GB2143714A - Equipment for determining grain losses in harvester operation - Google Patents

Abstract

Equipment for determination of harvest stock losses, particularly shaker losses and cleaning losses in combine harvesters, operates with the inclusion of constants to enable indication of such losses to be based upon total crop yield and/or total harvested area. The equipment comprises a computer (15) coupled with stores (18) which contain constants indicature of grain type, working width, grain mass per thousand grains and area yield. The constants are activatable for the computation process through inputs (10 to 13). The necessary measurement values of grain loss at shaker means and cleaning means, and distance travelled are conducted from measurement transmitters (1, 2, 9) through counting channels (3, 4) to the computer (15). These measurement values and constants are processed by the computer to produce a value of harvest stock loss, which value is displayed on a suitable indicator 22. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Equipment for determining grain losses in harvester operation The present invention relates to equipment for determining grain losses in the harvesting operation of a combine harvester.

Grain and maize kernel (hereinafter referred to as "grain") harvest are brought in almost exclusively by combine harvesters in modern agriculture. Various methods are undertaken to recover the harvest stock with the minimum loss as possible. These methods are predominantly directed to checking the proportion of loss, which is generally known as shaker loss and cleaning loss. Other losses at the cutting mechanism and the threshing mechanism are nowadays limited through suitable operating measures. In the case of the combine harvester, a progressive rise in shaker losses and cleaning losses arises on approach to the performance limit. When the combine harvester is not fully loaded, its work performance falls and specific fuel consumption rises.For these reasons, equipment for the checking of the shaker losses and cleaning losses in combine harvesters have already been devised.

Equipment of that kind is described in, for example, US-PS 3515144. Measurement transmitters of this equipment are, as a rule, disposed in the transit path of the harvest stock stream of the combine harvester, particularly in the straw outlet and in the region of the chaff ejection. The impact energy of the grain is usually converted by measurement transmit- ters into electrical pulses. These pulses per unit time stand in a certain ratio to the amount of grain which leaves the combine harvester as shaking losses and cleaning losses and reduces the yield. The pulses are amplified and indicated in digital or analog form.

This loss checking equipment informs the combine harvester driver initially only about the loss course.

For determination of the loss referred to the harvest area or the yield, calibration of the loss checking equipment to the particularfield is required. Forthis purpose, test pans or measuring frames are placed under the straw outlet and the chaff ejector in order to collect and count the grain thrown out with the straw and chaff. Thereafter, the loss referred to area can be calculated. The disadvantage of this loss checking equipment is that this calibration process is very laborious and requires numerous spot samples in order to obtain reliable comparison values. The recovery of the test pans is time-consuming, particularly at high travel speeds of the combine harvester.

In the case of large fields, the obtaining of comparison values is difficult due to the large travel paths, and greater information gaps arise. Additionally, a repeated calibration is necessary in circumstances when the determined comparison value significantly departs from the predetermined loss value. A further defect is that the different mass and size of the grain is only partially taken into consideration in the calibration.

Loss checking equipment is also known, for example from US-PS 3935866 and US-PS 4 000 398, which includes the harvested area through measurement of the travel path of the combine harvester with the assumption of a constant working width.

The losses in this case are indicated in a size referred to the area. In this equipment, the main disadvantages of the previously mentioned equipment are still present. The indicated loss value does not represent a concrete numerical magnitude, but indicates only the relative loss course and must be brought, through calibration, into a quantitative relationship with the actual loss. For this purpose, a test threshing on the field and subsequent calculation are required, which entail the already described difficulties.

It would thus be desirable to achieve determination of harvest stock losses with reduced effort in use of equipment on the field and with loss values provided in a form which can be readily evaluated by the combine harvester driver.

According to the present invention there is provided equipment for determining grain losses in the harvesting operation of a combine harvester, comprising measurement means to provide measurement values indicative of grain loss at shaker means of the harvester, grain oss at cleaning means of the harvester, and the travel of the harvester, selector means operable to select values indicative of grain kind, harvester working width, grain mass and area yield, a computer connected at input means thereof to the measurement means and the selector means to receive the measurement values and the selected values and operable to determine a grain loss value from the received values, and indicator means connected to output means of the computer to provide an indication of the grain loss value.

Equipment embodying the invention may enable determination of harvest stock losses, without calibration on the field, with shaker losses and cleaning losses indicated in a magnitude referred to the harvest surface or to the yield with inclusion of factors specific to the harvester and to the type of grain. For preference, the computer is coupled with stores which contain constants about the type of grain, the operating width, the mass of one thousand grains and the area yield, the stores being activatable through operating elements. The computer is furthermore connected at its input side through counting channels with a shaker measurement transmitter, a cleaning measurement transmitter and a travel path measurement transmitter, and at its output side with an indicator.The grain losses arising in threshing at the shaker and in the cleaning can be picked up in known manner through the measurement transmitters. Likewise, the travel path traversed by the harvester is measured by, for example, inductive proximity initiators in the drive group. Pulses generated by the measurement transmitters are conducted to the computer through counting channels or directly. Also input into the computer are constants stored in the stores; these are activated for the computer through operating elements. The constants concern the mass of one thousand grains of the type in question, the yield present on the harvest surface and referred to this harvest surface, the working width of the harvester given by the width of the cutting mechanism or the number of rows and the row spacing as well as the kind of grain to be harvested.With these input values, the computer calculates, according to a fixed computation process, a loss value which is referred to area or referred to yield and which is then made visible on the indicator in digital or analog form.

Expediently, the equipment is so constructed that a shaker measurement transmitter, a cleaning mea surement transmitter and a travel path measurement transmitter are associated through their counting channels with a shift register, and a grain kind input and a working width input, a thousand grain mass input and an area yield input are associated parallelly, all at the input side. At the output side, a decoder, a release gate, a computer switching circuit and an indicator are connected serially to the shift register at the output side. A course control means controls the operating course and a computing target input means is also associated with the computer.

For preference, the stores connected behind the inputs contain the specific constant fixedly wired.

In equipment thus constructed, the pulses of the measurement transmitters are so converted in the counting channels that they are present in BCD-code at the shift register. They are also present in BCD-code in the stores forthe constants and are activated through the inputs for the shift register when the equipment is prepared for use. Thus, for example, the constant for a certain kind of grain can be activated through a certain key. The constants specific to a kind of grain are in that case determined by the appliance manufacturer and placed in the stores. Through the working width input, the constants stored in the associated store in BCD-code can be called up, for example by means of key actuation, and activated for the computation. The constants can be realised by a storage matrix equipped with diodes.The thousand grain mass input and the area yield input to the shift register also takes place in BCD-code. For the processing of the computation, the operands and the operators are written in ordered sequence into the shift register. By means of a special shift clock pulse, the shift chains are pushed on simultaneously through one place in the direction of the output of the shift register. Subsequently, the decoder decodes the end word and drives release gates. These complete the input into the computer switching circuit. The indicator is driven through suitable intermediate members from the output of the computer switching circuit. The control pulses for the measurement cycle and the computation course are made ready through the course control.Different evaluation ranges, such as evaluation of the shaker losses, evaluation of the cleaning losses or evaluation of both kinds of losses, are predetermined through the computation target input means. The temporal course of evaluation is in that case divided into a computation preparation phase, a computation phase and an indication phase. The measurement cycle comprises the duration of the computation phase and the indication phase. The measurements are interrupted only for the duration of the computation preparation phase, in which the stores are occupied and all operands and operators taken over into the shift register. The described equipment can also be enlarged through internal test courses in order to be able to perform functional testing at the start of operations or in the case of faults. Pulses generated in the equipment are used for this.It is thus possible to test the counting channels and the measurement transmitters.

In another embodiment, the computer comprises a count timing unit, a parallel input-output unit, a read-write store, a read-only store and a microprocessor, the indicator and the operating elements being coupled to the parallel input-output unit, and the counting channels of the shaker measurement transmitter and of the cleaning measurement transmitter as well as the travel path measurement transmitter being coupled to the count timing unit.

The microprocessor, the mode of operation of which is determined through the computation programme in the read-only store, carries out the necessary arithmetic, logic and control operations. The inputs for yield, thousand grain mass, working width, kind of grain and computation target take place by way of the operating elements and the parallel input-output unit. The associated constants are tabulated in the read-only store. According to the input working width and kind of grain, the corresponding constants are sought out by the microcomputer. The count timing unit counts the pulses and determines the time raster forthe cyclic programme course. During the measuring operation, counted pulses from the count timing unit are taken over, added and filed in the read-write store. Thereafter, the loss computation takes place and the indicator is driven through the parallel input-output unit.If additional value sequences or mean values for, for example, the loss evaluation are stored in the read-write store, the read-write store must be additionally buffered.

These embodiments have the advantage that a high measurement accuracy is attained in loss determination through taking into consideration the mass and the specific properties of the harvest stock and through taking into consideration the separation characteristic specific to the kind of grain and to the combine harvester. The indication of the losses takes place as a magnitude referred to area or yield.

Thereby, an immediately translatable information is made available to the operator. The equipment may be able to be used universally for all combine harvester types and measurement transmitter arrangements through one single determination of the constants. A further advantage is a reduction in preparatory work in the field, since the calibration by means of test pans and similar auxiliary means is redundant.

Embodiments of the present invention will now be more particularly described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure lisa block schematic diagram of first equipment embodying the invention; Figure 2 is a diagram showing the temporal course of the working cycle of the equipment of Figure 1; and Figure 3 is a block schematic diagram of second equipment embodying the invention.

Referring now to the drawings, in the embodiment according to Figure 1 determination of harvest stock losses takes place in an electronic circuit. A shaker measurement transmitter 1 and a cleaning measurement transmitter 2 are connected with counting channels 3 and 4. The counting channels 3 and 4 each consist of a selective amplifier 5, a comparator 6, a monoflop 7 and a counter with store 8 connected therebehind. Also present are a travel path measurement transmitter 9, for example an inductive proximity initiator, grain kind input means 10, working width input means 11,thousand grain mass input means 12, area yield input means 13 and computation target input means 14, which together with the counting channels 3 and 4 are connected to a computer 15.In this case, the counting channels 3 and 4 are connected directly with a shift register store 16, which consists of four parallel arranged shift registers (not shown in detail), each having a length of 30 bits.

The transmitter 9 is coupled through a counter with store 17 connected therebehind, the input means 10 and 11 each through a respective store 18, and the input means 12 and 13 directly, to the shift register store 16. The input means 12 and 13 can be in the form of numeral switches. A decoder 19, for example a one-out-of-16 decoder, is arranged at the output of the shift register store 16. Serially connected to the decoder are a release gate 20 and a computer switching circuit 21, which in this case is a pocket calculator switching circuit. An indicator 22, which in the illustrated embodiment can be constructed as a seven-segment indicator, is driven through a driver stage (not shown) from the output of the switching circuit 21. The control pulses required for the measurement cycle and the computation cycle are provided through a course control device 23.The input means 14 is connected to this control device 23.

The temporal course of measurement cycle and computation cycle of the equipment of Figure 1 is illustrated in Figure 2. The computation cycle, which repeats periodically, is subdivided into a computation preparation phase 24, which in this embodiment lasts about one hundredth of the period T, a computation phase 25 and an indication phase 26.

The measurement cycle is interrupted for the duration of the computation preparation phase 24.

Afurther embodiment is illustrated in Figure 3.

The measurement of the shaker losses, the cleaning losses and the travel path takes place analogously to the first embodiment according to Figure 1. The computer 15 consists of a microprocessor 27, the operating programme of which is fixed in a readonly store 28, a count timing unit 29, a read-write store 30 and a parallel input-output unit 31. The counting channels 3 and 4 and the transmitter 9 are in this case coupled with the unit 29. The control of an indicator 22 takes place by way of the parallel input-output unit 31. The activation of the constants, which are recorded in the store 28, takes place by way of operating elements 32 (not shown in more detail) and by way of the unit 31.

It is advantageous in this embodiment that the specific constants can be stored as accurately as desired. Moreover, through further functions, such as the filtering-out of so-called "runaways", i.e.

measurement values which deviate substantially from the usual values, the determination of means values over greater time spans and other values can be realised.

Claims (11)

1. Equipment for determining grain losses in the harvesting operation of a combine harvester, comprising measurement means to provide measurement values indicative of grain loss at shaker means of the harvester, grain loss at cleaning means of the harvester, and the travel of the harvester, selector means operable to select values indicative of grain kind, harvester working width, grain mass and area yield, a computer connected at input means thereof to the measurement means and the selector means to receive the measurement values and the selected values and indicator means connected to output means of the computer to provide an indication of the grain loss value.

2. Equipment as claimed in claim 1, wherein the grain mass value is indicative of the mass of one thousand grains.

3. Equipment as claimed in either claim 1 or claim 2, the measurement means comprising a plurality of transducers connected to the input means of the computer by way of counting channels.

4. Equipment as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, the selector means comprising a plurality of storage devices operable by selector elements and arranged to store constants.

5. Equipment as claimed in either claim 1 or claim 2, the measuring means comprising a respective transducer for each of the measurement values and respective counting means arranged in the connection of each of the transducers to the computer, the selector means comprising a respective selector element for each of the selected values and a respective storage device arranged in the connection of each of the selector element for the grain mass value and the selector element for the working width value to the computer, and the computer comprising shift register means having parallel inputs connected to the transducers and the selector elements.

6. Equipment as claimed in claim 5, the indicator means being connected to output means of the shift register means by a series connection of a decoder, a release gate and switching circuit means.

7. Equipment as claimed in either claim 5 or claim 6, comprising target value input means operatively associated with the computer and programme control means to control the computer operation.

8. Equipment as claimed in any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein the storage devices are arranged to store fixed constants.

9. Equipment as claimed in either claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the computer comprises a microprocessor unit connected to a count timing unit, read-write storage means, read-only storage means and a parallel input-output unit, the measurement means being connected to the count timing unit and the indicator means and selector elements of the selector means being connected to the parallel input-output unit.

10. Equipment substantially as hereinbefore de scribedwith reference to Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings.

11. Equipment substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figure 3 of the accompanying drawings.