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Brooks, MN | I've been lurking on this forum for some time and finally signed up. I'd wanted to sign up before to ask this question below, but I never did.
I've been working on an issue with this tractor since we got it a few years ago. The AutoPilot will at random sense a manual override of the steering wheel and disengage. We've talked to the dealer and no one really seems to know what to do. I've done a lot of research and found some suggestions, but I just find it odd that this isn't a bigger issue with more people. There is a sensitivity setting, but that seems to have no effect on this model of tractor. I've been told to downgrade the firmware on the AP, which I've tried several versions and none worked any better than the others. One version, I recall mentioned an issue like this but that didn't fix it either. We've used an FmX (FM1000) display originally and now use an EZ-Guide 500. Neither seem to have any effect. I've tried to plug in some different vehicle profiles (I'm using the CIHAG MG 225 CVT T4.vdb - Version 11.2) to see if one from another tractor might work. The best "fix" would be if the manual override sensitivity would work. I found that if I ran the AP Toolbox that I could manually plug in a value that was way out of range (potentially dangerous), but even that had no effect. You barely turn the wheel and it kicks out.
That led me to the magnet ring and the encoder/sensor. We tried tightening the magnet and just generally cleaning the whole thing. We ended up replacing both pieces and that still did not solve this issue. We put a felt ring around the wheel to try to insulate it from any mild disturbance. That seemed somewhat promising, but didn't really work any better. I decided that I was going to strip the wires on the encoder and see if I could tell what happened when the wheel turned. I thought maybe I could put in a resistor or do something to de-sensitize this thing. I found that it had to be hooked up or it would give an error and not work at all - which is what I expected. I wasn't really sure what to try.
Finally, I had an idea to try to desensitize the magnet by shimming the encoder. Basically just inserting some electric tape strips when I tighten the encoder to create a slightly larger space between the magnet ring and the encoder. NOTE: The encoder has a little black rubber strip in this location from the factory, I was just making it a little thicker. Too much space and it doesn't work at all, however the AP does still function it just has no manual override whatsoever. With my laptop hooked up monitoring the manual override (on/off) in the AP Toolbox I was able to find a sweet spot. We haven't started seeding just yet, so I'm not 100% sure, but it seems like this is going to resolve the issue. I've run it in the field and it's working well so far.
Has anyone else had this much trouble with these tractors? If so, did you find a simpler solution that worked for you? If not, maybe my workaround fix will help someone. Thanks for reading this and I'd appreciate any feedback. | |
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2011 Case IH Magnum 225 CVT - AutoPilot Manual Override Issues
