It's March, and we have budbreak in our vineyard. Spring is in the air, smell of jasmin everywhere.
This is a great time to be in the vineyard.
We were hopeful that this Winter would see a lot of rain, but so far El Nino did not bring the much needed relief from a multi-year drought.
There is more fresh green coming to vineyards this year. In preparation of the new season, and with help of our Hackaday friends and Analog.io, the Vinduino project has been developing a new generation of the Vinduino soil moisture monitor.

The new Vinduino R3 (Remote, 3rd generation) has the following features:

• 4 inputs for (gypsum) soil moisture sensors
• built in (solar) battery charger
• support for 6 mile long range (Globalsat LM-210, LoRa) radio module or ESP8266 WiFi
• clock module for precise irrigation timing
• on board temperature and relative humidity sensor
• accessories port for optional irrigation valve control and extra sensor
• power management circuits, resulting in lower power consumption
• open source (of course)

For LoRa operation, we are developing a low cost gateway capable of handling 300 end nodes within a 6-mile radius.
More on that later.

Vineyard trial installations start next month. We'll keep you updated on our progress.