Photo courtesy of McGireny Vineyard in the Wairarapa.

Key Features

• Solar Powered. The solar-powered unit can be placed anywhere on your site. It uses the Vodafone GPRS data network in New Zealand and any GSM nework in other countries. Installation takes only minutes and can be done by the owner. The rugged temperature sensors are designed to be hung at the critical canopy height of grapes, kiwifruit, apples, etc.
• Wireless Temperature Sensors No wires to install or get damaged! Each wireless sensor can be placed up to 250 metres from the base unit. This enables them to be installed in a few minutes and placed at the coldest and warmest locations so you can get good idea of the temperature profile during a frost event. Under frost conditions new temperature readings are reported every minute.
• Alarms. The system sends up to three messages (text messages, voice messages or emails) when the temperature drops to the alarm level set by the customer. Other alarms can also be configured: a second temperature alarm, battery voltage alarms, etc.
• Online Data. After an alarm you can see your temperature reading via the internet. The temperature trends are visible at a glance as well as weather history. Each system has its own web page with live data. Under non-alarm conditions the system reports to the web site every hour. When the temperature drops below 3 degrees the system reports to the website every minute with new data.
  
• Growing Statistics. The system calculates Growing Degree Days for your site during growing months, and Richardson Chill Units during the winter months. For an example, go to McGireny's temperature statistics.
• Rain, Wind and Humidity Sensors. These are available to turn your frost alarm into a complete weather station. The optional rain gauge gives you updated rainfall totals at a glance. With the addition of humidity in conjuction with temperature a dewpoint calculation can be made. Wind data is always useful with both average and gust calculations.
• Soil Moisture Probes. We also sell Echo soil moisture probes from Decagon. You can add one or more of these to your system to report the retained soil moisture percentage near the roots of your crop.
• Wind Machine Monitoring. Many Vineyards and Orchards that have Harvest units are now monitoring their wind machines. The Harvest unit can monitor the engine run time and battery voltage of the wind machine. You are also not limited to just the one machine, the Harvest unit can monitor up to four machines.
• Other Sensors. We can also monitor a range of other sensors including flow meters, well depth sensors, and a range of other analogue and digital input sensors.
• Quick View. A special Quick View page for monitoring multiple sensors is available for on-the-spot management during the operation of wind machines, sprinklers or even in the cockpit of a helicopter. This web page shows the latest temperatures and the temperature trend by means of arrows. See the quickview page for the McGireny Vineyard.
• WAP Cellphone Page. For in-field use you can also view the live temperature data on any cellphone using WAP (try http://harvest.com/mcgovern).
• Optional Password. Your web data can be password protected if that's what you need, or you can share the information with your neighbours and in fact the whole world.
• Investors. The normal daily weather data is a great way for shareholders to see what's happening at their investment site.
• Large Sites. Large sites may require several systems to cover the entire property.

For more information please read How It Works or please contact us.