I’ve realized I can’t afford a commercial offering to put auto steer on my Deere 6105e tractor with the acreage I have. I came across this possibility on agtalk and would love to build my own but it’s way, way over my head. I understand a windows tablet is needed for the software but past that I am completely lost as far as hardware and putting it all together. I have been reading through the startup/beginners tutorial threads but still very hard to grasp.
Is there someone that has packages put together already to do this and specifically to pivot track steer? Otherwise anyone who has done this on a 6105? Thanks
Welcome. From your name looks like we might be kind of neighbors.
You might have already seen this. Home · AgHardware/Boards Wiki · GitHub A good place to start.
Basically you need a main board with a few various gps and other modules on it. It hooks to the tablet via an Ethernet cable.
Then you need a steer angle sensor mounted on the front axle and connected to the main board.
You need motor and 3d printed gears or a hydraulic valve or some other way to actually steer the tractor.
Finally you will probably want a source for rtk correction signals which you can send to your tablet via a wifi hotspots on your phone to the tablet. You can build your own base station for about 350 dollars.
There are tons of variations on these things that work. The system is pretty simple to make once you understand it. I would suggest studying one part of the system at a time.
So another thing is my tractor is “greenstar ready” but without the steering valve, only the canbus wiring into the cab and up to the roof. Is this usable at all or just need to build from scratch?
Also, I see estimates of $60 for a tablet in some of the threads here putting together overall costs for people who have asked. Is that realistic? Everything I see on eBay is $250ish refurbished.
Also, I do not necessarily need to start with RTK as I will be spraying and mowing hay in a pivot/circle track mainly with this. Do the same parts work for that or need different components?
Last but not least, the board building and wire connection aspect of this scares the crap out of me, never done anything like it. I’ve watched some vids but still don’t grasp the basics if anyone has some better tutorials available.
Trying to build the cheapest auto steer I can like most people here. Thanks in advance
Welcome, like @cowhound mentioned, just try to understand one thing at a time and it will come together. Many of us have been there but don’t get intimidated, I am still learning every time I work on mine or try something new, and there are many helpful people on here.
I think the $200-$250 range is probably more reasonable for a refurbished tablet. I picked up my FZ-G1 for about that on ebay. There may be some cheaper ones out there but I haven’t seen any quite that cheap.
If you aren’t needing RTK then you just won’t have to worry about a base station. Pretty much everything else is the same, and if you ever want to upgrade and build a base or get corrections another way you still can.
Someone else (probably anyone else) can give better advice than me on the canbus stuff. From the little I know, JD is more difficult to get to work over canbus, but maybe you can get a WAS (wheel angle sensor) signal from it if you have one on your tractor already?
A good first step is to get a windows tablet(or just a windows computer if you have one already) and start playing with the software in simulator mode. You may also be able to find and buy a tested board from someone on here which will help with some of the build.
I’m gonna jump in here with questions too. What does canbus add to the system?
I’ve been sourcing everything to run AOG via phidget motor and a land rover steering angle sensor. We have a New Holland TS135A which does have a hydraulic steering valve. Dad actually used an Outback system to autosteer it way back in the day. I don’t know if this means it has canbus, but would I be able to run AOG with just the AIO board plugged into the canbus and a GPS antenna then?
Our smaller tractor has nothing so it’ll still need the phidget setup but if I can simplify the bigger install that’d be great.
“Greenstar ready” just means it has a wiring harness, and that wiring harness is not useful for you.
$250-$400 is more realistic. Don’t forget to include a vehicle charger, possibly a dock, and a mounting solution (RAM or 3d printed or whatever).
The same parts work without RTK. I do not think that you will be happy without RTK, especially if you have pivot tracks to contend with, but I could be wrong. Look into base stations on RTK2GO or check if your state has a CORS network.
