Grain Bin Monitoring with IoT – GrainMonitor

GrainMonitor is an intelligent grain bin monitoring system designed to improve grain quality in flat grain storage using the Internet of Things (IoT). Via the GrainMonitor platform, this fast, simple, and maintenance-free grain bin monitoring solution tracks, analyzes, and reports on critical grain storage issues.

Grain Storage: Maintaining Quality

How grain is stored on farms for seed or livestock feed is vital – problems with pests, moisture, and humidity can all cause contamination, decreasing the quality and quantity of seed for farmers to sell or use themselves.

Pest reproduction – During the storage of grain, the greatest losses can be caused by warehouse pests. These pests develop specifically in large crops with high moisture levels and can cause devastating damage if left unattended.

Fungal infections increase in toxin levels – At low humidity and temperature levels, Fungi can also more easily grow in storage and produce harmful toxins.

Germination – Improper humidity is the perfect hotbed for germination, which is often caused by the change of seasons.

Adhesion – In the case of a dusty mixed crop, any major temperature change can generate steam, which condenses and leads to wetting and compaction of the crop.

The Internet of Grain

GrainMonitor’s Smart Grain Probe, which utilizes Digital Matter’s SensorNode LoRaWAN®, is a grain bin monitoring solution that provides real-time, continuous data on crop heat temperature and external humidity levels to improve the quality and quantity of grain for farmers across Hungary and central Europe.

Robust and rugged, the SensorNode features GNSS for location tracking in addition to a variety of inputs/outputs and an I²C sensor interface for asset and sensor monitoring on LoRaWAN networks. The Smart Grain Probe operates for 3 years on just 3 x AA batteries on the Antenna Hungaria LoRaWAN network and sends critical sensor monitoring data up to 4 times a day to the GrainMonitor platform.

GrainMonitor’s Grain Bin Monitoring Platform

The probe, placed on a 3-meter steel bar, can be used on virtually any grain crop, whether cereal or oilseed, and can be used in flat tanks, warehouses, and other storage buildings, moving freely between containers without restrictions or complicated wired installation.

GrainMonitor’s Smart Grain Probe

“We want to concentrate on our business, device usability, and our smart application software – we don’t want to spend time debugging hardware mistakes – we needed to use mature technology and found that with Digital Matter,” says Mózsa.

“The SensorNode LoRaWAN is more robust and stable than other LoRaWAN devices we’ve tested – Digital Matter devices are the most simple and user-friendly devices on the market today.”

For more information on GrainMonitor visit their website or get in touch with us today to learn more about our agtech IoT hardware solutions.