Hello, im new here ive beeen interested in possibly building a autosteer system for quite a while. Now with shifting towards strip tilling, i think its time. I guess i just need a push in the right direction, what do you buy first? Im looking to set up 2 tractors with hydraulic rtk by spring 2023 if possible. Could someone point me towards some good beginners threads on here? Im feeling quite overwhelmed.
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First download the software onto whatever windows computer you have and start playing with it.
Take some time and read the many how to start threads in the forum. Also threads specific to how you want to install.
Start looking for a tablet with a nice bright screen.
Find and order the RTK GNSS modules and antennas.
Get a working basestation
Get a Fix with the rover
Look for a Bno085 as soon as possible
Keep tabs on PANDA developments as the new imu timing works well, and due to the performance gain will most likely become the dominant .ino
Start ordering parts to build and box your chosen board.
AOG develops fast, so if you do not like change and updates v5.5 with V2/kapoui is a stable long term release.
If you like new concepts and projects all the time the latest release changes quite often. There are always new things happening, both hardware and software. AOG is what you want it to be, everything can be changed. Always some new experiment.
Panda is backwards compatible as an add on to an existing V2 board. There are many new Panda boards designs available currently you can build as well.
If you get stuck we are all here to help out.
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Brians youtube channel was my best friend. Although some info is for older versions of AOG the concept has been essentially the same.
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Nice intro for new users!!
Thx a lot!!
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@Redfarmer
I feel your pain. I am new here as well, & I know some of these posts are helpful to some people, but I just don’t understand the jargon. It’s going to take a while to get acquainted I think.
I want to set up 2 tractors and an RTK base station to start, and section control for my planter and sprayer when possible. Neither planter or sprayer have hardware capable of section control now. I am wondering where to start as well when even helpful responses aren’t dumb enough for me to get them. 
Start wtching the YouTube channel, ive spent some time in research today, and already feel alot better off than this morning. Still feel like im kinda underwater, but i do have a tablet ordered. (Currently have IPads)
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Hello, brother,Can you give me a link to Panda?
Panda is in the support files of the 5.6.2 release.
So you can’t use a wifi only tablet?
You can if you put a wifi router in the tractor to connect to.
Oh, okay. So like a regular Hotspot, makes sense.
Which you tube channel have you found most helpful?
Farmer brian tee has quite a few videos.
Take your time and realise that you are not as far behind the vast majority here as you think. Once you understand the terms and language, the basic concepts are not that complex.
Also understand that anyone that gives categorical answers with no backup probably doesn’t know what they are talking about.
If you really need autosteer, this whole project has the potential to save such a huge amount of money, the time investment is definitely worth it. To quantify this, I have just bought my most expensive autosteer component by a huge margin, and it is a steering rotation sensor that belongs to my tractor systems rather than AOG itself!
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So can i get the basic guidance with steering set up, and add rtk after i have the system running without too much hassle? Or do you have to add extra stuff in the control board?
It depends on how you want to deliver your RTK corrections.
If you want to deliver your RTK corrections over the internet like most seem to do then you don’t need to add anything to your control board. You can just hotspot your phone, or tether your phone, or add a SIM card to your tablet, or add a SIM card router, or however else you can get internet to your windows machine. Corrections over internet is called NTRIP.
If you want to deliver your RTK corrections over radio then you’ll need a radio module and antenna, the radio module would go in your control box. The radio module would plug into headers on your pcb or on your receiver.
For autosteer you need RTK to have good steering. You can make PCB mount motor etc. But without RTK it will be ±0.5m unusable.
So you can do RTK last but without it no cm level precision autosteer.
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That is not fully true.
I did one autumn seeding on a single F9P, but had to do the field from one side, and my fields are only up to 500 m long, so the drift from one end to the other is not really noticeable in field, when driving 8 km/h. (I see about 40 cm drift pr hour) A B lines are as straight as with RTK, so Autosteer is possible without RTK. As long as you do a field from one side even with the automatic (two) left then right turns
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