Before returning to the farm to settle down, Toby Graham was chief electronics engineer on the 400 m.p.h. Team Winston, a top fuel dragster that has won three National Hot Rod Association championships.
Graham is no stranger to fast and accurate data collections.
When designing the electronics package on the Graham Electric Planter Drive, he made sure that everything happens in nanoseconds.
“On Team Winston, we had developed some astounding advanced data collection systems for the race car, and I was able to incorporate some of that technology into our rate controller,” he said.
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“Our control algorithm is completely close-loop, meaning extreme accuracy and instant adjustment to population rate changes. It has an error of 0.4 percent and reacts to rate changes in less than 0.2 of a second. At that speed, it’s pretty much instantaneous.”
Graham recalls the day he and his father, Jerry, first thought about electric drive metering for their Monosem. His said his father had wanted to install variable rate, and they agreed that electric motors would be the best way to do it because of their accuracy and quick response. The added benefit would be control on a row-by-row basis rather than section control.
“But then we figured there was no way electric motors would survive the rain, the sun, fertilizers and diesel fuel, dust and everything else. So we dropped the subject,” he said.
“Later that day, we were out checking irrigation sprinklers. And there they were. Ten electric motors on each sprinkler, year round, and they almost never needed service. So now we’ve had Electric Planter Drive for six years and it’s been virtually trouble free.
“I attribute the reliability to the fact that we only buy components made in the United States. You don’t see any parts from China or the Pacific Rim on our kits. These weatherproof electric motors are rated for 5,000 hours and I have no doubt they’ll last that long and longer.”
