Windows ULV – The Next Generation
Last winter we introduced our new Windows ULV software for mosquito Adulticiding control, designed to meet everyday challenges tracking mosquito control spraying activities. With easy map-based office tools for reporting and no spray management, and clean and focused map-based field tools for tracking and no-spray warnings, this mosquito control software solution meets the needs of a wider range of users, including drivers and field supervisors that usually have little GIS knowledge or experience.

Our early adopters in 2017 helped provide important feedback and ideas for product enhancements and quality improvements. We’ve been busy working on some new features and we’d like to tell you about them!

Quality Improvements
We’ve recommended the Juniper Mesa 2 tablet with the Windows ULV solution, because it’s the perfect combination of screen size, battery life, durability, and visibility, with a high-quality GNSS receiver and RS-232 9-pin serial port built in. We sold more than 200 of them during 2017 to mosquito control agencies and it has proven to be a great choice to replace Archers, Archer 2s, and Junos.

However, in some instances complex maps covering large areas and having a large number of zones and restricted areas were slow to draw and software performance was not what it should have been.

So, we made numerous improvements in the way the mobile software handled graphics, geometry, map drawing, GPS, and serial data, with the result being a vastly improved collection engine. In our tests with a basemap covering 45,000 square miles and a GeoPackage containing hundreds of zones and restricted areas, there was less than a second delay moving around the map, and most importantly data collection and no-spray warnings didn’t miss a beat, even as the map rotated based on GPS and the treatment area in progress displayed on the map.

Auto-Update
To make support updates and the delivery of new features easier for us and for you, we built auto-update into both the ULV Office and ULV Mobile software.

Report Improvements
Based on feedback from DataMaster users, we added a new spray session detail report that has an easier-to-read layout and includes some specific statistics such as average spray speed and max spray speed that some people use for staff training.

Based on other user feedback, we made numerous small improvements to reports:
– Reports with maps now allow the option of using either the main map’s current extent or a map to be dynamically generated that encompasses all of the sessions being reported on.
– Reports now allow the option of only reporting on the sessions chosen in the main window, or reporting on the sessions found with the search criteria of the report setup form.
– The report window now allows settings to be saved, and will be recalled when the window next appears.

Export
To make it easy to share data with other systems or other people that don’t have ULV Office, we added an Export tool. Simply select the spray sessions you wish to export, and what data to include. Supported formats are KML (for use in Google Earth) and shapefile.

Process Legacy ULV Data
Users of the FieldSeeker Mobile ULV software (which uses ArcGIS for Windows Mobile and runs on Windows Mobile devices) can download and process their field data into the ULV Office software. This allows you to get the full use of your rugged mobile devices while using a modern, easy to use desktop software to manage and report on data.

FieldSeeker Mobile is in Mature Support phase and is planned for retirement for December 31, 2018, after which users can replace it with FieldSeeker Windows ULV Mobile.

How to Get the New Software
Contact us today for information and pricing. Upgrade pricing is available for existing Sentinel GIS, FieldSeeker, and DataMaster users through December 2019. Your purchase comes with one year of included software maintenance, so you’ll receive updates as they are made available through the auto-update feature. We have lots of exciting things planned so don’t miss out!

Sales questions and quotes – Linda Glover

Technical questions and updates – Chad Minteer