Cheap GPS

Jsmith2211

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Somerset
Hello all. I’m looking at getting a GPS system that can be used in multiple tractors and the combine. My idea was to use my android tablet and then some kind of Bluetooth GPS receiver with it, hopefully with a <30cm accuracy which seems to be the standard for the cheaper gps systems. Has anybody done this recently, if so, how did you do it and how much did it cost you? Or is there a better way of doing it?
Thanks in advance.
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
GarminGlo with EGNOS, Bluetoothed to your Tablet.* Much better than using phone/tablet onboard GPS.

Or more expensive and complex, an RTK receiver, also bluetoothed to the tablet. (I used an Emlid RS Reach) which can use RTK adjustment. There are various options on eBay too...

Numerous free apps for direction about. Fieldbee about the best in my opinion.




*Accuracy will vary, but may struggle to get to 30cm.... what are you wanting it for?
 

Jsmith2211

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Somerset
GarminGlo with EGNOS, Bluetoothed to your Tablet.* Much better than using phone/tablet onboard GPS.

Or more expensive and complex, an RTK receiver, also bluetoothed to the tablet. (I used an Emlid RS Reach) which can use RTK adjustment. There are various options on eBay too...

Numerous free apps for direction about. Fieldbee about the best in my opinion.




*Accuracy will vary, but may struggle to get to 30cm.... what are you wanting it for?
I only say 30 as that’s what the entry level systems seem to say. Mainly want it for guidance when spreading fert, area metering if I do contracting for people and for guidance when doing lands either combining or when rolling, harrowing etc at night when it’s impossible to see the edge of the field, or even in the daylight when the edge of the field is obscured by a hill for example. What sort of accuracy would a garmin GLO EGNOS give? Also how did you get on with the RTK setup? Roughly how much more expensive would that be to set up?
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
I only say 30 as that’s what the entry level systems seem to say. Mainly want it for guidance when spreading fert, area metering if I do contracting for people and for guidance when doing lands either combining or when rolling, harrowing etc at night when it’s impossible to see the edge of the field, or even in the daylight when the edge of the field is obscured by a hill for example. What sort of accuracy would a garmin GLO EGNOS give? Also how did you get on with the RTK setup? Roughly how much more expensive would that be to set up?
In my honest view, the basic stuff is only really suitable for fert spreading and the like... Slower speed tasks were better as it gave more time for refresh of display etc. even with a modern tablet running the software. There is also some buggering around needed, to get everything talking to each other.

A glo is 100 quid?? Not sure now... The Reach is around a £12-1500, so not cheap, I got mine with Grant money at the time. Accuracy with RTK is good, but I have found our poor mobile coverage does not help, when it suddenly loses a fix :(

Dowload Fieldbee to an android device, and have a play using the built in GPS?

You can get a Chinese full autosteer for £3-4K all in now, which is the way I have gone... Hit a problem with the installation, but that was the tractor, not the kit! Now resolved and just waiting for me to finish, and calibrate it. ;)
 

Jsmith2211

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Somerset
In my honest view, the basic stuff is only really suitable for fert spreading and the like... Slower speed tasks were better as it gave more time for refresh of display etc. even with a modern tablet running the software. There is also some buggering around needed, to get everything talking to each other.

A glo is 100 quid?? Not sure now... The Reach is around a £12-1500, so not cheap, I got mine with Grant money at the time. Accuracy with RTK is good, but I have found our poor mobile coverage does not help, when it suddenly loses a fix :(

Dowload Fieldbee to an android device, and have a play using the built in GPS?

You can get a Chinese full autosteer for £3-4K all in now, which is the way I have gone... Hit a problem with the installation, but that was the tractor, not the kit! Now resolved and just waiting for me to finish, and calibrate it. ;)
I downloaded one of the free ones, not sure which but it wasn’t fieldbee. Got 10m accuracy! Needless to say it wasn’t very much help. What sort of accuracy would you get out of a garmin? In a few years time I might look at going down the variable application rate rabbit hole, along with yield mapping and all that. Will be when I buy a sprayer and get all of the qualifications required. Not for a few years though as I don’t have the money. Once I do go down that rabbit hole I’ll obviously need to get something more accurate that can talk to the sprayer and the fertiliser spreader (and perhaps the drill if I go variable rate drilling as well.) for now though, I want something fairly cheap but good enough that I can do fertiliser spreading somewhat accurately, and for helping with lands etc.
 

clbarclay

Member
Location
Worcestershire
Anything maintaining sub 30cm accuracy all day is going to need some form of auto steering rather than just guidance. With some practice i'm sure some people can steer a tractor manually to within that following a light bar or screen, but for how long? I found following lightbars very hard work and they only came into their own when there really wasn't an visible mark to follow.

Sub 30cm accuracy is going to need a correction signal of some sort as well. Without a suitable correction signal, basic gps is <10m accuracy. For manual guidance, the free egnos correction is okay, but once you have the guidance system directly controlling the steering then it's limitations will become evident, particularly long term accuracy.


I have one fairly expensive trimble system with wheel motor, which has proven the worth of autosteer to me but am now moving to AgOpenGPS, which is an open sourced project. You can download the program for free and run it on an old laptop or tablet with a windows operating system. It still needs a decent GPS reciever to be accurate though and as it is not a commercial product, it is not plug and play. There is however a good online forum for it which is very helpful. The Ublox F9P is about the most common receiver used for AgOpenGPS and at for about £500 you can get a pair of them and sundry parts, to have one on a tractor and another setup as your own RTK base station, giving you sub inch accuracy without a subscription to anyone else's correction signal. If you just want basic guidance, then old laptop running AgOpenGPS and a cheap receiver that used egnos can be one of the cheapest solutions.
 

Flatlander

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lorette Manitoba
Go with a system that can be expanded to auto steer. Even if it’s the likes of a Trimble es steer It can be moved from tractor to tractor in 15 minutes and gives decent straight like auto steer. Curves are less accurate I find. Light bars are good for basic guidance but watching the lights all day will ruin your eyesight and drive you nuts. Talk with others in your area and see what they are using or want to upgrade. A waas signal will give pretty Good accuracy fir broadacre farming And it’s free. I’d rather buy a better gos set up on waas than keep paying annual subscriptions. Keep in mind although it’s a short time to swap the unit over Calibration and setting will need to be entered for correct machine.
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
I downloaded one of the free ones, not sure which but it wasn’t fieldbee. Got 10m accuracy! Needless to say it wasn’t very much help. What sort of accuracy would you get out of a garmin? In a few years time I might look at going down the variable application rate rabbit hole, along with yield mapping and all that. Will be when I buy a sprayer and get all of the qualifications required. Not for a few years though as I don’t have the money. Once I do go down that rabbit hole I’ll obviously need to get something more accurate that can talk to the sprayer and the fertiliser spreader (and perhaps the drill if I go variable rate drilling as well.) for now though, I want something fairly cheap but good enough that I can do fertiliser spreading somewhat accurately, and for helping with lands etc.
That is not the fault of the software, but the GPS not providing the accuracy you need...
 

IRD

Member
Trade
I only say 30 as that’s what the entry level systems seem to say. Mainly want it for guidance when spreading fert, area metering if I do contracting for people and for guidance when doing lands either combining or when rolling, harrowing etc at night when it’s impossible to see the edge of the field, or even in the daylight when the edge of the field is obscured by a hill for example. What sort of accuracy would a garmin GLO EGNOS give? Also how did you get on with the RTK setup? Roughly how much more expensive would that be to set up?
I can offer you 1cm precision RTK corrections
 

Lieven

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Veurne, Belgium
I use the Fieldbee L2 RTK antenna with Fieldbee app. Accurracy 1-2 cm. In Belgium we can use FREE Ntrip provider FLEPOS from government.

If you don't have free Ntrip provider, you can buy additionally L2 base station to provide RTK accuracy.

I use my Samsung Android tablet as screen.

You can easily move to another tractor/combine in minutes.

Check on www.fieldbee.com/product
 
Does the job✅
 

Attachments

  • A8CF4883-4125-4592-ABBD-419D7E59CF12.jpeg
    A8CF4883-4125-4592-ABBD-419D7E59CF12.jpeg
    428.5 KB · Views: 0

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 77 43.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 35.0%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 28 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.3%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,286
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top