The per-fan grade: one DB9 on each variable-speed fan, live readback from every drive, and faults that announce themselves before anyone walks the barn.
FanPilot Advanced puts a DB9 Intelligent Drive Controller on each variable-speed fan. The Mini-C Plus stays — it still holds the site strategy and provides the vision recognition — but the fan line is no longer a group of fans that move together. Every fan has its own address, its own strategy and its own manual command.
That is what makes the readback possible. Each DB9 reports actual speed, frequency, current and fault state, so the platform shows what a fan is doing rather than what it was told to do. When a belt slips or a drive faults, the notification arrives instead of waiting for someone to notice a still fan at the end of the house. The DB9 also carries a control strategy of its own: if the link drops, the temperature sensor built into the unit and the strategy already downloaded to it take over, so the fan keeps being regulated instead of stopping.
Advanced is also the only grade that can set inverter parameters remotely. It is fully adapted to TOPCOOL variable-frequency drives, and other makes and models can be connected in the same way once they have been adapted.
Upgrading from Standard means adding the DB9s and adjusting the wiring. The Mini-C Plus, the cameras and the vision recognition all stay exactly where they are.
Download the FanPilot brochureFanPilot · Basic to Advanced · English · 2 pages · 856 KB PDF
The controller, the sensors and the fans stay. What is added is a terminal at every fan — one device per motor, each with its own address on the run.
The controller at the centre of this grade. It holds the ventilation strategy for every zone, reads the environmental inputs and coordinates the fan groups. Six module slots take the VFD module and whichever input modules the barn needs.
The plug-in board that puts the controller on a CAN bus — two lines out, for the terminals that take their commands over CAN rather than over Modbus or a 0–10 V pair. At this grade it is what gives each DB terminal its own channel back to the controller.
A dedicated interface for a single variable-speed fan: 0–10 V command out, live operating data back, and a control strategy of its own — if the CAN link is lost, the temperature sensor built into the unit and the strategy already downloaded to it take over locally, so the fan keeps being regulated instead of stopping.
Temperature, humidity, THI, light, indoor/outdoor pressure difference, water pressure — and whatever else the barn needs through the module slots. Sensors are supplied as required: the controller can run on its built-in readings alone, or on several external inputs at once, and a single strategy can weigh more than one at a time.
The uplink that puts the barn on the farm network. Multi-WAN and gigabit, on a DIN rail, so the platform can reach the controller and keep reaching it when one WAN drops. Without it the system still runs locally — it just stops being remote.
The three grades share the same fans, the same building and the same platform. What changes is the resolution at which the barn can be driven.
Learning from its own history, and from the animals — with the panel always able to take over.
At this grade every fan reports back, so the system keeps a per-fan record of what it asked for and what actually happened. It reads that history and moves the strategy itself — set points and weights shift without anyone editing a schedule.
Presence and intake data from LyingLogix and NutriTrack enter the same loop, so the barn is driven by what the animals are doing, not only by the sensor on the wall. Every adjustment is logged, and any of them can be taken over by hand from the panel.
At Advanced every fan has its own DB9, so the VFD module comes out and its slot goes to the inlet module. The expansion hardware is exactly the one described at Standard; what changes is the resolution the strategy can address — a zone at Standard, a single device at Advanced.
| Add-on | Module | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Inlets | INLET · CCM-01-006-002 | Two outputs, each with open/close, an opening command and position feedback — the opening is commanded and then confirmed, not run against a timer. |
| Fogging | VSO · CCM-01-002-008, SWITCH · CCM-01-004-008 | Valve groups switch on the VSO outputs and the pump is enabled through a SWITCH relay. Line pressure comes back from the manometer, so a blocked nozzle or a dry pump shows up as a reading instead of as a wet alley. |
| Heating In development | SWITCH · CCM-01-004-008 | An enable output: the heaters run or they do not. Modulation and staging come later, and this page does not claim them. |
The same sequence, at a finer resolution. Here the decision is taken per fan and per device, so an inlet group can follow the fans that actually serve its end of the barn, and fogging can be held to the zone that needs it. The modules are the ones listed above; what changes is how precisely the strategy can place them.
The same 76 positions, drawn per fan instead of per row: the run reaches every one of them individually, with a DB9 at each fan.
Example layoutThis drawing is an example. Its basic conditions come from Live Barn and it is not an actual dairy barn — it shows how a layout is put together and must not be used as a configuration reference for any real project.Talk to us and we will prepare a solution for your barn
The difference between Standard and Advanced is not more hardware for its own sake. It is being able to act on one fan and to know what that fan did.
A fan at the end of a house can run on its own curve, or be driven by hand during commissioning and service, without changing what the other fans are doing.
Speed, frequency, current and fault state come back from each drive — multiple values, and the report can be extended where a site needs more. The platform shows what a fan is actually doing, which is the difference between a schedule and a result.
A slipping belt or a tripped drive raises a notification instead of a surprise. Device readings reflect the time of query, so a fault is visible as it happens.
Firmware is updated from the platform, and inverter parameters can be changed the same way. No ladder, no local keypad, and no site visit for a settings change.
The DB9 is what this grade adds; the Mini-C Plus is what makes it a system rather than a set of drives.
DB9 Intelligent Drive Controller
One dedicated interface per variable-speed fan — 0–10 V command out, live speed, frequency and current back, local strategy control if the CAN link drops.
Hardware overview
Mini-C Plus
Site strategy, vision recognition and the platform link — the controller the DB9s report to.
Hardware overview
Send us the fan schedule — make, model, drive type and how the fans are grouped today. We will come back with the DB9 count, the wiring change from your current setup, and the parameters worth setting remotely.
Send us your fan scheduleType a product, a system or a problem.
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