Electronic-based measurement system in drills for seed spacing mesurements

In this study, an electronic-based measurement system is used in order todetermine the seed spacing uniformity in the single seed drill. The sensor located onthe drop point of measurement unit of a planter is connected to a micro-controller ora computer system the spacings of the dropped seeds are measured on time scale.These measured time data are calculated as seed spacings by a computer programmeor a micro-controller. The results, obtained on electronic-based measurement system,are compared with the results of spacing uniformity on the grease belt under thesame working conditions and the time differences are transfered to a computer viaserial port.In researches, the measured data, on the band with grease, are used as acontrol factor. The collected data of seed spacing are used to calculate theperformance of single seed drill, which gives average seed spacing, standarddeviation and coefficient of variation in seed spacing.Statistically 1% significant difference is found between the results of the twomeasurement systems (grease belt and electronic-based measurement systems) whenvariation analyzing is applied. The difference in variation analyzing results changesdepending on forward velocity and seed drop frequency. The regression coefficientof the value of seed spacing as a result of electronic-based measurement and greasebelt system is calculated (R2) 0.7735. The regression coefficient result shows that thetwo systems are correlated and it shows the reliability of the electronic-basedmeasurement system.Key words: Drill, Seed spacing, Sensor, Micro-ControllerII