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Brisbane, Australia | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVH9Zi7v9KA&feature=related
Someone has struck a chord here - this is a real pashion of mine.
This is my tractor with GNSS Autopilot and GNSS FieldLevel II. I started selling and using Geostar Machine Control many years ago when it first came to the market and have been working with the product upgrades ever since. Even after 25 years in ag levelling, the GNSS FL II is just so cool to work with. There aren't any real issues with using the FL II and the last few software changes were mostly about cosmetics rather than operational enhancements. Trimble won't tell you that it is sub centimeter but I will. We had a big sand job and it was never more than +/- 5mm throughout the whole job and some of that was over 7% side slope. In my experience, it is way more repeatible than laser. The thing to keep in mind is that this is a software based solution and we have seen some drift issues over the years but at the moment it is sweet.
The tractor with grader, scraper, blade or whatever you put behind it is not the issue. It will work with whatever you have -and I have guys using everything, believe me. No, the real issue with ag 3-D is the software for design. If you are using the GNSS for flat grade levelling, then I'd suggest it is an overkill on cost - though there are distinct advantages for working at distances, using it in low visibility environments and reducing the number of laser transmitters you may need on some sites.
However, the real benefit is with 3-D i.e. working on multiple grades, slopes and elevations. After talking to the guys from Trimble US who are in charge of this product, it never ceases to amaze me that they still haven't go a handle on what you can do with this stuff in an ag environment. I'd show them designs we do here every day and they are just blown away.
Multiplane (the basic Trimble 3-D CAD software) is a bit of a dinosaur really and it is a huge shame that Trimble have buried their heads in the sand when it comes to improving the usability and practicality of this program and it will bit them on the bum one day soon with competitve systems starting to bit at the edges of their market. You can do a lot with it and if you contact me directly I can send you some examples - [email protected] There hasn't been a case of ag design we haven't been able to sort out and turn to 3-D control.
The next generation of software is coming soon and it will make it a lot easier for novices at CAD designing when it comes to field designs so don't lose heart. It is from another source and it wil work with FL II but I just wish they could have been combined!
My reading of where Trimble have gone is that they have tartgeted the tile drainage market in the US when it comes to FL II sales and promotion. We have none of this in Aus. All our work is mostly for irrigation or dry land water management. I believe they have totally misread the market for surface drainage levelling, that or they simply don't understand the potential they have there.
What type of improvements in field levelling would you like to see, FRMLPLR?
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Trimble Field Level 2
