connect cable
SpecWare 9 Pro

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