Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | Looks familiar. I worked with these some several years ago as a Tech.
I had one project that stands out in my memory. I had a customer who wanted to run his rig is sections which the Ag Leader Strip-til module does not support. His rig only applied one product but the metering rolls for that product were in sections. All the sections ran the same speed off of a jack shaft that was driven by an orbit motor. Each section had its own clutch so the rig could apply with 1, 2 or all 3 sections.
This meant that he could use the Ag Leader strip-til module to control the rate (speed of the metering rolls) as usual by using a sensor on the jack shaft. He could use the manual switch box that came with the rig to shut off sections if desired. If a section or two were shut off, certain totals on the Ag Leader would be exaggerated since the module assumes the entire width is either ON or OFF.
He reasoned that he should be able to move his clutch control module from his corn planter which he was not using at that time to the applicator and use it to automatically turn ON/OFF the the metering roll sections via the clutches.
It was reasonably easy to fabricate a wiring harness to do this. The multi-product unlock was required since as far as the Ag Leader was concerned it was working with a 3 section planter with a Clutch Control Module for section control and a strip-til applicator for a single product control. Both happened to be the same product.
The metering roll(s) ran at the proper speed to deliver the proper rate for the section(s) that were ON. Note that with his drive arrangement all the metering rolls turn the same speed and only deliver product to their own tubes. The Clutch Control Module would engage/disengage the clutches as appropriate for point rows or less than full passes.
In general this worked as desired but the customer had to be aware of a few things. 1) although the rate would be correct when some of the sections were OFF due to the Clutch Control Module, the Volume total for the strip-til would increase as if all the sections were ON since the strip-til module does not support boom sections. 2) In a similar manner the area shown on the strip-til module would increase as if all sections were ON also. The area shown on the Clutch Control Product (actually the same product) would be accurate.
The customer was aware of this and understood it. He said that with his many odd shaped fields, the difference in area between what the Clutch module showed and what the Strip-til module showed were fairly significant and reinforced his idea that it was worthwhile.
This approach would NOT be supported by Ag Leader and I really don't encourage it. However in this case, the customer was very knowledgeable and able to understand the quirks of the totals. Best of all it was "his idea". The success of a non-supported workaround is always greater when it is the customer's idea.
Edited by tedbear 7/29/2024 08:29
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Ag Leader Strip-Till module pin-out
