You have a smartphone, a smart car, and smart devices throughout your home, but what about a smart farm? There are a number of ways for you to connect the devices throughout your farming operation, from your tractor to your grain bins.
Valley® Irrigation has been lighting the farm tech path for years, but what do you need to know to connect your machines? Here are five ways to connect Valley devices on your farm.
1. Radio
You have pivots out in the field. You can make changes and control them after a trip to the control panel. Wouldn’t it be nice to eliminate all doubts once you leave the field, to be able to know exactly what is going on with that machine at any time, from anywhere?
With radio communications, your pivots and other devices in the field can talk to BaseStation3™, an advanced software tool that provides you the freedom of 24x7 access and insight. Radio technology connects you to the information you need from the field.
2. Cellular
Do you have machines that are further than a short morning drive away? You can connect to those devices, too, with cellular communication. With cellular connected devices from AgSense®, the Field Commander™ or CommanderVP™ can provide you with the same 24x7 access as radio, but at a longer distance. You can connect these devices to the AgSense software online, or pull them into your BaseStation3 system - the same as you would with your radio devices.
3. Internet
Today the internet has its hands in all things – including farming. Using the internet provides information at your fingertips through any internet-enabled device. Once your field devices are connected to AgSense or BaseStation3 through radio or cellular communications, you can then access your system from anywhere through their respective mobile apps. All you need is a smartphone, internet connection and a login to provide you with the same controls that you would have at the control panel.
4. GPS
Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are available in more than just your car. GPS can now be used for a variety of purposes on the farm, including your irrigation equipment. Using GPS on your irrigation equipment provides growers precision position monitoring and control, as well as accurate guidance. For devices connected to remote monitoring products like BaseStation3, this true positioning can be used to provide you with insight to where your machine is at in the field, with minimal margin of error.
5. WiFi
Much like your home WiFi setup, many growers are installing farm-wide WiFi networks to allow their many technology devices to talk to each other. Wouldn’t it be nice to connect your Valley devices to your existing network, too? Well, now you can! To facilitate integrating BaseStation3 and Valley control panels with an existing WiFi network, Valley Irrigation offers an IP to serial interface. The kit includes everything needed to connect a Valley device to an existing WiFi network.
At Valley, we are committed to giving you what you need to make your life and job easier. From now through December 31, 2016, we are running great promotions on our BaseStation products. Get huge savings on new BaseStation3 system orders and BaseStation2 upgrades. Talk to your local Valley dealer about what option is best for your operation.
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