Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | Somewhat along this idea, I purchased an Ag Leder 3-8 Channel ISO module for monitoring/controlling downforce on my planter. I just went with 6 weigh bars on a Deere 1770NT CCS 24-30 planter. The planter had and still has the Deere adjustable spring down force assembly. It does not have air bags nor the hydraulic actuators.
My thought was to monitor these 6 rows and try to come to some conclusion about how to set the springs and the variation between the wings and the main frame. I'm confused by the readings I see on the InCommand 1200. Each weigh bar shows a very large value that is basically off the top of the bar graph. The values vary across the field and across the planter. The values drop to nearly zero when I raise the planter. This was with the springs set in the "light" position in conventional tillage for corn.
For soybeans, again conventional tillage, the values were even higher. I moved the spring settings to "no added down force" but the bars and average values shown on the display were still very large.
Last week, I ran my data through SMS to produce variety maps. We looked at the gauge wheel map within SMS and found that the values were far less than what I saw on the screen (about 1/4 the values) while planting. I'm baffled by this apparent contradiction.
I'm disappointed with the addition of the weigh bars. At least I didn't jump in and buy 24 actuators especially since possibly I have too much down force already. |
Using an Arduino and interfacing with AG leader
