The Krone SmartConnect telemetry unit has long been the basis for data management in Krone agricultural machinery and commercial vehicles, such as forage harvesters and trailers. Now Krone offers an additional solution which can be used even more flexibly and draws its energy from a solar cell: The Krone SmartConnect Solar.
This self-sufficient telemetry unit can also be used to integrate simple machines, such as mowers, tedders, rotary rakes and other implements without their own electronics, into a digital data management system. This can now be used for all machines, regardless of manufacturer or application.
The digital vibrating clock
As the SmartConnect Solar is powered by a solar panel and a rechargeable battery, an external power source is not required. With the aid of a position sensor, the SmartConnect Solar can also be used, for example, on a trailer flap as a load counter. Alternatively, when mounted on a swiveling outrigger of a rotary rake, the working and transport position is detected by the position sensor. When a working width is stored, the SmartConnect Solar can also be used as a hectare counter. An integrated GPS receiver and a radio modem with a multi-net SIM card are used to send various position and status data of the machine in real time. If no mobile network is available, the data is temporarily stored and then sent later when a radio network is available. At this point, it should be mentioned that the SmartConnect Solar complies with protection class IP69K and is waterproof – water, dust and dirt are therefore not a problem.
Data evaluation in Krone Smart Telematics
The Krone Smart Telematics in the mykrone.green portal allows the machine data to be viewed and evaluated in real time as well as retrospectively. In Smart Telematics, the telemetry unit is linked to the respective machines for this purpose. The following data is sent by the SmartConnect Solar in real time: the position, the speed, active and inactive operating hours, the distance travelled, the working and transport position, the number of wagon loads or the area worked and the battery charge status. The automatic data transfer eliminates the need for manual entries. In this way, the working time and acreage output are precisely documented, even if the machines were rented out for several days, for example, but used only for a few hours per day. The purchase price of the Krone SmartConnect Solar already includes all running costs; these include mobile phone charges and portal use, as well as two mounting plates for attaching the module. This device therefore contributes to improved economic efficiency via a convenient data transfer which can be used many times.
Also to be used via the agrirouter
A new feature is the connection of the Krone SmartConnect Solar to the agrirouter. The advantages of linking to the agrirouter are obvious: For example, during maize harvesting, complete harvest fleets can now be displayed and evaluated in a portal – e.g. in a farm management system – regardless of the manufacturer or the individual machine/trailer units’ own connectivity. This prevents detours, facilitates the scheduling of the machines and therefore ensures optimised efficiency of the harvesting chain. The data automatically transferred to the connected agricultural software can also be evaluated at a later date and used for accounting and documentation of the measures. This means that programs, such as contractor software, can be used on the basis of the machine data for the automated generation of invoices and economic analyses. As a large number of software providers are connected to the agrirouter, the SmartConnect Solar data can be transferred directly to the program which the customer is already using.
