Topcon Agriculture has introduced Athene for three-point linkage mounted spreaders to its OEM product portfolio in addition to its extensive line of application control units. Athene is an ISOBUS ECU with ISO-UT or Universal Terminal user interface designed to offer industry-leading spreader control, which can now support three-point linkage mounted spreaders in addition to granular belt fertilizer spreaders.
“Similar to the Topcon Apollo for air seeder control, the Athene ECU is a full-featured spreader solution. It is based on industry-proven technology and decades of experience from RDS Technology, a Topcon Agriculture company,” said Danea Armstrong,vice president of sales, support and channel development for Topcon Agriculture.
The three-point linkage Athene system features application rate control proportional to forward speed based on aperture position and section control of up to 16 sections by adjusting drop position. Variable rate application (VRA) and section control (SC) is managed via the ISOBUS task controller.
“The new application for Athene brings a new level of productivity, efficiency and ease of use to mounted spreader systems,” said Armstrong. “It features an intuitive user interface designed for operation with Topcon X consoles or existing tractor ISOBUS universal terminals.”
With the addition of load cells and an associated ECU, the Athene system can also offer optional weighing functionality. The system is designed to display live product weight in the spreader and provide dynamic on-the-go auto-calibration. The weighing ECU also features dual-axis angle measurement for compensation when working on sloping fields.
Additional functions and features are scheduled to further enhance the capabilities of the Athene spreader control system to meet the increasing demands of the marketplace.
