Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | I have InCommand 1200s in three Deere 8xxx tractors. They all use GPS 6500s and SteerCommand ECUs. The 8310 (old) and 8120 both use external steering valves that were used with Nav IIs. SteerCommand now works with these valves. These tractors are fine.
The third tractor is an 8310R. It uses an InCommand 1200, GPS 6500 and SteerCommand also. It is different in that the SteerCommand module works with the Deere CAN system for steering rather than using an external valve like the older ones. It is used for planting and works very well. All 3 GPS 6500s have the Glonass and the TerraStar unlocks. I purchase a subscription for the one on the planting tractor only. I could purchase a TerraStar subscription for the other two but WAAS is good enough for their purposes.
Although the system works well in the 8310R, it has happened several times that upon initial cold startup that the InCommand does not seem to recognize that SteerCommand is present. It goes through the steps that one would expect without SteerCommand. It does not give the operator warning screens. It will eventually converge if set to TerraStar and give GPS information but steering is not available.
Sometimes shutting everything off (engine and Ag Leader), doing a battery disconnect and restarting from scratch so to speak will result in success. Once we are past this initial recognition step everything works as expected. To get around this we have been leaving the InCommand ON overnight once we get it working. This should not be necessary. Upon initial startup, I can tell if I'm going to be successful by observing the LEDs on the SteerCommand ECU. If they start "dancing" around then I will be successful. It some are ON but do not change then I won't be successful with the "mating" procedure.
I feel that it is some type of timing issue where upon initial startup, the InCommand misses the fact that SteerCommand is present. I believe I am using current firmware in both the InCommand, SteerCommand and the GPS 6500s.
Last night my Great Nephew changed the setting to "allow guidance without differential" and he got it to connect. He feels this is the answer but I feel he was just lucky and the InCommand discovered SteerCommand.
So far I'm getting the old "never heard of that one" routine. In a former tractor and planter where the GPS was powered separately, I wired it to a small garden tractor battery. This allowed me to keep the GPS ON overnight to maintain Omnistar convergence. The small battery was connected to the system via a diode so starting the tractor would not cause the GPS to drop out. I suppose I could try something along that line but this shouldn't be necessary.
Anyone else have similar experience with this type of situation. If I start the Ag Leader system without the tractor running and the InCommand recognizes SteerCommand I get an appropriate message indicating that the tractor is not ready. This makes sense but is different than the situation where the InCommand doesn't seem to recognized that SteerCommand is present.
Any suggestions are appreciated. The tractor does not exhibit battery problems. It has done this ON/OFF for some time. I didn't have much problem this Spring.
Edited by tedbear 10/20/2020 07:22
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InCommand not always recognizing SteerCommand
