9
is to keep the price the same while increasing the frequency type setup? It all depends on the number of soil stations
of flights and the improving the resolution of the imagery.
per gateway! The closer together we are able to place the
What this means is that the more acres of aerial imagery,
soil stations, the fewer gateways we need to service them,
the better offering it will be for everyone!
reducing labor and hardware needs.
I hope that it makes a lot of intuitive sense as far as the
TheProfiler Plus network isn’t going to stop at soil
density of fields affecting the value of aerial imagery. But
moisture stations, though. Tank level monitoring, pivot and
what about soil
well diagnostics, in-field weather,
moisture sensors?
and more are being developed
The old version of
at this time to work on the same
TheProfiler used
LoRa radio network. It’s a good
a separate cellular
thing that the gateways can each
modem at each soil
handle the traffic from hundreds
moisture location in
of individual devices, because the
order to move the data
options for field-monitoring and
from the field and onto
equipment-monitoring sensors
our servers. This was
are going to greatly expand in the
the best technology
coming years.
at the time, but now
As these options for
there are ways to do
in-field sensors increase, STEPS
things much more
will continue to develop our
efficiently.
website and app to keep this
With TheProfiler
information at the fingertips of
Plus, the soil stations
our agronomists and growers,
use a medium-range
but without overwhelming them
radio to report back
with unmanageable amounts of
All six of these Soil Stations (marked by the red X) can be
to a nearby gateway,
information. The ideal outcome
served
by
a
single
gateway
on
the
pivot.
which is mounted on
with any of these sensors is that the
a pivot, grain bin, or
grower is given timely, actionable
other structure. These low power LoRa radios are able to
advice, rather than a flood of raw data.
communicate for several miles, with perfect line-of-sight,
To summarize: the density of our aerial imagery and soil
and can still send a reliable signal up to a mile away when
moisture monitoring in 2018 is going to play a big part
located under the canopy of corn. The integration device,
in our ability to continue to improve both the quality and
(the little gray box that the moisture sensors plug in to) runs value of those services in future years. By lowering the cost
on two AA batteries for an entire season. The gateway can
of collecting imagery and reducing the amount of hardware
serve many soil stations, which reduces hardware costs and
and labor involved with in-field sensors, we will be able to
cellular fees.
offer better services, at better prices, year after year.
Just how much lower is the cost with a gateway/soil station
THE COVER CROP