AgOpenGPS - Open source software

[Kaupoi]

Few photos of my AOG set up in JD6920S. Still waiting hydraulic valve to arrive.

 

[Kaupoi]

...and steering wheel sensor:

 

[e3120]

...and steering wheel sensor:
View attachment 768846

Well done, and you might qualify for honorary membership of the bodges thread as that looks like the lid off a spray drum for the steering sensor

 

[Kaupoi]

Cap of an oilcan that I just accidentally found when thinking how to attach magnets to steering column. Fits perfect =D

 

[Briantee]

I'm considering giving Agopengps a try (initially just for fertiliser spreading - it's never easy doing the spreading between silage cuts - but maybe for other jobs as I learn what I'm doing).

Would this antenna be suitable?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Channel-Ma...UTF8&qid=1549806025&sr=1-22&keywords=Evermore
Or can anyone recommend something more suitable?
I've already got a Microsoft Surface Pro which I think should handle the software side of things.

You would need at least a 5 hz gps with also at least DGPS.

 

[Scruffywelder]

You would need at least a 5 hz gps with also at least DGPS.

OK thanks, so it being 1 hz would rule that antenna out. I'll do a bit more googling and see if I can find something better.

Sorry, I realise that I should have said in my previous post that I would be going for manual steering rather than any kind of auto-steer (to begin with, at least).

Would I still need a DGPS system?

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

OK thanks, so it being 1 hz would rule that antenna out. I'll do a bit more googling and see if I can find something better.

Sorry, I realise that I should have said in my previous post that I would be going for manual steering rather than any kind of auto-steer (to begin with, at least).

Would I still need a DGPS system?

Non-differential GPS is limited to an accuracy of around 10 metres at best. DGPS should average a metre or less.

Make your own mind up

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Getting the final touches done on the PCB for autosteer and section control so pretty much anyone can make it.

Wow that’s seriously cool!

How big is the board?

Have you got any photos of the prototype you can share yet?

 

[gorgous]

Wow that’s seriously cool!

How big is the board?

Have you got any photos of the prototype you can share yet?

Have a read through https://www.thecombineforum.com/forums/31-technology/330779-agopengps-autosteer-pcb.html all layouts etc on there. Heres a pic of latest version I have needs a few tweaks yet.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Have a read through https://www.thecombineforum.com/forums/31-technology/330779-agopengps-autosteer-pcb.html all layouts etc on there. Heres a pic of latest version I have needs a few tweaks yet.

Ah yes I should have checked Brian’s native forum. My bad. Thanks for the link.

 

[Briantee]

My goal this winter was to be able to seed and have the roller tractor do the self driving. Well, mission accomplished. Enjoy!

 

[Northern farmer]

Is the tractor supposed to work under human supervision or have you implemented some safety features to interrupt the task if something goes wrong?

 

[Briantee]

Well, that is a huge challenge. Having safeties on the safeties of safeties and when is it enough. It has Lidar to not run into stuff, every module has watchdog timers that constantly need to communicate or it stops, lose gps - stops, program stops - it stops. But it can sort of kind of fail a little bit, but still fail and not stop, and that's a problem.

It also has geofences (gps coordinates inside the boundary) that it can't cross. Trucks etc can be in these geo bubbles and not get hit as well. Going outside the geofence initiates a stop. Going outside the boundary initiates an immediate shutdown, just as long as the GPS is truly right. Also have a separate radio transmitter for stopping the unit, works up to 10 km. I hope you're seeing how complex it is to make it stop, and how very easy it is to make it go.

This tractor did about about 1000 ha this year, and never failed for one second. But that doesn't mean 2 minutes from now it won't. But it does work very well. Also ran AgOpenGPS in the seeding tractor for section control of the treater and cart - never once failed in about 1500 ha.

 

[Northern farmer]

Very interesting, I cannot remember you talking about those safety features before. It certainly is safer than the tractor I'm driving and supervising.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

@Briantee - how are you performing tilt / terrain compensation in AgOpenGPS?

There is an 9DOF IMU built into the latest Emlid Reach RS2 receiver. As yet the Emlid guys have not brought the IMU functionality into their ReachView interface, however it appears that the Linux drivers to access the IMU are already in the firmware and with some Linux programming and judicious use of the RTIMULIB library it is possible to get IMU output and convert to roll, pitch and yaw values.

Also as the RS2 is running mainline Linux, has 16 GB of memory and a pretty handy quad-core processor, I’m just wondering if there is any way auto-steer applications could run natively on the RS2 unit.

 

[Briantee]

Cool update to AgOpenGPS

 

[OrangePeelz]

My goal this winter was to be able to seed and have the roller tractor do the self driving. Well, mission accomplished. Enjoy!

Very impressed! How did you get your phone connected to your other tractor? I assume you use AgopenGPS for main system driver driver and needs windows to run? Im from Northern Alberta.