Mzuri section control

[del_boy]

We've got a 3m mounted mzuri drill, had it 3 years but have always used the control box.
This autumn I want to get it set up on isobus and section control.
The tractor and drill are both section controlled unlocked.
What im interested in is the time delays for switching on and off to the inner boundry line as a starting point. At the moment the time delays are both on zero.
Does anyone have some figures as a starting point for cereals?
I could scratch a inner boundary line and mess about wasting seed but soke starting point timings would be good.

 

[DangerRanger]

I hope this helps

 

[del_boy]

I hope this helps

Brilliant
Is this a mounted drill?
Take it you have to hoppers or 2 seeding wheels?
To ask a silly question by why are the on and off times different, taking longer to empty the metering wheel out?.

 

[Northern farmer]

Default values for a Horsch are different, on-delays longer than off.

 

[clbarclay]

Does the Mzuri have a calibration button on the drill, like RDS Artemis have?

A plan for my own drill is to hold the button and start a stop watch to see how soon seed comes out the coulters. Same again with releasing the button.

Might need an extension cable on the button so I can hold conviently it by the coulters. That will only needs a length of 2 core flex and crimp on spade connectors with my drill though.

 

[Andy26]

Does the Mzuri have a calibration button on the drill, like RDS Artemis have?

A plan for my own drill is to hold the button and start a stop watch to see how soon seed comes out the coulters. Same again with releasing the button.

Might need an extension cable on the button so I can hold conviently it by the coulters. That will only needs a length of 2 core flex and crimp on spade connectors with my drill though.

Little trick with AOG rate control, have a long Ethernet cable, you can then take the tablet right to the metering unit and control the metering for calibrating right at the coal face, no clambering in and out of cab, can take timings for seed flow to coulter etc., without the need for a second person or lots of faffing.

Tablet runs on its internal battery and Ethernet cables are good for 90m so no worry about loosing connection on a long cable.

 

[Brisel]

The Mzuri will have the on/off priming times already programmed in - these live in the ECU onboard the drill, not the screen. The Artemis Isocan screen is, like the Isobus, just a slave to the drill ECU.

Are you using this to turn the metering on & off independent of the lift/lower functions?

 

[del_boy]

The Mzuri will have the on/off priming times already programmed in - these live in the ECU onboard the drill, not the screen. The Artemis Isocan screen is, like the Isobus, just a slave to the drill ECU.

Are you using this to turn the metering on & off independent of the lift/lower functions?

I had it working briefly and was just getting somewhere with the timings then the section control stopped working. It was originally working, the metering symbol was orange then going to green when the tractor triggered the signal then after about 5 acres it stop switching on and off by itself so went back to lifting and lowering on the boundry line. Rang mzuri and said it was a tractor fault. Had some tractor on the lemken combination drill afterwards and section control worked on there so pretty sure its a drill issue.
The mzuri was taking a long time from switching on to actually starting the metering wheel but was switching off alot quicker. I'll try again when I next have it on

 

[DangerRanger]

Brilliant
Is this a mounted drill?
Take it you have to hoppers or 2 seeding wheels?
To ask a silly question by why are the on and off times different, taking longer to empty the metering wheel out?.

It is a trailed 3m protil, it has two hoppers 1 is seed and 2 is fertiliser. I normally drill the headlands last and rely on the sections control to turn the metering on and off.

To set these timings, I set the headland exclusion in gps and set the drill so the legs and coulters were in work but not touching the soil and played about with timings until I was happy that I was getting between 1 and 3 meters of overlap to the headland. Note seed rate and type affect the timing with beans at a high seed rate slowest to reach the coulters and osr fastest. My timings aren’t perfect but near enough for me.

 

[TomR]

I had it working briefly and was just getting somewhere with the timings then the section control stopped working. It was originally working, the metering symbol was orange then going to green when the tractor triggered the signal then after about 5 acres it stop switching on and off by itself so went back to lifting and lowering on the boundry line. Rang mzuri and said it was a tractor fault. Had some tractor on the lemken combination drill afterwards and section control worked on there so pretty sure its a drill issue.
The mzuri was taking a long time from switching on to actually starting the metering wheel but was switching off alot quicker. I'll try again when I next have it on

It might be worth checking your geometry settings are correct as well. If they don't line up with the drill then the timing won't work properly. I'll send the guide over to you.

 

[del_boy]

It might be worth checking your geometry settings are correct as well. If they don't line up with the drill then the timing won't work properly. I'll send the guide over to you.

The geometry settings are set within the drill and I can't alter them through my tractor screen at all, they all get pre loaded. I've been into that menu with mzuri and assured me they're right.
It was actually working for a while then suddenly stopped.
I was using the tractor to turn the drill on and off, I had the trigger set to 'isobus'
When the automatic on off stopped working the metering motor got really really delayed at starting and stopping so I changed the trigger back to 'combi bridge' which then uses the finger switch on the top link and was much faster at stop starting the motor.
I didn't mess around too much as I needed to get on, will try again when I next have it on

 

[Andy26]

The geometry settings are set within the drill and I can't alter them through my tractor screen at all, they all get pre loaded. I've been into that menu with mzuri and assured me they're right.
It was actually working for a while then suddenly stopped.
I was using the tractor to turn the drill on and off, I had the trigger set to 'isobus'
When the automatic on off stopped working the metering motor got really really delayed at starting and stopping so I changed the trigger back to 'combi bridge' which then uses the finger switch on the top link and was much faster at stop starting the motor.
I didn't mess around too much as I needed to get on, will try again when I next have it on

@del_boy if on one of your AOG equipped tractors can wire the finger switch up to a relay, so it's triggered by section control from AOG rather than the top link.

 

[del_boy]

@del_boy if on one of your AOG equipped tractors can wire the finger switch up to a relay, so it's triggered by section control from AOG rather than the top link.

It's on the claas tractor running its own gps system

 

[Andy26]

It's on the claas tractor running its own gps system

 

[d williams]

The Mzuri will have the on/off priming times already programmed in - these live in the ECU onboard the drill, not the screen. The Artemis Isocan screen is, like the Isobus, just a slave to the drill ECU.

Are you using this to turn the metering on & off independent of the lift/lower functions?

I thought the section control worked on distance rather than time ???

 

[TomR]

The geometry settings are set within the drill and I can't alter them through my tractor screen at all, they all get pre loaded. I've been into that menu with mzuri and assured me they're right.
It was actually working for a while then suddenly stopped.
I was using the tractor to turn the drill on and off, I had the trigger set to 'isobus'
When the automatic on off stopped working the metering motor got really really delayed at starting and stopping so I changed the trigger back to 'combi bridge' which then uses the finger switch on the top link and was much faster at stop starting the motor.
I didn't mess around too much as I needed to get on, will try again when I next have it on

Yes the geometry should be setup in the drill menu, then it's sent to the tractor. This means if you change tractor, the implement geometry is loaded from the drill ECU again and you only have to set it up once.
I think the issue here is the cut out option. This is separate from section control and should act as a "master" cut off so you can always stop the drill when it's lifted. On "combi bridge" it's using the physical finger switch into the ECU as you mention. On the "Isobus" setting it's using the signal from the rear linkage to cut the drill off.
Section control then acts on top of this regardless of the option you have selected. So if you're in work but section control wants to turn the drill off, it will stop it. If you're in an area where you should be drilling, but you lift the drill, the cut out will override the section control and stop the drill.
So if you have the "Isobus" option selected, but you're not lifting your rear linkage far enough to trigger the output signal, the drill won't stop. I think you can adjust the position the linkage outputs the cut off signal, so you can either do this, or just run on the top link switch.
Your section control setup will then be independent on the Isobus console you're running on the tractor. So you can have it working purely on overlap or inside a field boundary etc.

 

[clbarclay]

I thought the section control worked on distance rather than time ???

If section control is distance based then it could cut in too soon or too late if you are going slower or faster than you set it up for.

It takes a fixed time for seed to travel from a metering unit to coulters.

 

[del_boy]

If section control is distance based then it could cut in too soon or too late if you are going slower or faster than you set it up for.

It takes a fixed time for seed to travel from a metering unit to coulters.

Not sure how other systems or tractors work but on our 3m lemken with section control it's got on off timings which work really well. If your travelling at 10k I notice the section control will switch off sooner than what it does if you was travelling at 5k but the seed always seems to finish up on the line still so it must factor in distance and speed aswell, no idea how but it works

 

[PSQ]

Default values for a Horsch are different, on-delays longer than off.

Section control on a Horsch?!
Sorry to go off topic OP, but what model of drill, year and control box is this?
(ST4, 2016 here).

 

[clbarclay]

Not sure how other systems or tractors work but on our 3m lemken with section control it's got on off timings which work really well. If your travelling at 10k I notice the section control will switch off sooner than what it does if you was travelling at 5k but the seed always seems to finish up on the line still so it must factor in distance and speed aswell, no idea how but it works

Distance = Speed x Time

Essentially the system does triggers starts and stops at a distance from the line, but that distance is not a fixed input. You (or the manufacturer) input the delay times and the system monitors the current speed. It then constantly calculates the distance and whether it is within that current distance of a start or a stop.

I have tractors with headland management, where it is distance rather than time that is set between steps. It still works, thought changing speed and the nature of the job in hand can affect how well it works. A lot of jobs tend to be conducted at fixed speeds though. Many headland management sequences will have the tractor speed (or revs and gear) set into them, so that isn't so variable.