Ag-Innovators set up Smart Handle

I've won a couple of awards in the past for innovations. i have two innovations in the fieldays which is a small group of my system i am designing for farmers to help H&S and staff training and help the manager to make discussions on feed and irrigation management. I am looking for funding help to get me to a level i can manufacturing the product in oamaru. I already have local and national company interested in the innovations now and later ones

To get the product to market i have to move fast and it takes money

Introduction:

Development of Strip grazing handle with internal Fence Voltage Monitor and internal GPS receiver.

The GPS will help with setting out what area of paddock will be grazed. It can operate in two modes, pre and post mapped.

Pre-mapped: the farmer will set a route on his PC and then walk out the strip fence. The handle will give left-right-stop information, via LEDs.

Post mapped: the farmer will press a start track button, walk out the strip fence and hook it onto the live fence. When the live fence is detected, the track is completed and track data is sent to the PC.

Functional description:

The handle electronics will monitor the fence voltage while connected to a live fence. For the first 5 seconds, the LEDs will indicate good, adequate or bad fence voltages. When held, the farmer will provide an adequate earth path to obtain the initial voltage readings. For ongoing continuous voltage monitoring, an earth peg needs to be connected to the handle. Trigger levels can be set on the PC. An Alarm will be raised immediately when the voltage falls below the ‘bad’ threshold. A ‘fence okay’ message may be sent at longer intervals (every 30-60 minutes)

RF link: the handle will need an RF data transceiver to communicate to the PC. A mesh network will need to be established to create an RF path across the farm back to the farm house.

The handle electronics will be powered from a Li-ion battery, nominal 3.7V @ 2000mA. A warning message will be sent to the PC when the battery voltage falls below 3.5V. The battery may be charged by a solar panel or through a USB port?

USB port: The USB port may be used for charging the battery, but also to commission and configure the handle before first use. Without a USB port, it is possible to press and hold the button to enable binding the handle to the mesh network. At that point settings can be loaded from the PC into the handle electronics. BLUETOOTH OR RF MESH A BETTER WAY