Wireless seed detecting and monitoring apparatus

• US 4,149,163 A
• Filed: 05/06/1977
• Issued: 04/10/1979
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/1975
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Dickey-John Corporation (Churchill Industries, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dickey-John Corporation (Churchill Industries, Inc.)
• Inventors: Fathauer, George H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Swann, III, Glen R.
• Application Number:
  US05/794,551
• Time in Patent Office: 704 Days
• Field of Search: 340/259, 340/224, 340/258 C, 340/258 D, 340/267 R, 340/674, 340/539, 340/558, 340/684, 235/92 PC, 73/69, 73/649, 329/122, 329/124
• US Class Current: 340/684
• CPC Class Codes: A01C 7/105 Seed sensors
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 111/903 Monitor

Abstract

A wireless seed detecting and monitoring apparatus includes one or more transmitter units mounted at the seed planter and a receiver unit mounted in a monitor console located at a remote location. Seeds being planted produce a signal which modulates an r-f transmitted signal during the planting operation. A receiver is responsive to the r-f transmitted signal and detects the modulated signal information corresponding to seeds being planted. This detected signal is then delivered to monitoring circuitry to indicate the operation of the seed planter.

Claims

1. A detecting and monitoring system particularly adapted for individually and simultaneously detecting the flow of seeds being dispensed in each row of a multi-row planting machine of the type which has a separate seed dispenser for each row and which is towed by a tractor, and for conveying said seed flow information to the operator of the tractor, comprising:

a plurality of sensing means respectively associated with each said dispenser and responsive to the passage of seeds through said dispensers for generating asynchronously a corresponding plurality of control signals;

a corresponding plurality of oscillating means respectively associated with said plurality of sensing means for generating a plurality of unmodulated carrier-wave seed signals, with each said oscillating means having a different frequency of oscillation and respectively responsive to one of said control signals for being energized to generate and wirelessly transmit a unmodulated carrier-wave seed signal corresponding to the flow of seeds passing through the respective one of said dispensers;

receiving means responsive to said transmitted unmodulated carrier-wave seed signals for individually and simultaneously detecting said seed signals and producing corresponding indicator signals, said receiving means including a single-channel intermediate frequency amplifier circuit having a pass band which encompasses the frequencies of all said transmitted seed signals, and further including a corresponding plurality of frequency detectors coupled to said single-channel intermediate frequency amplifier circuit, with each said frequency detector being tuned to a different one of said transmitted unmodulated carrier-wave seed signal frequencies for detecting said seed signals and producing said indicator signals; and

display means responsive to said indicator signals for displaying selectively the flow of seeds being dispensed in each row of a multi-row planting machine.

2. A detecting and monitoring system in accordance with claim 1, in which said receiving means includes means for converting said seed signals into corresponding lower-frequency signals, and in which said plurality of frequency detectors further includes a corresponding plurality of phase-locked-loop frequency detectors simultaneously responsive to said lower-frequency signals for individually detecting which seed signals are being received and producing said indicator signals.

3. A detecting and monitoring system in accordance with claim 2, in which a filter is coupled to the input of said phase-locked-loop detector for removing harmonic and subharmonic frequency components from the input signal to said phase-locked-loop detector.

4. A detecting and monitoring system in accordance with claim 1, in which each said oscillating means includes a crystal-controlled transistor oscillator circuit for generating said unmodulated carrier-wave seed signal, including an oscillator transistor, said oscillator transistor having a base, a collector and an emitter, said oscillator circuit having a capacitively-tuned coil coupled to the collector of said oscillator transistor for transmitting said seed signal.

5. A detecting and monitoring system in accordance with claim 4, in which said control signal is a DC signal and which further includes a switching transistor coupled to the base of said oscillator transistor and responsive to the application of said respective control signal for biasing said oscillator transistor on, whereby each said oscillating means is energized in response to said control signal.

6. A detecting and monitoring system in accordance with claim 1, in which said receiving means further includes an RF amplifier circuit coupled to the input of said intermediate frequency amplifier circuit and an amplified AGC circuit coupled from the output of said single-channel intermediate frequency amplifier circuit to the input of said RF amplifier circuit and biased to operate said receiver in a linear mode, to thereby reduce intermodulation distortion.