Outback S lite frustrations

I bought a new Outback S lite guidance set up for my 1850 to spray burndown on cover crop rye. I thought I had it figured out, but I was wrong. I had it set and made the perimeter pass OK. I went around the field 2 times so I would have plenty of room to turn and find the signal before I turned the sprayer on. You are supposed to be able to switch from contour to straight line mode on the go. I started out after 2 passes around the field and switched to straight line mode and the light to drive by went out leaving me lost. I had pressed enter for A , probably forgot to push enter to set B at the end of the pass. It had me wandering all over, so I switched back to contour. I have the sensitivity set on medium, but as I go across the field, the center light goes out and either the red or green light comes on and as I try to get back in line, all the light go out for a second or 3 and then the lights start on one side of the arc and go clear across to the other side, eventually the center light comes back on. I think there will be several missed spots when the rye finally dies. Towards the end I wasn't looking where I was driving, I was glued to the center light trying to keep it on, I had been hearing a loud banging, the field was pretty rough, so I just figured the sprayer was bouncing around. I finally looked at the pressure guage and it's on 0. Stopped and look back and down, the back 1/2 of the PTO shaft is gone and the front 1/2 is banging around on the drawbar. Looks like a good time to quit since it's almost dark. I'm not sure if it will save the info if I turn it off, so I left it on . I'll have to take the pickup and drive around the field in the morning to find the PTO shaft and then try again. Man, if this wasn't so much fun, I'd just quit altogether!!! Chris

Is the memory getting full? Had the same problem with my older Outback that I still use on occasion. Erasing the memory took care of it. I'd be half way across a field and the guidance lights would go out, then come back on sometime later. One dealer who was supposed to know his business told me there might be an old AB line in there that's screwing it up and that's all he said. Another dealer instantly told me the memory is getting full. Mine has 6 hours of memory after it's erased.

You could go to a new spot in the field and snap a new A-B line in straight guidance, work to one side of the field, then go back, next to your A-B line, and work the opposite direction.

Think of the display as your tractor..(inverted T)..the bottom light in the center is the differential, the vertical row is the nose of the tractor. Sashay your diff side to side to maintain the center bottom yellow, (if a left light is on, move your diff that way), and point your hood toward the side that the light on the arc is on....you should end up with the vertical yellow line. Granted, the book doesn"t explain things all that well.

First pass, you"re on your own...for straight guidance, S-lite only cares about the point you started from, and the point on the other end of the field. Doesn"t know how much you wiggled going down the field. That snaps your A-B line, and the system will direct you parallel to that line on subsequent passes.

to clarify terminology that is in the second parenthesis..(left light is on, move your diff)...I"m referring to the horizontal row of lights...think of them as the tractor axle. Arc lights are the nose of the tractor.

I"m on my second season with S-lite...book lacks clear info and procedure, and the display is hard to read in sunlight. Only tillage so far, although I"d use if for spraying grain fields. Not for planting, but some do. Spraying row crops, I"d use it only to find the right row, since my sprayer boom covers 60 feet.

Thanks for the reply. Clearing the memory seems to be the easiest part of this thing so far.

Thanks for the explanation, That helps me understand what I'm looking at. Haven't figured out why the lights go out and then it acts like it is searching for the previous pass. Maybe today will be better. In a week or 10 days, I will know what kind of a job I did! Thanks again, Chris

I have a S model also. Defenatly a learning curve to it. If doing strait line guidance I found to put in your A point the drive straight about 50 yards then enter your B point. Not necessary to go the whole length of the field to get your B point. Found it to be easier to keep the lights on target. You can also update your B point on the go to straighten your swath out on the go. After a while it becomes intuitive and you see it outta the corner of your eye and you don't have to be glued to it. Third year learning curve on mine, wouldn't have gave you a plug nickel for it the first year but now it's pretty handy, added the 360 mapping know, prolly be 3 more years to figure that out!

I have a Raven unit but have seen some of the same things. With mine I only go about 40-50 feet after hitting my line snap. There's no need to go far. Also, either trust it completely or not at all. You can't use it but then "adjust it by eye" at any point on your row. It will be jacked up permanently. It sounds like maybe you were crossing the guidance line at the point when it was going nuts. All of the lights go nuts on one side, then it is centered for 10 feet and then the other side goes nuts.

Spraying is the worst. You have the 60 foot booms to watch, the guidance, and the flow of pressure. Just trust the machine.

Where do you have your antenna? If it is too far forward on the roof you have to do more steering adjusting to keep it happy. When it starts to get off track do one quick small steering movement to correct. If you try to gently sweep back in place you will make yourself nuts.