Canadian company Agra-GPS has produced an all-in-one GNSS receiver, extending still further its JD-Bridge.
Proprietary systems have many plusses, but it’s a pain when they lock you into the brand. Understandable perhaps, but still a pain. Recognising this, Agra-GPS first developed the JD-Bridge to free John Deere’s StarFire equipment for use with other makes of tractor, combine and self-propelled. More shackles disappear with the company’s new Chameleon RTK Guidance unit, handily known as the CRG.
Bridge that gap
In early 2021, a change of operating frequencies left some ITC StarFire receivers unable to use SF1 and SF2 correction services. The free alternative (EGNOS) potentially degraded accuracy, leaving the options to buy a new JD receiver, upgrade to RTK or use Agra-GPS’s ITC Extend box. Agra-GPS started work on another option in 2019. Its CRG combines a very capable GPS receiver and JD-Bridge into one neat white package, slimmer in profile than a StarFire unit. Installed on a John Deere machine, the JD system accepts the Chameleon’s GPS data and steers. When used with a different-colour machine – for example, our test Fendt – it provides both a steering controller and RTK GPS. The user must add only a compatible JD display.
Satellite correction is from the GPS, Galileo, GLONASS and Baidu networks, plus EGNOS. RTK correction can come from suitable base stations – although not John Deere’s own – or over a mobile phone network, the latter via a Bluetooth or modem option in the Chameleon. Apps for Android and (latterly) Apple smartphones allow access to mobile RTK correction data via Bluetooth pairing.
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