Hi everyone. New here and am kinda lost amongst all this. So total noob to guidance and auto steer. But trying to get our farm a little more efficient so guidance and autosteer seems to be a logical step. System would mainly be used for seeding and tillage. Came across this and heard it may be a little more economical.
So thinking of starting off with guidance similar to a light bar with the ability to upgrade to auto steer in the future. Is that doable with this? What would I all require to do that?or would I be better of to go guidance with autosteer right from the get go?
What is the general cost of a fully functional auto steer system with electric motor driving the steering wheel? Would need a tablet too, not sure what to get there
are parts to be had pre assembled and ready to go? Or is it order everything and solder together on your own?
Is rtk necessary or is that an upgrade for down the road when I’m more comfortable with all this?
Pretty much looking for simple and easy lol I’ll learn complicated over time. If that’s possible. And sorry for all the questions, probably just a lot I don’t understand right now.
The first thing you got wrong is that it isn’t a little more economical. It is an order of magnitude less expensive.
You can try guidance without autosteer, just download the SW and run it on a suitable computer (a few threads here talk about different Windows tablets or laptops). Purchase a GPS receiver like Ardusimple SimpleRTK2B. RTK capable and future proof.
When you decide to upgrade to auto-steer, you need some additional HW. Several HW options exist and you can purchase ready made circuit boards or you can purchase a plain board and solder components yourself. Obviously the more you do yourself, the less expensive it gets.
RTK (including tilt compensation etc.) is a must in my opinion for smooth seeding. Some mange without RTK but at the cost of significant “looking after by the operator”.
I certainly agree with Northernfarmer.
A hint is you can use the magnifying glass (at top right) to search for information like “tablet”
So get a computer and use it as “lightbar” together with a receiver like F9P + ANN-MB-00 antenna
Harrowing work fine without RTK, I even did one season seeding without RTK.
Do NOT construct a lightbar, but instead use your time to go for autosteer (Hydraulic or Motor)
Today I would use the new All in One PCB All in One PCB
Price can be under 1000 € for it all (plus your own time)
Thanks for the replies. Just trying to get a feel for what I’m getting myself into before I take the jump lol
Did some looking for tablets and am wondering how this one would compare? From what I’ve read the tablet is the part you don’t want to be to cheap with.
For rugged tablet Getac F110 G3 (800nits) and Panasonic Fz-G1 mk3 (800nits and bigger resolution ) are the most used. 300-400 $ range
Many people also use microsoft surface (400nits).
Good screen with lots of nits are the most important.
Make sure whatever you buy (esp when looking at refurbished) that it has an SSD rather than traditional HDD. HDDs can crash the heads into the platters if taking a bit of abuse, not ideal in a tractor
Some refurbishers replace HDD with cheap Chinese SSD that fail a year later. It’s happened to me both times I bought refurb computers for the office.
Just my (bad) experience. Next time I’ll swap HDD to a quality SSD myself.
