Its my first post on the forum (although i’ve been snooping through it for some time in the background for information and inspiration!) and I just wanted to share my recent successful install of Agopengps in our JD6230.
I started off back round about April/May time implementing section control on my sprayer, which worked successfully and have since put together PCBv2 and a very simple wheel motor setup. It’s a bit rough around the edges (to say the least!) however its simple and it from a few trials it seems to be functioning quite well so far (I am currently waiting on the deliver of a tractor, which will do all our planting so didn’t want to dedicate too much time to making multiple wheel motor brackets!). There are still a few things to finish off but it is nice to have a functioning unit.
I didn’t experience too many problems during the build and any I did encounter I could generally solve having a look through the forum. I did find that when ordering components from Digikey for the pcb using the BOM, I ended up with some duplicate items but I guess it is handy to have a few spares lying around.
I found setting up AgOpen and uploading the ino. to Arduino fairly straight forward - Ive had an attempt to understand whats going on but I have no experience with coding/programming and from my perspective think we are all very lucky that other people have shared their time and hard work to make these resources available to everyone.
Probably the biggest technical challenge was fixing up the WAS (RQH100030). I still don’t think its perfect but it seems to be functioning ok, (I’ll post some pictures when I get chance) although the steering motor sometimes tries to take the wheel past its range when I’ve tried a U turn. I guess this could be down to poor steering settings or the motor not being fast enough. U turn isn’t something I really need but any suggestions are welcome!
I’m currently using/borrowing a correction signal from about 40km away (rtk2go.com) so I plan to build my own base station in the future.
I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to AgOpenGPS, posted on the forum, posted videos on youtube etc. All these resources have been invaluable in getting my project up and running.
Here’s a link to a brief video on my youtube channel showing it working.
Nice clean install job, if you tap the red section bar at the bottom of the screen it will record your coverage, if you tap the version number you can even change the coverage colour.
I made up a bracket using some angle steel with a scavenged and butchered bracket to hold and protect the sensor and fastened it to the axle with some 6 inch stainless hose clips. The other end of the sensor is attached to a bolt drilled and welded through the middle of a clamp fixed to the tie rod.
The only unsatisfactory thing is the electrical connector (NEW 6 Pin Way Plug Electrical Connector Car Restrictor Sensor For BMW Audi Ford | eBay) which I feel leaves the cable slightly vulnerable to moisture ingress and (as I found driving across some long oil seed rape stubble) the risk of the cable being pulled out, as it does not clamp the cable securely - perhaps there is another component available? I sealed the back of the plug with silicon but I think It will need looking at again (I also plan on tidying up the bracket and painting when time permits).
After quite a bit of head scratching looking at other examples of attachment this was the simplest solution I could come up with. The 6230 has a wide range of steering angle and without modifying the tie rod on the sensor I couldn’t come up with an easy way of attaching it to the steering knuckle as I had seen others do. I’m not sure what the implications are in regards to ackermann.
This was the first AgOpenGps system that I implemented and was a real eye opener. I had previously been spraying with 5 manually operated sections on a 24m crop sprayer. Two things quickly became apparent - 1, Just how much overlap I had between tramlines at planting and 2, how much I was overdosing on short angled spray runs against headlands! It was a pleasure to turn into a run and let the computer do all the section switching!
I used an 8 relay module and arduino nano and have since added some LEDs to provide better indication of the sections being operated. The control box neatly plugs into the side of my sprayer controller where I have wired it into the switches. There is also a master switch on the side so I can easily turn automatic control off and manually operate the sprayer controller if required. It connects to the toughpad via Usb (I just need to fasten the breadboard in the bottom left down - saying that it looks like a mouses nest of wires is probably an understatement, however it works!
In the future it would probably be a good idea to change the length of the sprayer sections towards the end of the boom because at present the arrangement is 6 5 2 5 and 6m. Always room for improvement!
I have a video of it in action on youtube (7:20 onwards)
Thanks! I’ve installed a socket in the back of the enclosure ready for a switch/sensor when I eventually put it to work proper! This tractor doesn’t have an output present but one simple option i’m thinking of is to plug into the 7 pin iso socket which has a work output for the linkage in the new tractor. fingers crossed it has one!
Hi
I am in the process of building the system and am struggling to find a wheel to fit the motor and was wondering what you used also the switch to disconnect the motor drive. I hope you can help many thanks
I used a button switch to activate\deactivate the auto steer attached to the PCB, but the motor wheel was engaged by tilting the steering wheel bank against it.
I’ve made a video showing all aspects of my system on the tractor and newly completed ntrip caster basestation using @esprtk which seems to be working well.
I’m still using the same basic wheel motor bracket that was in my previous video however I have a slightly more elaborate bracket which fits our Kubota m6 and works very nicely (can be seen on the link below).
Must say it’s been very pleasing to see straight tramlines across our fields of autumn planted crops!
