Field Bee Offer on RTK L2 receiver

[steveR]

Well their gen one system, wasn’t exactly a spectacular hit with the punters...as I recall.

Anyone tried the eFarmer FieldBEE

Hi I farm approximately 800 acres of mainly cereals in County Durham and I currently use a MF7720 with full autosteer to drill with only using EGNOS at the moment, which is not good enough for the job. So I am looking at either upgrading my Autoguide 3000 system to RTK for drilling, which I...

thefarmingforum.co.uk

True.... The response from FB to my queries has been less than enthralling so far!

One would hope that the latest version would have the accuracy and reliability one would expect of a 1200 quids worth of kit!

My concern is that post BoJo England will not be the place to pursue a warranty claim (if required) with a European company...

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

True.... The response from FB to my queries has been less than enthralling so far!

One would hope that the latest version would have the accuracy and reliability one would expect of a 1200 quids worth of kit!

My concern is that post BoJo England will not be the place to pursue a warranty claim (if required) with a European company...

There’s nothing there that’s makes me go yeah I’d go for one. Not price, not features, not reputation.

 

[steveR]

There’s nothing there that’s makes me go yeah I’d go for one. Not price, not features, not reputation.

Based on the prices I have received for the FB L2 unit, the Reach RS2 is looking a much better buy and only 200 quid more than the FB L2 unit.

 

[Northern farmer]

Based on the prices I have received for the FB L2 unit, the Reach RS2 is looking a much better buy and only 200 quid more than the FB L2 unit.

The answer is not only somewhere there but also somewhere in this forum, I just failed to find it but did RS2 support RTCM 3.1 correction messages in the rover mode (RTCM 1004, RTCM 1012 etc.) or does your base/RTK correction source support MSM messages?

I remember we discussed the RS2 base mode issue with MSM messages only but now I cannot find if the same limitation applies for the rover mode?

The Field Bee website is too confusing to me but they seem to refer to CORS networks that broadcast RTCM 3.1 format, meaning their device would be compatible with older dual constellation RTK reference stations. Obviously not reaching the full performance when ignoring Galileo and BeiDou birds.

 

[Briantee]

This, https://www.ardusimple.com/product/simplertk2blite-basic-starter-kit-ip67/ in a yellow box?

 

[scotston]

resurrecting this as I'm in the market for RTK autosteer and wondered if anyone had purchased the fieldbee? I fancy the setup using the supplied RTK base working on my garage roof overlooking most of the farm with line of sight. I would also connect it to t'internet for my own NTRIP castor. That should give me a choice of mobile or radio signal to the tractor. It seems to sit in a sensible middle ground between Briantee's homemade at a grand or two and the big boys at £10k plus. Someone else has done the development and figured through the compatibility problems. Hopefully. Pretty sure I can trust the dutch to honour a 30 day money back guarantee. Any thoughts?

 

[steveR]

resurrecting this as I'm in the market for RTK autosteer and wondered if anyone had purchased the fieldbee? I fancy the setup using the supplied RTK base working on my garage roof overlooking most of the farm with line of sight. I would also connect it to t'internet for my own NTRIP castor. That should give me a choice of mobile or radio signal to the tractor. It seems to sit in a sensible middle ground between Briantee's homemade at a grand or two and the big boys at £10k plus. Someone else has done the development and figured through the compatibility problems. Hopefully. Pretty sure I can trust the dutch to honour a 30 day money back guarantee. Any thoughts?

I spoke with them 6-7 weeks ago, and they were straight up about the month trial or money back too...

Reach RS2 instead of their kit for me, as seems a better all round device for the same sort of money. On order tomorrow

Might go autosteer next year if there is some grant money about... Are you thinking about their strap on device? Dont understand why they don't do a steering wheel, with a varying size splined centre? Be a sight easier than faffing with the clamp on device

 

[scotston]

What do you reckon is better about the Reach RS2 machine, from my untrained eye, the headline specs are similar? How do you intend to use it, as in what setup are you integrating with?
I'm thinking about buying their steering motor package at €5800 as my two fendts are not steer ready. Reckon the extra cost of making a complete steering wheel may add extra to the overall job so they've (along with every other manufacturer) kept it simple. Looks like 4 bolts and the clamp to move it from one machine to the other. One is going to drill the other smaller tractor is going to interrow weed with an Edwards robot cultivator. Pretty big learning curve! At that price, I can buy two steering motors compared to trimble etc.

 

[steveR]

What do you reckon is better about the Reach RS2 machine, from my untrained eye, the headline specs are similar? How do you intend to use it, as in what setup are you integrating with?
I'm thinking about buying their steering motor package at €5800 as my two fendts are not steer ready. Reckon the extra cost of making a complete steering wheel may add extra to the overall job so they've (along with every other manufacturer) kept it simple. Looks like 4 bolts and the clamp to move it from one machine to the other. One is going to drill the other smaller tractor is going to interrow weed with an Edwards robot cultivator. Pretty big learning curve! At that price, I can buy two steering motors compared to trimble etc.

RS2 is going to be a more versatile device for me. NTRIP will be much less hassle with an integrated SIM onboard. Better hardware interfaces too, but not really relevant to me at present. However, it allows access to other steering setups etc

Biggest failing for me in both, is a lack of being able to use an external aerial!

It will also be used for survey work about the farm. RS2 is also a well proven bit of kit, with a good support network.

Good points on the steering wheel... I asked FB for contact details of a UK user of their full setup, but was not able to have an intro because of CV19. A Uni I understand. Did ask for more info, but that was not revealed. Wondered if it was Harper, as they are doing a lot of work on autonomous tractors etc!

The fitting of the steering wheel, does not look too difficult either

 

[Northern farmer]

Interesting points on the two products. What I'd like to learn here is how to build an auto-steer system from ReachRS2? I have not noticed any steering controller or electric steering wheel from Reach?

Or is the FieldBee steering controller, steering wheel and tablet app compatible with third party receivers like ReachRS2?

The commercial steering wheels have evolved, they are nowadays almost like a normal wheel which is nice. But the FieldBee approach sounds more attractive for an inexperienced installer or if the same wheel is used in many vehicles. Could ask them for the price of the steering wheel alone.

 

[steveR]

Or is the FieldBee steering controller, steering wheel and tablet app compatible with third party receivers like ReachRS2?

The commercial steering wheels have evolved, they are nowadays almost like a normal wheel which is nice. But the FieldBee approach sounds more attractive for an inexperienced installer or if the same wheel is used in many vehicles. Could ask them for the price of the steering wheel alone.

Yes, the FB software will work with other receivers. I am not sure if it will connect "directly", as opposed to using Mock GPS on an Android tablet, but I belive it probably will. It is the software that "drives" the hardware.

In theory, you could hook the full autosteer up and use a mobile phone in-built gps receiver for the signal data. I am not convinced you would have a very satisfactory experience mind.....

There is a good video on the FB site on the installation of the wheel by the manufacturer. Looks pretty simple really! Most important item is getting the "black box" fitted properly and configured from what I can see.

 

[scotston]

The mdu-g4 wheel which is used by quite a few companies, is around €2500. You need the 'black box' which I presume you mean the IMU (ECU-S1), which again is produced by NoVariant and licensed to a few european companies. There's a blog somewhere on the FB website explaining the origins. On the EMLID website it specifically mentions it works with a number of nav apps including FB. I don't see any advantage in choosing the Reach RS2 over the FB unit except maybe the sim card option for direct NTRIP usage. But I'm going to mount my unit somewhere beside both a power source and an internet connection so all I need is a stable position. I'm hoping that the LoRa will do most of the work but will need to test to find out. In any case you need 4 main items - the tractor receiver, the black box, the wheel and some software. You could easily purchase a subscription to your local NTRIP but where's the fun in that! It feels like all the big guys are playing on Farmers' worries that the tech is too tricky to setup on your own. I'm sure they are putting the same gear together for similar money then needing another £5k for their efforts. This setup asks you to push a little harder than you may be comfortable with but get at least £5k back for that effort. Bit like Apple versus Android. Once you go down a certain manufacturer route, you cannae change. Pretty tempted I have to say with taking a punt on FB, particularly if we can trust the dutch with their 30 day money back; but all dutch are really nice so where's my downside?

 

[Northern farmer]

This steering wheel is still quite expensive. I don't think I paid 1000 € for the complete AgOpenGPS setup, including the steering wheel motor setup, RTK receiver etc.

Is it not possible to use the steering wheel as such with AOG, or can it be used even with the ECU-S1 with AOG? Building a neat steering wheel is I guess the biggest obstacle for farmers who do not want any DIY project.

 

[steveR]

The mdu-g4 wheel which is used by quite a few companies, is around €2500. You need the 'black box' which I presume you mean the IMU (ECU-S1), which again is produced by NoVariant and licensed to a few european companies. There's a blog somewhere on the FB website explaining the origins. On the EMLID website it specifically mentions it works with a number of nav apps including FB. I don't see any advantage in choosing the Reach RS2 over the FB unit except maybe the sim card option for direct NTRIP usage. But I'm going to mount my unit somewhere beside both a power source and an internet connection so all I need is a stable position. I'm hoping that the LoRa will do most of the work but will need to test to find out. In any case you need 4 main items - the tractor receiver, the black box, the wheel and some software. You could easily purchase a subscription to your local NTRIP but where's the fun in that! It feels like all the big guys are playing on Farmers' worries that the tech is too tricky to setup on your own. I'm sure they are putting the same gear together for similar money then needing another £5k for their efforts. This setup asks you to push a little harder than you may be comfortable with but get at least £5k back for that effort. Bit like Apple versus Android. Once you go down a certain manufacturer route, you cannae change. Pretty tempted I have to say with taking a punt on FB, particularly if we can trust the dutch with their 30 day money back; but all dutch are really nice so where's my downside?

Go on... We need a TFF trendsetter to road (field?) test full FB kit here in Blighty!

To me, the initial high capital cost of the commercial setups is also exacerbated by the high annual cost of the subscription etc they all seem to charge!

We need those cunning Chinese to knock out a budget steering wheel setup I reckon... maybe hooked to an IMU (ECU-S1) There was a post here a few months back that sounded like something similiar, but nowt came of it.

 

[clbarclay]

Wheel motors that fit between the column and wheel raise enough issues. I rather liked the look of the wheel motors like the Agleader OnTrac or the fieldbee which could fit undr a standard steering wheel and just clip on/off to swap between machines.

I have an ez-pilot and to swap between machines, it's a nut and bolts job. You need the right adaptors too for any machine you want to put it on. It also needs the "optional" Trimble steering wheel for it to prevent stalk controls being too far away.

 

[scotston]

This steering wheel is still quite expensive. I don't think I paid 1000 € for the complete AgOpenGPS setup, including the steering wheel motor setup, RTK receiver etc.

Is it not possible to use the steering wheel as such with AOG, or can it be used even with the ECU-S1 with AOG? Building a neat steering wheel is I guess the biggest obstacle for farmers who do not want any DIY project.

I agree that it is expensive but the point I think I'm making is that currently there are two types of folk: hero's like you that knock up a full DIY system, or the rest that are too afraid and too rich and pay the man for the same accuracy as you have got for less than a grand. I'm in a situation that I'm the engineer but my brother is chief tractor driver. This means that feedback in the development stage is not going to be where I need it if I were building and developing at the same time. Time which I don't have. I'm pitching for a middle ground for the huge amount of brave and talented farmers that are currently wanting autosteer but cannae justify it, with a bit of off the shelf kit.

I can see me buying a new tractor in a couple of years and getting it autosteer ready and buying another IMU unit and screen. Then the wheel motor will move between the two tractors and the combine as and when each needs it.

I can handle being a trendsetter and will gladly post updates. I also agree that £750 pa for a subscription is nonsense going up against a £1500 base station whether EMLID or FB own brand. 2 year pay back means in 4 you can buy another base station if your farm is big enough. Then you can see that asking your neighbour to chip in to share the signal becomes a pretty sensible idea. Also given the usefulness of LoRa radio, I'm hoping to avoid using NTRIP altogether initially. It would be interesting to see just how good it is depending on the power output of the LoRa chip being used. My farm is around 5km from one side to the other so a central radio station should do the trick.

 

[steveR]

I can handle being a trendsetter and will gladly post updates. I also agree that £750 pa for a subscription is nonsense going up against a £1500 base station whether EMLID or FB own brand. 2 year pay back means in 4 you can buy another base station if your farm is big enough. Then you can see that asking your neighbour to chip in to share the signal becomes a pretty sensible idea. Also given the usefulness of LoRa radio, I'm hoping to avoid using NTRIP altogether initially. It would be interesting to see just how good it is depending on the power output of the LoRa chip being used. My farm is around 5km from one side to the other so a central radio station should do the trick.

Good Man, I for one will be awaiting your reports and findings with huge interest.

The idea of a low cost sharing of a base for LoRA and RTK in a local farming community makes huge sense. I can hear the squeals of anguish from the local Dealers now!!

I would imagine with your farm size, LoRA will be a winner. Emlid report exceptional range with the RS2 LoRA, which was reported here as I recall? https://emlid.com/pushing-the-limits-of-lora/

I have a big old hill halfway between, however, I reckon a base with an external LoRA antenna on a barn roof would probably work. That, or pop one on top of the Wrekin! It annoys me that many other countries have free access to RTK signals, but the OS charge...