Toro announces the launch of the Tempus Automation system for agriculture irrigation. This system is the first in the industry to feature 4G/wi-fi/LoRa/Bluetooth technology and outperforms the competition in range, ease of installation and use.
“Toro is thrilled to launch Tempus Automation, an innovation that makes maintaining irrigation systems effortless so that our customers can grow a better crop,” says Ralf San Jose, director of marketing at Toro Ag Business. “We know that as a grower, you have enough to worry about and that irrigation automation should be robust, reliable, easy to use, and cost-effective. The Tempus package is all of that and more.”
Automation packages within irrigation systems can help growers reduce overall labor, improve crop irrigation and fertigation, and remotely monitor the entire system as well as agronomic conditions. With longer range connectivity in real-world field conditions compared to competitive systems, growers can be confident they will spend less time setting up and maintaining their irrigation system and more time growing a healthy crop with the Tempus Automation system.
The intuitive online platform can be accessed through a computer, phone or tablet. This platform allows the user to have instant access to every controller, valve and sensor—allowing for scheduling, monitoring and control to be easier than ever. Operators can control and monitor both the main and field valves remotely, and will be immediately alerted if any issues occur anywhere in the system through push notifications.
The Tempus Automation controllers and measuring sensor devices are certified IP68 for water- and dust-proofing and powered by a nine-volt battery. This makes maintaining the system easy and convenient while reducing the space required for installation as compared to competitive controllers, which require individual solar panels. Additionally, the Toro Tempus controllers and measuring sensor devices are potted, completely eliminating issues with not only items related to water or humidity intrusion, but also insect intrusion. Both water intrusion and insect intrusion are common causes of controller failures in other systems.
“By having our controllers potted rather than conformal-coated, we are taking system reliability to the next level,” says San Jose, “making common failures related to humidity, dust, sand and insect intrusion a thing of the past.”
The base station allows growers to control valves and monitoring devices within a bubble of up to one mile. To extend the system range, additional base stations can easily be installed. For each additional base station installed, a new bubble is created. These base stations can be solar-powered or hard-wired, and can communicate to valves and devices through the LoRa bubble, which in turn sends system information to the cloud platform using cellular signals or wi-fi.
Rather than laborious, time-consuming and expensive installation of pedestals, only basic knowledge of zip ties is needed to install the Tempus Automation system. With immediate on-site valve activation and geo-tagging through Bluetooth technology, growers can save both time and money. In addition, no forms are required to be sent back to Toro informing the company of the location and feature set of the devices. Instead, everything is done automatically during setup.
The Tempus Automation system for irrigation is made for real people seeking real convenience. To learn more about this groundbreaking new system, visit www.toro.com/tempus-ag.
