Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | Yes, Arnie is correct on the repeatability issue. In my case, I use Trimble Autopilots on two different tractors. The Deere 8120 uses an Insight with a Trimble autopilot with a Trimble 332 running XP for planting and some tillage. The 8310 uses a Trimble Autopilot running with an EZ-Guide 500 using WAAS for tillage and manure application.
Spraying and Harvesting steering is done manually since neither the sprayer tractor nor the combine is equipped with Auto Steer. Both corn and soybeans are planted on 30" rows with the bean head being 12 row whereas the corn head is an 8 row.
I do not strip till. I would think that RTK would pretty much be a necessity if I did.
I have been successful in coming back and using old AB lines with some initial "nudging" for other operations.
When a soybean field is planted next to a previously planted corn field and I wish to have the soybean rows "mate up" with the corn rows, I can usually just pull in on the last corn pass and nudge the AB line to agree with that pass. I am then able to let the auto pilot steer for the first (and subsequent) passes in the soybeans. The alignment between the new bean rows and the existing corn rows may not be perfect but again it is far better than what I was doing in the past.
Likewise this Spring I did use the old AB lines from last year to steer on my initial planting pass in a field. I brought up the old AB line from last year and nudged it into position of where I wanted to drive this year.
My system with the Insight allows me to associate the AB lines with a particular field. I can name the AB lines with a descriptive name such as Home Plant Corn 06 N. I may also have another AB line called Home Plant Corn 06 S. These descriptions can be very helpful for future use.
The issue of which components came from who can be quite confusing. Some Mix and Match is possible depending upon what you currently have and what you want to do.
In my case, I already had an Insight and the non Autotrac ready 8120 when I decided to go with Auto pilot. My 332 GPS, the Nav 2 controller, hyd. valve and wiring harness all came from Trimble. This is not available from Ag Leader. The cable to connect the Insight harness to the Nav 2 harness came from Ag Leader. This cable allows the Insight to communicate with the Nav 2 controller to set the AB lines etc and also to indirectly get GPS into the Insight. An unlock code from Ag Leader needed to be purchased to allow the Insight to communicate with the Nav 2. This was done two years ago.
This year, I decided to remove the EZ-Guide system from the 8310 and trade it for another autopilot. In this case, the entire package of EZ-Guide 500/Nav 2/hyd valve/wiring all came from Trimble as a kit/package deal. It would have been possible to purchase the EZ-Guide 500 itself from other sources but the package deal was a better value.
The original post refers to using an Insight as the interface device. This would need to come from Ag Leader. The GPS mentioned could come from Trimble or other sources and it would be called a 252 in Trimble terms. It could come from Ag Leader where it would be referred to as a 5100. Personally I prefer the Trimble 332 since it has the same specs but has a keypad and its own display. The 332 does add some to the cab clutter.
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Insight Auto Pilot Omnistar HP or XP
