UK-based Wood & Douglas has developed a monitoring system that enables fish farmers to look after the welfare of their stocks and their on-growing environment while away from farm sites.
Low-dissolved oxygen levels are responsible for more fish farm kills than all other problems combined. Should oxygen levels drop, Wood & Douglas’ Ultima GSM, a rugged wireless telemetry module, can be configured to send out alerts to one or more mobile phones and/or email accounts.
The environmental status can then be monitored via phone or an internet webpage, and uniquely, sending a text remotely initiates digital outputs which can be used to adjust heating and cooling systems or respond to changes in the chemical balance of the water.
The Ultima GSM unit houses a quad-band GSM/GPRS module. Four digital inputs allow connections to a range of environmental sensors for monitoring temperatures, levels of dissolved gases such oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen, as well as levels of ammonia or changes in pH.
It can deliver regular status updates, or be polled with a status request at any time by simply sending the unit an SMS message
Wood & Douglas MD Alan Wood said: “Properly managing water quality is one of the surest ways to assure fish health. Ultima GSM is a flexible response to the need for over-the-air status monitoring and control; simple to install, yet unaffected by operating in tough, remote conditions. You can now rely on receiving data and controlling response to any changes in water quality, reducing fish stress and improving production efficiency.”
Ultima GSM is constantly monitored ensuring it does not drop into sleep mode when transmission is required and if running from a battery, the real time clock system enables programmable sleep modes and wake-up for transmission, extending battery life to more than a year and dramatically outperforming competitive devices.
A serial port on Ultima GSM also enables connection with Wood & Douglas’ Orion modem to create a powerful combination of Radio Terminal Unit, modem, and GSM/GPRS module to extend wireless data collection from even the most remote farming sites.
