Remote Monitoring at the sugar orchard!

[wiam]

What is the range of that one? A few of them I looked at don't say the range.

I think it is more what is the range of your wifi.

[Wanabe1972]

What is the range of that one? A few of them I looked at don't say the range.

. This camera looks perfect for my RO as my sugar house is only 50 feet from my house and I have good wifi there.

[sugaringman85]

Looks like I've found the answer to my question. A hot spot with some wifi cameras. Way cheaper than some of the systems maple companies want. Hopefully it will work and I can be sitting on the couch and check my tanks and vacuum at 9pm without having to drive to the orchard. Thanks for all the help!

[OldManMaple]

For anyone using a straight talk hot spot for monitoring your cameras, what service plan do you use? As in how many minutes,unlimited, etc. Thanks

[wiam]

I have Straight Talk Z291DL ZTE 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot. This colder weather it keeps shutting down, but no sap running at 0 degrees.i have it plugged into a lighter adapter hooked to a deep cycle battery. I got the 4 gig plan. Hoping that will finish sugaring.

[OldManMaple]

Thanks, I have to heat my sap shack anyways

[Sugarmaker]

I am old school. I do understand the need for monitoring systems. In this high tech age sounds like you found a electronic solution! Old school might be to just get a tank/tanks big enough to hold 4 gallons of sap per tap per day. That might take care of the capacity issue. I know that's not cheap for tanks but you get all the sap.
Regards,
Chris

[wiam]

I am old school. I do understand the need for monitoring systems. In this high tech age sounds like you found a electronic solution! Old school might be to just get a tank/tanks big enough to hold 4 gallons of sap per tap per day. That might take care of the capacity issue. I know that's not cheap for tanks but you get all the sap.
Regards,
Chris

With this camera I can see if the sap is running right now. I can monitor vacuum level and temperature at my tank. I can also see how full tank is. A bigger tank would not do that. I have a 5 minute four wheeler ride each way to my tank. The other day when it was pouring I looked at my phone and could tell when I neede to go pump sap. It is all about time.

[DaveB]

This year I setup a camera on a bucket near my sugarhouse so I could monitor if & how much the sap is flowing. I know how many taps I have on different tanks so it helps me gauge how full they are. I plan on expanding it next year but this is working for me. I even stream it live on YouTube so anyone can tune in and see how the sap is flowing:

https://www.youtube.com/balsamwoods/live

The WiFi camera is connected to a WiFi Repeater that picks up a signal about 250' away where there is Internet available but the repeater makes the signal stronger at the camera side. Because of the distance I do have bandwidth issues every once and a while and the stream stops but it seems to work most of the time.

For the live stream I have a Raspberry Pi that I configured to take the stream from the camera and send it to YouTube. That's not needed but there is an app that most IP cameras can use that allow you to see what's happening.