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  • Hardware
  • Firmware
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Agricultural weather station

A low-power weather station for fields and orchards that sends sensor data to the cloud, so agricultural experts can decide how and when to treat the crops.

Client
Agricultural technology startup
Scope
Hardware, firmware and cloud integration
Timeline
1 year
Delivered
Board design, complete firmware and manufacturing package

The challenge

Years in the field on a single battery

The client gives agricultural experts data from fields and orchards, which they use to decide how to treat the crops. That needed a station that can be left on a remote plot and keep reporting with no one looking after it.

The board had to run for years on a battery, work with many different sensors and stay cheap enough to deploy across many sites.

What we built

A low-power ATSAM board with cellular and solar

Hardware

Weather station board

An ATSAM-based board where every peripheral and sensor can be switched off completely between measurements.

  • Modbus and analog sensor inputs
  • LTE, NB-IoT and GNSS
  • Battery power with solar charging
  • Power gating for all peripherals and sensors
  • Extremely low standby power, with multi-year battery life even without solar

Firmware

Complete firmware

Firmware that wakes up, samples, uploads and goes back to sleep, keeping the battery going for years.

  • Sensor sampling over Modbus and analog inputs
  • Low-power modes between measurements
  • Data upload to the cloud over LTE or NB-IoT
  • Integration with the client's existing dashboard

Delivery

Ready to manufacture

Hardware, firmware and manufacturing data, refined over two iterations.

  • Schematic and PCB layout
  • Complete firmware
  • Manufacturing data
  • A second iteration with solar charging and more sensors

Result

Deployed in fields and orchards

  • Deployed in the field, sending data from fields and orchards.
  • Multi-year battery life without solar, with solar charging for sites that need more.
  • Two iterations, the second adding solar charging and support for more sensors.
  • One year from the start of the project to stations in the field.

Your project

Have something similar in mind?

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