Great Plains 3N-3020 Material Rate - Manual (Page 17)

4/28/2004 196-366B
Great Plains Mfg., Inc. 17
GPS-Based Seeding
Settings for Farm Works SiteMate used with Great
Plains Precision Population Controllers.
Quick Reference Guide
(Create a .shp recipe file in FarmWorks Site Pro, SMS
2.0, SSToolbox, or other software that will create a .shp
file, and transfer it to SiteMate.)
SiteMate Settings: (version 8. 12)
1. Select CONFIGURE tab. Select SETTINGS. Select
VARIABLE RATE SETUP. Select NEW. Type in GP
PPC. Under CONTROLLER TYPE, select Rawson
from the scroll-down list. Under COMM PORT select
the port number for the serial card or flash jacket port.
2. Select MAP tab. Enter DEFAULT rate. This will be the
rate that SiteMate will call for if GPS signal is lost or
you are outside the map area.
NOTE: If GPS signal is interrupted, or if you are outside
the map area, GP Controller will continue applying rate it
was set at when signal was interrupted, until signal is re-
gained, or another rate is set manually. If power to the
SiteMate is interrupted, you will need to restart the
recipe to return to VR.
In the CONVERSION window, enter the conversion
rate as follows: If your recipe (.shp file) is written us-
ing the entire number as the desired rate, i.e. 30,000
seeds/acre on the recipe means 30,000 seeds/acre
is the desired rate, enter both the Map Unit and Con-
troller Unit as 1. If the recipe is written using a differ-
ent number, i.e. 30 on the recipe means a population
of 30,000, then you will need to enter the conversion
multiple—in that case 1 Map Unit = 1,000 Controller
Units.
3. Under the APP tab, enter the Feed Delay as 3 sec-
onds. Enter the distance from the GPS antenna to
the Great Plains Mfg. Inc. meter. Enter the Swath
Width of the Great Plains unit.
4. Under the CTRL tab, enter the Nominal Rate as fol-
lows: Divide the highest rate on your recipe by 1.6.
This is your Nominal rate. For example, if your high-
est rate is 200,000 the nominal is 125,000. If your
highest rate is 32, your nominal rate is 20. Enter the
Step as 4%. Exit VRA Controller Setup by clicking OK
button to save the settings.
5. Under FILE, Open VRT and select the Rx Map (reci-
pe) for the field. Press the SETUP button and select
the GP PPC controller option that you have set up us-
ing these Settings Instructions.
6. Press GO. The Rx rate window shows the rate that is
being sent to the GP Precision Population Controller.
The APPLIED window shows the rate that the GP
Controller is applying.
Settings for Great Plains Precision Popula-
tion Controllers
Refer to Figure 30
1. Connect SiteMate computer to Console using 9-pin
cable.
Figure 30
9-Pin Serial Cable for Recipes
2. Follow instructions starting on page 8 to set Calibra-
tion Number based on row spacing and cup setting.
3. Press FUNCTION key and go to Rawson mode. Press
FUNCTION key until the Nominal Rate appears on the
display. Using the Up/Down arrow keys, set the Nom-
inal Rate to the same number as you set the PF3000
in step 5 in the previous section. Once Nominal Rate is
set, press FUNCTION key until the main operating
screen appears, as shown in Figure 8, page 8.
4. Press ON/VR key again to toggle to VR mode. VR
should appear on the screen along with the Rate that
is being sent from the SiteMate computer. See Figure
29, page 15. Verify that the rate shown on the GP
Controller Console is the same as the recipe sent from
SiteMate. Press ENGAGE key to activate the Preci-
sion Population Controller.
5. To change rates manually when in VR mode, simply
touch the Up/Down arrow keys. This will change the
Controller to the rate you select manually. To return to
VR, simply touch the ON/VR key to toggle back to VR
mode.
Troubleshooting GPS-Based Seeding
with SiteMate
1. No Rx rate appears on SiteMate:
• Has field been selected? Select VRT file (see
SiteMate Settings, Step 5).
• Check recipe to verify that it is valid by viewing
Attributes for each zone in SiteMate.
• If recipe calls for zero rate as the default, do you have
GPS signal, or are you outside of field?