Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | Been through something like this Friday.
First of all the Tru-count switches break the hot to the coils and often use a chassis ground on the other side. Ag Leader provides constant power at all times to the coil and has the Seed Command module make or break the circuit by completing ground when the system wants that clutch OFF.
This is why it is important to remove any chassis grounds to the coil that might have been used. If the chassis ground is still connnected and you apply power to the coil from the Ag Leader harness, the coil will be energized at all times.
When a section is ON, the clutch should be disengaged so the ground circuit is not completed. This means that the module can "look" for 12V coming back on from the coil. This is how it detects whether a clutch is connected or not.
With most systems, I do the following. After setting up the configuration, go to the implement (planter) can perform the clutch configuration process. This is where the system is forced to go out and look for the clutches by doing what I described above. At that point the process will either fail or be successful.
It it is successful, I have found that it useful to power the Insight down and then repower it back up before going to the RUN screen.
My problem was with a Kinze 3600 with OEM tru-count clutches already on the planter. I went through the power cable replacement, switched modules etc. with always the same results.
Here's what happened to me. When the Insight is first powered on, the system should cycle the clutches OFF. That always happened. When I went to the RUN screen with the Master OFF, the clutches should remain disengaged, this always happened also. With the planter down, I turned the Master and both boom switches ON. The clutch(s) should engage. They did. Everything was proper so far.
However, at this point if I would switch one or both of the boom switches off (or shut off the Master), the clutch or clutches should once again disengage. This did NOT happen. My customer was standing by the left clutch and said that it seemed as if it was "trying" but not able to get the job done.
This was very confusing since the system had enough power to cycle the clutches off during the initial startup procedure but didn't seem to have enough power to cycle them off in a field situation.
The voltage drop (12V) should occur across the coil. However, it appears that part of the voltage drop is within the Seec Command module and thus the coil may not be completely grounded when cycled by the system. This would explain why having the tractor running and batteries in good shape etc may be important. This might also explain why jumping the coil to a good ground without going the the Seed Command module always seemed to work.
I called Tru-count and found out that there are two types of coils out there. The one on this planter had polarity markings on it whereas the ones on the other Kinzes (which seemed to work with Seed Command) did not. I don't completely understand the difference.
Here's what I did in desperation which seems to work. I made an interceptor wiring harness that goes between the Seed Command output harness and the cables leading to the clutches. My interceptor harness consists of a heavy duty relay for each clutch (2 in this case). The relay coils are triggered by the Seed Command harness but the actual load of running the clutches is handled by the Common and N.O. terminals of the relay. I broke the power going to the coils of the solenoids and have the ground return to the harness. The effect of this arrangment is that Seed Command still sees an electrical load on each side but really doesn't need to supply the power to directly cycle the clutches.
This approach seems unnecessary but seemed to solve my problem.
After reading some of the other posts, it seems that we may be having a common problem I think I will make up some more of my interceptor relay harnesses today as more of our customers may have the same problem. Due to weather considerations, many rigs around the country are untested at this point. The operators are just assuming that all is well.
Edited by tedbear 4/16/2008 08:10
|
Insight Seed Command Electric Problems!!!!
