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Retrofit for variable rate Mar 15, 2001 12:00 PM If you want to apply chemicals at a variable rate but don't want to spend $200,000 or more on a fully equipped floater or sprayer, you may have thought you were out of luck. But one company is poised to offer you a cheaper way to get in on the game. In May 1999, Midwest Technologies (Mid-Tech), maker of electronic rate controllers since 1983, purchased Springhill Engineering, a manufacturer of global positioning system (GPS) task controllers, to expand its product line. A year later, Mid-Tech was acquired by Spraying Systems, owner of TeeJet, which makes sprayer components and accessories. With these acquisitions, Mid-Tech believes it can offer custom applicators all the pieces of the precision farming puzzle as add-ons that can be retrofitted to an existing chassis. “Now Mid-Tech has what's needed to control chemical application using its own precision farming technology or working with components from other companies,” says Elizabeth Marum, Mid-Tech's advertising and communications coordinator. “We are in a position to develop a fully integrated system in the future, stretching from the console to the spray tip.” Here are the latest products available from this growing company. Fieldware field-mapping software. Map fields, collect soil data, guide your machine and control a variable rate application using your laptop computer loaded with Mid-Tech's new Fieldware software. The software consists of the following modules, which you can buy individually as you need them or as a complete package. Field mapping and soil grid sampling: This software allows you to map the boundaries and attributes of a field, such as tile lines, fence lines, creeks, ponds and ditches, and to mark hazards such as well heads, irrigation risers or low-hanging power lines. It also will divide a field into a square or rectangular grid pattern and then navigate you to a point in each grid cell to collect a soil sample. Fieldware Suite: This software is the above module plus application rate management. It allows you to vary the rates of products you are applying to a field using a laptop hooked up with a GPS receiver and cabled into an electronic rate controller, such as Mid-Tech's new Legacy 2000 (see above). Although other variable rate application software is available, this is the most complete package offering full-year use. Fieldware can be used with Mid-Tech's Swath XL lightbar, which now includes curved guidance. “This is really a way for custom applicators to try their hand at variable rate application using their existing equipment,” Marum says. “A laptop, software and electronic product control system, outfitted on a simple rig, is the common version of the huge $350,000 machines.” Fieldware Tools: Included with all Fieldware packages, Tools also can be purchased separately. It lets you download, view, manage and send back the geographically referenced data you have collected on your system. The software works on any laptop with a Windows operating system. Circle 407. Suggested list prices: Fieldware field mapping, $395; Fieldware Suite, $995; Fieldware Suite with Swath XL lightbar, $2,195. Rate controller. Use the precision farming data you've collected to control the rates of up to two liquid, dry or anhydrous products at once on any kind of vehicle — sprayer, spinner, pneumatic spreader, seeder or planter — with the Legacy 2000 rate controller. Built around the same controller area network (CAN) technology used in high-end cars to control many critical functions at one time, the Legacy 2000 integrates information from various modules in the process of controlling application rates. “It takes information from flow meters, valves, injection pumps, bin drivers and granular sensors,” Marum explains. “It also can connect to other CAN systems on the vehicle as well as a GPS receiver. It can take all of this digital information and vary chemical rates according to those factors.” Because the modules are constantly reporting their functions, the system is able to diagnose problems, report them to the operator on the Legacy console and correct them automatically. “The operator doesn't have to get involved a lot,” Marum says, “because the whole system reports on the module that has failed.” The system is simple to install, the company claims. Only one console is mounted in the cab, and a single cable feeds out to other components in the system. Prices vary according to the customer's specifications. Lightbar. Stay within inches of where you need to apply chemicals, without the use of foam markers, and keep a record of where you applied what with Mid-Tech's new Swath XL lightbar. The lightbar works either with a laptop running Fieldware software or with Mid-Tech's Smartpad, a CE handheld computer that records your field location and products applied. A differentially corrected DGPS receiver is the other key ingredient. Mounted in the cab or on the hood of your vehicle, the lightbar takes the signals from the receiver and guides you to steer to the right or to the left with a series of lights to keep you on the path you have programmed. Swath XL now includes curved guidance with a circular guidance feature for center pivot fields. Mid-Tech offers a full line of DGPS receivers. The newest, the RX400p, is a submeter receiver that accepts differential corrections from an L-band subscription such as OmniSTAR as well as the free service like the Coast Guard Beacon and WAAS systems. It comes with an update rate of up to 5 Hz so it can be used with most lightbars. It can be configured for real time kinetic (RTK) positioning. For more information, contact Mid-Tech, Dept. Apply*, 2733 E. Ash St., Springfield, IL 62703, 800/643-8324, Web site: www.midtech.com. | |
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