Connectors in the Heartland
 By Lynda Nolen, Bishop & Associates Inc.

AG CONNECT Expo 2010, held in Orlando, Florida, January 12-15, focuses on the global agriculture industry, and brought together the latest in equipment, technology, and ideas. Produced by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), this new expo offered visitors information on the agriculture industry, including new technologies that enable growers to get the most out of their crops, and presentations on how precision farming has become an important tool for making farming more sustainable. Of course, for the interconnect industry, what was of greatest interest was the role electronics now play in the global agricultural business.

 Global Positioning Systems for the Farm
One of the most important advances in the agricultural industry has been the increased use of global positioning systems (GPS). The use of GPS in farming, specifically DGPS (differential global positioning systems), allows a farmer to break his fields into units that can be individually managed to assure optimum production. Currently, the most popular uses of GPS in farming are as a navigation aid, in equipment retrieval data, and for auto-guidance.

Utilizing DGPS in one of these manners, farmers can extend their hours of operation, operate in times of poor visibility, use lower skilled labor, and reduce skips and overlaps, saving time and fuel. The ability to precisely guide the tractor over the same area time after time also limits soil compaction from equipment. By combining DGPS with geo-referenced yield maps, a farmer can also vary the amount of fertilizer and pesticides applied, saving money and reducing greenhouse gases, and determine yields for optimum crop rotation.

What’s great for the electronics industry, and in particular interconnect manufacturers, is that each of these DGPS units and their corresponding antennas is equipped with a variety of connectors. What’s great for the farmer is that because of the widespread use of GPS in other industries, the price of installing a GPS system has dropped substantially, making its use possible for even the small enterprise farmer.

Connectors used on DGPS units geared towards agricultural applications include: 

  • USB Connectors: Generally a USB 2.0, either in standard or environmentally sealed housings

  • RS232 Connectors: 9-pin D-subminiatures

  • RF Connectors: SMA and TNC connectors

  • PCB Connectors: Board-to-board and memory modules

  • Wire-to-Wire Connectors

ISOBUS—Making Compatible Connections
Manufacturers of farm implements that are electronically controlled are proliferating. A major concern is the ability to easily connect implements manufactured by a variety of companies without swapping out harnesses and monitors, and installing additional control boxes. This concern, which has been discussed for almost 20 years, is being addressed with ISO 11783. Referred to as ISOBUS, ISO 11783 specifies a method of interoperability between electronics systems on agricultural and forestry equipment. If a tractor or implement, such as a sprayer or combine, is ISO 11783-compatible, the ISOBUS system allows the electronic control units (ECU) of the tractor and the implement to communicate and share information via a CAN bus, becoming virtually one machine.

The ability to become one machine eliminates the need for multiple control boxes by use of a virtual terminal (VT), which is capable of controlling every ISOBUS-compatible implement regardless of its manufacturer. Eliminated also are the multitude of different connectors, adaptors, and harnesses. Although ISO 11783 has been implemented by almost every tractor and implement manufacturer in Europe, it has only been in the last few years that ISO 11783 has become standard on agricultural equipment produced in the United States. Ryan Mulligan, marketing manager for ISOBUS products at Powell Electronics, said, “We have been shipping production quantities of ISO 11783-certified connectors into Europe since 2006.” Deutsch, one of the first connector manufacturers to be ISO 11783-certified, indicated that they have been supplying production quantities of ISO 11783-certified products to European manufacturers of agricultural tractors and implements since 2002.

In addition to providing plug-and-play capabilities, the ISOBUS can also be connected to a GPS unit, or to monitoring and control modules, allowing farmers to not only utilize navigation aids, but also monitor and control such things as seed and fertilizer output.

Based on CAN, which has been used in the agricultural industry for many years, the physical ISOBUS is compatible with SAE J1939-11 and -13, the worldwide serial data bus communications standard for truck, bus, off-road, construction, and marine vehicles. Like other ISO specifications, ISO 11783 specifies: 

  • Physical characteristics

  • Serial data network (CAN2.0B) for control and communications

  • Data handling and file transfer

  • Minimum functionality of certain devices on the network

The physical characteristics specify an ISO Box and three different connector pairs, all with different functions. The ISO Box, referred to as the box interface, allows transition of signals between the tractor and the implement. Containing a 9-pin circular connector and offered by a variety of manufacturers, including Deutsch, Tyco Electronics, and Powell, this ISO Box is mounted on the outside rear of the tractor and contains a proprietary printed circuit board that splits the 9-pin input into two 4-position connectors located internal to the tractor. The ISO box mates with a 9-pin plug, in which the main feature is its “breakaway” function that prevents damage to the tractor or implement in case of an accidental drive-away disconnect.



The second connector is the bus extension (in-cab) connector. This connector allows additional ISOBUS equipment to be added to the existing bus system, as well as extends the bus signal lines of the implement bus within the tractor. This connector allows the attachment of the Virtual Terminal.



 

The third connector—the diagnostic connector—which is compatible with SAEJ1939-13, is a 9-pin circular connector, generally located in the tractor’s cab. This connector provides the link between the various safety critical and non-critical sub-systems, like the engine, braking, and transmission systems, as well as data loggers, emission systems, and tracking systems, and the necessary testing equipment, facilitating troubleshooting and maintenance of the ISO network.

Agricultural Robots
 Agricultural robots made a striking appearance at AG CONNECT. A fairly new technology, it has been predicted that within the next five years, robots will become commonplace in many fields, performing a variety of jobs, such as pruning, weeding, pesticide spraying, watering, and harvesting. Geared towards jobs that are the most labor-intense and where the use of temporary labor is most prevalent, robots are already being tested in fields across the country. Although much of the research and development of robots for agricultural use has been done in conjunction with major universities, companies are also producing prototypes which are now being field tested. One such company is Vision Robotics Corporation.

Based in San Diego, Vision Robotics has developed the “Intelligent Robotic Vineyard Pruner.” Currently in its second round of testing, commercial units are expected to be available next year. The Intelligent Robotic Vineyard Pruner uses stereoscopic scanning cameras to scan the entire vine. From there, multiple arms perform precision cuts, at a speed of eight feet per minute. With the ability to operate day or night and in mildly inclement weather, it is estimated that one robot can prune one acre in 4.4 hours (depending on the vine density), saving producers more than 50 percent of the cost for manual trimming. In addition to the Intelligent Robotic Vineyard Pruner, Vision Robotics is also working on a robot to harvest oranges, which uses eight long arms to pick the oranges, and an apple picking robot, which scans all the apples on a tree to determine which are ready to be picked, and then harvests just those.

So how does the use of robots in the agricultural industry affect the manufacturer of connectors? Many connectors are needed to allow these multi-armed, multi-functional agricultural robots to operate effectively. Connectors to interface with the multiple stereoscopic scanning cameras, connectors to provide signal and power to the arms, and connectors to transmit and receive the data collected, are just some of the applications. This would include small industrial circular and rectangular connectors, I/O connectors, RF connectors, telecom connectors, and PCB connectors.

In addition to the connectors discussed above, you will also find an abundance of other connectors used in the production of agricultural equipment. These include circular and rectangular connectors to delivery power and signal, RF connectors to relay information, in addition to terminal blocks, insulated and non-insulated terminals, and printed circuit board connectors. With future farming becoming a high-tech business, many have speculated that farmers may be able to run their entire operation from the comfort of their offices. For a farmer, I guess this would be telecommuting.

Lynda Nolen
Product Specialist, Bishop & Associates Inc.
 Lynda Nolen has been in the interconnect industry for over 30 years. She has worked in sales, sales management, marketing, and product management for such companies as TRW Electronics Components Group, Sunbelt Components, Cinch Connectors, Arrow Electronics, PEI Genesis, and Delphi Interconnect. Nolen has extensive experience in competitive cross-referencing, drawing, web and catalog review, new product introduction programs, harness and connector assembly programs, account management, and customer service programs. Lynda received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Roger Williams University in Rhode Island in 1979, and has completed various electrical engineering courses.
 
 

Bishop & Associates, Inc. © 2010