On this page:
and Automata's AQUA-TEL-TDR soil moisture sensor |
A sowacs feature page Back |
|
On this page:
and Automata's AQUA-TEL-TDR soil moisture sensor |
A sowacs feature page Back |
| Automata has enjoyed much success with its AQUA-TEL94 capacitance sensors. In 1992, Automata was awarded the Agricultural Engineering's 50 outstanding innovations in product and/or system technology for the AQUA-TEL94 soil moisture sensor. Many of our customers irrigate almost solely on the soil moisture content. The AQUA-TEL94 soil moisture sensors come in two sizes: 5 inch and 29 inch, with the option of soil temperature, soil salinity, or both. The soil moisture measurement is averaged over the length of the stainless steel probes that protrude from the electronic module at one end of the sensor. |  |
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Installation requires the whole sensor to be buried in a small trench, approximately 5-30 inches deep, and then for it to be back-filled as close to it's original compaction as possible for the most accurate sample of the soil moisture content. Two or more sensors can be buried at different levels to help optimize irrigation intervals and application time. The value reported by the sensor will differ based on the soil type, but will maintain a consistency for each soil type. The accuracy of the capacitance sensor has not been thoroughly tested in high saline soils. In a presentation at the 1999 ASAE/CSAE-SCGR Annual International Meeting, entitled "Laboratory Evaluation of Soil Moisture Sensors" by S. Proulx, R. Sri Ranjan, and G. Klassen, Automata's Aqua-Tel sensor along with four other soil moisture probes, were evaluated. Paper No. 992169. For more information, contact ASAE, 2950 Niles Rd., St. Joseph, MI 49085-9659, USA. Also, in a report entitled "Soil Water Sensor Performance" submitted to Applied Engineering in Agriculture in June of 1997; reviewed and approved for publication by the Soil & Water Div. of ASAE (American Society of Agricultural Engineers) in November 1997, Vol. 14(2):121-133. The authors are Ronald E. Yoder, John B. Wilkerson, Daniel C. Yoder, and David L. Johnson. The report compares eight different soil moisture sensors. Automata's Aqua-Tel sensor was reported as the best when accuracy, reliability, durability, and installation factors were considered. |
 Visit Automata's website
Phone (530)478-5882 Fax (530)478-5881 sales@automata-inc.com
104 New Mohawk Rd. Ste. A, |
Recently, Automata has added a new model: the AQUA-TEL-TDR. Although new, the TDR (Time Domain Reflectometry) has become quite popular with many farmers because of the accuracy and ease of installation. The TDR sensor is similar to the capacitance soil moisture in that they both measure the dielectric constant, which is directly related to water content in reasonable growing conditions. The main difference between the two sensor types is that the resulting soil moisture value using the TDR sensor is not affected by the soil type and can thereby be used easily with many types of recorders and electronic readers. The capacitance sensor must be calibrated for the type of soil it is measuring in order to obtain the absolute soil moisture value. The sensor is ~27 inches in length with a measuring range on the sensor of 18 inches. The exposed part of the sensor is constructed primarily of epoxy. The AQUA-TEL-TDR also has the option of reading soil temperature. In saline soils, the TDR sensor will operate in up to 20,000 µS conductivity. |
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