Serving industry in the Intermountain West with 30+ years experience.
Ranch-Water.com is a direct affiliate of Automation Instrumentation Controls Company (AIC). Ken Pollock, the owner/operator, has over 30 years of experience in Industrial Automation systems. In 2016 AIC was converted to a Limited Liability Company operated as a partnership with Andy Zwan and Pamela Petty.
If your troughs are frozen solid 2 feet thick you are probably not watering cattle in frozen troughs. If you have a daily freeze thaw cycle your water level trend may look like this:
An unexpected high level can be caused by icing over the top of the trough. As the top ice freezes and expands it can seal and apply pressure to the trough that is interpreted as a false high level. When the sun warms the walls of the trough the reading may return to normal. Depending on outdoor temperatures this can be an occasional or daily false reading.
The Terminal Temperature is the temperature of the electronics inside the enclosure and may not accurately show the true outdoor temperature. You will notice that there is a daily temperature cycle.
Go to www.Ranch-Water.Com
Sign in with your assigned user name and password and click the Sign In button.
Your Water Level, Battery Voltage and Terminal Temperature are color coded, displayed and trended. Remember that the Terminal Temperature is the temperature of the electronics inside the enclosure and may not accurately show the true outdoor temperature.
The combo trend shows the Temperature scale on the right side and the Battery Voltage scale on the left side.
At the bottom of the trends there is a slider tool that allows you to select or zoom in on an area of interest.
Select 
in the upper left corner to open additional menu functions
If you have multiple Ranch Water Monitors you can select which monitor to display.
The cell phone display and function is very similar to what you see on a computer.
This is a 12 VDC lead acid battery that is charged by the solar panel through a charge controller. Individual batteries may vary but in general the working range of your battery is 13.8 VDC at full charge and 11.0 VDC at fully discharged. Voltages above 13.8 VDC are a float charge from the solar panel. When the sun goes down you will see a fully charged battery reading about 13.7 – 13.8 VDC, remember individual batteries may vary.
With no power at all a fully charged battery will last about 120 hours. Even with a heavy overcast or storm we find that the solar panel provides enough power to break even on most days. After an extended multi-day overcast or storm cycle it may take several days to recover to a full charge.
If you see battery voltage below 9 VDC the solar battery is fully exhausted and the system may run for up to 2 days on the satellite terminal internal battery.
Just like outdoor people outdoor batteries can have a hard life. Temperature extremes and extended storm cycles can limit outdoor battery life to 3-5 years. Replace your battery or call us when the battery is having a hard time staying above 11.0 VDC. When needed you can contact us to purchase a replacement battery from our inventory.
Ranch-Water.com is a direct affiliate of Automation Instrumentation Controls Company (AIC). Ken Pollock, the owner/operator, has over 30 years of experience in Industrial Automation systems. In 2016 AIC was converted to a Limited Liability Company operated as a partnership with Andy Zwan and Pamela Petty.