Precision 20/20

Sloan Winter Technology Expo in Atwood, IL Feb 3

You are invited to attend Sloan’s Sprayer Clinic on Tuesday March 3 at our Atwood, IL Training Facility.

Classes will begin at 9 am and finish at 2 pm.

Our sprayer experts will provide training on the following topics:

  • Set-up and operation of Spraystar monitor
  • Section control and Documentation
  • Solution system changes from 30 series to R’s
  • Service and maintenance
  • Sprayer walk around
  • And answer any questions you might have about your John Deere sprayer
  • You can view more info and register at sloans.com by clicking this link

You can view more info and register at sloans.com by clicking this link.

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Sloan Winter Technology Expo in Atwood, IL Feb 3

You are invited to attend Sloan’s Winter Technology Expo on Tuesday February 3 at our Atwood, IL Training Facility.

The expo will begin at 8 am and end at Noon.  Stop in at any time.

Our product support specialists will provide training on the following products:

  • Field Connect, Machine Sync, & Shared Coverage maps
  • MaxEmerge 5 planters
  • MaxEmerge XP planters
  • Planter Test Stand and Seed Meter Inspections
  • Gator Mapping and RTK Boundary Service
  • Sprayers
  • New Generation 4 Command Center
  • Myjohndeere.com and JD Apps
  • Seedstar 2/XP Simulator, Swath Control, Documentation
  • Accudepth for Field Cultivators
  • Autotrac Controller & Rate Controllers
  • Sloan Call Center

You can view more info and register at sloans.com by clicking this link.

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Vandalia, IL planting progress, AutoTrac, & Fertilizer Corrosion

by Lucas Benning, Vandalia, IL

Southern Illinois continues to get hit with rain showers. Not much has happened in the past week. We had customers in  the Greenville area that only got a tenth of an inch of rain, areas around Farina that got an inch and a half, and everywhere in between. We have some guys starting beans but not too many, mostly the customers that have 2 planters are the ones planting beans. Looks like we will have some replant to do in certain areas. Most corn that is out of the ground is around the V3 stage or smaller. Cool, wet weather the rest of this week will not make things any better.

I got a couple reports back from customers that were using Autotrac for the first time this year. All reported that they didn’t know how they went this long without it and loved it so far.

Had two main issues this past week. First one was on a 8330 tractor and 1790 planter that I installed Autotrac on for the first time. It was randomly kicking out the Autotrac. After looking at the exit code that said wheel speed too high, I started watching the corner post and it would be running fine for a couple rounds and all of the sudden it would jump to 30, 40, or even 50 MPH. Did some checking and found a code for “wheel speed sensor mismatch” and then checked the address for that wheel speed sensor and found out it wasn’t reading anything. Put a new one on it and things have ran great for about 400 acres. With the speed, the customer was also getting lower population and has been fighting it for 2 years now. Will keep posted if problem arises again.

Second issue was on a 1770 24 row planter being pulled by a blue tractor that was constantly planting really low on rows 11 and 12, and the height switch was working erratically. the planter had Precision 20/20 and air force row cleaners, with liquid fertilizer. After checking the drive cables, chains, bearings, and checking for holes in the vacuum hoses, we found that when the planter was unfolded, the hoses were laying between the vacuum coupler for the wing and main frame. The height switch was corroded  from the fertilizer that was leaking everywhere. Always keep in mind most fertilizer is corrosive so if you have any intermittent electrical issues always check places where a connector may have come into contact with the fertilizer.

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Double Eliminator & Vac Settings

by Derek Sloan reporting from Monroe, WI

Working out of the Monroe, Wisconsin location this week as they are beginning to get busy in the fields for the first time this spring. I have seen a few setup issues with Autotrac spacing as well as general machine and implement setup when using Section Control.

I started a couple of new 12 row 1770NT planters with guys running a Deere planter for the first time. These start ups went great, with very limited machine problems and the customers liked their Deere planter a lot. One was ground driven and the other was a variable rate planter and both customers were very impressed with how close the actual population was to what they wanted to plant. It is very important to set the double eliminator correctly for corn.  Also, using the proper vacuum pressure with the correct setting of the double eliminator will produce great singulation results. It is important for the customer to understand that different seed sizes might need different vacuum settings as well as an adjustment to the double eliminator in some cases to produce optimal results from the meter.

I had a customer running a GS3 2630 with a Precision 20/20 display running his 1770NT 24 row planter. The only thing the GS3 was running was his Autotrac and a rate controller putting on liquid starter. His GS3 would run for about 5 minutes and then would re-boot. He also complained that he couldn’t see his population on his GS3. All of this was fixed just by putting the most recent software update on his GS3 display version,  3.22.2003. Try and keep all displays and receivers up to date each season as falling behind with updates can cause serious problems in having a smooth operation down the road.  Check here for the latest software versions.

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AMS Report 4.22.2014

by Lucas Veale

Planters are rolling strong across the area.  Conditions remain a bit damp, but with the promise of warmer weather on the way farmers are seizing the opportunity.  Continue to see the normal startup issues of customers trying to remember how their planter monitor, Autotrac, documentation, and Swath Control function and need to be setup or they need help getting all of the hoses and electrical connection hooked up correctly.

We have seen several customer having the problem with the receiver “white triangle” showing up at the hitch position which will make the section control malfunction.  Most of these have been corrected by simply changing the axle position to the opposite setting and then back to the correct setting.  However, Jeff Kraft, store manager of Sloan Implement in Hamel, IL found an instance where he had to change the offsets before it would allow it the position the receiver correctly.  Make sure you customers get out and dig to make sure the row command is working correctly!!!!!  Any other form of checking is inaccurate.

The new 1775 ExactEmerge high speed planter (pictured below) is in action and has had some field time.  Derek Sloan, product support specialist in Assumption comments on his experience pulling the new planter.  “ I got the chance to run the new high speed planter for a day and was very impressed with how well the machine ran. Singulation was excellent even at speeds around 10 mph and ride quality really did not suffer as much as I thought it would staying around 88 percent with downforce around 80-90. Population was even across the planter as well. Having the proper tillage tool running in front of this planter preparing the seed bed will play a big role in the effectiveness at higher speeds. Still waiting on seed to come up so we can see how the spacing really looks.”

photo

Derek also reports that he has seen a barn lot nuisance code from the PM2 indicating that the down force sensors are out of range.  He reports that once it gets in the field the code does not return.

Matt Dehlinger, product support specialist in Effingham, IL reports that if you have a Kinze KPM III that will not keep the speed cal number you need to make sure you shut off the monitor when you complete it rather than turning off the key.

Justin Bickel, product support specialist in Virden, IL reports that on planters with more than 24 rows the PA1 controller can disappear.  The population will continue to function but the doubles and skips will turn red and show poor spacing.  Simply going into the monitor setup and turning off all of the seed sensors for all rows and then turning all rows back on will alleviate the problem.

If you have a customer with a Precision 20/20 monitor on a John Deere Seedstar XP planter and they call you because the monitor is not working correctly, unhook the 20/20 seed sense module back on the planter.  Numerous reports of this fixing planter monitor issues.

Lucas Benning, product support specialist in Vandalia, IL is making gains on the installation of the 4 new RTK base stations.  Three of them are in place with one to go.

Matt Sweitzer, product support specialist in Atwood, IL worked with wireless data transfer this week. He emphasizes the need for all components to have the latest software for a successful start up.  He also found that A/B guidance lines will not transfer from the display.  Only the documentation data will be sent.

He has also seen a 450 MHZ radio glitch.  He states that is says the radio is not responding when you first configure or turn on the system.  Cancel the warning and everything seems to work correctly.

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