Description of the tasks
It is a good idea to do maintenance on your FD20 before storage, so that you can have it ready exactly when you need it for seeding during the spring.
1. Use the sun to charge the batteries before storage
Just before storage and cleaning, let the robot stay in the sun for a whole day to fully charge the batteries.
2. Clean the robot from (corrosive) dust
Both fertilizers and seed-coating compounds harden with humidity and are very corrosive. They should be cleaned-off from the droid as soon as possible.
Use either a gentle blow from an air-compressor or use a damp cloth. The seeding assembly and especially the area where the seeding-motor shaft is located, can accumulate a lot of dust.
CAUTION! 👇
Make sure not to use strong blows of compressed air next to sockets, cables and sensors as you may damage them!
3. Check for any physical damage on the robot
Contact your local distributor if you need spare parts.
4. Check the plugs, sockets and cables of the active trailers
One to one, unplug the cables of the active trailers and check both the sockets and the plugs the integrity of the pin, as well as for dust or dirt inside the socket itself.
You can gently clean the dirt socket with a cotton swab, minding not to bend the pins. You can use an electrical-contact specific grease to prevent oxidation and improve the connectivity between the plug and the socket. FarmDroid recommends to use ENSTO SR1 Joint compound grease.
5. Check the sleeve bearings
The sleeve bearings to check are located:
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- in the trailer connection assembly (4 pcs. per trailer)
- at both ends of the rod connecting the weeding motor and the weeding arm (2 pcs. per trailer)
- in the rear-wheel assemblies (4 pcs. per side)
- in the front wheel assembly (1 pcs.)
6. Check the clear-plastic hose and the seed valve
Make sure the hose going from the seed disc to the seed valve is intact and still flexible. Replace if needed.
Look at the seed valve and make sure there's nothing stuck in the assembly, preventing the spade of the valve to move IN and OUT properly. You can use the manual function test to activate all the seed valves one by one and check they can move regularly.
8. Check the seed coulter
Replace if worn out
9. Check the integrity of the safety wire as well as its tension
It's important that the cable is not worn out or damaged. In that case, FarmDroid highly recommend replacing it.
If possible, release its tension so that it does not stretch out during the winter.
10. Inflate the tires to their maximum pressure
So that they do not lose their shape during the long winter storage. Remember to deflate them to 0.5-0.8 bars when you start the operations in the spring.
11. Move the droid in a shed and shut off the main switch
We recommend storing your FarmDroid indoor during the winter. If you decide to store it indoor, then remember to shut off the main switch.
If you don't have the possibility to store it inside, you can leave both the solar panels switch and the main switch ON, to make sure the sun can keep the battery at a safe state of charge.