An Amazone Pantera self-propelled sprayer in south-west France was converted into a harvesting machine: the spray boom came off, a harvesting header went on the front. Adour Motoculture, our dealer in the Landes, did the install. The machine had an AmaTron 4 terminal and an AUX-N joystick in the cab, but no way to control the new header. A 32-channel ISOBUS Block module does that.
Two dozen solenoids with no controls
Every movement on the header and spout is a solenoid valve: lift and lower, tilt, rotate, the spout up and down and side to side, the rotor, and a bypass valve that has to be open before anything moves. On this machine that comes to around two dozen solenoids.
On a tractor, the Block would sit on the implement and plug into the tractor's ISOBUS socket. Here the header is mounted on the sprayer and comes off again, and the sprayer has no controls for it. So the Block goes on the sprayer itself, in its own box, and plugs into the sprayer's ISOBUS connector.
One build, one box, every function on the terminal
Adour ordered a 32-channel custom build for the machine. It is one box: the 32-channel module on a DIN rail, two blade-fuse boxes so every output has its own fuse, the wiring between them done, and a printed channel and fuse map inside the lid.
The box connects to the machine's ISOBUS connector, and the AmaTron 4 loads the Block page. Every solenoid on the header has a button on the screen, named in French, with an icon. The same functions are assigned to the joystick through the terminal's AUX-N menu, so in the field the operator runs the header from the joystick.
A button on the Block can switch more than one channel. Every hydraulic button on this build switches its own solenoid and the bypass valve together: one press opens the bypass and moves the section, and releasing the button drops both.
Two connectors, so the header comes off
The box stays on the sprayer. Every solenoid on the header is wired to it through two multipole connectors on heavy cable, and those two plugs are the whole electrical connection between the header and the box. To take the header off, you disconnect the two connectors.
What is in the build
The 32-channel module is the black unit in the photos. The enclosure, the fuse boxes, the connectors, the wiring and the channel and fuse map were built to order for this machine. The standard 32-channel module ships bare, and you build the rest yourself, as Tramline Tec did on a hook-lift trailer. A custom build is for when you want that done for you.
Nothing on the control side is specific to a Pantera. Any machine with an ISOBUS terminal and solenoid valves works the same way: a button per function, the functions on the joystick, and as many channels as the machine needs.
Learn More
- Custom build for hardware delivered wired and configured for one machine
- Hook-lift trailer on a 32-channel module, the same module wired by a dealer
- Documentation for the module's wiring and terminal setup
