Following on from our review of NCD industrial sensors, today we will look at our top 4 horticultural sensors from NCD that can work with QTRACA.
Horticultural monitoring is a lot easier than you might think, NCD has been working with a wide variety of growers to develop an ecosystem of sensors that meets their specific needs. From organic farms to cannabis farms, NCD has assisted their customers in just about every aspect of the farming industry. From big agriculture to small homestead farming, they have a solution available at a price-point the makes sense for everyone. While greenhouse monitoring is a common request, they actually went beyond monitoring to include control for ventilation, humidity, temperature, and light if needed.
1. Long Range Wireless Soil Moisture Sensors
It comes as no surprise that soil moisture sensing is at the top on our list. After-all, plants need water to survive and monitoring the soil moisture is a necessary and obvious critical component. Built with a 2-Mile Wireless Range and a 10-Bit resolution, soil moisture monitoring is both accurate and long-lived as the need for monitoring may be as little as sampling a few times per week. Of course other applications may require more frequent monitoring, you can typically expect 5 to 10 years out of a set of batteries depending on settings.
Using the NCD long range wireless soil moisture sensor is as easy as inserting the probe into the soil and placing the transmitter as high as possible to get the best possible transmission range. This soil moisture sensor will indicate the moisture levels of your farm or garden using a value from 0 for dry to 830, which indicates full saturation.
Soil Moisture Sensors are ideally installed in multiple areas for best coverage.
2. Long Range Wireless Temperature Humidity Pressure Air Quality Sensors
This all-in-one sensor is ideal for indoor greenhouse monitoring applications, as it samples Temperature, Pressure, Humidity, and Air Quality. Greenhouse temperature and humidity monitoring is an obvious requirement for some of the growers NCD work with. Adding pressure and air quality data to your installation can help provide a more complete picture of the environmental conditions within your greenhouse.
Like other sensors, this device will wake up, sample the environmental sensor, send a data transmission up to 2 Miles (Outdoor Line of Sight), and go back to sleep. While rated only for indoor applications at this time (an outdoor version is under consideration), this sensor can provide 2 to 3 years of battery life under normal operating conditions. Like all NCD sensors, the included AA batteries in this device are rated for use in extreme temperatures. Most installations only require a single sensor, which can really help save costs.
3. Long Range Wireless Light Sensors
Greenhouse light level monitoring can also provide a key indicator of plant growth for some applications. This device samples the ambient light levels, sends a wireless transmission up to 2 Miles (line of sight) and then goes back to sleep. This long range wireless light level sensor is capable of reading light levels from 0 to 65K Lux with 16-Bit resolution. While this sensor is ideal for greenhouse monitoring, an outdoor version of this device is sill in consideration (so let us know if you really need a customized sensor for outdoor use). This sensor has an estimated life of 5 to 10 years, supporting up to 500,000 wireless transmissions using just 2 industrial AA batteries. Like the Air Quality sensor, most installations only require a single sensor, which can really help save costs.
4. Long Range Wireless Temperature and Humidity Sensors
Monitoring outdoor temperature and humidity is also a possibility for applications that require a more rugged enclosure and longer battery life than the Air Quality sensor can provide. This long range wireless temperature and humidity sensor is a popular choice among NCD customers because of it’s rugged design and precision Honeywell temperature and humidity sensor. With a 500,000 transmission life span (5 to 10 years typically) and up to a 2-Mile range, this alternative may be better suited for outdoor applications. Only one sensor is typically needed unless there are multiple controlled zones that require monitoring.
