15 budget satnav systems for tractors
Just as in-car satnavs have made life easier on the roads, in-tractor equivalents have revolutionised fertiliser spreading, spraying, cultivation and drilling accuracy. We take a looks at what is on offer for less than £2,000.
See also: How to avoid the pitfalls when buying used GPS kit
Tractor GPS
This simple suction-mount device has a 5in LCD screen with zoom. Guidance graphics are supplemented by directional arrows and vocal left/right instructions.
Parallel or contour guidance can be selected, with working speed displayed and area covered shown and recorded.
The Field Measure option with offset adjustment provides field size measurement and location markers, and is exportable to Google Earth.
Price Tractor GPS £400; with Field Measure £460 from Tractor GPS.
Claas GPS Copilot
A traditional 21-LED straight line light display on the GPS Copilot, manufactured by Outback, is supplemented by a fan-shaped array that indicates the steering angle needed to get back on track.
Guidance using the Egnos or E-DIF signals in straight lines or variable contours is complemented by automatic reference track offset, a serial port for output of speed and or position, a headland alarm and an area calculator.
Price £750 from Claas dealers.
AvMap G6 Farmnavigator
A 4.8in colour touchscreen with overhead view graphics is supplemented by steer right or left indicators.
The software provides straight line, curve or circle parallel guidance, field perimeter and area measurement and recording, and a “virtual sprayboom” function alerting when sections should be switched off or on to avoid overlaps and misses.
Road navigation with Europe maps is also included.
Price £999 with AccuPro antenna or £1,449 with John Deere GreenStar antenna from Tractor GPS.
Ag Leader Compass
The 7in colour touchscreen display provides guidance and coverage graphics together with a row of LEDs above the screen.
It can also operate Ag Leader’s OnTrac3 assisted steering system or ParaDyme and SteerCommand integrated autosteer.
For manual guidance, the Compass is supplied with an Ag Leader GPS6000 roof-mounted antenna for operation with Egnos, Omnistar and the new Terrastar service, plus RTK via radio or Ntrip.
Price £1,695 from Precise Solutions GPS.
John Deere GreenStar Lightbar
The GreenStar Lightbar provides a simple one-line light display with 27 LEDs indicating whether to steer left or right to keep on track.
It can be stalk-mounted to provide a comfortable eye-level view and provides A-B line guidance using the StarFire 300 roof-mounted receiver. As users turn to graphical guidance products, the Lightbar has been discontinued but stocks should still be with dealers.
Price £850 from John Deere dealers.
Leica mojoMINI 2
The second-generation mojoMINI (below) from Leica Geosystems has a 4.3in touchscreen and colour graphics display that includes a lightbar across the top for visual steering guidance.
Combined with a Leica GeoSpective 2 antenna, it provides multiple guidance options – A-B parallel, A+ heading, fixed contour and pivot or circle guidance – using Egnos or Glonass signals.
Price £1,265 from Leica Geosystems.
DGPS4U V-Guide
A 7in full colour touchscreen with visual guidance graphics combines with the roof-mounted V-Smart antenna, which incorporates GPS receiver, hillside compensator and radar output to provide straight and curved line guidance, headland countdown and guidance, coverage mapping and boundary mapping.
The console takes an 8MB MicroSD card and SIM card slot for 3G data transfer. Auto-steer is available as an upgrade, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as options.
Price £1,175 from DGPS4U.
Müller Elektronik Track-Guide II
The Track-Guide II console is button- operated to navigate menus represented by icons on either side of the 5.5in colour display.
Numerous software options are available to add functions, including Track-Leader visual guidance. With an external DGPS receiver connected, this provides a 3D perspective display, with the optional Light-Bar app providing supplementary correction guidance to keep on line.
Price £1,650 from David King Electronics.
Raven Cruizer II
Colour touchscreen display on the Cruizer II with Egnos/Glonass gives a simple graphical representation of straight and curved line visual guidance in either bird’s-eye or downfield 3D perspective, with the area covered also shown.
A-B lines, boundaries and jobs can be saved internally and to a USB memory stick. A weather resistant version is available for external use – on a quad bike, for example – and the Cruizer II RTK version can operate assisted steering.
Price £1,300 from J&S Industries, Dempsey Precision and Spray Trac Systems.
Topcon System 110
The Topcon System 110 console (Agrosky VG25 from SDF) combines a 5in colour display with a 19in LED lightbar that can be detached and positioned on a flexible suction cup support in the operator’s line of sight.
The side button-operated display has day and night modes with ambient light sensing to automatically adjust brightness, zoom for swath, guidance and field views, and switchable overhead, perspective and north-up displays. A USB port enables export of reports and shape files.
Price £1,875 from LH Agro; also available from Precision Decisions, Agco and Same Deutz-Fahr dealers.
Topcon System 114
The combination of Topcon X10 console and SGR-1 GNSS receiver (Agrosky VG50 from SDF) provides visual guidance, with Tru-Pass positioning technology for higher precision, more stable pass-to-pass accuracy using GPS, Glonass, Egnos, Waas and OmniStar signals.
The 4.3in colour touchscreen with 3D guidance graphics can be configured to personal preferences and has icon-based set-up and control.
Price £1,345 from LH Agro. Also available from Precision Decisions, Agco dealers and Same Deutz-Fahr dealers.
Patchwork BlackBox
With integrated hardware and simplified software, the BlackBox range of guidance products provides a choice of feature and specification levels, but all with a built-in 10Hz DGPS receiver for Egnos or WAAS correction.
The 7in colour touchscreen display has 15 LEDs forming a lightbar across the top to supplement the straight and curved line 3D perspective visual guidance.
The BlackBox Eco is base, providing area covered measurement, a satellite signal strength indicator, readout for area and distance covered, and ground speed readings.
Price BlackBox Eco £1,000; Eco+ £1,250; from Patchwork Technology dealers.
Claas GPS Copilot S7
A graphic display with a lightbar at the top of the screen on the Copilot TS provides visual guidance in A-B, A-B contour, contour and circle modes using Egnos or E-DIF signals as standard, but can be upgraded to Glonass and RTK.
The 7in touchscreen has zoom, area calculation and headland alarm, plus three coloured flags for return-to-work or identifying obstructions. A serial port for output of speed and/or position is standard.
Price £1,600 from Claas dealers.
Trimble EZ-Guide 250
A guidance lightbar formed by 15 LEDs is positioned across the top of a tapered console that also houses an 4.3in colour display.
It comes with a RAM-mount bracket and magnetically mounted Trimble antenna for free DGPS correction and 15-20cm pass-to-pass accuracy.
It provides point, line and area mapping. A USB port allows easy transfer of coverage maps to a computer and it’s upgradable with EZ-Steer assisted steering.
Price £1,495 from AS Communications; also available from Soil Essentials and Case IH and New Holland dealers.
TeeJet Matrix 430
This new entry-level guidance unit with 4.3in colour touchscreen display has a permanent numeric indication of cross-track error and a virtual LED bar in the display, plus two further read-outs chosen by the user from the worked area, worked time, swath number and ground speed options.
An internal receiver enables Egnos while using both GPS and Glonass signals. A basic report function downloads via a USB port.
Price £799 (£1,175 with RXA-30 antenna) from TeeJet dealers.
