Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | As Alange has stated connecting Pin 4 to Pin 5 will start the coverage map. Pin 4 is the signal and Pin 5 is ground. Using the switch directly should be fine in your situation.
If you use a Deere planter switch that mounts on the parallel arms, the switch is Normally Closed. This should work properly for you since when the planter is DOWN in planting position, the switch will not be depressed and the circuit is complete. This will connect Pin 4 to Pin 5 which will start the Coverage Map.
Using a relay is Trimble's recommendation since there is danger in many situations of feeding power back into the 500. If in your situation, this switch is only being used for the 500 there should be no danger of backfeeding power into the 500.
Many have asked about using an existing switch on the planter to start/stop the Coverage Map, this is probably possible but there is some danger of interferring with the original purpose of the switch. Since these switches are not very expensive, having another switch for the Coverage Map is probably safer.
Again as Alange has mentioned you will need to use the Menu system to have the 500 "watch" this switch.
If you are going to use the PF3000 for logging varieties, I see little reason to use the Coverage Map on the 500. It is possible to get GPS out of the 500 to feed to the PF3000. The PF3000 can (quite easily) have an Implement switch connected to it which will start/stop the logging on it. The load concept can be used to map the varieties. I used to do this all the time before I got an Insight. I would print out the variety maps and put them in sheet protectors in a notebook. This notebook can be used throughout the year for variety reference.
I tried the dual mapping game a bit myself since one tractor has an EZ-Guide 500 with autopilot at all times. During certain times of the year, my Insight is also available. I made a custom cable to/from the 500 which includes the keypad connection, GPS out, a Coverage Map relay and Radar Out.
In this setup, the 500 provides the GPS for the Autopilot and its own purposes and also puts out GPS to the Insight. A Command Arm switch starts/stops the logging to both the 500 and the Insight.
The map on the Insight is far superior to the coverage map on the 500 but I thought that at least I would have the coverage map from the 500 when the Insight was not available. This all works but I really don't use the 500 coverage map much.
If you plan on using a switch to start/stop both the PF3000's logging and the 500's you need to be extremely careful and a relay is my recommendation. We had a couple of PF3000's get "smoked" when the customers tried wiring up a switch themselves. NEVER, NEVER connect anything that could feed power back into either of the boxes.
I have some wiring harnesses made up for hooking a PF3000 to a planter switch and/or a flowmeter for monitoring planting activities. This consists of a small box that connects to the PF3000 and provides power to the PF3000 and has a connector going out the back of the cab towards the planter. This box has two LEDs on it. One indicates the status of the planter being up or down. The other LED flashes in response to the activity of the flowmeter.
This cable has a two pole connector on it for hooking to an implement switch and also a Conxall connector for hooking to a Raven flowmeter to monitor (not control) some liquid product. Generally some extension for these connections are needed to reach the flowmeter and switch locations.
Our customers commonly use this harness with their planters to monitor the liquid starter fertilizer being applied by a ground driven pump and map varieties when planting corn. If the same planter is used for soybeans where no starter is being used, the varieties can still be mapped. The .yld file that is created can be viewed by loads to give the variety maps and viewed by rate to give a fertilizer map.
If the PF3000 is going to be used for Site Verification only then the Harvest firmware will be fine since the Harvest firmware includes the Sit Verification capabilities.
If a Flowmeter is going to be used for monitoring a liquid then the App Rate firmware needs to be installed in the PF3000. This firmware will allow the operator to work with a flowmeter among other things and allows the flowmeter cal number to be entered. Note the flowmeter cal number on a Raven flowmeter is for 10 gallons so divide that number by 10 to obtain the correct meter cal for the PF3000.
Edited by tedbear 3/2/2008 09:59
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EZ 500 planter coverage map revisited (again)
