Accumulated load tracker

Abstract

A method for tracking the accumulated load and any load events that exceed a maximum threshold in a mobile farm implement. The mobile farm implement includes a plurality of load sensors which provide a weight of the material in a bin to an indicator, and a memory that stores the accumulated load and the highest load events.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method of tracking the accumulated load for a mobile farm implement having a bin for holding agricultural material such as grain or seed and a plurality of load sensors, said method comprising the steps of:
 weighing a first amount of material in the bin using the load sensors;   unloading a portion of the material from the bin;   determining with an indicator a weight of the unloaded portion of material using information from the load sensors;   retrieving with an indicator a previous system accumulated load from a system memory;   adding with the indicator the weight of the unloaded material to the previous system accumulated load to generate a new system accumulated load; and   saving with the indicator the new system accumulated load to the system memory.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the previous system accumulated load reflects a sum of the weight of all material that has been unloaded from the bin. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the saving step includes replacing with the indicator the previous system accumulated load with the new system accumulated load in the system memory. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the determining step includes the steps of:
 weighing with the load sensors a remaining portion of material in the bin after the unload step; and   determining with the indicator a difference between the weight of the first amount of material and the weight of the remaining portion using information from the load sensors.   
     
     
         5 . A method of tracking high load events in a mobile farm implement including at least a first load sensor and a second load sensor, comprising the steps of:
 receiving at an indicator a first load measurement from the first load sensor;   determining with the indicator if the first load exceeds a first load threshold;   if the indicator determines that the first load exceeds the first load threshold, recording an event describing the first load to a memory;   receiving at the indicator a second load measurement from the second load sensor;   determining with the indicator if the second load exceeds a second load threshold; and   if the indicator determines that the second load exceeds the second load threshold, recording an event describing the second load to the memory.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the sum of the first load and second load is equal to a total load and further comprising the steps of:
 determining with the indicator if the total load exceeds a total load threshold; and   if the indicator determines that the total load exceeds the total load threshold, recording an event describing the total load to the memory.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising the steps of:
 determining with the indicator if the memory has low remaining storage;   if the indicator determines that the memory has low remaining storage and the first load exceeds the first load threshold, determining with the indicator if the first load exceeds a lowest recorded first load event, and, if the indicator determines that the first load exceeds the lowest recorded first load event, deleting with the indicator the lowest recorded first load event from the memory and recording with the indicator the first load to the memory.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising the steps of, if the indicator determines that the memory has low remaining storage and the second load exceeds the second load threshold, determining with the indicator if the second load exceeds a lowest recorded second load event, and, if the indicator determines that the second load exceeds the lowest recorded second load event, deleting with the indicator the lowest recorded second load event from the memory and recording with the indicator the second load to the memory.