Iowa | KDD - 1/29/2008 10:08
I think we're ready to bite the bullet and switch to RTK, like we should have done to begin with. We've done the normal research, talked to our dealers, read all the old posts here, and are now more confused than ever. Want do strip till, planting, sprayer control (pull-type), side-dress, a little tillage and tile work, and harvest. Maybe planter monitor/control in the future. We have good support for both brands, but no RTK networks in our area. Mostly Deere iron, and one older Cat here. Like AL in the combine, but present machine had GS, so we left it in. One tractor is GS ready, but not Autotrac ready.
Anyone here have experience using RTK with both GS and Ag Leader/Trimble?
Looks like Trimble has better accuracy numbers. Deere claims 1" only 68% of the time, vs. 1" 95% of the time for Trimble...any problems with GS aquiring the line and staying on it?
Do you GS RTK users have to pay for SF2 subscriptions, or can you drop that cost with RTK?
What differences do we need to consider? Why?
Thanks for your help...don't want a color war...would like to know more than "it works here"...that's great, but WHY is one better for you than the other, and how do you know?
Thanks!
Ken
In my opinion, you should go the Trimble/Ag Leader route. Between the Trimble and Ag Leader lines, you have excellent flexibility in hardware and software to meet the needs of your operations. The key note is the color blindness of the two lines. I believe that the Trimble/Ag Leader Autopilot route will offer you a much more stable solution. When I say stable, I encourage you to visit with anyone that has processed (importing and exporting) GS2 data, especially the proprietary file format segment. One good reference I have seen here on the forums will be some of the posts by "Farmpond."
RTK radio range between Trimble and John Deere is up for debate. Last Fall when John Deere released new firmware that bumped up their advertised to range to a 12 mile radius, I saw quite a bit of advertising promoting this advancement. More recently, I have not seen as much. On the other hand, Trimble keeps their advertising at the 6 mile radius level. However, I know a couple guys west of Ames, IA that are pulling a correction from approximately 15 miles. They are not getting sub-inch pass-to-pass accuracy but they are still getting a correction.
I believe that John Deere's Intelligent Vehicle Systems (IVS) and Intelligent Mobile Equipment Technologies (IMET) groups have some room to evolve before they'll be truly competitive with those companies that have always been an electronic company (i.e.- Trimble, Ag Leader, AutoFarm, etc.), not started out as an iron company and moved into electronics. John Deere has mastered the "Iron World" but has room to refine themselves in the "Electronics World." There are a number of AMS/IVS folks which closely watch these forums and I do believe that they are listening to the feedback given here. |
Help comparing Greenstar and Trimble RTK
