Amazone develops high-tech control for Precea planters
The Amazone AmaTron 4 isobus terminal’s ability to handle multiple data and control functions simultaneously has brought added precision opportunities to the manufacturer’s Precea large seed planters.
With appropriate software licences, the terminal can regulate the application rate of three different materials – seed, fertiliser and micro-granules, for example; manage full- and part-width shut-off and switch-on for each product; and handle up to four different product variable rate maps at once.
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These “more than isobus” solutions, as Amazone calls them, have been developed in-house and allows Precea planters to work with precision for all the seed and other products they apply.
Equipped with electrical cell wheels which allow rows to be shut off one at a time, the Precea planters, used mainly in Britain for forage maize, cover 3m to 12m sizes in various tractor-mounted and trailed configurations.
MultiBin options provide hopper and placement opportunities for up to two fertilisers, micro-granules and so on to be applied as seed is planted, all controlled individually using Amazone’s MultiMap capability on a part-area, site-specific basis as appropriate.
With MultiSwitch, operators can trigger individual row shut-off and switch-on to avoid over-seeding and duplicate fertiliser application on angled headlands, while the MultiBoom function accounts for the fertiliser and micro-granule placement outlets not being positioned in-line with the planting units.
As long as the AmaTron 4 terminal has the GPS Switch Pro software licence enabled, a timing function ensures that the metering units for all products are switched on and off at the same point in the field, rather than at the same time.