| A microcontroller based instrumentation package was designed, developed and mounted on an 81 kW Massey Ferguson 399 (MF-399) tractor. This package continuously measures and monitors various performance parameters of the tractor and implement. These parameters were: actual forward speed, theoretical forward speed, slip, fuel consumption and implement draft. The package comprised of four components: power supply, transducers, data acquisition, and display unit. Power was taken from the tractor battery. The data acquisition system was capable of scanning the data at 0.1 s intervals. The system performed well during the field operations and the results obtained showed that the accuracies of the transducers were acceptable. |
