Small adapter sends all CAN-bus data to in-cab iPad
Apart from the pre-commercial launch of its Climate FieldView digital agriculture platform into regions of Europe for the 2018 growing season, The Climate Corporation also uses this year’s Agritechnica to demonstrate its FieldView Drive CAN-bus adapter.
This small espresso cup sized adapter connects to a tractor or combine CAN-bus port and uses Bluetooth technology to wirelessly map a farmer’s data onto an in-cab iPad.
FieldView Drive captures key data like power requirement, acres or hectares covered, as well as planting data like hybrid and planting population, and harvest data.
When it is partnered with Climate FieldView Plus, data is digitally displayed as a farmer passes through a field, enabling the farmer to easily understand hybrid performance by field, soil zone and population with side-by-side views of as-planted and yield data. Data from any piece of equipment that has a FieldView Drive is automatically synced with the owners Climate FieldView account.
FieldView Drive CAN-bus
FieldView Drive is already available in North America. A starter kit consisting of one adapter and a mounting kit, currently retails for $299 and any additional unit costs $249. European pricing is estimated at between €300 to €400.
Find out what else we’ve discovered at the Agritechnica fair
The corresponding in-cab iPad app is downloadable for free. The same goes for a Prime account. A Plus account costs $999 per year, whereas the Pro account costs $3 per acre per solution or $4 per acre bundled. European pricings for the non-free accounts still have to be determined. FieldView Drive for Europe is available as off spring 2018.
About a year ago, The Climate Corporation, part of Monsanto Corporation, acquired Estonian start-up VitalFields to gain access to the European market for farm management and precision agriculture software. VitalFields was founded in 2011 and is available in Germany, Poland, Austria, Estonia, Romania and Switzerland.
Apart from market access, a spokesman at Agritechnica said that the acquisition was also made for cross compliance reasons. The system is due to be integrated into the Climate FieldView platform in coming seasons. Interestingly enough, Monsanto’s new ‘owner’ Bayer, launched its own new digital agriculture platform called Xarvio at the Agritechnica.
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