Rouleau, Sask. – The drill manager system that Kevin Anderson uses on his drill, made by Agtron Enterprises of Saskatoon, consists of two units in the cab: a display and a switch control box with a series of wiring harnesses.
“We have an electric motor driver module; inside that is some basic motor control stuff,” said Kevin Antony, a design engineer with Agtron.
“We also have speed or radar inputs to get ground speed. By calibrating the width of the machine and how far you travel for every pulse from the radar sensor, we can determine how much ground is covered. Then we can decide how fast to turn a motor, given a calibrated amount of seed per revolution of the meter.”
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The system controls motor speed on a pulse by pulse basis from the speed sensor, which theoretically can guarantee two percent accuracy on application rates from 0.04 to 400 kilograms per acre.
The Agtron drill manager system supports up to four operations. Anderson uses two or three, depending on the tank. The control system is capable, with adaptors, of including global positioning systems.
“You can do as-applied maps and our control system will take map data and apply product as you pre-map it on your GPS system,” Antony said.
It’s the same concept as a rate controller on a sprayer, he added.
“Inside the motors there’s a tachometer. So the same as a liquid flow meter, you get a sense of how fast the motor is turning, and you know whether to increase or decrease power to the motor to make it turn faster or slower.”
