When we are out in the field using our GPS equipment we are using the lower quality signal available. The military uses a much better version. Most of the time when we lose signal it is not the fault of the satellite signal. Usually the problem is equipment failure in the machinery. When my planter tractor loses signal I lose auto steer but I can steer manually. I will plant a cooked row to the end of the field because the markers are locked up. When I turn around I will enable the markers so they go down and I have something to follow for awhile. In the rare case something goes haywire with the GPS signal for the planter I am shot out of the water. If the planter can't sense motion from the GPS signal it will not plant. Period. One year I had a problem with the planter not planting when I moved to a new field. After I gnashed my teeth awhile I found out I had lost an icon on the screen. Touching the icon got me planting again. It involved a software glitch. The company took care of it right away with a software update. Last spring I quit planting for the night with the field part way finished. Next morning when I fired up an took off planting again the electronic map on the monitor was gone never to be seen again. The tractor did not know where to go, the planter did not know where the end rows were so it could shut off and kick back in automatically on the ends. One pass across the field got a new line started for the auto steer but I had to kick the planter on and off manually on the end rows. One end had point rows so I over planted that end rows doing it manually. If I still had the map working right each row would individually turn off and on as the planter came to the point rows.
These two problem have been the only problems I have had over the ten years and hundreds of hours I have hused this setup. The individual rows have an electric motor controlled by the monitor in the tractor. There are no chains to come loose and jerk making an uneven stand or get thrown off by a corn stalk, no bearings to go bad no shafts to break or come out of alignment, no clutch to go bad. There is no need to spend a couple hours pulling out a shaft to replace a bearing in the middle of the shaft.
So in the end, yes there is a learning curve to using GPS controlled equipment. I have talked to farmers who won't plant anymore, their son does it because the son understands electronic controls. My Precision dealer told me I am not a common farmer because at my age I am still willing to learn how to use the new electronics. Yes there is equipment that sits a half day because of signal failure but this equipment also has much more simple individual row drives that don't give trouble often. When a planter sits at the end of the field while the farmer is pulling out a long drive shaft and running to the dealer for a new one or is replacing a shaft that bent because a chain came off and wound up no one pays much attention. But if he is sitting there with an electronic failure that is more simple than replacing a mechanical part the neighbors think the world has come to an end.
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Today's Featured Article - A Lifetime of Farm Machinery - by Joe Michaels. I am a mechanical engineer by profession, specializing in powerplant work. I worked as a machinist and engine erector, with time spent overseas. I have always had a love for machinery, and an appreciation for farming and farm machinery. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Not a place one would associate with farms or farm machinery. I credit my parents for instilling a lot of good values, a respect for learning, a knowledge of various skills and a little knowledge of farming in me, amo
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