Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | The Deere tech came out yesterday and installed some firmware updates which are now available for this tractor. I believe these updates involved several controllers. He did not feel that any of these updates applied to my steering engage problem.
He was able to "watch" certain addresses as he worked the steering engage switch. I was not present when he did this but he concluded that the switch is "sticking" at certain times. Since this tractor has a Power Shift transmission rather than IVT, it has the auto powershift feature. This means that the switch has three positions. It it a momentary switch that should return back to the center position when released. Momentarily pushing the switch forward should activate the steering but the switch must return back to the center position. Momentarily pushing the switch on the rear half should activate the Auto Powershift feature. Again the switch should return to the center position.
Apparently the system checks that the switch has returned to the center position. The switch has a four wire pigtail that leads to a connector. I believe that the screen diagnostics indicated a switch problem in two ways.
One way was that there was a "conflict" noted with the switch in one diagnostic area. I'm guessing that due to this "conflict" the system prevents steering engagement due to a safety concern.
Another approach was to view a number which reflects the status of the switch. As I understand this, a certain digit should change from 0 to 1 when the switch is pushed. Another digit should change when the switch is released. I believe the tech observed that this was not always happening.
This possibly also explains why I did see a message on the Integra screen once saying "Resume switch not detected".
Another tech brought out a new switch and installed it today. He reviewed the status information and the switch appears to work every time. The original switch would apparently hang up and not return completely to the center position. My brother was using the tractor at the time that the tech showed up. After the swap I drove the tractor around with the implement up and it seemed to engage every time. Hopefully this cures my problem. It looks good at the moment.
When I checked with my Ag Leader people they feel that having both unlocks in the tractor is not a problem since they have seen this in other similar tractors without conflicts.
Thanks for the advice and suggestions.
Edited by tedbear 11/2/2013 11:57
|
Agleader Insight
