New crop monitoring features added to GrainVue

DECATUR, Ill. — New hardware and software features have been added to GSI’s GrainVue grain management system.

“We’re launching our new gateway that communicates with everything on-site and enables communication up to the cloud for display to end-user on their web app, iPhone, iPad, tablet, PC, or whatever,” said Alan Lockwood, GSI product manager — grain, at the Farm Progress Show.

Gateway 2.0 is intended to be used with the GrainVue Cable Monitoring System. The gateway is a LoRaWan communication and cellular gateway for the GrainVue system.

It facilitates all wireless communications for any nearby cable monitoring hub or wireless fan control module.

“This updated gateway is a little more polished to give users a little better understanding of how the system is operating right from the screen itself. It used to be two or three different pieces that we now consolidated into one box. So, from an installation perspective, it’s a little bit more straightforward, as well,” Lockwood said.

Only one gateway is needed per bin site, regardless of the number of bins at that location.

Fan Control Module

GSI has also updated the fan control module to wireless capabilities.

“The previous iteration of our product had a power and a communication cable that ran to the top of the bin. With this wireless fan control module, we no longer have to have any of that communication or power lines running up the bin,” Lockwood said.

“From an installation perspective, it’s a little easier, but also if you have a site that uses a lot of frequency drives or variable-frequency drives, sometimes you see electrical noise, and when you have long runs of wire, electrical noise is not your friend.

“With this wireless control, we eliminate the potential for that electrical interference to cause trouble with our fans.

“A bank control module will include a weather station to understand what your ambient conditions are doing to help make decisions for whether we should turn fans on or off to achieve your target moisture content or temperature of that commodity in the bin.

“We’ve got a plenum sensor that will help us understand what’s happening underneath that aeration floor as the fans or heaters on a bin are operational.”

Another newly released option is a CO2 sensor mounted at the top of the bin to provide the earliest indication of any spoilage. All of the information from this and other sensors will be transmitted to the gateway that goes to the cloud.

“We’re trying to give farmers the information that they need to better manage their crop in the bin,” Lockwood said.

Rehydration

A rehydration mode for soybean producers is being launched, as well.

“We think about rehydrating soybeans as one of the key selling factors of the GrainVue system, particularly in those areas where maybe you’re harvesting your soybeans a little drier than you’d like and you want to maximize that profit in the back end,” Lockwood said.

“We’re launching a rehydration mode that give users the location to have one target set point that they need to enter, and then the automation will take care of the rest.

“The weather station that we have with every fan control module is going to take into account that ambient temperature, ambient humidity, and it will turn the fans on and off regardless of the time of day. If you said, yes, you can run at midnight and the conditions are right, the fans will turn on whether you’re sleeping or standing there by the system.”

Easy Installation

The installation process is fairly similar regardless of size.

“You’ll have a number of temperature and moisture cables on the inside. Every bin is going to get a hub unit, and if you want to have the full automation, every bin is going to get a fan control module,” Lockwood said.

“One of the beauties of GrainVue is that it’s a very modular system. So, if a customer, maybe doesn’t want to put a lot of investment upfront, they can put in CO2 sensor, they can put in a temperature cable or two, a gateway, a hub, and they can have a relatively low-cost entry system.

“Two years down the road, maybe they like what they see. They’re familiar with how the system operates, they can come back in, they can put it in their fan control system, they could put in their plenum sensor system, they could add cables to get a little more visibility to what’s happening in the bin, and that system will all build from where they started.”