Lightbar iPhone apps

[exmoor dave]

Been trying to use the demo of agri bus navi, finding it very hard work, when it works it's good....... just very rarely seems to work!

Seems difficult to connect to the external GPS box. Loses signal constantly.


Crap on un-even ground. Jumps all over the place.

 

[The Agrarian]

you seem to have had the most use out of yours on this thread I was wondering if I could get some help from yourself on set up for this I have purchased a qstarz receiver that's on its way would you mind helping at all?

John

Sure, no problem. I can tell you what I've found, but apart from that I'm no expert.

Agribus navi - frankly I must be too dumb for this one because I haven't yet been able to get it to cooperate with me. And so I left well enough alone.

The farm sprayer app (with the link a few pages back) works pretty well for me. I'm on version 5.0

I'm a livestock farmer, so I use it only for grassland fertiliser and spraying. I broadcast my little bit of winter cereal last autumn, and so I did use it when coming to first spraying to make my tramlines. I'm sowing 18m on silage stubble, which is really hard to do by the eye, so I do find it invaluable, especially if going on quickly after cutting.

For some reason unknown to me, I can't get the 10hz rate on the qstarz to work properly. It jumps all over the place and could lead you on a wild goose chase across the field, so I stick to the 1hz. There is a slight lag of course, so you have to be watching for your headland track and shutoff accordingly.

Go to the start here button. Fill in working width. Check metric and line toggle off. You can use the line guidance, but it's a bit fiddly, and toggle off is good enough for me. Then pull down the menu on the right and switch screen track on. This will keep you in the centre of the screen and facing the right way. And very importantly, set your phone to portrait only. If it switches around to landscape halfway through the field , the app will lose record of where you have sprayed, which is annoying to say the least. As I might have said before, I use my phone, because I reckon I'd break a tablet in the tractor. Also, I set the qstarz at back of the windscreen on the centre console, on an old rag or something so it doesn't slide off.

 

[traadilooar]

Is anyone finding it works better on a mobile phone? Salesman I was talking to in computer shop reckoned phone uses phone masts as well as GPS

 

[The Agrarian]

When you select the external GPS receiver, it won't be taking any location info from the phone at all as I understand it.

 

[traadilooar]

When you select the external GPS receiver, it won't be taking any location info from the phone at all as I understand it.

I found that tablet & receiver wasn't as accurate as mobile phone

 

[Married 2 The Mob]

I haven't used the qstarz myself, but I think I have read that when you select the 10hz rate the correction signal ( egnos) does not function.
Might explain how it could " jump about "
a bit.

 

[Little squeak]

I have to say after buyung a Qstarz reciver I spent a long time to getting no where and eventually gave up. Without at least some instructions I don't think this will be a goer for me either.

 

[Robt]

Do you understand what 10hz data is?
It shouldn't have any affect on egnos signal

 

[fermerboy]

10hz means it refreshes it's position 10 times a second, 1hz is obviously once a second.
10hz is needed to have half a chance of keeping up with movement of a vehicle in a guidance situation. Rob is correct in that it has no effect on actual accuracy as Egnos gives the accuracy by correcting the rough GPS signal to a more exact position. Given how easy the Egnos signal is lost using a proper DGPS antenna, I would question if the small quartz receiver can receive Egnos reliably in a moving tractor. Certainly the one I tried a few years back connected to an old Ipaq pocket pc wouldn't.
Some of the more basic apps don't actually sample the GPS data at 10hz so it is in fact wasted.

 

[Married 2 The Mob]

Do you understand what 10hz data is?
It shouldn't have any affect on egnos signal

Yes I do understand what 10hz means.

I also am able to figure out what note 3 of the qstarz manual means, when it says that "under 10hz update rate, DGPS function will be disabled"

 

[Married 2 The Mob]

Just read through this whole thread, looking for advice and finding AgriBus-Navi bit confusing can someone show

I have to say after buyung a Qstarz reciver I spent a long time to getting no where and eventually gave up. Without at least some instructions I don't think this will be a goer for me either.

When you say you got no where, do you mean with linking the GPS unit to your tablet / phone or actually running the app with gps data successfully coming into it ?

This http://www.qstarz.com/download/BT-Q818XT-Users Manual.pdf might help with any connection problems ( if you havn't got it already )
As the posts above indicate , I would stay on the 1Hz setting to get the extra necessary accuracy ( I know this is not really a quick enough refresh rate for the job but it is the best option of the ones you are given )
Don't drive too fast ! If you only use 1Hz, then by using a slower driving speed there is less " on the ground " distance between each point that is sampled, and relayed to you by the unit. You will be able to more than make up for this slower driving, by spreading ( or whatever ) at a wider spacing.
As I posted above , I havn't got a qstarz myself, but I know it is unusual amongst the cheaper units in that it does fully utilise SBAS signals. ( if only at the lower sampling frequency ). Also it outputs a pretty full array of data sentences. ( which not all other cheap units do ) In laymans terms it outputs a Sh#t load of data ! A fair amount of which is not necessary for every user. This is probably why at 10Hz it cannot cope with SBAS. ( Could be something as simple as the Bluetooth module ( which must be a very cheap one ) cannot handle the bandwidth ).
There is a little program ( free download ) referred to in the manual that allows you to configure the receiver. You can switch off some of these data sentences ( you have to choose the right ones ! ) thereby making the data more manageable to your phone / tablet. The whole thing then becomes more stable. This is what I have done with my own setup - same principal, different receiver.

The Agribus navi is , in my opinion, worth persevering with. It works well for me. ( although the earliest releases I also struggled with ) If you have any questions on the app , I can try and answer - a lot of the buttons I leave well alone!
"long press A & B " and move the on/off slider covers it.

 

[TrewithickFarm]

What's people's recommendations for GPS Receivers??

 

[interwebfarmer]

I just bought the bt818xt, charged it, set to 10hz.

Connected via bluetooth to my Google Nexus 5 first time.

Put it on dashboard of my pickup. Set AB line in grass field using agribus-navi, did a couple of test tramlines. Worked like a treat.

Looks like it will be easily good enough for fert. and slug pellets with no tramlines to follow in grass fields/catch crops.

A big thanks to whoever recommended this solution. Best value £60 I've spent in a while.

 

[5312]

Would this receiver be any better than the cheaper one ?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390365791213?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

And does a better , more powerful tablet make any difference ?

 

[DrDunc]

Would this receiver be any better than the cheaper one ?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390365791213?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

And does a better , more powerful tablet make any difference ?

No, it's built to log your position do that you can then download it to a PC and view your route on a map.

It also has only a 5hz update speed, so it's only half the speed of the qstarz 818.

Anyone who's having problems with their qstarz keeping satellites tracked, where are you mounting the receiver?

I have mine up top of the cab on a piece of Velcro directly under the sunroof glass. This position works perfectly, even on very cloudy days.

Previously it was mounted on top of the dashboard, and with the sunroof blind closed, the signal would occasionally drop out. The only disadvantage of it being mounted up high is that you get a slight increased width error if you're crossing a slope.

 

[5312]

No, it's built to log your position do that you can then download it to a PC and view your route on a map.

It also has only a 5hz update speed, so it's only half the speed of the qstarz 818.

Anyone who's having problems with their qstarz keeping satellites tracked, where are you mounting the receiver?

I have mine up top of the cab on a piece of Velcro directly under the sunroof glass. This position works perfectly, even on very cloudy days.

Previously it was mounted on top of the dashboard, and with the sunroof blind closed, the signal would occasionally drop out. The only disadvantage of it being mounted up high is that you get a slight increased width error if you're crossing a slope.

I thought, from the description that it also acted as a Bluetooth receiver and that the 10hz on the other was part of the problem with people only using it at 1hz.

 

[DrDunc]

I thought, from the description that it also acted as a Bluetooth receiver and that the 10hz on the other was part of the problem with people only using it at 1hz.

The faster the better, however some older slow tablets aren't fast enough to process the 10hz data (really everything under five years old should be fine).

 

[robin banks]

Really getting some good use from agribus navi app. But find no benefit from 10hz maybe even better on 1hz from my Qstarz 818. Using it with 7 inch hp tablet. But apart from bigger screen my phone seems just as good with just its standard internal GPS saving the need to buy the Qstarz. Maybe my tablet is not up to using 10hz but 1hz is still very workable when you get use to it. And all for free

 

[joe soapy]

Whoever first posted this app deserves a vote of thanks,
and off course the devolopers,
Seems to work well enough on a samsung phone for grassland fert

Just wanted to refresh this to see if anybody has had any further thoughts or updates on this.
Asked the driver if he was using it this year and got a blank stare.
It seems it just works, what more is there to say

 

[Dither]

Was using it the other day spreading some fert - more just to see if the gps receiver still worked after I drowned it! Seems to work fine! Although app can be a bit jumpy - sometimes tells you your 5m out all of a sudden when I know full well I'm not. However it's cheap and cheerful and does all I need.