Red Ant Agri · AgriTech / Precision agriculture
SmartSpreader
What started as a bounded electronics brief - use GPS to control a fertiliser spreader's dispensing rate - grew, over nine years and five major generations, into a complete precision-agriculture platform. The relationship is the longest on our record, and it is still active.
- Client
- Red Ant Agri
- Relationship
- Since ~2016, active
- Generations
- 5 major, 10+ production runs
- Reach
- Multiple countries
- Latest run
- July 2025
The challenge
The client had a tractor-towed mechanical spreader whose dispensing rate drifted with ground conditions and tyre pressure, making precise application impossible. The first brief looked simple: derive ground speed from GPS and motorise the dispensing.
The real problem was much broader - tree detection for orchard spreading, recording and reporting deposition data, a field interface that survived abuse, and eventually ingesting satellite and drone agronomist data to drive variable-rate maps across a whole orchard.
Every major decision - phone over embedded UI, ESP32 over a multi-MCU stack, a configurable node - was driven by the client's business, not our technical preference. The product is in the field and we are still the team behind it.
What we did
- 01
First prototype, and a partner who didn't deliver
We built the first electronic version - GPS speed reference, motor-driven paddles, ultrasonic tree detection. When the third-party web partner never delivered the dashboard, we built a demo one ourselves to keep the project moving. That became a permanent BMEC habit: prototype the surrounding system early.
- 02
The architecture pivot
We replaced a Raspberry Pi plus four microcontrollers with a single ESP32 and a phone. The phone handles GPS, connectivity, compute and UI - and eliminating the SIM card made cross-border deployment a non-issue.
- 03
The SmartNode platform
We developed a configurable ESP32 board with 14 configurable I/O channels, usable across spreaders, sprayers and other products without a new board design. It is now reused across multiple clients.
- 04
A precision-agriculture platform
Web app for agronomists to upload prescription maps, a mobile app that spreads the right rate in each orchard zone automatically, a live telemetry dashboard, remote diagnostics, and full offline operation in the field.
In practice
How we build.
Modelled, simulated and tested before production - then made and assembled with the same rigour.
BMEC laser-etching a stainless part - representative workshop footage.
Start a conversation
Tell us what you're trying to build.
Honest advice on what it actually takes - and we'll tell you if it won't work. The founders take the first call themselves.