Air quality + climate
RS485 ammonia, dust, temperature, and humidity sensors give each barn a live environmental baseline.
Built for Remote Pig Farms
LoRa field networking, RS485 devices, duty room Ethernet, and cloud dashboards work together without depending on barn-side 4G.
Network
LoRa self-organizing network for scattered barns and weak-signal farm sites.
Operations
Duty room big screen dashboard for full-farm environment visibility.
Backhaul
Y201-R Ethernet DTU sends barn data to cloud over the wired network.
Hardware
Industrial serial gateways with RS485/RS232 interfaces for field equipment.
LoRa 410-493 MHzRS485EthernetMQTTHTTPModbus RTU/TCPCE / FCC
Pigs Don’t Sweat. Your Barn Is Their Only Thermostat.
The cost of a poor barn environment shows up as slow growth, respiratory pressure, night-time losses, and more manual work.
Stage temperature mismatch
Farrowing, nursery, and finishing pigs need different temperature bands. One manual setting can leave piglets cold while finishers overheat.
Ammonia and dust pressure
Barn ammonia and airborne dust are hard to judge by eye, but they can depress appetite and increase respiratory disease risk.
Night-time blind spots
Temperature drops often happen between 3 and 4 a.m. PigSense keeps watching and can trigger heating or ventilation automatically.
Remote-site connectivity
Many farms sit in hills or outskirts where 4G is weak. LoRa carries data across the farm before Ethernet backhaul takes over in the duty room.
PigSense: LoRa Inside. Control at the Duty Room.
Sensors enter the barn network through RS485, Y201-L carries the data across the farm, and Y201-R brings the duty room network into YenGear IoT Cloud.
Core Communication Hardware
Two Mini DTUs form the field-to-cloud path for PigSense deployments.
Y201-L Mini DTU
LoRa, RS485/RS232. Used in barns and the duty room to move sensor data across the farm where 4G is weak or unavailable.
Y201-R Mini DTU
RJ45 Ethernet, RS485/RS232. Used in the duty room to bridge serial field data to wired Ethernet and cloud protocols.
Six Dimensions of Pig Environment Control
Monitoring, networking, dashboards, device control, cloud access, and trend history close the loop from barn condition to action.
LoRa farm network
Y201-L nodes form a LoRa field network for scattered barns, reducing trenching and barn-side 4G dependency.
Duty room dashboard
The operator sees every barn on a big screen, with abnormal values surfaced for quick response.
Smart power linkage
Thresholds can trigger fans, water curtains, manure scrapers, lighting, and heat lamps through the power box.
Ethernet cloud access
Y201-R uses the duty room wired network to send data to YenGear IoT Cloud over MQTT/HTTP.
History and traceability
Batch-level trend data helps compare seasons, barns, and control strategies after a problem occurs.
From Farrowing to Finish: Precision at Every Stage
PigSense maps environment control to the biological needs of each production stage instead of forcing one barn rule onto every group.
Farrowing Room
- Key monitoring
- Piglet zone 28-32°C, sow zone 18-22°C, ammonia under 15 ppm, dust under 2 mg/m³
- Automatic linkage
- Start heat lamps or pads when piglet area is cold; increase ventilation when ammonia rises while avoiding direct draft.
Nursery Barn
- Key monitoring
- 22-26°C with weekly step-down, ammonia under 20 ppm, dust under 3 mg/m³
- Automatic linkage
- Temperature curve follows age; night heating reserve is checked; ammonia and dust drive fan-speed linkage.
Finishing Barn
- Key monitoring
- 15-22°C, ammonia under 25 ppm, dust under 4 mg/m³
- Automatic linkage
- High temperature starts fans and water curtain; ammonia triggers more ventilation and manure-scraper reminders.
Breeding Barn
- Key monitoring
- 15-20°C, ammonia under 20 ppm
- Automatic linkage
- Heat-stress prevention gets priority, and unusual individual performance can be checked against the environment record.
How a Mountain Pig Farm Achieved Full-Barn Monitoring Without 4G
A representative hillside pig farm connected scattered barns, ventilation equipment, and duty room monitoring through LoRa and Ethernet backhaul.
Wireless Environmental Monitoring for a Mountain Pig Farm
8scattered barns
2 kmfrom the farthest barn to the duty
room
9Y201-L LoRa nodes
Before
Mountain terrain weakened 4G and Wi-Fi coverage. Farrowing-room temperatures fluctuated at night, ammonia levels went unmonitored, and staff had to operate equipment on site.
Deployment
Each barn connected ammonia, dust, temperature, and humidity sensors to a Y201-L node over RS485. In the duty room, a Y201-L receiver worked with a Y201-R gateway to send data to the cloud over Ethernet.
After
Full-farm environmental data appeared on the duty-room display. Temperature and ammonia alarms could trigger linked equipment, and the farm owner could check barn status remotely from a mobile app.
Frequently Asked Questions
Practical answers for farm managers, integrators, and livestock technical advisors evaluating PigSense.
Can PigSense work when the farm has no 4G signal?
Yes. Barn-side data moves through the Y201-L LoRa network first. The duty room then uses Y201-R Ethernet backhaul to send data to the cloud through the wired network.
How long can ammonia sensors last in pig barns?
Electrochemical ammonia sensors are typically treated as consumable field probes in this environment. The plan recommends calibration every six months and replacement around two years, depending on exposure.
Will high humidity and dust affect the equipment?
Y201-L is specified for industrial environments and supports 5-95% RH non-condensing operation. Sensor probes should still use dust protection and receive periodic cleaning.
What can the smart power distribution box control?
It can be wired into common barn equipment circuits such as fans, water-curtain pumps, manure-scraper motors, lighting, and heat lamps while retaining manual/automatic switching.
How far can the LoRa network cover?
The plan uses Y201-L LoRa for farm coverage and multi-hop relay. Open-area range can reach up to 5 km per hop; actual barn coverage depends on walls, metal panels, terrain, and node placement.
Give Every Pig the Temperature It Deserves.
Start with a PigSense farm assessment.