Potato trailer: switch box replaced with an 8-channel module

Robert N. runs potato trailers with a roll-over sheet and a walkway in the UK. Each trailer had its own switch box: rocker switches for the sheet and the walkway, on a cable to the trailer. The box had to be carried into the cab of whichever tractor pulled the trailer.

The trailer's old switch box: rocker switches for the sheet and the walkway under a camera monitor

He replaced it with an 8-channel ISOBUS Block module on the trailer. The trailer now plugs into the ISOBUS socket at the back of the tractor, and the buttons are on the tractor's screen and joystick. Hooking the trailer on is quick: one plug, nothing to carry into the cab.

One box on the trailer

The module sits in a grey enclosure on the trailer, every output on push-in terminal blocks, the leads out through the glands to the trailer. The sheet runs on an electric motor. The sheet, its arms and the walkway each have a button, named by Robert. The buttons work from the screen and from the joystick.

The enclosure open on the trailer: the 8-channel module, two rows of push-in terminal blocks and the wiring to the glands

Assigned on a Fendt

In the Fendt's AUX-N menu, Robert put the functions on the joystick buttons.

Pressed on a John Deere

The same trailer behind a John Deere. The display shows the Block page, a press turns the button green, and the sheet arm moves. Each tractor keeps its own button assignments, so the trailer goes from one tractor to the other with nothing to set up again.

In the field

Every function on the trailer now runs over ISOBUS.

What is in the install

The 8-channel module ships bare. The enclosure, the terminal blocks and the cable to the trailer are Robert's own, as on the hook-lift trailer a dealer built on the 32-channel module. Any trailer with electric loads to switch and an ISOBUS tractor in front of it works the same way: a button per function, and the Block installed on the trailer.

Learn More

8-channel module, the module in this install
Hook-lift trailer on a 32-channel module, the same idea with more functions
Documentation for the module's wiring and terminal setup

Questions

Will this work on my tractor?

Any ISOBUS tractor with a Virtual Terminal, whatever the make. The in-cab ISOBUS connector is the same on every brand, so there is nothing to match to yours.

Do I need a weatherproof enclosure?

Outdoors, yes. The bare module is IP20, which means in-cab or panel mounting only, so on an implement it goes in a weatherproof box you supply yourself.

Can I change the button names and icons myself?

Yes, from the tractor screen. A button takes a name of up to 8 characters and an icon from the module's set, and both show up in the tractor's AUX-N assignment menu as well. The WiFi interface is for diagnostics, testing outputs and firmware, not for setup.

What if the machine needs more than 8 outputs?

There is a 32-channel module: one unit with 32 relay channels, everything else the same. It has no digital inputs, so a machine that also needs sensors takes a second 8-channel module instead.