Wireless underground soil monitoring solution Soil Scout has launched the new off-grid capable BST200 Base Station, which has been designed to give sports turf maintenance professionals an uninterrupted view of their lands during the critical growing season.
“Customer feedback and satisfaction is an important part of Soil Scout’s plan to continually improve the monitoring solutions on offer,” said Soil Scout CEO Jalmari Talola. “Through talks with our customers, we realised they could get even better insights if the receiver unit did not require constant hard-wire to a power source, and it should also be able to overcome power outages.“
“Aside from helping us make the BST200 the most functional and high-performing Soil Scout base station to date, the valuable feedback from our customers has helped us build a solution that improves our customers’ freedom to choose the placing of their equipment for each season so they can collect vital information about what’s happening underground,” he concluded.
The latest Base Station model is fitted with an integrated solar panel in conjunction with a high-grade lithium-ion battery that allows customers for off-grid use during the growing season when typically sun radiation is sufficient for charging the device.
The BST200 receives real-time moisture, soil temperature, and salinity data from Soil Scout’s sub-soil industry-leading monitoring devices that are capable of remaining in place and operational for decades. This data is then transmitted via a cellular modem to the web-accessible cloud-based Soil Scout Hub. Where customers require data during the darkest winter months, plugging the device is recommended, but the company can also offer a plug & play battery-pack for extending the operating period.
Soil Scout Chief Technology Officer Jussi Sirkiä said: “I’m extremely happy with how the BST200 turned out. It was a long project that involved both in-house development and working with several key partners, so the end result is all the more satisfying. This latest base station is more rugged, easier to install and use, and significantly more powerful in terms of functionality and performance. This is a winning combination that is sure to serve us for a long time.”
Recently backed by Husqvarna last year’s seed funding round, Soil Scout was co-founded by Finnish agrotechnology Ph.D. and 19th generation farmer Johannes Tiusanen and electronics expert M.Sc.Eng Jussi Sirkiä with a mission of giving soil experts the information they need to effectively manage their lands. Currently operating in more than 15 countries, Soil Scout plans to scale operations in the US, Australia and mainland Europe in 2021.