In this article, we are going over a new kind of precision Ag technology called LoRaWAN. LoRaWAN smart agriculture Technology is a way of sensing information in a long distance. LoRa means low power long-range network.

You can put sensors out in the field and have a transmitter there running on just batteries, and the batteries will be enough power to run for maybe two years. In addition, you need to have a receiver called a gateway antenna which is usually within five to seven miles in rural areas and needs to have an internet connection. The gateway enables you to access the data anywhere globally, as long as you have access to the internet.

LoRaWAN smart agriculture technology

No license is required! This is a technology that’s not regulated by federal communication (FCC). The cost is for the equipment, but there’s no cost to operate it. Once you get it set up, there’s no cost involved. the equipment requires these sensors in the field and one gateway wherever you have access to the internet and electricity.

Here are a few examples:

Dragino LHT65 LoRaWAN Temperature & Humidity sensor

It includes a built-in SHT20 Temperature & Humidity sensor and has an external sensor connector to connect to external sensors such as Temperature Sensor, Soil Moisture Sensor, Tilting Sensor, etc.

Dragino LDS01 — LoRaWAN Door Sensor

t detects door open/close status and uplinks to LoRaWAN network. The LDS01 is a small sensor, the dimension is as small as 64 x 30 x 14 mm.

LDS01 is powered by a CR2032 coin battery, in a good LoRaWAN Network Coverage case, it can transmit as many as 12,000 uplink packets (base on SF7, 14dB). in poor LoRaWAN network coverage, it can transmit ~ 1,300 uplink packets (base on SF10, 18.5dB). The design goal for one battery is up to 1 year.

Dragino LAQ4 — LoRaWAN Air Quality Sensor

The Dragino LAQ4 is a LoRaWAN smart agriculture Air Quality Sensor for the Internet of Things solution. It is designed to measure the surrounding environment parameters include TVOC(Total Volatile Organic Compound), eCO2(equivalent CO2), temperature, and relative air humidity, and then upload to IoT server via LoRaWAN wireless protocol.

Security in the farm

Other examples would be for security on a farm. If you have a farmstead that is distanced several miles away from where you are, and you have a fuel tank there, you can have a liquid level sensor, and it’ll tell you if the fuel goes down in the middle of the night.

You can also have these sensors set up to send you text messages. If you have a building away from your yard, and somebody opens a door in the middle of the night, you’d immediately get a text message. So this is great for security.

Monitoring Livestock

There are GPS tags, the GPS collars that you can put on the animals, and then it will tell you where that animal is. You set it up to do that, like every 15 minutes.

These tags are a little more expensive than the technology will come down. They’re about $75 each now. So a little too expensive for putting on a whole herd, but maybe for one or two.

The cost involved in the LoRaWAN smart agriculture technology, the sensors runs from like a temperature sensor might be $15, A soil moisture sensor might be 75, a rain gauge, maybe 125.

The gateways are from a hundred dollars to three or $400, depending upon which one you buy.

LoRaWAN is a technology used to monitor your assets, monitor your livestock, monitor your crops. And if anyone is interested in learning more about it or getting some specifics, please contact us at sales@choovio.com.