Overview
Neptune IoT provides smart sensor solutions for agriculture to assist you in decision making. Our solution includes the hardware sensors that are installed in the field and the software system to display historical and current field data.
Soil Moisture Sensor
Pivot irrigation systems are widely used in Sudan. There are about 2,000 pivots in Sudan. Energy used for pumping irrigation water can be saved by managing irrigation cycle and applying irrigation only when the plant needs it and avoiding excess irrigation. In Sudan, irrigation cycle is mostly managed by field observation which is a manual and inaccurate process. However, by utilizing soil moisture sensors, irrigation can be conducted only when needed without fear of plant water stress. If soil moisture sensors are utilized, operational hours of pivots can be reduced up to 17%. In addition to energy saving, the plant needs certain amount of water at certain times to avoid over and under-irrigation. Suitable soil moisture value lies between Field Capacity (FC) and Wilting Point (WP). These FC & WP values also depend on the type of the soil. A soil moisture sensor with software system that displays moisture data chart can help in always keeping soil moisture in the appropriate range for the plant and soil type.
Soil Parameters Sensor
Soil nutrients are important factors in increasing crop yield. Soil pH value have direct impact on the greenery of the crop. Different crops need different values of these parameters. The pH value is measured using soil pH sensor. The soil nutrient content can also be roughly estimated using soil conductivity sensor. Other measurable soil parameters include: O2, CO2.
Liquid Level Sensor (coming soon)
Liquid level sensing is used to monitor tank liquid level for remote fields in smart agriculture. These include: water tank and fertilizer tank in pivot irrigation. The Neptune IoT liquid level sensor is equipped with a laser range finder to measure the amount of liquid in the tank, and a 4G module to communicate the measurement to the cloud system. The sensor is only installed in the tank and operates completely autonomously. It features a rechargeable battery and a solar cell to charge the battery during daytime.
Software System
The software application is a system that allows farmer to display current and historical data of soil moisture and nutrients in the form of line charts. The charts will show the data along with important threshold values like FC, WP, crop Nitrogen requirement per acre, ...etc. By showing not only the raw sensor data but also the thresholds, the farmer can get better knowledge of the current soil status and take actions accordingly. The system can also be configured to raise alarms when moisture level decreases below WP or soil nutrient content is below some value.
LoRa Gateway
The LoRa gateway receives measurements from the sensor units and sends them to the software system via 4G mobile network. It can also be configured to control the irrigation system automatically based on the average value of the sensors in the field. The gateway can be configured via WIFI by accessing the gateway portal on PC/smart phone.
Sensor Units
The sensor unit is a solar-powered wireless hardware unit that has moisture sensor attached to it with the ability to add other types of sensors (tank level sensors, ..etc). The unit is self-powered and can run 24/7 by solar energy and doesn't require external supply or battery replacement. The unit is made of hard ABS plastic with protection level of IP67 (rain and dust proof). The sensor unit communicates to the gateway via LoRa technology. The Communication distance is up to 10 KM in open field.