AgOpenGPS and Titan 4030 Spreader

[@farmdude]

Pretty impressive. What did this system cost. Been thinking of building my own for a winter project. Are you rtk with this setup

[@jimcraig4319]

We are using RTK. For spreading it is not really necessary. We are receiving the corrections over NTRIP via cellular hotspot. All in we are about 3K for used tablet, all parts necessary for the gps/autosteer/rate controller system and a cellular booster. And the hidden cost of labor to set it all up and test it out.

[@farmdude]

@@jimcraig4319 wow. That’s kinda what I was thinking. I need to just make the time and get this done. Hats off to ya for making this happen.

[@gunicsba]

Hello Jim, The speed of the rear changes with the width you want to spread? So in this case rate controller really just do modifying the speed of the belt according to the speed your're travelling with and the amount you want to output.

[@jimcraig4319]

The RC changes the speed of the belt based on the lbs/acre of fertilizer we want to apply. The area we are covering is calculated by speed and the spread width. Spread width is fixed for a given field/product so the speed is the only thing affecting rate. We are not doing variable rate application though we could. As I stated in the video we change the gate opening on the back based on how much fertilizer we are applying. Higher rates more opening of the gate. This is set for a particular field and a constant is entered in the rate controller that indicates how many encoder pulses per ft^3 of product. The belt actually controls ft^3/acre of application but the product applied has a uniform density for a given fertilizer blend. This density is added into the RC so we can adjust the RC to the blend. Fan speed is changed for a different spread width. Approx 500 rpm for 60ft spread width and about 675 rpm for 90ft spread width. The fan speed is controlled by the RC also as change in engine speed will cause changes in the fan speed. Initial set up per field is: Spread width (fan speed and coverage area) Density Gate Opening Gate constant (pulses per ft^3) How many lbs are in a load so we can see on screen when we are getting low.

[@gunicsba]

​@@jimcraig4319 thank you for the explanation! Sadly our spreader is not this smart to control it this way. At least not yet. Sooo many ideas we have

[@farmsidney]

I loved seeing the possibility of variable rate application. For precision agriculture, you could survey and define 3 rates for a given plot. Jim, how could I prepare the file so he knows where to apply each rate? For precision agriculture studies I use Qgis software. With it I produce several maps of spatial variation. And how to do this talk to the AGO? Can you give me a tip?

[@jimcraig4319]

@@farmsidney Variable rate is still in development. It has some people testing it. There is a thread on discord that discusses the topic. We did not do variable rate control this year. discourse.agopengps.com/t/variable-rate-control/

[@Farmer1277]

You should be easily spreading 90ft with that G4. We had a G4 doing 90 and we have a G5 doing 90 as well.

[@jimcraig4319]

We spread 90 ft with P&K but we spread 60ft when we are doing N,P&K. Just gives us better more consistent coverage when we are spreading lightweight N. That is the beauty of the rate controller we can adjust the spread width with the rate controller controlling fan speed, and manual adjustments to the divider.

[@Farmer1277]

@jimcraig4319 you can do 90 on a g4 spreading urea. We get consistent spread patterns doing so. But besides that it's nice to see someone using AOG on fert equipment. I'm just working on getting my steering stuff setup so I can get one working on our little pull behind sprayer.