eKo Pro sets new Record for wireless Cold Temp Performance, -40C(-40F) in Calgary, Alberta, Canada

January 18, 2012 -- J&K engineering demonstrated the robustness of the eKo Pro system under extreme cold temperatures at its 10 node site in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Node 7, the light brown curve below kept sending packets without missing a beat through a cold period that reached -39.6C at 4:00am in the morning. Most nodes dropped out at higher temps between -36 and -38C but, this is still superior performance for this technology. As temperatures rose all nodes recovered gracefully indicating there is no permanent damage to the nodes associated with the cold temperatures. Batteries are not a limiting factor.

Growing season 2012 is on its Way

We have had very little rain the last two months and soil moisture is the lowest we have seen at this time of year. People are considering irrigating in mid winter based on this data and some actually have.

Below you can see data from a major vineyard showing all soils drying over the last month. Normally all soils would be saturated wet, showing soil moistures of 0 centibar.

Now the dominant use of eKo Pro systems is for monitoring soil moisture and weather conditions to make the best irrigation decisions. Water use, flow rates and actual remote control of valves are capabilities were added last year to the Camalie Networks line up of products. This year there are advancements in the software and reliability of the system as many systems have now been online in the field for over 3 years. The extensive field testing and characterization of the eKo Pro system is one of its major strengths relative to other suppliers in this space.

The water metering capability was added to the Camalie Networks product line in August 2011 with the addition of the CN101-WM water meter interface. Four water meters and eKo Pro interfaces to those meters were installed at Green and Red Vineyards in the Chiles Valley. Photos from that installation are shown below along with the data taken in 2011. NRCS supported this installation.

Below is a plot of water use at Camalie Vineyards on Mt. Veeder captured using one of the new CN101wm watermeter interfaces to a standard Netafim water meter with a reed switch in the meter register. The orange curve is the cumulative volume used and the green curve the actual flow rates. One filter blockage event was spotted on 8/7/11 and quickly cleared.

Actuation Development Progress

The latest development activity is on actuation. We have been working with Professor Michael Delwiche and Research Associate Bob Coates at UC Davis to develop actuation capability for the eKo Pro system. We currently have a prototype system with new field node firmware able to open and close valves in the field. The current development activity is on the web and cell phone interface to control the valves. Availability of this product is expected in the spring of 2012. Look for it! If you would like to be a Beta site let us know.

New Open Source, Cloud Based User Interface for eKo Pro Available

This new user interface called CamView, developed by Camalie Networks does not use Adobe Flash technology and as a result it is readily viewable on iPhones and iPads. It also supports multiple graph dashboards to enable the fastest possible review of your vineyard status. This software which includes an independent database for storage of eKo Pro data can run on your eKo Pro Gateway or will run on any server in the "cloud". Running this software in the cloud provides faster access, ease of backup and lower cost software maintenance. This software is fully compatible with eKo View and runs in parallel with it requiring no modifications to eKo View. It uses sockets that eKo View provides to access a copy of eKo View's data stream. It is capable of monitoring multiple eKo Pro networks at the same time and graphing any or all of the data together.

Because the software is open source and free like Android the user community can enhance and maintain the software without dependence solely on Camalie Networks or Memsic. This model has proven to be very successful. You can find CamView on SourceForge. This is an early release and installation is fairly involved, not recommended for the average eKo Pro user. Rather it is intended for SysAdmins familiar with Linux webservers like us at Camalie Networks. Call if you are interested in using this software. 650-799-6571. Access to a working system for evaluation is available now.

Estimating Leaf Water Potentials from Soil Moisture and Vapor Pressure Deficit Data.

Do you hate going out in the midday heat with your pressure chamber to measure leaf water potentials? Camalie Networks has developed a model which estimates Leaf Water Potential (LWP) from soil moisture tension and vapor pressure deficit both of which can be monitored by the eKo Pro system.

Links to Live eKo Pro Systems

eKo Alpha System Covering Camalie and Konrad Vineyards,   26-nodes

eKo View system at Camalie Vineyards also covering Mt. Veeder Magic Vineyards, 32-nodes

CamView interface to 12 active Networks at different locations across the North Coast, total ~150 nodes

UC Berkeley Blue Oak Ranch Reserve 38 Nodes, CamView Dashboard

Sam Brannan Vineyards eKo Pro 8 nodes,  Custom Camalie Networks interface CamView Dashboard

Terraces at Quarry Vineyards/ St. Helena 10 nodes,   Custom Camalie Networks interface

Stage Coach Vineyards, Atlas Peak 18 nodes CamView Dashboard

Green and Red Vineyards Chiles Valley 11 Nodes, -- LWP correlation CamView Dashboard

Chris Bowen, Hunter Farms Vineyard Management, Sonoma, 4 nodes CamView Dashboard

Breggo Vineyards BooneVille 6 Nodes

Australian Golf Course 8 Nodes

J.K. Engineering Ltd. Canadian Golf Course 10 Nodes Demonstrated lowest temperature performance of eKo Pro to date -40C!

Camalie House Mechanical System This is the original 433MHz prototype network deployed at Camalie in 2005. Still working.

Call for username and password to log on and try out the eKo View interface for yourself while browsing live data from real vineyards. 650-799-6571

Case Studies:

The latest case study of the use of eKo Pro based monitoring comes from 2009. An eKo Pro system which spanned two vineyards, sharing an internet connection and using only one gateway is reported in A Tale of Two Vineyards - Case Study 2008-2009 Growing Seasons. This shared eKo Pro network which spanned two vineyards separated by about a half mile was used to manage irrigation in these vineyards in 2008 and 2009. The results show two very different irrigation paradigms being used and numerous unexpected learnings which directly affected irrigation decisions. Having visibility into the status of moisture in the soil changes irrigation decision making fundamentally. The second year of monitoring resulted in another 2X increase in yield for Konrad Vineyards to 2.9 tons/acre.

In 2007 Camalie Vineyards used a prototype eKo Pro system to manage its irrigation for record 3.9 ton/acre yield with only 36 gallons of water per vine including pre and post season fertigation. In 2008 fruit set was poor and the yield dropped to 2 tons per acre but in 2009 the vineyard repeated its performance of 3.9 tons/acre again. Crossbow's website presents Camalie Vineyards Case Study including an interview with the grower, Mark Holler.

Press:

A great article New Networks Take Nature’s Pulse in the Innovation section of the Christian Science Monitor was written by Lori Valigra about our wireless sensing. It was published January 23, 2009.

Wines and Vines published the article, Wireless Network Monitors H2O in July 2008 about our success in using wireless soil moisture sensing written by Tom Ulrich.  

On June 19, 2008 Camalie founder Mark Holler presented a technical poster,  High Density Wireless Soil Moisture Monitoring for Deficit Irrigation Management at the ASEV conference in Portland Oregon showing that less labor intensive soil moisture sensing can substitute for manual leaf water potential measurements.  

Crossbow Technology introduced the eKo Pro Series Vineyard monitoring system in April 2008. It is a commercial version of the wireless sensor network developed at Camalie Vineyards.  

Camalie Networks LLC was started up at the same time in April 2008 to sell, service and customize eKo Pro for viticulturists in the Napa Valley.  

Other Growers and Researchers Using Wireless Vineyard Monitoring Networks:

Miscellaneous Historical information

Camalie Networks Opened for Business 4/2009.

Crossbow Technology Sold the eKo Pro Product Line to Memsic Inc. Dec. 16, 2009 Press Release