Cistern, Well & Valve Automation
A comprehensive upgrade for pasture lands, underground storage, a rention pond and high flow wellhead, replacing failing equipment.
The Challenge: Aging Legacy Systems
HydroLink was contracted to overhaul an aging, unreliable wireless system. The existing product was a tangled hazard of legacy wiring, mixed signals, failing batteries, false pump starts, and an outdated, PC-based software.
We gutted the hardware to install our modern control & automation gateway with cloud monitoring and remote access. The project spans hundreds of agricultural acreage, underground storage, a retention pond and high flow wellhead.
Out with the old...
The HydroLink Solution
Given the large acreage, distances between components and rural setting, standard wireless technologies are neither strong nor detailed enough to maintain the total infrastructre requirement for this and and similar properties. Our Gateway is a robust hybrid topology utilizing both MURS and LoRa technologies for data transmission, sensor acquistion and callback verification within milliseconds on process command:
In with the new...
Long-Range & Local Mesh Networks
- Long-Range Bridge: Deployed a 154 MHz MURS network to punch through physical obstacles and provide an unbreakable link between the main gateway and the well pump.
- Local Mesh: Utilized a 915 MHz LoRa network to seamlessly communicate with 20 individual irrigation valves, retention basin & cistern level sensors.
- VFD Control & Monitoring: Integrated VFD pump controls & monitoring for real-time fault detection and cloud optimization.
Custom Control Panel & Interface
We built a clean, DIN-rail mounted enclosure featuring our custom PCB and Modbus/RS-485 integration for VFD pump control. For immediate, on-site diagnostics, we flush-mounted an external Delta HMI touchscreen programmed with an intuitive graphical interface.
Cloud Infrastructure & Field Units
The entire site syncs continuously to our secure Google Cloud server, giving the client instant access and control through our mobile app and web dashboard. All wireless valve connections were upgraded with weatherproof outdoor field units featuring high-gain RF antennas and our optimized battery saving circuits with integrated solar charge controls & monitors.
System in Action: Pasture Watering
Watch the pump and valve automation system execute the watering schedule across the property, and see some of the behind the sceens technology development in our workshop.
