Fendt change to Trimble for Varioguide

[Wombat]

I understand you can feed it with any receiver, but you will need a Trimble to access a Trimble network

Not what I was told if you want to steer them with a current 3rd party system complete you can but the Agco steering bit only works with these 2 receivers and it checks it's one of these 2 to prevent others being used

 

[Gpsvince]

It's not the radio that's encrypted, it's the base, you can use Satel or TDL, Satel will emulate trimtalk, but if the Trimble base is locked the recivier needs to be Trimble, this is for radio based comms.

 

[Gpsvince]

Not what I was told if you want to steer them with a current 3rd party system complete you can but the Agco steering bit only works with these 2 receivers and it checks it's one of these 2 to prevent others being used

Have they fell out with TopCon?

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

It's not the radio that's encrypted, it's the base, you can use Satel or TDL, Satel will emulate trimtalk, but if the Trimble base is locked the recivier needs to be Trimble, this is for radio based comms.

CMRx in short

 

[Robt]

No falling out with Topcon, just another direction designed to keep the world market happy. Anyone buying a uk spec fendt (90% sold in uk are profi plus) can still fit Topcon or trimble etc.... Trimble receiver to work varioguide lite is only available via agco parts. So you can't take your fmx receiver and put it on new tractor for cheap basic guidence. For that you need the agco parts receiver. It will be supported by agco alone, not Trimble uk resellers.... Something to question when considering.
Where as a Topcon system 350 or Trimble fmx will still be supported by LH Agro, soil essentials or as Comms. Something to consider when you get issues on a Sunday morning.....

 

[David6330]

Looking around on the Fendt website today, they have the "new VarioGuide guidance system" http://www.fendt.co.uk/4993.asp

Trimble and Novatel are mentioned. No mention of Topcon.

 

[Gpsvince]

No Mention of anybody else, However, what is the price lift? as against a Profi Plus, that is open for all after market suppliers, usually, the steer ready uplift is the same price as one of my installs.
Overall I am impressed by 20 mins glide on the Trimble!
The Novatel is an inexpensive receiver, but you will have to buy both from Agco, so who knows.
It does for fill my advise on having one person to shout at!
Perhaps the need for specialists is reducing? hope not too much, I need a living for a good few years more!
Its raining again! I will cheer up when the sun comes back out!

 

[Richard Smyth]

Topcon is mentioned in the magazine advertising they are doing here. All 3 apparently offered

 

[Will0]

It was under £1000 to buy a Trimble receiver with a profi plus, seemed good value to me?

 

[Northern farmer]

It was under £1000 to buy a Trimble receiver with a profi plus, seemed good value to me?

Perhaps. According to the Fendt configurator, the Novatel product would be 40% cheaper (comparing basic products without RTK support).

 

[Gpsvince]

It was under £1000 to buy a Trimble receiver with a profi plus, seemed good value to me?

Just about a give away! an RTK receiver for a 1000, and the rest of the auto steer Fendt based?
No one can live with that!

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Has anyone figured out if the new Fendt/Trimble AG-382 receiver can be used with a Trimble Ag secured base (i.e. running sCMR)?

 

[Slick]

Has anyone figured out if the new Fendt/Trimble AG-382 receiver can be used with a Trimble Ag secured base (i.e. running sCMR)?

Yes it can.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Yes it can.

Given the number of Trimble bases about that's got to be a big selling plus point!

I was nosing about on Parts Book looking at whats needed to get VarioDoc installed on mine. I happened to look at the Trimble and Novatel layout and parts list for the new S4 machines and compared to the previous SCR generation machines.

It looks on the face of it that Fendt have taken the steering smarts that were previously inside the AGI-4 based unit and placed them in a separate controller (called a VD03, which looks very much like the older VD02 VarioDoc ECU...) that has an IMU built in and a GSM modem.

The respective Trimble or Novatel receiver is then cabled up to this controller. An integrated Trimble AG-715 (430-470 MHz) UHF radio is also shown, as well as an external Satel UHF modem option.

So looks to me like they had the basics in place to shift their steering to their "own" ECU a long while ago (just added an IMU to the next version) and sub-out the receivers. A clever strategy.

 

[Robt]

I may be wrong but I think you still neeed a radio from AS Comms to run from the rtk farming network, rather than one from agco

 

[Slick]

A Trimble AG-715 radio is what is required, you should be able to get them through Agco dealers, although A S Comms
have fitted one or two.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Should also be able to connect another external modem, like an ArWest for further RTK mast connectivity options...

 

[Speedstar]

It was under £1000 to buy a Trimble receiver with a profi plus, seemed good value to me?

Was this with a new tractor or can it be bought to fit a profi plus at the same price ?

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Was this with a new tractor or can it be bought to fit a profi plus at the same price ?

The way VarioGuide is implemented now on the new S4 machines is different to the previous generation machines, as discussed above.

Most of the steering smarts are now contained in the VD03 ECU. This contains the VarioGuide guidance/steering unit, VarioDoc and IMU and a 3G/GPRS modem. Price through parts will be somewhere between £1.6K and £2K. The actual satellite receivers are separate now and you have a choice of Trimble or NovAtel receivers. The basic NovAtel receiver has a undiscounted price of £1.3K via parts and the Trimble receiver is listing as £2.2K (just had a look on Chandlers parts prices).

Now if you're wanting an RTK setup, then you will need to add cost of an RTK unlock for either receiver option (??? but around £2K wouldn't be far out) and either an external radio or internal radio (budget about £2K).

Should be able to do a whole lot better on those prices when bought with the tractor though.

To give you some idea of prices, the basic receiver/steering unit on the previous models used to cost over £4K bought via parts. To get that receiver up to RTK was another £2K for an IMU and another £2K for an internal radio/modem. So once you added some looms, antennas and crap not much change out of about £8.5K, so look like the "new" options make for a handy saving.

 

[Speedstar]

The way VarioGuide is implemented now on the new S4 machines is different to the previous generation machines, as discussed above.

Most of the steering smarts are now contained in the VD03 ECU. This contains the VarioGuide guidance/steering unit, VarioDoc and IMU and a 3G/GPRS modem. Price through parts will be somewhere between £1.6K and £2K. The actual satellite receivers are separate now and you have a choice of Trimble or NovAtel receivers. The basic NovAtel receiver has a undiscounted price of £1.3K via parts and the Trimble receiver is listing as £2.2K (just had a look on Chandlers parts prices).

Now if you're wanting an RTK setup, then you will need to add cost of an RTK unlock for either receiver option (??? but around £2K wouldn't be far out) and either an external radio or internal radio (budget about £2K).

Should be able to do a whole lot better on those prices when bought with the tractor though.

To give you some idea of prices, the basic receiver/steering unit on the previous models used to cost over £4K bought via parts. To get that receiver up to RTK was another £2K for an IMU and another £2K for an internal radio/modem. So once you added some looms, antennas and crap not much change out of about £8.5K, so look like the "new" options make for a handy saving.

Thanks for that, Will that be a lot cheaper than buy from Trimble ?