free straight line smart phone app

[Jim Timber]

How about if you mount one of those Laser pointers that they use to blind pilots in airplanes .

They're still not all that visible in sunlight, and diffuse a lot over any appreciable distance.

If you plant in the dark, you might have something to work with. I think looking at a distant object at the end of the row is the best bet. You could put a post at the end of the row when you're starting the row over, and with two posts you'd have all you need to do the whole field. Just use a string gauge or pace it out to set the spacing.

 

[Ed of all trades]

People have been using the pick a spot and keep the tractor or mule or horse or ox pointed at that spot until you get to the other side of the field method for thousands of years. If it ain't broke don't fix it. Ed

 

[Alien]

If you download Brujula GPS (compass app. ) It shows a compass and a window with degrees at the top. It would be ideal for what you want but you would have to be very clever to stay right on track as it is very sensitive.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=es.brujulaGPS&hl=en

 

[DT86]

People have been using the pick a spot and keep the tractor or mule or horse or ox pointed at that spot until you get to the other side of the field method for thousands of years. If it ain't broke don't fix it. Ed

That is the way I learned, and the farther away the spot you fixate on the better,.

 

[Jim Timber]

That is the way I learned, and the farther away the spot you fixate on the better,.

It's how I was taught to stay in the middle of the lane on the road too. Look at someone way up there and follow them.

Once you get a couple rows done, you could follow your tire tracks or the plow line, but it's hard to gauge from the side how to correct for error.

 

[Sportsman762]

GPS on a smart phone is not accurate enough to plant straight lines. Phone GPS is accurate to only a 10 or so meters. As mentioned above choose a spot far away and drive towards it. The human mind is great and does an excellent job of going in straight lines when you use this method.

 

[tow653]

People have been using the pick a spot and keep the tractor or mule or horse or ox pointed at that spot until you get to the other side of the field method for thousands of years. If it ain't broke don't fix it. Ed

Just don't use a train car,they sometimes start to move again.

 

[s219]

I agree that simpler visual methods are preferable. Smartphone GPS accuracy is 3 meters under good conditions (not the higher numbers some have noted) but that's still not nearly good enough. You can add BlueTooth GPS hardware to iPhones to give sub-meter GPS accuracy, however, it is slow and takes a while to settle on a fix with that level of accuracy. When in motion, that level of accuracy would never be attained.

Smartphone compass (magnetometer) hardware is also fairly lousy. You're lucky to get +/- 10 degree accuracy under good conditions, and if you're near any source of electromagnetic interference (like the dashboard of a car or tractor) it can be much worse.

 

[Ed of all trades]

My dad always said "You get more corn in a crooked row than in a straight one." Ed

 

[Big Barn]

My dad always said "You get more corn in a crooked row than in a straight one." Ed

True as that may be, MY father would kick my a** if my rows weren't straight. And we're talking 1/4 mile long rows.

Terry