Trimble RTX Rangepoint

[WB5]

Drilling with 3m Claydon. I have a consistent 10cm running wide and then too close every 2 boughts. Pulls straight. Signal strength always full green bars. Tractor runs on a selected AB Line accurately in yard after making a roll compensation adjustment. I have had this problem for a while now and can't understand what's wrong as it is a consistent error across any field. Drill seems to be centred behind tractor. Any thoughts?

 

[del_boy]

Drilling with 3m Claydon. I have a consistent 10cm running wide and then too close every 2 boughts. Pulls straight. Signal strength always full green bars. Tractor runs on a selected AB Line accurately in yard after making a roll compensation adjustment. I have had this problem for a while now and can't understand what's wrong as it is a consistent error across any field. Drill seems to be centred behind tractor. Any thoughts?

Sounds like you need an offset entered if its a consistent miss/overlap.
I run a offset on the tractor reciever and a 3cm offset on a 6m trailed drill and matches up perfectly.
10cm out does sound like a fair bit but maybe a 5cm offset might help

 

[WB5]

My drill is not a trailed drill.

 

[Andrew]

My drill is not a trailed drill.

Do you get this problem with any other implement? If so is the reciever centred on the cab roof?

If not, are the link arms set to float side to side or fixed? Can they float the same amount side to side?

 

[del_boy]

My drill is not a trailed drill.

We run an offset on linkage implements aswell.
Try an offset and see how you get on.
Double check the reciever measurements

 

[WB5]

I've always felt whatever the implement (rake, rolls) there's been a biase one way. When I first had the drill I ran with fixed linkage arms but Claydon recommended floating so that's what I have now. Linkage arms set the same. Will be surprised if receiver not centred on roof but will double check that one.

 

[WB5]

We have tried offsets but either makes it worse or no change. Support thinking it's the signal that is not accurate enough but I find that hard to believe.

 

[Chickcatcher]

Is the receiver central to the tractor?

 

[WB5]

I'm assuming so. CASE IH GPS ready tractor with fittings on roof already in place.

 

[Sandy]

Is rangepoint rtx not 10cm accuracy?

 

[Tractor Boy]

Is rangepoint rtx not 10cm accuracy?

I don’t think it even claims to be accurate to 10cm. I switched from using rangepoint to centrepoint as I kept seeing wide/narrow joints.

 

[WB5]

How do you find the centre point? Rangepoint was sold as being "good enough" for drilling. I read many user comments before taking the plunge that Rangepoint was perfectly adequate fur drilling. Now a 10cm bought running wide then the next 10cm running too close is not good enough. The drill runs very straight but not in the right place!! Drilling "old school" is better than my Rangepoint at the moment.

 

[clbarclay]

Sounds like the signal is plenty accurate enough to show up an alignment error if you have a consistent gap the whole length of every second pass.

 

[del_boy]

Sounds like the signal is plenty accurate enough to show up an alignment error if you have a consistent gap the whole length of every second pass.

Ive drilled with range point on a demo nh and was perfectly acceptable, i did have to tweak a few settings and maybe narrow the width slightly. If you getting wide and narrow bouts consistently i dont think its a signal issue, im more inclined to say you need to look at your offset. On our 8370r i need an offset both on the tractor and implement.

 

[Andrew]

Try it with a 2m offset and see if that makes a difference? If it doesn't theres a problem somewhere.

How do you find the centre point? Rangepoint was sold as being "good enough" for drilling. I read many user comments before taking the plunge that Rangepoint was perfectly adequate fur drilling. Now a 10cm bought running wide then the next 10cm running too close is not good enough. The drill runs very straight but not in the right place!! Drilling "old school" is better than my Rangepoint at the moment.

We drill with rangepoint and it’s definitely accurate enough.

The symptoms you describe all point to a bad setup rather than signal. If it was signal your skips would be different widths all the time.

 

[PSQ]

Rangepoint drifts slightly over time. It requires our drilman to use a side marker for the last pass before turning off the Trimble for the night, and using the ‘shift to here / don’t save’ button in the morning.
It’s certainly accurate enough for drilling, especially so when you consider the very high cost of the alternatives that won’t add a penny to profitability unless that cost is spread over a very large acreage.

 

[clbarclay]

I find convergence to be a bigger issue than drift. If I start drilling immediately after the display claims that rangepoint signal has converged then it can often appear to drift quite a bit shortly afterwards. If given a little longer to finish converging before starting work then I find it has far less drift. I can drive most tramlines here throughout the year with minimal nudging, but before marking them I wait stationary a for a little while in the field watching the distance offline. Immediately after the display claims that rangepoint is converged this is still shifting around for a while before it settles down. The time it takes to finish converging has been immensely quicker though since rangepoint changed to the high baud rate signal and a firmware update a few years ago.

 

[Slick]

The RTX frequency is changing again at the end of June.
The new frequency is 1545.49, 2400 baud.
Both the old and new ones are running now.

 

[Barmyfarmer]

When I tried rangepoint for a year back when it first came out I found it terrible at dropping out under/near trees and then taking a while to get signal again, has this improved since then?

 

[clbarclay]

When I tried rangepoint for a year back when it first came out I found it terrible at dropping out under/near trees and then taking a while to get signal again, has this improved since then?

Around 3 to 4 years ago the rangepoint signal over europe changed from 600 to 2400 baud rate and I update the firmware at the same time as changing which signal I was receiving. I am not sure whether it was due to either one or both of those changes, but the improvement in convergence (and re-convergence after going under trees) time was vastly improved. If I drive under a tree now and it looses convergence, it is usually only a few seconds before it re-converges.

Signal dropout under trees is still an issue, as it will be with any precision GNSS reciever. One of the things to watch is correction signal age. In one field I have a long run on the north side of a wood. The areal can see enough normal GNSS satellites to keep working, but the one transmitting the rangepoint correction is obscured. If the rangepoint correction is over 2 minuets old then the receiver will go on strike. Up until that timed cut off it was still plenty accurate enough, but the reviver is programmed to automatically cut out and the position accuracy suddenly decreases. In order to accurately record the boundary of that field, when the correction age got over 100 seconds, I pause the record and drive into the field. Once the receiver was getting the correction signal again I returned to the edge of the field and continued recording the boundary. I normally keep correction age and number of satellites displayed on the screen.

Having got most of my boundaries mapped close enough now, I can drill headlands working from inside to outside and manually steer the last time or two round if needed. I have also done a lot of work in recent years dealing with overhanging tree boughs. I normally drilling in lands now and where I have a tree in the field, I tend to drill passes either side of it first before drilling right next to it, so if I do loose signal I have good marks to manually steer to while waiting for it to fully re-converge. One option would be to have wider field margins, but the economics and subsidies on those is another matter.

My headlands are not perfect and I will in places err on the side of caution and deliberately run overlaps when drilling. One of the issues I have is not the position accuracy of the reciever, but the way the display generates the headland guidance paths. It is fine on gentle curves, but I have to manual steer near tight corners or corners close together. I am not sure how the algorithm works , but it seems to create a line of best fit through a few points, which often looks like a Scandinavian Flick where the recorded boundary is just a neat square corner. I have several places where the generated headland guidance paths go outside the recorded field boundaries.