Summary
This article provides a step-by-step guide on how to initiate a dry with ZONE and explains the fundamental concepts that the dashboard is based on. Before accessing the dashboard, you will need to set up gateways.
Logging into the dashboard
Navigate to the ZONE dashboard and use your username and temporary password to login to your account which you received from Growvera.
Figure 1. The Growvera ZONE login screen
Once you login with your temporary password, you will be prompted to enter a new password and your phone number. This number is for support purposes only. If you have trouble logging in, do not hesitate to reach out via the customer portal.
Once you have set your password, you will be navigated to the ZONE dashboard home screen, which will initially be empty. 
Figure 2. The blank ZONE dashboard.
Until we get some dries going, the home screen will stay blank. Time to set up some gateways!
Set Up Gateways 🛜
Growvera Utilizes LoRaWAN gateways to send sensor data to the ZONE dashboard.
If your gateway looks like the one below, click here.
Or reach out to support for help with legacy gateways.
RAK Outdoor Gateway Anatomy
RAK Outdoor Gateways have 5 core components.
Figure 6. RAK Outdoor Gateway Anatomy. Note that the antennas will not come connected
- LoRa Antenna
When you first receive the gateway, this antenna will not be connected. Screw the antenna all the way into the F-Type terminal on the top left side of the gateway. - Cellular Antenna
When you first receive the gateway, this antenna will not be connected. Screw the antenna all the way into the F-Type terminal on the top right side of the gateway. - PoE Connector
For connection to the network. This gateway supports PoE, so you can power and connect the gateway with a single cable. - Sticker with Gateway ID
This is the sticker on which the 16 digit unique gateway ID is printed. This ID is used to identify gateways on the dashboard under the Settings tab. - Status LEDs
There are 6 different indicators on the bottom right side of the gateway. You will need to examine 3 primary indicators.
PWR: The gateway power indicator. Green when good.
ETH: The gateway ethernet connected indicator. Green when good.
LoRa: The gateway LoRa (wireless protocol used to communicate with sensors) indicator. Green when good.
Powering and Connecting the RAK Outdoor Gateway
RAK Outdoor Gateways are IP65 rated and transport ZONE sensor data to the dashboard. Gateways require a few things for proper functionality.
- Antennas
- Sealed terminals for waterproofing
- Sealed Power over Ethernet (PoE) Connection
Setting up the Antennas
Connect the longer antenna labeled LoRa to the F-Type connector labeled LoRa on the top left side of the gateway. Connect the short antenna labeled Cellular to the F-Type connector labeled LTE-MAIN on the top right side of the gateway.
Waterproofing the other Gateway Connectors
Screw in the F-Type sealing caps over the three other F-Type antenna connectors (labeled Wifi, GPS, and LTE-DIV/LoRa2) to seal these connectors.
Connecting and Waterproofing PoE
The RAK outdoor gateway takes PoE directly. If your network switch supports PoE, you can proceed to waterproofing the PoE connection. If your network switch does not support PoE, use the PoE Injector that came in your gateway kit. Set up the PoE Injector by
- Providing the PoE Injector with power via an outlet
- Plugging in the ethernet cable from your local network into the LAN port on the injector.
- Plugging in the ethernet cable that will power your gateway into the PoE port on the injector.
❗PoE Injector is NOT Waterproof ❗
The PoE injector that comes in the gateway kit is NOT WATERPROOF. If using the injector, ensure that it is not exposed to water or fog.
To waterproof the gateway PoE connection point, do the following:
- Disassemble the Waterproof Cable Gland:
- Unscrew the sealing nut (the rounded nut) from the gland body.
- Remove the rubber sealing insert from within the gland body.
- Feed Ethernet cable through the gland:
- Pass the Ethernet cable through the body of the gland. The RJ45 connector should emerge from the other end of the gland (the other side from where the sealing nut was positioned), ready to be plugged into the gateway.
- Plug the RJ45 connector into the Ethernet port on the LoRaWAN Gateway. Ensure it is securely connected.
- Install the Gland on the Gateway
- Insert the body of the waterproof gland into the designated hole on the gateway's Ethernet port opening.
- Use the locknut to secure the gland body to the gateway, ensuring it is tightly fastened.
- Seal the Waterproof Gland
- Position the rubber sealing insert around the Ethernet cable within the gland body.
- Tighten the sealing nut (rounded) onto the gland body, compressing the sealing insert around the cable to create a watertight seal.
- Verify the Seal
- Ensure that the gland is properly tightened and that there is a secure, watertight seal around the Ethernet cable.
- Check for any gaps or areas where water could potentially enter.
- Connect the other end of the Ethernet cable
- Plug the other end of the Ethernet cable into your network equipment (such as a router or switch).
Gateway Boot Sequence ℹ️
When you first power on a gateway, it will take ~1.5 minutes to boot. If all goes well, the PWR, ETH, and LoRa LED indicators will turn green. If the ETH indicator does not show green, check your network connection and ensure the ethernet cable is connected properly.
Once you have powered and connected the gateway, proceed to positioning the gateway.
Positioning
It is crucial to position the gateways within the drying room you wish to monitor, ensuring they are within range of the ZONE sensors. If you are monitoring multiple rooms, it is possible to use a single gateway as long as the rooms are relatively close together. Without gateways within range of the ZONE sensors, the data will not be transmitted to the ZONE dashboard.
Multiple Gateways ℹ️
For large deployments with multiple gateways, we recommend placing a gateway within each dry room you'd like to monitor.
Verifying Connectivity
Once you have set up your gateways and the indicators are solid green, navigate back to the ZONE dashboard. In ZONE dashboard, click on the Settings tab and scroll all the way down to the Gateways section. If everything went well during setup, you will see all of your gateways represented by tiles with a little green status indicator representing that the gateways are connected to the network and ready to go.
Figure 11. An example gateway section of the ZONE Dashboard Settings tab, showing one gateway (ID: 7276ff0044071255) as online and the other gateway (ID: 7276ff004407125b) as offline.
The hard work is done, time to set up your dashboard!
Creating a Space: Monitoring your Environment 🌡️
ZONE considers a space to be any location in which plants are being dried. This could be a shipping container, a laminar flow drying room, a box, a dirt lot... or anything else. Name it whatever you like! We suggest that the space be tied, in your mind, to a physical location that you can identify in case we send you an alert.
Alerting Ranges ℹ️
When configuring your acceptable ranges for your spaces, bear in mind that the sensors are reporting temperature and humidity from directly next to the drying plants. This can be a dynamic climate that a temperature and humidity sensor placed nearby but not within the plants often does not do a good job capturing.
Creating a Strain: Nailing your Moisture 💧
ZONE considers a strain to be any group of plants that are dried together for which a target moisture is trying to be achieved. We suggest you assign ZONE dries for every strain in a given space. If you do not want to do this, please see our knowledge base for a guide.
Flower Lot Moisture Targets ℹ️
You can get granular with strains and using them to target different moistures per flower lot!
ZONE considers a dry to be a strain in a space, dried for a certain amount of time. In this section, you will use the space and strain you just configured to start a new dry.
Add a New Dry
Once you have created the dry, you can always go back and update prior to starting the dry 👍
Setup and Start the Dry
Assign a Sensor Pack to a Pending Dry
Unwanted T/H Alerts ℹ️
Sometimes the acceptable temperature and humidity ranges you end up setting for a dry are too tight. You can update these ranges while the dry is ongoing to ensure you receive alerts only when the room has adverse conditions.
Set Up the Assigned Sensor Pack
Grab your sensors and push the button, this will activate the plant connection test.
Plant Connection Test:
🔴 blinks : sensor is not connected to a plant.
🟢 blinks : sensor has a great connection to a plant.
🟡 blinks : sensor has a good connection to a plant.
Attach your sensor that is blinking red 🔴 to the central stem as close to the head cola as you can. If you have made proper connection with the plant, the sensor will blink green 🟢.
As soon as the sensor is blinking green, you can move on to the next sensor!
Once you have connected all your sensors to the plants, go back to your dashboard to start your dry.
Start the Dry
After you start the dry, the first data points will be visible within 15 minutes. For an example of the type trends you might see, please see the ZONE in action case studies.
If the average temperature or humidity falls outside of the range you configured, ZONE will send you an alert. Similarly, once the target moisture you set has been achieved, ZONE will notify you. For more information on the types of alerts and the triggering logic, please see the Alerts article.
Ending the Dry 🛑
Ending a Dry ℹ️
Ending a dry is an irreversible process, once you have ended a dry, it cannot be restarted.
Congratulations, you now have all the knowledge to be able to create and start and end dries in ZONE! This is the fundamental mechanism through which you will revolution your drying operations. Check out the ZONE Dashboard Overview for a deeper dive into the ZONE dashboard functionality.
Happy drying 🍃
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