Remote Access Technology

[OneLegJohn]

Does anyone use wireless cameras to monitor tanks and pumps in the sugarhouse? Taking it a step further, does any one use satellite monitoring to watch everything from a blackberry or iPhone? Pros and Cons?

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

I don't know anyone that does but Markland has the equipment and advertises setting up a system for you.

[tuckermtn]

Goodrich's also had something advertised at Verona.

[parkerfamilymaple]

I just installes the remote sytem from marcland. It monitors vacuum, temp, and sap level in the tank. It will call 10 phone numbers, send a text and an email if anything gets outside of the perameters tha I set them at. I can also check them from my lap top or any place that has internet acess.

[sapman]

That's sweet! Wonder how many taps one needs to make it worth that kind of technology?

[802maple]

I just installes the remote sytem from marcland. It monitors vacuum, temp, and sap level in the tank. It will call 10 phone numbers, send a text and an email if anything gets outside of the perameters tha I set them at. I can also check them from my lap top or any place that has internet acess.

I believe if I am not mistaken that you can centralize where you might have a leak in the woods with the right equipment to run valves and monitor vacuum loss or gain with that same system,right?

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

Goodrich up in Cabot VT has like 5 vacuum stations all satelite linked to cell phone numbers, it sounded really cool.

[OneLegJohn]

After talking to Bob, at Marcland, it sounded like a good system. I liked the sound of remote start of vacuum pump from my cell phone. Remote monitoring of the vac, temp, tank levels...sounds like it would save me a loads of labor and time.

[Buffalo Creek Sugar Camp]

The marcland system sure would be nice. What kind of price do they have on these systems?

[OneLegJohn]

$3000 for the satellite hub and three sat signals: temp, vac gauage, and tank volume. It is preloaded for additional satellite inputs to expand the system. However, there would additional equipment for each additional signal. Also, about $250/yr in fees for satellite use and the website interface.

[Haynes Forest Products]

I have a friend that has a vacation home that he calls the house and his answering maching will tell him the temp of the bldg. WEhy not get a nanny cam and set the camera on a panel of guages.

[tuckermtn]

I've thought about a wireless nanny-cam type thing to put in my RO room to monitor it (its in the barn, 200 ft away from sugarhouse) so I know when my pressures start to drop (out of sap) or my pressure climbs- (recirc pump shut off)

[Sugarmaker]

I have Sirius radio in the sap truck! Does that count?:)
SM

[OneLegJohn]

I now get an email to my phone every 200 gallons through my sap meter. I can view tank levels, turn vac on, and monitor outside temp. I'm very happy with it. I have WiFi in sugarhouse, so I can get away with not using the satellite units and monthly fees. I would say, for $500 you could remotely monitor your sugarhouse. One more distraction!

[Maplewalnut]

I now get an email to my phone every 200 gallons through my sap meter. I can view tank levels, turn vac on, and monitor outside temp. I'm very happy with it. I have WiFi in sugarhouse, so I can get away with not using the satellite units and monthly fees. I would say, for $500 you could remotely monitor your sugarhouse. One more distraction!

Onelegjohn- is this a marcland system also, or one you have pieced together?

[lew]

Onelegjohn

From your original post i thought you were looking for a system but didn't have one. But by the sounds of things you already have a system. If you do what's the scoop. I am very interested but couldn't justify $3,000. $500 is a real possibility.

[twofer]

I have been building my own system to do what you describe. Quite fittingly I've decided to call it "Maple Command". :)

Right now the system monitors the outside air temperature, the level in the collection tank, and vacuum level. It will automatically start the vacuum pumps when the air temperature gets up to 38 and shut them down when it gets to 34. It also will send me text messages if there is a problem with the vacuum or if the main collection tank gets past 80% full.

Here is a link to the basic web reporting interface I've thrown together: http://www.wilsonsugarhouse.com/MapleCommand/mc.php

The system also has a switch on it for when we are boiling so that it will automatically update the website so visitors know when they can come visit. In addition to that it will take the tank reading and our boil rate and give an approximation of how long we'll be boiling so people don't show up just as we are shutting down. When we are not boiling it displays the message indicating as such and tells them how much sap we've collected in case they are curious.

The link to our website (boiling status is in the right column) is: http://www.wilsonsugarhouse.com

You'll have to excuse the lack of data (we just got started) and the measurement fluctuations (shoddy ground on power supply).

[OneLegJohn]

TCW120 from Omni Instruments. $85. The money will be in the sensors...

[DrTimPerkins]

We have a group of electrical and computer engineering students building us a wireless system that will measure pressure (vacuum) and temperature at a number of locations in the mainline system. It will displays the results either as vacuum at each point, or differential vacuum from the other sensors closest to it, or difference from the vacuum at the sugarhouse. Initially we'll start with 12 sensors (covering about 1,800 taps); eventually the grid will consist of up to 24 sensors. It will alert us if the vacuum drops in any one area, or in several areas (an entire mainline for example). Displays on a small tablet computer, but plans are to connect it to the web and set up text and cell phone alerts. The system will also log all the data that is collected, so we know how long the vacuum has been lower in that area. As opposed to other systems that measure at at limited number of points, this is based upon an large array of sensor units, so that we will know pretty closely where the problem is coming from (not simply that there is a problem), so that we can deploy someone to that specific area right away to fix the leak. The idea is that instead of chasing leaks all over the place and having to regularly patrol the woods, we can more efficiently locate and more rapidly correct the leaks in the system. The person in the woods can also get near immediate feed-back of whether or not they've corrected the problem as they can watch the reported vacuum level at any particular sensor or the level at the pump. If the temperature at a sensor location falls below freezing, it will not alert, but will simply note and display the drop in vacuum. Design is being finalized now for planned deployment in the next couple of weeks. We'll test it throughout the season.

This is in addition to various webcam and sensors connected to the internet that we can keep track of remotely on a computer or with a data-equipped mobile phone.

[mapleack]

Twofer, I think you should look at having your pump turn on at 34 and turn off at 32, you'll be leaving sap on the table so to speak if you go with 38 and 34.

[twofer]

Last year I had problems with sap freezing to the shaft on the electric releaser and block the pump from starting up. This would then lead to the releaser filling up and tripping the moisture trap and killing vacuum to the entire woods.

I might do some tuning to the temp since I can go back and look at the historical data i.e. when the vacuum turned on and what the vacuum level was.

[OneLegJohn]

The best thing about getting emails every few hundred gallons is watching the flow rate. It becomes a game of how much storage you can gamble with.

[bees1st]

Here's something I came across in my world.Check it out, could fit in nicely into the world of maple.

http://www.boatsensesolutions.com/products.html