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Naïve question: it's a farm, you own the land, it's mostly flat, I'm wondering why there isn't any "deploy your own positioning service on a bunch of high poles

Naïve question: it's a farm, you own the land, it's mostly flat, I'm wondering why there isn't any "deploy your own positioning service on a bunch of high poles" product?

themoonisachees 4y ago
Because farmers aren't (for the most part) software hackers, and the equipment they pay top dollar for is using the subscription service Also, the subscription is probably considerably cheaper than buying the equipment to replicate it.
- Animats 4y ago
  The John Deere RTK Radio 900, which does exactly that, costs about $1000 used. You put it on a tripod next to the field, or on top of a building. If you want season to season repeatability, it has to be in the same place. This is GPS correction, not a completely standalone navigation system. There are more components for big farms. There are repeaters to re-broadcast the correction signal, which in the US is in the 900MHz ISM band. Some Deere dealers have their own stations throughout a farming community. There's a fee to use that. It's like having your own server instead of using "the cloud". Works fine, takes more attention.
dagw 4y ago
There exists several companies that offer exactly that. However it's expensive and most smaller farmers just don't see the need.
- Nexxxeh 4y ago
  I suspect that's now "didn't see the need"...
- Animats 4y ago
  It's really expensive.[1] "To put together a one-inch accurate RTK system for John Deere tractors, you start with an Autotrac automatic steering kit, which is $5,040 plus installation costs of $1,200. Then you add a monitor. John Deere offers three monitors: the basic Greenstar display for $1,700, Model 1800 colour display for $2,250, and Model 2600 touchscreen display for $6,294." "The standard receiver with StarFire 1 capability is $3,144. That gets you accurate to within eight inches either side of the desired path. To move up to StarFire 2 and its sub-four-inch accuracy, you need software upgrades: $5,040 for the Autotrac software upgrade and $2,500 for the receiver software upgrade." "To go from SF2 to RTK, you need a receiver that includes a radio to communicate with the RTK base station and with the satellites. This costs $1,695. You also need RTK activation, which costs $3,780." "Add it up. From square one, with the top-end monitor, you’re looking at around $30,000 to equip the tractor for RTK. But wait. You need a base station. A two-channel base station will cost another $15,000 or so." [1] https://www.grainews.ca/news/what-rtk-can-do-for-you/ https://www.grainews.ca/news/what-rtk-can-do-for-you/

Naïve question: it's a farm, you own the land, it's mostly flat, I'm wondering why there isn't any "deploy your own positioning service on a bunch of high poles" product?

themoonisachees 4y ago

Because farmers aren't (for the most part) software hackers, and the equipment they pay top dollar for is using the subscription service Also, the subscription is probably considerably cheaper than buying the equipment to replicate it.

Animats 4y ago
The John Deere RTK Radio 900, which does exactly that, costs about $1000 used. You put it on a tripod next to the field, or on top of a building. If you want season to season repeatability, it has to be in the same place. This is GPS correction, not a completely standalone navigation system. There are more components for big farms. There are repeaters to re-broadcast the correction signal, which in the US is in the 900MHz ISM band. Some Deere dealers have their own stations throughout a farming community. There's a fee to use that. It's like having your own server instead of using "the cloud". Works fine, takes more attention.

dagw 4y ago

There exists several companies that offer exactly that. However it's expensive and most smaller farmers just don't see the need.

Nexxxeh 4y ago
I suspect that's now "didn't see the need"...
Animats 4y ago
It's really expensive.[1] "To put together a one-inch accurate RTK system for John Deere tractors, you start with an Autotrac automatic steering kit, which is $5,040 plus installation costs of $1,200. Then you add a monitor. John Deere offers three monitors: the basic Greenstar display for $1,700, Model 1800 colour display for $2,250, and Model 2600 touchscreen display for $6,294." "The standard receiver with StarFire 1 capability is $3,144. That gets you accurate to within eight inches either side of the desired path. To move up to StarFire 2 and its sub-four-inch accuracy, you need software upgrades: $5,040 for the Autotrac software upgrade and $2,500 for the receiver software upgrade." "To go from SF2 to RTK, you need a receiver that includes a radio to communicate with the RTK base station and with the satellites. This costs $1,695. You also need RTK activation, which costs $3,780." "Add it up. From square one, with the top-end monitor, you’re looking at around $30,000 to equip the tractor for RTK. But wait. You need a base station. A two-channel base station will cost another $15,000 or so." [1] https://www.grainews.ca/news/what-rtk-can-do-for-you/ https://www.grainews.ca/news/what-rtk-can-do-for-you/