I upgraded our CVX1135 with a tyre pressure control system I developed myself. The electronic control is looked after by two Arduino boards, one for the front and one for the rear axle. They are operated with five rocker switches and two displays show the target and actual pressures and the selected implement on the tractor.

I programmed in all of the implements that would be coupled to the front and rear of the tractor and their appropriate filed, road air pressures to the Arduino board. For each implement, we can now select the pressures for the road or the field. The rocker switch in the middle is used for this. The system then sets the correct pressure via solenoid valves. In addition to the implements that are permanently stored in the memory there are two freely selectable settings for each axle. With these we can set a pressure for the road and the field with another switch used for both axles.

In addition, the system permanently monitors the pressure on each axle. If this suddenly drops by 0.1 bar, for example, a red light flashes and the display shows: “The pressure dropped by 0.1 bar within the last 20 seconds“.

The system also gives an alert if the pressure drops below 0.5 bar or increases beyond 2.5 bar. It also checks the valves are functioning. If a valve is activated to deflate but there is no drop in pressure and alarm will sound.

There is a monitoring mode for noticing even very small leaks. This is activated by flicking the middle switch into neutral. Then no air is added or released, only the actual pressure is monitored for potential changes. When the pressure increases by 0.1 bar or more, there is an alarm and a prompt that indicates the time period this pressure change happened. This monitoring mode can be switched on occasionally during field work. As a back-up there is also one additional pressure relief valve installed for each axle.

I made the housing for the in-cab control box with my 3D printer. The valves that inflate and deflate the tyres are located in a separate housing behind the cab.

I also built a tyre pressure control system for our slurry tanker, which is also operated from this control box. To do this, we connect the slurry tanker to the control system via a seven-pin Hirschmann connector.

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