Fieldbee

[Dave645]

Thanks Lieven. Not a Facebook man so not gonna work for me but appreciate your answer. It was trying to simplify the setup and save another monthly sim card contract but Dave has sorted me. Didn't know about the new systems. All my tractors have ECU s1 but sounds like they've altered the Rover unit to have gyros and accelerometers in them to change the processing. Or something. I'll work away with my little routers. Systems are really beginning to settle down now the software has come of age. Cheers.

Yep sim contracts, it’s a puzzle how to go, I cannot quite stretch my base station radio mode from just the farm yard to cover the whole farm, it’s not big but it’s hilly and has lots of trees so while all my land is in range to use radio mode on the base station to deliver RTK correction I have a few dead zones that make that solution not the most reliable, and dropping RTK can lead to big wiggles, or at least it did.

so I am using mobile data via SIM cards one a gig gaff monthly sim that I can pay when I need it, a fixed price to give a month at a time no rolling contract. You don’t need that much data but I tend to go for 4gig of data £8/ month as I need it.
Giffgaff is on the o2 network, as that has good coverage for me, if they don’t for you then try a third party supplied that uses a good network near you.
I also can just pull the sim out of my phone and use that as and when I need it I will likely do that in the tablet in the new fieldbee kit, as I expect it to be easier to swop, than the one in the mini router. Which is tricky.
My phone is with Tesco mobile which is also on the O2 network, so is proven to be fine.

I will add with the mini router in the old system you can add a cab roof Ariel for it to boost mobile signal reception.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B086J9N...lectronics&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw
Something like this mine was different but had the wrong end, which this one by the looks of comes with an adapter just unscrew one of the plastic ones and put this in, it may matter which you swop but off the top of my head I am not sure. I did add an external Ariel and I did get better coverage in a few poor signal areas, but if it’s fine as is for you then don’t bother.

 

[steveR]

Hi, yes it will do curved AB, I believe it is just on their tablet but can always ask the question.
Steering Adaptor for the Claas is £55
Full kit is £5995, includes everything for a plug and play experience, also has a camera included and Uturn as standard.
I haven't tried FB but it looks a good system.
Our customers mainly want ease and no hassle and thats why they choose the CHC system.
FJD has been a fair bit of hassle over the years and its a breath of fresh air now working with CHC

The problem with FJD, is that they are seriously lacking in the Support area and also the updates for the kit already sold.

Emails are never answered...

 

[ERH Services Ltd]

The problem with FJD, is that they are seriously lacking in the Support area and also the updates for the kit already sold.

Emails are never answered...

Hi I agree, but that all depends how your dealer is.

I could normally get an update sorted within a few minutes of asking, but now FJD have decided to take away my franchise as they dont like the fact we are selling CHCNAV too, it will maybe take longer to get the support?

 

[scotston]

Yep sim contracts, it’s a puzzle how to go, I cannot quite stretch my base station radio mode from just the farm yard to cover the whole farm, it’s not big but it’s hilly and has lots of trees so while all my land is in range to use radio mode on the base station to deliver RTK correction I have a few dead zones that make that solution not the most reliable, and dropping RTK can lead to big wiggles, or at least it did.

so I am using mobile data via SIM cards one a gig gaff monthly sim that I can pay when I need it, a fixed price to give a month at a time no rolling contract. You don’t need that much data but I tend to go for 4gig of data £8/ month as I need it.
Giffgaff is on the o2 network, as that has good coverage for me, if they don’t for you then try a third party supplied that uses a good network near you.
I also can just pull the sim out of my phone and use that as and when I need it I will likely do that in the tablet in the new fieldbee kit, as I expect it to be easier to swop, than the one in the mini router. Which is tricky.
My phone is with Tesco mobile which is also on the O2 network, so is proven to be fine.

I will add with the mini router in the old system you can add a cab roof Ariel for it to boost mobile signal reception.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B086J9N...lectronics&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw
Something like this mine was different but had the wrong end, which this one by the looks of comes with an adapter just unscrew one of the plastic ones and put this in, it may matter which you swop but off the top of my head I am not sure. I did add an external Ariel and I did get better coverage in a few poor signal areas, but if it’s fine as is for you then don’t bother.

I'm EE here so either have 1p mobile or a BT sim in the big tractor that does most of the work. I think I'll get another BT monthly sim for the middle tractor as it's just handy and reliable. For the antenna to improve reception, I went with the microtik antenna seeing as I have their router :

MIKROTIK omnidirectional LTE antenna with 2 x SMA connectors, mANT LTE 5o (MTAO-LTE-5D-SQ) - The source for WiFi products at best prices in UK - wifi-stock.co.uk

Antenna gain - 5 dBi, wireless band - 699 - 2690 MHz product description

www.wifi-stock.co.uk

Seems to work well enough. Couple of bits of fields where I get RTK age but not for long. Constructed a flexy alky pipe mount with cable ties on the roof so if it hits a branch it just bends over.

 

[andyinv]

Try v12.co.uk - 4-network unsteered SIM card (so EE, O2, Vodafone and 3) and it will automatically hop to the strongest signal. Was speaking to Charles there some time back as he was curious why so many people in my area were ordering his SIM cards, turns out they were using them with my Free RTK base stations.

Last I spoke to him, he was trying to work out a package that would be ideal for RTK usage, based on the amount of data it might typically use in a month. Definitely worth a go tho.

 

[scotston]

Try v12.co.uk - 4-network unsteered SIM card (so EE, O2, Vodafone and 3) and it will automatically hop to the strongest signal. Was speaking to Charles there some time back as he was curious why so many people in my area were ordering his SIM cards, turns out they were using them with my Free RTK base stations.

Last I spoke to him, he was trying to work out a package that would be ideal for RTK usage, based on the amount of data it might typically use in a month. Definitely worth a go tho.

had a good chat with Charles. My fieldbee data usage seems very inefficient at 2-3gb per month. Anyone else notice this? Andy, you look like you're doing a hero job of free RTK, well in! How do you make it all pay?

 

[andyinv]

had a good chat with Charles. My fieldbee data usage seems very inefficient at 2-3gb per month. Anyone else notice this? Andy, you look like you're doing a hero job of free RTK, well in! How do you make it all pay?

Oh that's easy... I don't make it pay at all. All free knowledge, given away, to help people save money

I'm down hundreds in diesel and time, I'd never make a good businessman (tho trying to make some of the AgOpenGPS stuff pay with helping folk with that).

2-3gb could likely be reduced with turning the device off when it's not in use? I know he's been monitoring usage of a couple guys round here (with their permission) to see just how much it would use if left on any time the tractor's running, so that way they never have to worry about running over the bill.

 

[scotston]

Crikey, fair play to you. You can use my base station if you want to add to your network. It's only a little fieldbee one mounted on me garage roof. Yep, seems the mikrotik router has quite a high parasitic usage when left on but that would require my brother to switch it off at night. Doubtful...

 

[andyinv]

Crikey, fair play to you. You can use my base station if you want to add to your network. It's only a little fieldbee one mounted on me garage roof. Yep, seems the mikrotik router has quite a high parasitic usage when left on but that would require my brother to switch it off at night. Doubtful...

Sure, happy to take a look at it - is it pushing to rtk2go or anything? Mostly covering the Moray Firth area here, there are a few outwith (helped folks in Serbia, Australia and Norway now). Cheers

 

[scotston]

no. Just the standard fieldbee setup that uses their servers. And that's the extent of my knowledge!

 

[Dave645]

Oh that's easy... I don't make it pay at all. All free knowledge, given away, to help people save money

I'm down hundreds in diesel and time, I'd never make a good businessman (tho trying to make some of the AgOpenGPS stuff pay with helping folk with that).

2-3gb could likely be reduced with turning the device off when it's not in use? I know he's been monitoring usage of a couple guys round here (with their permission) to see just how much it would use if left on any time the tractor's running, so that way they never have to worry about running over the bill.

the tablet is a android Samsung so it maybe using sim data to some extent, looking for updates downloading them etc.
if you unlock the full app, you can resume saved tracks etc so no need to leave the system on, I often pull the main fuse at night to cut any battery drain the system may have.
and with there base station, AB tracks are fully repeatable with 2cm accuracy.

 

[scotston]

Yep. My experience too. Best try and switch it aff at night. Cheers boys.

 

[Durt Burd]

Yep. My experience too. Best try and switch it aff at night. Cheers boys.

Could you put a timer on the plug so the unit switches off for a few hours every night.