Contour guidance: is it just my settings or is this not working very well?

#1

I’ve recently moved to 5.5 from 4.3.2. Contour driving worked well enough in 4.X, but I completely distrust it in 5.5. It takes forever to come up with a contour line to follow, and even on straight stretches, the path will disappear and the steering is locked into the last heading it was given before the line vanished. I don’t think it’s successfully driven a single section of a contour between sharp corners yet.

Otherwise, AB line following is flawless and steering is precise. But contour is a mess. Is this some issue with Lookahead settings or other settings, or is contour driving just broken?

Man, I remember in early versions where it would even do an outside cloverleaf turn on the corners if there was room within the boundary and the turn was too quick. I’d love to see that come back, too.

#2

Watch my latest youtubes

I had mixed success, It will not come up with a solution to corners less than 90 degrees. So anything after the first round for me, corners are manual.

It followed the outside pass, and a gentle slough with no conflicting coverage with the lock button enabled extremely well.

But a peanut shaped slough eventually confused it on the third round. This function is either amazing, or you need to give it some help. Any corner or short wiggle I hover the wheel.

#3

I don’t get anything as nice as those lines I saw in the short section you had in the first video, especially where it shows the next section’s line heading off at the corner. I never had to go into that contour configure section so I’ll see if that improves anything.

As for 90* corners, I pretty much do the same. Have to tap it off as you approach or it’ll violently try to turn, and leave a big uncovered wedge at the corner. Like I say, I do remember when I first used AOG, it would calculate the outside turn sometimes, and show it, and then would manage to drive it. It might have only worked on the 3rd headland or so. I should go back in the releases and see if I can find that code, it worked halfway good.

#4

It will never ever ever work in a corner where the result is a 90 degree corner. You can’t even do it by hand, if you want full coverage you have to either stop and back up or make a 270 degree turn.

Possible to video what is happening? Or post the field here as a zipped text file and can try in the sim

#5

Brian,

I think like this video (~13m minutes ) AgOpenGPS V5 | Champs complet, Bordure, Demi tour, Tourniére, Ligne AB,Relevage, Ligne de contour - YouTube
We can see a 80° line that the tractor has a difficulty to manage

but i m agree with you that is the task of the driver to anticipate

as a request to improve the lock mode :

i use the lock mode ( AgOpenGPS V5 | Champs complet, Bordure, Demi tour, Tourniére, Ligne AB,Relevage, Ligne de contour - YouTube )
when we are at the end of near other line … and that work correctly .

An “Autolock line” option in seeting can be very good than switching on the screen like what happen here AgOpenGPS V5 | Champs complet, Bordure, Demi tour, Tourniére, Ligne AB,Relevage, Ligne de contour - YouTube

(sorry more than 6 month video with 5.2 but actual 5.5 looks similar )

#6

If I notice the line ahead getting short its time to go to manual

Like @BrianTee_Admin says not even the driver can steer a 90 degree.

But the transition from one pass to the next i find works better in a straighter easy section.

If the recording for the boundary would auto end early, it would clear up any chance of a blip or tie on the boundary that also sends the tractor wild.

#7

There is absolutely no way the tractor can make that corner! Especially if the steer angle limit prevents it from probably making the corner.

This is why uturn has those “legs” on them. you need to start ahead of the turn in order to make a turn and by the time you get to that corner with contour, it is too late.

I have an outback autosteer in the sprayer and at 16 kmh it goes in the strangest of directions with corners of even 30 degrees so all you can do is grab the wheel or be prepared to poo a little on the seat as it wildly heads in a random direction

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#8

I don’t have a problem with it not making the corner, I realize that’s normal. I’ll try to get a video when I’m back in the sprayer.