Hectare One — Operator's Manual

Hectare One · Operator’s Manual — document AC01.01.04.04.100, firmware v1.2.001. Questions your machine raises and this page does not answer: support@agriwelt.com — an engineer answers, not a bot.

1Safety

This chapter holds the instructions that keep work with the Hectare One system safe. Read it before the panel is switched on for the first time.

Obligations and liability

Follow this manual. Knowing the basic rules and instructions for safe operation is the precondition for working with the system safely and without interruption. This manual is part of the delivery: keep it on the machine or in the tractor cab.

Warranty and liability. The general terms of sale and delivery of Agriwelt GmbH apply. Claims for warranty and for damage to persons or property are not accepted where the cause is one or more of the following:

• use of the system other than as intended;
• improper installation, commissioning or operation;
• disregard of the instructions in this manual on commissioning, operation and maintenance;
• unauthorised modification of the equipment.

Intended use

The Hectare One system is intended solely for use as a monitoring and control device for sowing and for the application of dry and liquid fertilizer on agricultural machines — mounted and trailed seed drills, planters and cultivators.

Following every instruction in this manual is part of intended use.

Any other use is not intended use. The manufacturer is not liable for damage arising from it; the risk is borne by the user alone.

General precautions

Besides the instructions in this manual, observe the national safety and environmental rules that apply where the machine is worked, and the safety instructions of the implement and of the tractor.

The operator’s workplace

The system is operated by one person, from the driver’s seat of the tractor.

Working safely with the system

The panel is not only an indicator. It drives machinery. The dispenser electric motors, the liquid fertilizer pump and the tramline actuators are started by commands from the panel, and several of those commands work while the machine is standing still.

Before approaching the implement, stop the machine, switch the tractor ignition off and take the key with you. Do not rely on what the panel shows: a device whose control has been switched off reports nothing about its state.

Handling the panel

• Do not subject the panel to impact or heavy vibration, and do not drop it.
• Do not touch the screen with sharp objects; the touch surface is damaged by them.
• Do not open the housing. It is sealed and carries a pressure equaliser; opening it destroys the seal. Repairs are carried out by Agriwelt service only.
• Keep the harness connector, the GPS antenna connector and the memory card slot closed and clean when nothing is plugged into them.
• Do not clean the panel with solvents or with a pressure washer. A damp cloth is enough.
• Connect the panel only to a supply that meets the parameters given in the device passport. Reversed polarity and voltage outside the permitted range damage the electronics.
• Disconnect the panel before electric welding is carried out on the tractor or on the implement.

Warning symbols used in this manual

Safety instructions in this manual are marked with a signal word. The signal word says how severe the consequence is if the instruction is ignored.

Signal word	What it means
DANGER	An immediate threat with a high degree of risk. Ignoring it leads to death or to the severest injuries.
WARNING	A possible threat with a medium degree of risk. Ignoring it can lead to death or to severe injuries.
CAUTION	A threat with a low degree of risk. Ignoring it can lead to minor or moderate injuries.
IMPORTANT	No threat to people. Ignoring it damages equipment, or costs work that has to be done again.
NOTE	Information that helps the operator get more out of the system.

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2Control panel

Appearance

The seven buttons

The seven buttons are in a row under the screen. Press one with a fingertip. They are always in this order, left to right:

Symbol	Name	What it is for
house	HOME	Moves between the working screens. Held down on the home screen, locks and unlocks product application
minus	MINUS	Decreases the selected value
up arrow	UP	Moves the selection to the previous item of a menu
square	MENU	Opens the main menu from the home screen. In a menu, enters the selected item. In a dialogue, confirms
down arrow	DOWN	Moves the selection to the next item of a menu
plus	PLUS	Increases the selected value
return arrow	BACK	Leaves a menu or a screen. In a dialogue, cancels. On the home screen, opens the tramline bout menu

On the home screen

Button	Action
HOME	Opens the Table screen. If the table is switched off, opens Statistics
HOME, held	Locks or unlocks product application by hand. Confirmed by a short beep
MENU	Opens the main menu. The same as a double tap on the screen
PLUS / MINUS	Change the target rate — but only while a rate field is selected. Touch and hold the rate field to select it; it lights up
BACK	Opens the tramline bout menu, if tramline is switched on. If a rate field is selected, first releases it
UP, DOWN	Nothing. Both stay dark on the home screen

In a menu

Button	Action
UP / DOWN	Move the selection up and down the list
MENU	Enters the selected item. For a numeric setting, opens the number pad
PLUS / MINUS	Change the value of the selected item by one step. For a numeric setting, they too open the number pad
BACK	Leaves the menu and returns one level up

Screen brightness

Brightness is set by the Brightness,% item in the system options menu, from 0 to 100 in steps of 10.

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3Basics of the graphical interface

Everything you do on the panel happens through five things: the working screens, the menu, the context menu, the number pad and the windows that ask or tell you something. This chapter explains those five. What each screen holds is in its own chapter.

Switching on

After the power is switched on a splash screen with the logo appears. It stays until the panel has found every device connected to it — a few seconds — and then the home screen opens.

The working screens

Four working screens follow one another in a circle, and the “HOME” button steps through them. A fifth screen replaces the home screen on machines without seed sensors.

The menu

Press “MENU” on a screen that has one. The selected item is shown as black text on a light blue band. “UP” and “DOWN” move between items.

What you see	What it means
an arrow head on the right	The item opens another menu. Press “MENU”.
A value between - and +	Change it with “PLUS” and “MINUS”, right there in the list.
A value between -[ and ]+	Pressing “PLUS” or “MINUS” opens the number pad.
Nothing beside the name	The item performs an action. Press “MENU”.

The context menu

The context menu belongs to one device — a sensor, a motor. To reach it, hold “MENU” down on the home screen to enter the sensor setup mode, move to the device you want with “UP” and “DOWN”, and press “MENU”. The selected element is framed in white.

A long press on a device does the same without entering the mode at all.

Entering numbers

When a value is written between square brackets, changing it opens a number pad.

Type the value with the keys and touch OK. The panel refuses a value outside the permitted range for that parameter.

Windows that ask, and windows that tell

A question	Two buttons — the green one confirms, the red one cancels. The “BACK” button also cancels. Nothing happens until you answer.
A result	One line telling you what happened. Some close by themselves, some wait for any button.
An alarm	The text of the alarm, the type of device, and the addresses of the devices reporting it. See below.

Alarm windows

An alarm window holds three things: what happened, on what kind of device, and which devices — the addresses are listed when several identical sensors report the same fault at once.

Touch Close in the window	Closes this alarm. The next one in the queue appears.
The seven buttons	Do nothing. While an alarm window is open the panel takes no button at all — only the touch on Close.

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4Home screen

The two modes of the home screen

The home screen works in two modes, and the buttons mean different things in each.

Mode	What it is for
Monitoring	The mode the panel starts in. The operator watches the application of the seed material and can change the target rate.
Sensor setup	Selecting individual sensors, taking them into control or out of it, opening their settings.

The buttons

Button	Monitoring	Sensor setup
HOME	Next working screen	Leaves setup, next working screen
HOME held	Locks and unlocks the product application control, with a beep. The hand icon shows the lock.	The same
BACK	The tramline bout menu, if the tramline is switched on. If a rate field is blinking, cancels the blinking first.	Leaves setup, stays here
BACK held	Calculates the minimum alarm level automatically, from the rate being applied. Only while applying. A double tap does the same.	—
MENU	The main menu. A two-finger tap does the same.	The context menu of the selected sensor
MENU held	Enters the sensor setup mode	—
PLUS	Raises the target rate. The first press selects a field and makes it blink.	Takes the sensor into control
MINUS	Lowers it, selecting the same way.	Takes the sensor out of control
UP / DOWN	Move between rate fields. Nothing if the machine has only one.	Previous / next sensor

The home screen of a real machine

The screen below was shot on a machine with forty-eight seed sensors in two rows, two hoppers, two dispenser shaft sensors and one fan, while it was sowing.

The picture below was shot on a different machine — eight seed sensors, two dispenser electric motors, two hoppers, two dispenser shaft sensors, one fan — standing still, and shows the indicators along the top in more detail.

What is on it, from the top:

Element	On this screen
Travel speed	The large yellow figure at the top left. Yellow because the machine is standing still.
Hopper sensors	Two hopper icons, numbered. The first is green, the second red — that hopper is reporting an empty state.
Dispenser shaft sensors	Two round icons, numbered 1 and 2.
Fan sensor	The fan icon with its number, and the measured speed in rpm beside it.
Processed area	The hatched hopper icon with ha and the figure below the speed.
Actual seeding rate	The ear icon with ths/ha — thousands of seeds per hectare.
Memory card	The card icon at the top right, shown while a microSD card is inserted.
Diagram of the seed sensors	The eight columns, numbered along the bottom. The tolerance in force is written above the diagram.
Rate and spacing	The figures to the right of the diagram: the rate, and the seed spacing in s/m.
Manual lock indicator	The yellow hand at the lower right. It appears while the product application control is locked by hand.
General failure indicator	The red letter box below the hand. It reports a fault of the dispenser electric motors or of the tramline actuators.

The speed field

The field that normally shows the travel speed also carries the messages about the speed. They replace the figure and blink, about once a second, so that the figure remains readable.

What is shown	When
FASTER, on a red background	The travel speed is below the minimum set for the speed sensor.
SLOWER, on a red background	The travel speed is above the maximum set for the speed sensor.
IMITATION, in yellow	The speed is not being measured but simulated from the setting of the speed sensor. Nothing that depends on the speed can be trusted in this state.
Increase / decrease the imitation	The simulated speed itself is outside the permitted range. The message asks for the setting to be changed, not the travel speed.
A message about the sensor	One of the two speed sensors has failed, or the minimum and the maximum speed contradict each other.

The second home screen

The two electric motors are shown along the middle strip with their numbers, their load and their state.

The icon of each motor alternates, about once a second, between the picture of the motor and the sign of its state — STOP for a motor that is not running, a red cross for a motor in a fault state. The two frames here were taken in the two different phases.

The green and red chevrons at the ends of the rate strip mark the direction in which the target rate will move when it is changed.

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5Indicators of the home screen

How to read any indicator

Almost every indicator on the home screen follows the same rule. Learn it once and you can read an indicator you have never seen before.

What you see	What it means
Green icon	Normal. The device answers and its value is inside the limits.
Red icon, blinking	Alarm. The device answers, but the value has left the limits. An alarm window follows after the alarm delay.
The icon changing to a red ×	No answer from the device. The panel alternates between the icon and the × so that you see which device is silent. The value is shown as XXXX.
The icon changing to a white [!]	The device is in the profile, but its control has been switched off. Nothing about it is being watched. The value is shown as !!!!.
Yellow icon	Not a fault. A state you have chosen, or one that only needs your attention: implement raised, markers up, ignition off, application locked by hand.

Clock

The clock slot stands at the top left of the screen. It does not always show the time — it is one slot shared by several messages.

What you see	What it means
The time in white	Normal.
BAT in red, for about a second in every four	The internal battery of the clock is low. The clock still runs; replace the battery before it stops. Between the flashes the time is shown in red.
XX:XX in red, blinking once a second	The clock chip does not answer. The panel has no date and no time, and everything it records will carry the wrong one.
IMITAT in yellow	Speed imitation is switched on. The panel shows this instead of the time so that the mode cannot be forgotten.
The slot changes every few seconds	The trial period is running. On a loop of about eight seconds the slot shows the time left in blue as hours:minutes, then the word TRIAL, then IMITAT if imitation is on, then nothing. When the trial period ends, the system stops working.

Memory card

Shows whether a microSD card is in the slot. There are only two states: the icon is there, or it is not.

Speed

The travel speed, at the top left of the screen.

What you see	What it means
A number in white, e.g. 10.0	Normal. The speed is inside the permitted range.
SLOWER on red	You are driving faster than the maximum set for the speed sensor. Slow down.
FASTER on red	You are driving slower than the minimum. Speed up.
XX.X in red	No answer from the input device that carries the speed sensor.
A number in yellow with IMITATION	The speed is being imitated by the panel for testing. The real sensor is not used, and nothing you see about rates is real.

Product application locked by hand

A yellow hand, blinking, at the right edge of the screen. It means the operator has locked product application: the machine will not apply anything, however it moves.

To lock or unlock	Hold HOME down on the home screen. One short beep confirms the change.
While it is locked	The yellow hand blinks on the screen. Nothing else happens — there is no repeating sound.
When it is not locked	The icon is not shown at all.

Tramline bout

Shown only if the system has a tramline actuator. The number on top is the current bout, the number below it the number of bouts in the rhythm.

White, e.g. 1 over 3	The current bout is an ordinary one. The figure tells you how far you are from the next tramline.
Blinking	The current bout is the tramline bout. The rows of the tramline are being cut off.
Yellow	The bout will not change by itself. Either automatic bout change is switched off, or the sensor it depends on is missing, silent or not under control. The bout has to be changed by hand.

Fan

The rotation speed of the fan in revolutions per minute. Green is normal; red means the speed is above or below the permitted one; the × and the [!] have the usual meaning.

Hopper

The level of the seed material in the hopper. A full green hopper is normal; an empty red one means the level has fallen below the sensor and refilling is needed.

Metering unit

The rotation of the metering shaft. While the shaft turns, the icon animates; that animation is the fastest way to see that the metering unit is actually running. Red means there is no rotation, or the speed is not the one required.

Product rate by weight

Shown only when the dispenser motors are set up to apply products by weight. The indicator carries two numbers: the target rate on top and the actual rate below, in kg per hectare.

Target green, actual white	Normal. The machine is applying what was asked of it.
Target red, actual white	The actual rate is above or below the permitted deviation from the target.
The field is highlighted and the cursor blinks	Rate setting mode: only the target is shown and PLUS and MINUS change it. Touch and hold the field to enter this mode.
The field is highlighted but does not blink	Setting mode is on, but the cursor is on another indicator. This one shows its target and waits.

Dosing by weight is not possible

A red blinking product icon. It appears when the panel has worked out that the target rate cannot be held at any travel speed: the lowest speed at which the metering rollers can deliver the rate is already at or above the highest speed at which they can.

Pressure

The vacuum or the positive air pressure in the distribution system, in kPa. Green is normal; red means the pressure is above or below the permitted one.

The sensors of the autonomous fan drive engine

Oil pressure. Green is normal. Red means the oil pressure of the engine has fallen below the permitted level.

Battery charge. Green is normal. Red means the battery of the engine is not being charged.

Ignition. A green key means the ignition is on and the engine sensors are being watched. A yellow key means the ignition is off — this is not a fault, but nothing about the engine is being watched either.

Fuel level. Green is normal. Red means there is little fuel left in the tank of the engine.

Air filter. Green is normal. Red means the air filter is clogged and has to be cleaned or replaced.

Markers

The position of the markers. The icon shows which side is down.

Green, both arms down	Both markers are lowered.
Green, one arm down	Only that marker is lowered — the left one or the right one, as drawn.
Yellow, both arms up	Both markers are raised. Not a fault; on a machine that changes the tramline bout by the marker, the bout changes at this moment.

Implement position

Whether the implement is in the working (lowered) or in the transport (raised) position. Green is lowered and applying; yellow is raised and not applying.

Actuator failure

A single red icon that stands for all the electric motors and tramline actuators together. It is not shown at all while everything is in order.

Red	At least one actuator is in the alarm state.
White [!]	The control of at least one actuator has been switched off. No fault has been found — but that actuator is not being watched.

Liquid fertiliser pump

Depending on the equipment, the pump is watched by two or three indicators.

Rate, in l/min	The main indicator. Only this one can be selected in the sensor setup mode and only it has a context menu with the pump parameters.
Load, in %	How hard the pump is working. It disappears first if the home screen has no room for it.
Pressure, in bar	Shown only if the pressure sensor is fitted and switched on in the settings of the pump controller.

The rate indicator

Besides the usual green, red, × and [!] states, this indicator has two of its own:

• A yellow pump with STOP — application is locked by hand, or the implement is raised. The pump will not start when the machine moves.
• A highlighted target rate — there are no section flow sensors in the profile, so there is nothing actual to show. The figure is the target, not a measurement.

The load indicator

Green is normal. At 99 % and above the indicator turns yellow: the pump is at its limit and cannot follow a further increase in speed. Drive more slowly, or the rate will fall below the target.

If the controller reports no load figure at all, the indicator shows ---- and blinks red.

The pressure indicator

Green is normal. Red means the liquid pressure is too high — reduce the travel speed, or raise the “Max pressure, Bar” limit in the settings of the pump controller if the line really can take it.

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6The Table screen

The Table screen shows the readings of every section as figures, one row per section. It answers the question the diagram on the home screen cannot: which section exactly, and by how much.

Open it from the home screen with “HOME”. Leave it with “BACK”.

The three tables

The screen holds several tables. The corner tells you which one you are on — the number and the total, between a minus and a plus sign: those are the two buttons that switch.

Which tables your machine has

Table	Shown when
Seed counters	Always.
Rate per area Rate per distance	Only in the “Precise” seeding control mode.
Dry fertilizer	The machine has fertilizer sensors and the fertilizer control mode is not “Precise”.
Liquid fertilizer	The machine has liquid fertilizer sensors.

The columns

Column	Meaning
#	The number of the section.
sds/m	Seeds per metre, measured now.
Q.%	Singles — the share of correctly placed seeds.
Db%	Doubles — two seeds where one was intended.
Sk%	Skips — a gap where a seed was intended.
ks/Ha or sds/m	The applied rate: thousands per hectare in the first table, seeds per metre in the second.
%	The deviation of this section from the rate that was set.
seeds	In the counters table — the number of seeds this section has sown.

Working with the screen

What you want	Button	Or gesture
The next or the previous table	PLUS / MINUS	Long swipe left or right with two fingers
Scroll the rows	UP / DOWN	Swipe up or down
Zero the readings	MENU	Tap with two fingers
Go to the Statistics screen	HOME	Swipe left
Back to the home screen	BACK	Swipe right

Zeroing the readings

The counters of every seed, dry fertilizer and liquid fertilizer sensor are set to zero. Only the counters of this screen — the field statistics are not touched.

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7Quick start

This is the order of getting ready. Your machine may not have every step — skip what it does not have.

Before the field

1	Calibrate the speed sensor. Everything else — area, rates, deviations — is calculated from the speed. A wrong speed makes every other figure wrong with it.
2	Calibrate the metering rollers, on grain drills and on row-crop planters whose fertilizer dispenser is driven by an electric motor.
3	Check the tramline rhythm, if the machine creates a tramline: Settings → Tramline.
4	Check the sensor parameters — the list is below.
5	Check each section: is it under control, is it applying. Both are set per section on the diagram.
6	Choose the field on the Statistics screen. For a new field, reset its statistics first.
7	Set the rates — seeding, dry fertilizer, liquid fertilizer.
8	Check the user level. It must be Operator.

Sensor parameters to check, by sensor type

• Speed sensor — “Min speed, km/h”, “Max speed, km/h”
• Dispenser sensor — “Period, s”, for each sensor
• Fan sensor — “Minimum, rpm”, “Maximum, rpm”, for each sensor
• Pressure sensor — “Minimum, Pa”, “Maximum, Pa”, for each sensor
• Liquid fertilizer pump — “Coefficient, %”, “Max. pressure, bar”
• Seed and dry fertilizer sensors — “Fraction”, “Correction”, “Recalculation, m”. In the “Precise” or “Hybrid” mode also “Rate alarm, %”
• Liquid fertilizer sensors — “Recalculation, m”. With an electric pump or in “By area” mode also “Rate alarm, %”. Without a pump in the profile — “Pulses per litre”. Wilger flow meters: red 8900, green 15500, blue 3400 pulses per litre.
• Electric motors, “Precise” mode — “Holes in the disk”, for any motor in the group
• Electric motors, mass dosing — “Coefficient, %” for each motor; check “Mass, g” divided by “Revolutions” against the roller specification. Calibration normally fills these in.

The four states of a section

On the diagram each section shows two independent things: whether the monitor watches it, and whether the machine applies through it.

Control	Application	What it means
off	on	Sowing, but nobody is checking this row.
off	off	The section is out of the work altogether.
on	off	Tramline: the row is deliberately not sowing and the monitor knows it.
on	on	Normal work.

Starting to move

1. Put the implement into the working position.
2. Row-crop planters: fill the dispenser disks — main menu, “Fill the disks with seeds”. Without it the first metres of every row are empty.
3. Grain drills: start the motors — main menu, “Start motors” — and move off immediately after, or the same first metres are lost.
4. Drive.

One short beep	The product application control has started. From now on the machine is being watched.
Three short beeps	The control has stopped.
Three short beeps every 5 seconds while driving	You are moving with the control locked by hand, or with the implement in the transport position. Nothing is being watched.

Automatic alarm level

On grain drills in “Flow” or “Hybrid” mode, let the panel find the alarm level itself instead of guessing it: hold “BACK” on the home screen before moving off. A double tap on the screen does the same.

The numbers on the diagrams are replaced by a flashing AUTO until the machine has driven enough to measure.

While working

Watch four things: the speed against the tractor, the fan and the pressure inside their range, the actual rate against the target, and that no sensor is alarming.

Table screen	How each section is doing right now.
Statistics screen	How the whole field has gone.

If the speed sensor fails

Switch on speed simulation in the sensor settings and drive on the simulated speed. In that state you control the application by hand: the manual lock, switched with a long press of “HOME” on the home screen. While it is on, the hand icon shows at the right edge and the speed reads zero.

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